Du Toit’s Cape Town Cycle Tour experience

Garmin SA brand ambassador and cycling coach Yolandi du Toit claimed fifth place at the 2015 Cape Town Cycle Tour. Here she speaks about her ups and downs on the road to the finish line.

After returning from the Garden Route 300 in Knysna, I spent two precious days at home before boarding the plane to Cape Town for the Cape Town Cycle Tour Solidarity Ride.

At the beginning of the year the Discovery Health medical scheme introduced a new running and cycling club to its members named Team Vitality.

This newly formed community has various benefits, one of which is having access to their exclusive VIP hospitality tents at any of the events on the Team Vitality race calendar.

As Discovery Vitality’s fitness partner, Garmin was invited to experience the debut event on their Calendar, which was the Cape Town Cycle Tour.

This is a unique and fun concept by Discovery Vitality as its members get to interact at events, share in a vibrant team spirit with a very professional setup whilst being outdoors and active.

I really enjoyed being part of Team Vitality during the Cycle Tour and by joining in on all their events I certainly got a much richer experience from the Cycle Tour.

The race took place on Sunday morning and was shortened from its original 109 km format to only 47km, due to the tragic fires which raged through Cape Town’s south peninsula in the week leading up to the event.

Standing on the start line in anticipation of our 6:17am departure, it was nice to see the shortened route hadn’t dampened the lively spirit of the Cycle Tour.

This year the ladies were given their own starting batch which made for a much safer finishing sprint than at previous editions, but unfortunately it also made for very slow speeds.

I tried to animate the race as best as I could with repeated attacks and even got to test out my sprinting legs at the finish.

I slipped across the line in fifth place which was a pleasant surprise, especially considering my sprinting abilities.

Lynette Burger took the victory on the day with Cherise Stander and Maroesjka Matthee finishing behind her in second and third place respectively.

It’s been a while since I last stood on the start line of a Cycle Tour and it was great to see that the event is still as energetic and popular as ever.

A thought that crossed my mind as I made my way to the start on Sunday morning was that I’m very happy to be riding and not organising 34 000 people into their starting chutes.

A big well done to the organisers for hosting such a big event despite the challenges they faced earlier in the week.