Small team, big heart and even bigger ambitions

The Nashua team might be one of the smaller professional women’s cycling teams, but their results during the past few weeks show that bigger does not necessarily mean better.

The Nashua girls have proven that they are not just there to make up numbers in the peloton. They are racing to win.

Just during the past two weeks Cherise Taylor won the mixed category of the Panorama Tour with Graeme Cronjé; Milandi Cronje and Sarah Chemaly won the women’s category of the Panorama Tour in which Jeaun-Mari Breytenbach and Eugenie Gouws finished 2nd overall.

Actually, the Nashua riders dominated the tour with their three teams by winning a total of eight stages.

The past weekend Karien van Jaarsveld finished 2nd in the Tour Durban.

Nashua can also boast with four SA road champions. Taylor is the elite champion, Gouws the junior champion and Monique Gerber the u.16 champion, while Heidi Dalton is the u.16 time trial champion. Moreover, Chemaly won the SA Junior Tour for girls.

All of this happened in just four months.

Chances are excellent that there will be a Nashua rider on the winner’s podium during the prize-giving ceremony at the forthcoming Karkloof Mountain Bike Marathon on Sunday, 9 May.

In the last three MTN marathons Van Jaarsveld finished 2nd twice and Taylor was in the 4th position.

Van Jaarsveld cannot wait to get dirty at Karkloof, but Taylor is not quite sure that she will enjoy it.

“I will be honest. I really did not enjoy racing at Clarens. It is, therefore, important to prove to myself at Karkloof that mountain biking can actually be an enjoyable sport,” the SA road champion said.

Reverting back to the Panorama Tour, it is interesting to note that a bathroom scale has probably, albeit indirectly, played a role in Milandi Cronjé becoming a winner on her bike. Earlier this year she also won the Cormorant race.

The 21-year old Cronjé said that she only started to cycle two years ago. One of the reasons for taking up cycling was that she did not appreciate the numbers she saw when she got onto her bathroom scale.

“I realized that I had to do something if I wanted the scale to show me smaller numbers. It seemed logical to start cycling because my boyfriend was also a keen cyclist. At first I did not even have a bicycle of my own, so I had to borrow my brother’s.

“Cycling is definitely addictive. The moment I started to master the various cycling techniques and began to understand what the racing tactics were all about, I could not wait to test myself against the other riders. It is exciting to watch yourself getting stronger with every race but, if I am honest with myself, it will still take a while before I will be able to consider myself a really good cyclist.”

Cronjé describes herself as an all-rounder.

“I can climb with the best and I am also a capable sprinter, but I don’t think I will ever be the best sprinter or climber. My best chance to win races will be in a breakaway by a small group.”

If there is one race that Cronje would love to win, it is the OFM Classic because she is a born and bred Bloemfontein girl.

She also looks forward to the Amashovashova because she reckons that there will be a good chance that a small group of riders will manage to get away in a break and stay in front.

Argus 2010

This year Argus was a particularly special one. Be it that we are rubbing shoulders with the likes of Lance Armstrong, or the general excitement with the upcoming soccer world cup, or that we are just blessed to have the most spectacular coastal race in the world, it was just special. Windy, as you may expect it to be in the Mother city, but that did not stop the 35 000 keen cyclist from being part of something big. Something like a world championship or a tour de France.. It is certainly a highlight for any cycling enthusiast.

The ladies race was about survival of the fittest! Starting in a pack of about 200 cyclists along with the vet men, which include great riders like Andrew Mclean, it was holding on for dear life. Great international riders like Fabiana Lupevini from Italy was also in the starting ladies group. The first challenger of the race was the climb at Smits se winkel. A long drag, which gradually sifted the bunch. The second was Chapmans peak, the climb as much as the dangerous descend and then finally Suikerbossie. With the original ladies bunch down to about 15 riders, the final kilometers to Greenpoint was about getting into position for the line. A tough task with most men holding the same objectives and the road starting to be filled with slower riders. The sprint to the finish line came a little bit too early for me with my first sighting of the powerade banners. Alas, when i saw there is still 150m to the line after the banners! By then most girls kicked up the gears and sprinted for the line. Congratulations to Anriette Schoeman who won the battle. The results were as follows:

Elite Ladies

1. Anriette Schoeman (3.06.11)
2. Robyn de Groot
3. Catherine Williamson
4. Cherise Taylor
5. Jo van der Winkel
6. Jennie Stenerhag
7. Marissa van der Merwe
8. Chrissie Viljoen
9. Mariske Strauss
10. Fabiana Lupevini