Robyn de Groot won the opening race of this year’s Trailseeker Series that took place in Buffelsdrift, Gauteng, on Saturday.
The Ascendis rider, who placed second overall along with Sabine Spitz in last month’s Cape Epic, finished ahead of Sarah Hill and Danielle Strydom.
“It’s always good to win an event. I really enjoyed it and am happy to feel more myself again on the bike,” said De Groot.
Team Ascendis’s Robyn de Groot won the opening race in the Trailseeker Series in Buffelsdrift at the weekend. Photo: Chamain van Zyl
She said that due to the route being flat she just had to ride wisely.
“I rode really comfortably and saw that after about 30km it was Sarah and me left. From there she did a little bit of work and I could then see she was taking strain.
“I sat in the front and rode at my pace to a point where I saw it could potentially lead to breaks. I then put a little bit more effort in and most of the time it paid off.”
De Groot added that she then managed to break away and created quite a big gap. Unfortunately, she crashed when she hit something in the path, but managed to get back up shortly afterwards and was not badly injured.
“It broke my rhythm and I saw that Sarah had caught me so I backed off and left it until another cracking point where I could apply pressure and I managed to get away there. I stayed away until the end.”
She added that she enjoyed the route as there were not many open gravel roads, just little sections.
“The organisers achieved a nice balance with the route. It was really well marked and kept you thinking and concentrating nicely. I enjoy technical riding and that was a highlight as I prefer when it’s harder than when it’s really plain sailing.”
The Leopard Crawl MTB race winner said it was nice to see younger blood and fresh faces lining up at the start.
“That’s really important, especially in the ladies field – we need more depth.
“It’s also where it becomes important to keep racing close and exciting so that people get motivated to train harder and improve certain aspects.”
De Groot felt that as a professional athlete the main priority was to train and race to win as it was what drove and motivated them.
“Another key thing is never to lose enjoyment. I wanted to race nice and hard and see what it felt like to race in Johannesburg again, which is where I grew up.
“I spent a lot of my first few years riding there before moving to George, which has a different sort of scenery and terrain.”
The next race in the series takes place at Legends MX, in the Cullinan district of Gauteng on June 24.
“Each race is different in terms of strategy. That’s what makes bike riding so exciting. I will definitely always try to mix it up and develop and test myself in different areas.”
