MARISSA VAN DER MERWE

Date of birth: 30 August 1978
Beijing event: Road race (10 August)
Previous Olympics: None
Bike: Raleigh Team Ltd
To me, the Olympic Games is the most prestigious sports event. It’s an honor and privilege after years of hard work to be able to represent my country at the Olympics.
In Beijing, I reckon I’ll be able to stay with the climbers. If I can just get myself in a good position in the group it can work to my advantage. My only concern is that I have not competed in any international events in the past two months, while the other riders are constantly riding in tours and races overseas.
The Olympic course is quite balanced. It starts with 78km of relatively flat roads before finishing with two laps of a 24km circuit. There are about 900 metres of climbing in the last 48km, which will suit the stronger climbers.
The gold medal favorite must be Marianne Vos (NED), Nicole Cooke (GBR) or Kirsten Armstrong (USA). But cycling is a funny sport and anything can happen on the day.
Bicycling’s comments: The women’s road race was only introduced to the Olympics at the Los Angeles Games in 1984. Women’s cycling has gained significant global appeal since then and Van der Merwe and Taylor have a formidable challenge ahead of them in 126.3km race. Both are accomplished climbers, having shown they can ride with the world’s best. But beating the world’s best is another thing, especially since the two women were only officially announced by SASCOC as being part of the Olympic cycling squad a month before their race and had no international racing exposure when they needed it most.

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