Bike damage ends Hinz’s medal hopes
Road cycling
After her personal breakthrough of winning her first continental bronze medal in the individual time trial at the African road cycling championship in Kenya, lady luck had different plans for Namibia’s Melissa Hinz during Saturday’s women’s elite road race.
Only 19 of the 36 starters managed to finish the 104.4 kilometre route near the city of Eldoret. South Africa’s Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio won the continental road championship for the fifth time in her career.
Hinz said: “Unfortunately I had a DNF today. I was feeling great and strong. I was involved in the second crash for the day at about 35 km mark, I got up as quickly as possible and jumped on the bike. I wasn’t badly hurt, just a bit of blood. I chased the peloton down and caught them.
“After a few kilo’s my gears jumped and as I went up a hill to use my biggest back gear, it slipped off the back chain-ring and got caught between the back wheel and the chain-ring. I stopped and the UCI development car helped me fix it, so off I went again.
“On top of that, my front disc break was bent and I had resistance from the front wheel. But Durwan (the UCI car) encouraged me. It took me a good 20 to 25 minutes to catch the peloton again, which I did. Yay! But by then my back derailleur wasn’t functioning properly, preventing me from using my four big (easy) gears at the back.
“Trying to manage the cadence with the front derailleur, the South African riders made an attack and I couldn’t stick to them, being stuck at 50-60 cadence. But I kept fighting on the downhill. I caught the second ‘chasing’ group that had the Egyptian Ebtisam in.
“Then on another hill my chain slipped again. I had to stop again, this time they worked on the setting to help me get my gears working again. I never managed to catch the second group again. And then the gears didn’t want to work again.... I couldn’t get up the hills with heavy gears. So I abandoned the race on 85 km.
“I know I would have had a top 10 finish today, but the damage to the bike held me back. I am thankful that I am not badly injured here in Kenya. The Zim girl (Andie Kuipers) cracked her elbow.”
African champs, women’s road race:
1 Ashleigh Moolman (South Africa) 3:07:50
2 Adiam Dawit (Eritrea) 7:21
3 Diane Ingabire (Rwanda) 7:21
4 Djazilla Umwamikazi (Rwanda) 7:21
5 Lucy Young (South Africa) 7:21
6 Suzana Fisehaye (Eritrea) 7:21
Only 19 of the 36 starters managed to finish the 104.4 kilometre route near the city of Eldoret. South Africa’s Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio won the continental road championship for the fifth time in her career.
Hinz said: “Unfortunately I had a DNF today. I was feeling great and strong. I was involved in the second crash for the day at about 35 km mark, I got up as quickly as possible and jumped on the bike. I wasn’t badly hurt, just a bit of blood. I chased the peloton down and caught them.
“After a few kilo’s my gears jumped and as I went up a hill to use my biggest back gear, it slipped off the back chain-ring and got caught between the back wheel and the chain-ring. I stopped and the UCI development car helped me fix it, so off I went again.
“On top of that, my front disc break was bent and I had resistance from the front wheel. But Durwan (the UCI car) encouraged me. It took me a good 20 to 25 minutes to catch the peloton again, which I did. Yay! But by then my back derailleur wasn’t functioning properly, preventing me from using my four big (easy) gears at the back.
“Trying to manage the cadence with the front derailleur, the South African riders made an attack and I couldn’t stick to them, being stuck at 50-60 cadence. But I kept fighting on the downhill. I caught the second ‘chasing’ group that had the Egyptian Ebtisam in.
“Then on another hill my chain slipped again. I had to stop again, this time they worked on the setting to help me get my gears working again. I never managed to catch the second group again. And then the gears didn’t want to work again.... I couldn’t get up the hills with heavy gears. So I abandoned the race on 85 km.
“I know I would have had a top 10 finish today, but the damage to the bike held me back. I am thankful that I am not badly injured here in Kenya. The Zim girl (Andie Kuipers) cracked her elbow.”
African champs, women’s road race:
1 Ashleigh Moolman (South Africa) 3:07:50
2 Adiam Dawit (Eritrea) 7:21
3 Diane Ingabire (Rwanda) 7:21
4 Djazilla Umwamikazi (Rwanda) 7:21
5 Lucy Young (South Africa) 7:21
6 Suzana Fisehaye (Eritrea) 7:21
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