Demacon’s Kim le Court showed her sprinting prowess when she defended her title in the 98km race at the Emperors Palace Road Classic in Johannesburg yesterday.
The Cape Town Cycle Tour champion, who crossed the line in 2:36:46, said her team decided to string a few attacks together after an uneventful first half of the race.
“Not much happened from the beginning to the middle [of the race], so we [Demacon] made it a bit harder [for the others] and each threw out some attacks.
“No one wanted to ride through and follow them, but then the bunch split due to a crash. Towards the end everyone was together again besides the riders who unfortunately were caught up in the crash,” said Le Court.
Demacon’s Kim le Court, who recently won the Cape Town Cycle Tour, successfully defended her title in the 98km Emperors Palace Road Classic in Johannesburg yesterday. Photo: Jetline Action Photo
The Mauritian rider said they were then caught by a bunch of veteran riders, so they had to work their way through them to get to the finish.
“Lynette [Burger] and Carla [Oberholzer], who rode for me, managed to take me to the front and I could pull off the win.”
Burger secured second in a time of 2:36:47, while Clover’s Sanet Coetzee finished split seconds after her.
Le Court felt the key challenge they faced was to keep safe and not get involved in any crashes.
“We also needed to keep calm, not stress too much and to implement our plan and strategy perfectly, which we did.”
She said things were very different from last year when she rode away with team dormakaba’s Samantha Sanders 30km into the race.
“We had a long way to go alone, but as I’m very comfortable with my sprint I managed to win it. This time it was a bunch sprint so there was much more to think about towards the finish.”
Le Court felt that everyone had a chance to win it yesterday, but she prevailed because of her team and the trust they had in each other, as well as the hard work they had put in.
“I expected to do very well. I was confident because of the amount of support behind me and the brilliant team-work.
“I’m so glad I could win again. I’m feeling very on form and happy I could do it for the team, my family and myself.”
Next on her cycling agenda is the Commonwealth Games, for which she flies to Australia on Friday.
“Being there is already a massive achievement for me, so that is a tick on my list.”
