{"id":18510,"date":"2016-03-17T06:25:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T06:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/2016\/03\/17\/from-petal-power-to-pedal-power-r4378\/"},"modified":"2023-02-08T08:32:26","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T08:32:26","slug":"from-petal-power-to-pedal-power-r4378","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/from-petal-power-to-pedal-power-r4378\/","title":{"rendered":"From petal power to pedal power"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Marleen Lourens got married 3-year-old Nicky Giliomee, was her flower girl. That was 19 years ago – on Tuesday, the pair rolled across the Absa Cape Epic\u2019s finishline in Wellington, as riding partners. They had completed the 103km stage in a smidgen under 7 hours \u2013 and the fourth South African women\u2019s team to finish. \u201cToday was long and hot,\u201d said Lourens, \u201cBut it\u2019s Epic, which is why we keep coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is Lourens\u2019 fifth and Giliomee\u2019s maiden Epic. Why did Giliomee enter? \u201cMy aunty forced me,\u201d she joked. Lourens said she had asked Giliomee to ride with her when her regular racing partner Anne Harrison wasn\u2019t available. Giliomee, who is doing a BComm honours at Stellenbosch University, declined. A few weeks later, though, Lourens\u2019 received a text message from Giliomee. \u201cI\u2019ve got FOMO. I\u2019ll do it.\u201d And with that message, Team Speed Structures was formed.<\/p>\n

\"ccs-62657-0-00107000-1458196158.jpg\"<\/a>Marleen Lourens (front) Nicky Giliomee (Rear) during the Prologue of the 2016 Absa Cape Epic Mountain Bike stage race held at Meerendal Wine Estate in Durbanville, South Africa on the 13th March 2016. Photo by Sam Clark\/Cape Epic\/SPORTZPICS<\/span><\/p>\n

But Giliomee nearly didn\u2019t make it to the start line. A month earlier she was racing the Tankwa Trek, and was in the lead in the mixed category, when she went down a drop too fast. \u201cI woke up in an ambulance,\u201d she said. Her doctor only gave her the go-ahead to take part in the Cape Epic a week before the start.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not as fit as I wanted to be, but at least I\u2019m here,\u201d said Giliomee.<\/p>\n

Lourens said she was impressed with what a strong rider her former flower girl is. \u201cShe\u2019s got so much talent, her head is very strong, and she doesn\u2019t give up. I will go to war with anyone who will crawl to the end,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

After Wednesday\u2019s stage, the two, covered from helmet to toe in dust, were making themselves human again in the riders\u2019 recovery zone with fellow riders giving them high-fives.<\/p>\n

Lourens said she loves this race because it\u2019s so unpredictable. \u201cYou can\u2019t have any expectations. If you\u2019re not a pro, you come to enjoy it \u2013 and then deal with any misfortune.\u201d So far, they\u2019ve had a puncture on the Prologue and a bent hanger. <\/p>\n

Hopefully Giliomee will enjoy the Epic a bit more than Lourens\u2019 wedding. The pretty toddler\u2019s flower girl services were in huge demand and this was her fifth wedding. \u201cI\u2019m not going to get married ever again,\u201d she told her mother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Marleen Lourens got married 3-year-old Nicky Giliomee, was her flower girl. That was 19 years ago – on Tuesday, the pair rolled across the Absa Cape Epic\u2019s finishline in Wellington, as riding partners. They had completed the 103km stage in a smidgen under 7 hours \u2013 and the fourth South African women\u2019s team to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43841,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[76,24,1355,1404],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-18510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-absa-cape-epic","tag-cape-epic","tag-marleen-lourens","tag-nicky-giliomee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18510","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=18510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18510"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=18510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}