Robyn de Groot enjoyed an emotional victory at the 947 Mountain Bike Challenge in Johannesburg today.
De Groot, now living in George, made a return to the city of her birth to compete in and win the race.
It was her last competitive event before she takes time off the bike to get surgery on a vascular ailment she was diagnosed with last month.
Robyn de Groot enjoyed an emotional victory at the 947 Mountain Bike Challenge today. Photo: Henk Neuhoff
The South African national marathon champion plans to have the surgery done in January with hopes of returning to cycling in the second half of next season.
“There is a kink in one of the iliac arteries and there are two areas of narrowing which is called endofibrosis,” De Groot said.
“I’m busy working with my medical aid to see if they can cover my surgery in Europe. I’ve got a surgery date provisionally booked for January.”
The ailment has affected her for almost two years and she said she had experienced “burning in my glutes, hamstrings and calves” due to a lack of blood flow to her left leg.
“It is something that has limited my performance and progressively got worse and worse.
“It’s going to be a long recovery [process] and I don’t have sponsors for next year but I do believe I will be back,” she said, speaking of her ambitions to make a strong return in the second part of the 2019 season.
De Groot today won the 947 event in 2:09:15, beating Sarah Hill by just under two minutes. She said the race got off to a relatively slow start before riders gradually began to fall out of contention.
“We all just stayed together and then slowly began to lose some riders,” she said.
“[Eventually] it was just Sarah and me and with about 10km to go I gave it a go because I knew I just needed to take a chance.”
The 36-year-old said it had been a “long while” since she last participated in the event and she was full of admiration for the race.
“I have to compliment the race directors and the route. It was a super route and I can highly recommend it for all the elite riders out there.”
