Patrice and Gert cycle hard
Two top cyclists from eMalahleni Patrice Gautier and Gert Janse van Rensburg, represented eMalahleni at the Annual Road Cycling Championships.
The championships were hosted in Badplaas from Saturday, January 18 to Sunday, January 19. People of all ages and from all over Mpumalanga attended the championships.
On Saturday morning the road race took place over 84 kilometers which took cyclists out to Carolina and back to Badplaas.
With the race on its way and very well represented, some early attackers went out and had been brought back, the cyclists from eMalahleni knew it was not going to be easy.
During the race with one cyclist that fell away, Patrice decided to make his move, a cyclist from Nelspruit joined giving chase to the leading Peloton.
With 10 kilometers to go Patrice made his attack and dropped the Nelspruit rider and caught the front riders, to cross the line in first place overall and first place for the veterans.
Gert came in second elite ride with a massive bunch sprint finish.
That afternoon at 14:00 in the heat of the day cyclists lined up for the 20kilometer time trail.
“This is a true test to see what you are able to do,” said Patrice.
Each cyclist started one minute apart and then you ride 20 kilometers as fast as possible, to see who has the fastest time over the allocated distance.
Cyclists were able to rest after the time trail and to prepare themselves for the next day on the road.
On Sunday, January 19, 08:00 was the start of the five kilometer hill climb time trail.
Cyclists rode the five kilometers which gained over 450 meters, as hard as possible to the top.
Once all the cyclists have finished the five kilometers and after a small break it was time for the cyclist to get ready for the start of the criteria race.
A criteria race is a tap of about 1.6 kilometer that is ridden for 15 minutes long as a group, when the buzzer goes off it signals the last lap.
“This is very hectic if you get lapped you are out of the race, so the pace is high 37.4 kilometers per hour average for the period and the maximum speed of 68 kilometers per hour,” said Patrice.
The prize giving was held at 14:00 in the hall, eMalahleni was very well represented as many other riders took part in this event. Paul Prinsloo, also took part in the event and came seventh overall.
Patrice received four gold medals and Gert received one gold medal and three silver medals.
