![\"ccs-62657-0-91952000-1486702037.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-62657-0-91952000-1486702037.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>The roster of the Team Bestmed-ASG cycling team for the 2017 season includes, from left, Skye Davidson, Lynette Benson, Sanet Coetzee, Nina Sender, An-Li Kachelhoffer, Chante van der Merwe, Nicolene and Zanele Tshoko. Bernette Beyers is in Switzerland. Photo: Stuart Pickering<\/span><\/p>\nGrabbing their immediate attention will be the SA National Road Championships in Wellington this week where team leader and Olympian An-Li Kachelhoffer will be defending her road race title on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Team manager Owen Botha said they would also be looking further ahead to the Bestmed Tour of Good Hope from March 6 to 10, as well as the Cape Town Cycle Tour on March 12.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know it is always a tough task to retain the national title, but we will be targeting that for An-Li this weekend. From then on we will use a number of races to sharpen us for our objectives in March.\u201d<\/p>\n
Botha said the team\u2019s focus this year would be to create a strong, cohesive unit under Belgian manager Steven Sergeant which could make their presence felt.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the riders are elites and the aim is to support An-Li, who has all the credentials to do well.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut she also wants to pass on her knowledge to the other riders to give them the benefit of her experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Botha said the team were planning training camps in the Western Cape under the guidance of Sergeant to build up a spirit of cooperation in their ranks.<\/p>\n
Besides signing Kachelhoffer, he said they had also brought in Zanele Tshoko and Skye Davidson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been keen to get Zanele to join us but she was committed elsewhere in the past two years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, we tried to get Lise Olivier to sign with Zanele because they have done a lot of work together in the past, but Lise is taking a different path, going into the corporate world at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Botha said he had seen Davidson in action and noticed her climbing skills even though she was relatively tall.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe needed someone like that to assist An-Li as a powerful domestique to provide some protection. Skye has a very good CV and plenty of \u2018vooma\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said they believed Davidson had the right qualities and the aim would be to teach her how to handle the longer distances now she is an elite.<\/p>\n
Speaking from the official launch of the team in Pretoria, Botha added that they had also signed Bernette Beyers, who was currently in Switzerland on a training programme to improve her track cycling skills. She is due to return in April.<\/p>\n
The team made their debut at the Bestmed Berge en Dale Championship on Saturday, delivering Kachelhoffer to second place on the podium in a sprint finish.<\/p>\n
As the senior rider in the team, Kachelhoffer said she saw her role more in a mentoring capacity than anything else.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the age of 29 I feel this is a chance for me to give back to some younger riders because I know your career can\u2019t last forever,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a diverse team and it will be nice for the younger riders to learn about a team environment and how a professional women\u2019s team is run.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she wanted to impart her experience of riding in Europe on the younger riders so they knew what to expect when competing overseas.<\/p>\n
Kachelhoffer said they had a good first race at the Berge en Dale in Muldersdrift on the West Rand, but added it was more than just about the final result.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, Chante (Van der Merwe) told me it was the first time she had been in a sprint finish in a women\u2019s race, so it\u2019s those experiences to which we want to expose them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team dynamic is more about the girls coming together to set personal goals and aiming to grow as cyclists.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team members are An-Li Kachelhoffer, Chante van der Merwe, Nina Sender, Zanele Tshoko, Nicolene Marais, Sanet Coetzee, Skye Davidson, Lynette Benson and Bernette Beyers.<\/p>\n
The management staff are Owen Botha (manager), Steven Sergeant (sporting director road), Peter Lambert (sporting director track) and Linda Warren (assistant sports director).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Having signed up a new-look outfit of elite riders, Team Bestmed-ASG will be focused on making a major impact on the South African cycling scene this year. The roster of the Team Bestmed-ASG cycling team for the 2017 season includes, from left, Skye Davidson, Lynette Benson, Sanet Coetzee, Nina Sender, An-Li Kachelhoffer, Chante van der […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1753,1754],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-17105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-bestmed-asg","tag-team-bestmed-asg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17105"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=17105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}