Cyclists spills her secrets
MIDRAND - Mountain biker, Robyn de Groot knows her cycling.
It is no wonder she won the mountain biking marathon championships, making her a SA national mountain biking champion.
The Boskruin resident has been cycling since 2004. “From 2004 to 2012, I participated in road cycling,” she said. “I retired from road cycling at the end of 2012 and started mountain biking in 2013. Since 2013, I have been mountain biking. My niche being XCM [cross country marathons] which involves distances averaging 75km and up to 120km at times.”
De Groot set the goal of competing in the National and Union Cycliste Internationale world championship, and the Nedbank Sani2c, so named because it starts near Sunnypark and ends near the sea in KwaZulu-Natal. She is happy to have achieved the goals she set out for those events.
“Defending my National Championship title and South African champion jersey is special, as it carries prestige in the sense that the winner of the race on that day gets to wear a green and yellow striped cycling jersey for a calendar year,” she said.
However, she still has other dreams regarding cycling. “There are some events I’d be extremely happy to win. These being Bridge Cape Pioneer Trek and Wines to Whales [also in the Western Cape] later this year,” said De Groot.
De Groot has been successfully juggling her passion with her profession as a biokineticist.
“I would like to compete in International Cycling Union marathon events in Europe next year, should my sponsorship allow. As an avid mountain biker, The TransAlp Challenge would be something to work towards within the next two years,” she said.
In October, she will embark on the Cape Pioneer Trek with Jenni Stenerhag of Sweden.
“My stretch goal for 2015 will be the Amalgamated Banks of South Africa Cape Epic, which is also on the international stage with International Cycling Union status.
“On the road, I participated on the international stage a great deal. My highlights being Tour d’laude, Giro d’Italia [Giro Rosa], four times world champion, winning the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and the London Olympic games in 2012,” she reminisced.
She has also participated in mountain biking world championships. Last year she finished 19th and this year she set a goal to achieve a top 10 finish, which she managed to accomplish by taking sixth place.
