Songezo Jim on what it's like to compete in Europe as a first-timer

Cape Town, May 21, 2010

GT Velokhaya PPA cyclist Songezo Jim was the only Cape-based rider selected for the nine-man, South African 'Tour of Nations', team which competed in Europe in April and May 2010. He tells us what its like to ride in Europe as a first-timer....

"The South African 'Tour of Nations' to Europe was not only the first time I'd competed in Europe, but also the first time I'd raced in such cold and snowy conditions and this definitely took some getting used to. I was totally unprepared for racing in such cold conditions, especially for my first race in Portugal. The races are also much longer, distance wise, than the South African races and the groups of riders (bunches) are also much bigger. It took some getting used to riding in such big bunches and there were always a lot of crashes because of the pace of the race and the size of the bunch. You really need to concentrate to avoid crashing and it takes hard work to break away from the bunch (and at times, to simply keep up with them!)."

"I also learnt that if you want to compete in Europe, you need to be very strong and ride very smart - and you need to learn to eat in a race, something I hadn't really done before. Our races in South Africa are a lot shorter, so you can get by without eating while racing. This, however, is not the case when riding in Europe."
"My best performance during the Tour of Nations was at the Criterium in Belgium; I managed to stay with the break the whole day (120km) until the last lap. I hadn't eaten and with 3km to go, I simply ran out of steam and couldn't keep up."
"All in all, I really enjoyed racing abroad; it gave me a taste of what it feels like to ride there as a pro-team cyclist and it was a fantastic experience. It was also great to bump into Fabian Cancellara, whom I had met in 2008 while visiting the Tour de France as a guest of Team CSC. It was great that he remembered me and I really appreciated him asking me how Velokhaya was doing. "
"I learnt a lot from the experience in Europe, especially from my SA team manager, Barry Austin - in short, I was willing to learn and he was willing to teach!"

- Songezo's 2010 Cycling Achievements:
-" 2010 Western Province Under 23 Road Cycling Champion
-" Finished, on average, in the Top 20 in the 2010 Giro del Capo. (Finished 21st in Stage 1, 18th in Stage 2, 13th in Stage 3, 12th in Stage 4 - also the first Under 23 rider to finish Stage 4).. Finished 71st overall in the 2010 Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour;
-" Finished in overall 9th position in the 2010 Engen Dynamic Cycle Challenge held in PE in May