It was an excellent choice, because she earned herself a wonderful birthday present by winning the race. But it did not come easily. Moments after she crossed the line, she gave everybody a scare by collapsing, totally exhausted.
Ariane just lay still on the ground for some minutes while Erik, her husband, cradled her head in his lap, telling her how proud he was of her performance.
Kleinhans won the 107km race in 3 hours 58 minutes 36 seconds, after outsprinting Yolandé Speedy (MTN-Qhubeka). Speedy crossed the line merely 5 seconds later, thereby securing overall victory of the MTN series for women.
Yolandi du Toit (Bizhub) was third and Ischen Stopforth (Bizhub) fourth.
Kleinhans and Speedy were involved in a titanic battle. Kleinhans managed to ride away from Speedy about halfway through the race, but Speedy refused to give up. She caught up with Kleinhans and passed her on the last rocky climb.
According to Kleinhans, it was of the utmost importance for her to regain the lead before they reached the final technical section.
“It would have been ‘race over’ for me if I had not done that. So I had to dig deep to pass Yolandé again.”
Afterwards Speedy was full of praise for the way Kleinhans raced.
“Ariane deserved to win today. I am happy to finish second.”
Du Toit, who won the race the preceding two years, reiterated that the MTN Ride Crater Cruise was, in her opinion, one of the toughest races on the local calendar.
“It is a race that drains your energy right from the beginning until the end. Therefore I am happy just to be on the rostrum.”
Stopforth, who raced the MTN Crater Cruise for the first time, described her racing experience as “shaken but not stirred”.
Four years ago Du Toit was knocked off her mountain bike by a frightened blesbok. This time it was Stopforth’s turn to befriend some antelopes.
“Cherise Taylor and I were racing together. At Suikerbossie we were a little behind the leaders. As luck would have it, a herd of exited hartebeest stampeded right in front of us. We had to wait for them to pass before we could resume our racing.
“This meant that we had to play catch up for the rest of the race.”
