![\"AMPposed2012lrweb.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-2-0-24974000-1373355854.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nAshleigh Moolman Pasio continued her rise up the International Cycling Union world rankings with an eighth place overall at the Giro Donne.<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Photo credit: Dominic Barnardt <\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Moolman Pasio has been South Africa\u2019s top achiever in women\u2019s road racing over the past four years and her eighth place in the General Classification at the 2013 Giro Donne, an eight-day race that\u2019s currently the women\u2019s equivalent of the Tour de France in terms of prestige, confirms she\u2019s still on the way up.<\/p>\n At the 2010 edition of the Giro Donne, she finished 17th<\/sup>, 42 minutes behind the overall winner; in 2011 she was 13th<\/sup>, 20 minutes off the winner\u2019s time. Last year she broke into the top 10 with 10th<\/sup>position and was 10 minutes behind the winner and this year she was eighth and just over five minutes back.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at my progression like that, it\u2019s encouraging. But I don\u2019t feel I achieved my potential this year,\u201d said Moolman Pasio from Florence, Italy on Monday. \u201cMy goal this year was a stage win and my third place on Stage 3 was a great result; but that was the only stage where I really can say I was at my potential.\u201d<\/p>\n Moolman Pasio said that her positioning wasn\u2019t ideal at crucial points of the key climbing legs \u2013Stages 5 and 6 \u2013 and put it down to her own inexperience and that of her young Lotto Belisol team.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great team with lots of talent, but we just lack stage racing experience and that counted against us at this race. The good thing is that I learned a lot and know where my weaknesses are. I do intend to return to try give the overall win at this race a big go at some point in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n Moolman Pasio, who races for the Momentum Toyota team when in South Africa during the European winter, is focussing on scoring as many world rankings points as possible this year. On 24 June, prior to the Giro Donne, she was ranked 14th<\/sup>, the highest ranking ever achieved by a South African road racer, male or female.<\/p>\n \u201cWorld ranking is important to me this year. It\u2019s the main measure of success in women\u2019s racing currently. We can\u2019t afford to spend a whole season focussed only on one race like the men can. The financial rewards are nowhere near what the men earn and the UCI points are differently weighted. A win at the Giro Donne gives you 80 points, but a World Cup race win is 100 points and the World Championships win is 200 points.<\/p>\n \u201cMara Abbot, the American that won the Giro Donne this year and in 2010, is based in the USA for most of the season and puts all her focus into this one race. She\u2019s obviously at a point in her career where that\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n \u201cThe race has gone back to it\u2019s original format and has some really long climbs \u2013 this year there was a 20km climb \u2013 and most of the one-day races that carry the big UCI points don\u2019t have any ascents like that, so for most of the riders, it\u2019s not a priority to train that kind of climbing specifically,\u201d added Moolman Pasio.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I am to be in a position to challenge for this race win in future, I need to focus the majority of my time training very long mountain climbs at high altitude. That\u2019s where this race is won.\u201d<\/p>\n Moolman Pasio remained in Italy after Sunday\u2019s final Giro Donne stage to recce the course for the 2013 World Championships.<\/p>\n \u201cThe World Champs is my next major goal for this year. The course is tough and definitely suits my strengths. My best results before have been on courses that have successive climbs and the finishing circuit, which we will do five times, has just such a profile,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While Daryl Impey has been making Tour de France history, South African women\u2019s road race champion, Ashleigh Moolman Pasio has been continuing her rise up the International Cycling Union (UCI) rankings with an eighth place overall at the Giro Donne, the most prestigious women\u2019s road stage race in the world. Ashleigh Moolman Pasio continued her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":53226,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[588,2435],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-21718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-ashleigh-moolman-pasio","tag-ladies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21718","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21718"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=21718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}