Multisport girl does good in cycling: An-Li Pretorius

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Wednesday, 03 November 2010 15:01

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An-Li eyes Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge title

An-Li Pretorius (MTN-Energade) has played the role of “bridesmaid” in South African women’s cycling for the past two years, but she looks set to come of age in the Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge on November 21.

She gave an early warning to all her rivals that her apprenticeship had come to an end when she won the BESTmed Jacaranda Satellite Challenge last weekend.

It was her first big victory as a professional but it definitely won’t be her last. “It was really nice to win. There is much truth in the saying that winning becomes a habit,” she said.

Her victory in the Jacaranda Satellite Classic was a long time in the making. During the past few weeks she has been one of the most consistent finishers in local races with a third place in the MTN Amashova, second in the EPR Challenge and third in the Carousel Classic. She also managed to defend her SA student’s road-title.

Judging by these results, Pretorius is a solid contender to win the Cycle Challenge, especially when one considers she finished second last year.

This petite rider is quietly confident that the Cycle Challenge might go her way, but she correctly points out that in cycling nothing can be taken for granted before you cross the finish line.

Cycling hasn’t always been her favourite sport. At school she was considered to be an up-and-coming multi-sport athlete.  She was a world champion in biathlon (running and swimming) in her age-group, as well as a world champion in duathlon (running and cycling), also in her age-group.

But then, in November 2006, a motorist ended Pretorius’ dream of representing South Africa at the Olympic Games as a triathlete. Pretorius and a few friends were on a training ride on the Moloto road north of Pretoria when a reckless driver overtook a taxi on the left hand side of the road, going into the yellow lane.

“I did not realise what was happening until the car crushed into the back of my bicycle.”

She considers herself extremely lucky. She could have been killed but, apart from being badly concussed, the worst of her injuries were a fracture of her tibia and torn ligaments in her right knee.

The bad news for the talented youngster was that her running career was something of the past.  This in effect meant that her career as a multi-sport athlete also came to an abrupt end.

However, Pretorius is a fighter.  She didn’t even consider leading life without sport.  She was also not prepared to give up on her Olympic dream.  Therefore, on her doctor’s advice, she re-invented herself as a cyclist.

Her cycling career started in August 2007 when she competed in the Carousel Race for the first time.

According to Pretorius she didn’t expect to win the Jacaranda Satellite Classic. A stomach bug made her life miserable in the week leading up to the race. “It was so bad that I got nightmares about the sound of flushing water in porcelain bowls.

“So I nearly didn’t race. I literally only decided at the last minute to give it a go. Winning was definitely the last thing on my mind. I saw my role purely as that of a domestique who was going to try and help Marissa van der Merwe or Robyn de Groot win.

“But then things seldom work out as planned during races. After about 35 kilometres of racing I got away in a break with Karien van Jaarsveld (USN), Lisa Olivier (Bizhub) and Lizanne Naude (Biogen-Toyota). Not for one moment did I think that the break was going to stay away. To my surprise our lead on the peloton just grew bigger and bigger. It grew from about 90 seconds to over three minutes.

“About 20 kilometres from the finish I did something I am not proud off. I stopped working and just sat on, letting the other riders do all the hard work. I have always been very critical of negative racing and now there I was doing it, but certainly not out of choice.

“I was suffering, battling the stomach bug that sapped my energy. It was important to save my legs for the final sprint to the line, because I knew I was the best sprinter.

“If the other riders realised that I was not on top of my game they certainly would have started to attack me. Luckily they didn’t. That enabled me to outsprint them.”

For further information on the Cycle Challenge and its subsidiary events log onto www.highveld.co.za