The Sandton City Cycle Nation women’s team achieved fantastic results during the Gauteng Road Championships and will go on to compete in the national championships.
The championships consist of two events hosted over two days on 19 and 20 January. The first event is a time trial which is an individual event and then a road race which everybody rides. The team for this race consisted of Zanri Rossouw, Juanita de Waal, Michelle Benson and Joanna van de Winkel.
On Saturday, Rossouw won the time trial, which was 26km, with De Waal finishing second. On Sunday, in the road race, Van de Winkel won the race, completing 116km in 3:26:00. Benson finished second with a time of 3:30:00. Rossouw and De Waal finished fifth and sixth respectively.
Lincoln King, the manager for the team explained that the route used this year was particularly tough as it runs through the streets of Pretoria and up the climbs past the Union Buildings.
“It’s a pretty punchy climb which the women had to do 11 times during the course of the 116km race.”
King added that the field for the provincial championships was particularly big and the team used the event as a trial run for the national championships which will be held on the same route in February. During the national championships, King said that they expect the competition to be very stiff.
“Looking ahead to those championships we are feeling confident of a good result getting someone onto the podium in both the time trial and the road race. The team has been bolstered by the arrival of Zanri Rossouw who debuted for the team with a win in the time trial.”
King added that in the run-up to the national championships, much of their preparation has already been done. The provincial race offered the team the opportunity to experience the route and experiment with some tactics.
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