Durban – An-li Kachelhoffer won this weekend’s elite women’s road race at the 2016 South African Road, Time Trial and Para-cycling Championships in decisive fashion when she perfectly executed what would be the final move of the day in Westville, KwaZulu-Natal.
Kachelhoffer, 29, won her first national title and knew that she was in good form in the build-up to the race and had been working very closely with her coach, Steven Sergeant, planning specifically for the national champs.
“With some successes last year already, I chatted to my husband and he said that no matter what I do I must go and have fun and that I’m in the form of my life. I’m so ecstatic! It’s the first time that I’ve won the SA Road Champs,” said Kachelhoffer.
“I’ve won the World Champs for duathlon and biathlon but have never been SA Champ in my life and it’s a real honour to take the jersey for my local sponsors Pretoria Box Manufacturers and POC and for my international team Lotto-Soudol Ladies.”
Competing in seven laps of the undulating 18-kilometre route throughout the leafy suburb of Westville, the 35-strong bunch of elite women remained tight with no-one revealing their race form, earlier on.
From the second lap a number of small attacks were launched, which were all countered and the whole group of 35 women remained together.
At about the 90km mark, Elmari de Wet (Team Clover Prestigio) made a break on the fifth lap and gave herself a 30-second lead before the chase pack of 17 riders including Kachelhoffer, Lise Olivier (Time Freight eTeam), Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervelo-Bigla Pro Cycling Team), Anriette Schoeman (Africa Silks), Time Trial National Champion Juanita Venter (Team Bianchi), Frankie du Toit and Hayley Smith (Kargo Pro MTB Team), the power duo of Lynette Burger and Heidi Dalton (Team Activate/DEMACON) and Samantha Sanders (Valencia) waited a lap-and-a-half to close the gap and regroup.
Moolman-Pasio tested her legs with an attack into lap six but was quickly closed down by Kachelhoffer and the Clover Prestigio team.
Midway through the sixth lap, Charlene Roux (Clover Prestigio) made a break and young mountain biker Frankie du Toit (19) pulled the peloton with Moolman-Pasio on her wheel to bridge the gap.
Kachelhoffer then launched another attack, chasing hard up the hill towards the end of lap six with Carla Oberholzer (Clover Prestigio), De Wet and Moolman-Pasio in tow.
With countless attacks within the group, the gap to Roux was closed and the five leaders embarked on the final seventh lap.
But it was on the last climb before the sweeping downhill finish of the 119km race that Kachelhoffer broke free with a massive attack that saw Olivier follow with Schoeman, who ultimately finished in second and third positions respectively.
“The race was hard and the Clover team really put the pressure on today,” said Kachelhoffer.
“I had a set race plan and I know the form that they had from our earlier races this season, and it really was a race of attrition.”
Elite Women, results
1 An-Li Kachelhoffer (Lotto-Soudol Ladies) 03:26:50
2 Lise Olivier (Time Freight eTeam) 03:26:57
3 Anriette Schoeman (Africa Silks) 03:27:02
4 Carla Oberholzer (Clover Prestigio) 03:27:04
5 Heidi Dalton (Team Activate/DEMACON) 03:27:11
6 Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Cervelo-Bigla Pro Cycling Team) 03:27:13
7 Samantha Sanders (Valencia) 03:27:16
8 Juanita Venter (Team Bianchi) 03:27:23
9 Lynette Burger (Team Activate/DEMACON) 03:27:31
10 Catherine Colyn 03:27:33
– ANA