Despite coming off a long training block, Samantha Sanders proved her strength and endurance when she won the second round of the Trailseeker Series at Legends MX park in Pretoria today.
Dormakaba’s Samantha Sanders won the women’s marathon at the second round of the Trailseeker Series at Legends MX park in Pretoria, Gauteng, today. Photo: Hayden Brown
Sanders beat Ascendis Health’s Robyn de Groot and Galileo Risk’s Sarah Hill in a sprint finish to the 70km women’s marathon.
The dormakaba rider said she had not raced in a while and she did not have any expectations coming into the event.
“I am really happy to have taken the win,” she said, adding that there was some good competition at the event which augured well for South African cycling.
The race unfolded with a big group of leading women forming within the first few kilometres.
“Just before we hit the 15km mark I knew there was some single-track coming up so I went to the front to make sure I got in there first,” said Sanders.
She tried to apply pressure on the other women and descended quickly, which caused the group to split.
“At that stage it was myself, Robyn, Sarah and Theresa [Ralph] in the mix of the front group.”
They stayed together until about 20km into the race when Sanders, De Groot and Hill got away on top of a climb and rode together towards the finish.
Sanders said she did not know she had won the race until the last moment as all three came into the finishing stretch together.
“I kind of knew it was going to be a sprint [finish] already and I just made sure I was close to the front in the last few kilometres.”
With just under a kilometre to go, Sanders said she still did not know if she was going to try and take the sprint.
“Robyn jumped first and I just waited for my moment by sitting on her wheel. I then kicked off of her and managed to open up a gap.”
She said on the last corner she kicked again and only after she crossed the line did she know for sure she had won the sprint.
The route was fun and included a lot of single-track, which made it difficult to open up any gaps or to try to attack, she said.
“There were a lot of rocky, loose sections with some loose sand but mostly it was quite flat with no massive [or long] climbs.”
She would not say the course suited her fully, but she made the most of it.
“On the technical sections I did try and put pressure on the other girls and made sure I was descending really quickly or going through the technical sections as fast as I could.”
Next on her list, apart from the upcoming SA XCM Championships, she will team up with Amy McDougall for the Berg and Bush and Wines2Whales.
