Olivier, who studied in the US on an athletics bursary before joining the Bizhub
outfit this season, gave her victory salute after 3 hours 17 minutes and 24 seconds of intense
battle with Slingerland, who crossed the line two seconds later.
A small group sprint
MTN teammates An-Li Pretorius (3:18:34) and Douwene Cartwright (3:21:17) crossed the
line on their own in third and fourth, with Team Bizhub's Yolandi du Toit (3:25:13) winning
a small group sprint to take fifth place.
Bradley Potgieter of Club 100, who stopped the clock on 3:22:12, was the overall winner in
the 152-kilometre men's race.
"Casandra twice almost got away early on and I realised that she was the one to watch
today," said an elated Olivier, who showed signs of her increasing road-racing stature when
she won the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Magoebaskloof Cycle Challenge in mid-May, before
heading to the US where she was placed 17th in the Cascade Classic six-day tour in
Oregon last month.
A flurry of attacks
The early stages of Monday's race was characterised by a flurry of attacks, one of which had
Olivier, national time-trial champion Slingerland, Pretorius and National Junior Tour winner
Sarah Chemley briefly going clear.
Slingerland, who had shown her intentions early on, was the architect of the decisive
breakaway move after about 30 kilometres.
"Casandra attacked from the right-hand side of the bunch and, at that point, I was on the left
about nine riders back," Olivier explained. "I somehow managed to get past and was able to
ride up to her back wheel after a short chase."
Ordered not to contribute
Olivier and Slingerland formed an alliance and worked superbly together for the next 25
kilometres, but the latter was ordered not to contribute anymore after teammates Pretorius
and Cartwright had freed themselves from the chasing pack and were closing in on them.
"With my teammates in the main bunch, I had no option other than to continue working in
the hope that our break would succeed," said Olivier. "When it became clear that we weren't
going to get caught, Casandra attacked from behind and I could not respond."
Slingerland quickly gained 50 seconds on her former breakaway companion and eventually
stretched her lead to a minute.
I felt I had a good chance
"I just kept focusing and rode my own pace into the headwind and with about 15 kilometres
to go I noticed that the gap to her team car was starting to narrow," said Olivier, who
eventually bridged the gap five kilometres from the end.
"Although it was a hard chase, I was feeling reasonably fresh at that point. I felt I had a good
chance if I went for a long sprint and fortunately it worked out.
"It's obviously exciting to win a race of this magnitude. It shows that I've come out of the
tour extremely well and that I'm in good shape for next week's race," said the 27-year-
old, referring to the 230-kilometre Trans Baviaans mountain bike event just outside Port
Elizabeth.
