Duranguesa

The Bizkaia-Durango rider Lise Olivier got the second place at the South African Road Race Championship, that took place this Saturday in the city of Westville, on a hard, 115-km-long course. The rider from Pretoria finished at just 7 seconds from An-Li Kachelhoffer (Lotto-Soudal), who won the National Championship. Meanwhile, the other Bizkaia-Durango rider, Heidi Dalton, ended up in fifth place. 

During the whole race, the top favorites to get the title — with Lise Olivier and Heidi Dalton amongst them — were aggressive. With only two kilometers to go, in the hardest part of the course, Kachelhoffer and Ashleigh Moolman attacked, and Lise Olivier’s effort to catch them didn’t succeed and she could only got the silver medal, 7 seconds behind Kachelhoffer.

“The course was an undulating lap of about 16 km that we did seven times. We raced on the same route two years ago and I knew it was going to be tough. It is the type of route where you just try to conserve as much energy as possible right from the start and only make calculated moves,” said Olivier after the race. "Due to the massive strides in South African women’s cycling the level of racing was much higher than in recent years. For me crossing the finish line in second was pretty special after such a tough race.”

“I was not completely sure what to expect. For the first time in three years I was able to put in some solid base training over December. I have been feeling pretty good on the bike but a National Championship race is so different and anything can happen. I am happy to see my form return to where I would like it to be heading into the European season with Bizkaia-Durango,” Olivier added.