30/11/2011
Monique Gerber’s early cycling aspirations reap golden rewards
Team bizhub’s Under 16 S.A. Cycling champion Monique Gerber is making final preparations for a two-month trip to Australia where she will race against some of the best young riders in the world.
Monique’s trip to Australia will form part of the foundation of a year long plan, which has been put together by team owner John Robertson together with her Father/coach Fran’s Gerber’s input.
According to Monique's father and coach: “ The most rewarding moments since coaching Monique are not necessarily being there when she wins a S.A title or break yet another S.A record, but rather in seeing the growth of a champion, her fears and falls, terrible failures, and finally success”.
With no further competition in South Africa Monique is now heading 'down under' to test her metal against the Australians, as they are regarded as the best junior riders in the world.
“Monique will be participating in Western Australia. This state has time and again produced the majority of Australia's junior world champion which includes Josephine Tomic (2000m pursuit and world record), Amy Cure (2000m pursuit world record and world scratch race champion), Ashley Akundinov (2000m pursuit), Sarah Kent, Michaela Anderson and this year Jessica Allan (world junior time trial champion” Said her Father about the planned trip to Australia
Monique and her father/coach Frans Gerber have been invited to Australia by the Western Australia Institute of Sport where Monique will be training and racing with the Australian junior squad, coached by Australian national coach, Darryl Benson.
Australia is another big step forward for Monique, who at age 12, had already laid out a master plan to one day become a world champion. “Monique stood out as special from the start, when at the age of nine, she beat the under 10 boys to become S.A Champion”.
Monique’s attitude has always been, “ If your good enough, you're old enough. Simple as that.” and therefore in 2009, at the tender age of 12, Monique decided to race against the u/16 ladies at the SA Cycling Championship. Having broken her jawbone only five weeks prior to the event Monique was not in the best form she could be, but that did not stop her, as she went on to become the youngest u/16 S.A. champion this country have ever produced.
Since that brilliant performance in 2009 as a 12 year old, Monique has not been allowed to upgrade in age category again. As a result she is still racing in the u/16 age category and will have to continue to do so until the end of 2012.
During the S.A Road Cycling Championships, held in Port Elizabeth earlier this year Monique got the opportunity she had been waiting for. The officials decided to let the u/16 and Junior ladies race together in the same bunch. Monique won the race overall, again beating riders 3 years her senior. In the time trial championship she beat the current SA junior champion by more than a minute.
“We’ve had several meetings with CSA representatives about Monique’s future plans including the possibility of her being allowed to upgrade to junior category in 2012, but thus far its been a frustrating battle” commented Robertson “ I’ve produced junior national champions for several years now and we have a excellent track record of working with young riders. Yet despite this Monique is not longer even allowed to participate in a 100km fun ride in SA.
CSA funded the CSA Toyota academy for young female riders, but regrettably no funding was offered to Monique despite her being head and shoulders above the competition.
In view of this we came up with a long term plan of our own to develop her for 2013 Junior world championships, this will include another trip to Australia at the end of 2012, and a European road program midway through next year.”
Earlier this week Monique explained: “ I have been following the results and times of the Australian girls on the Internet for many years now. The sport is so big there and there are so many girls who are extremely good. I can't believe I'm now actually going to be training and racing with the likes of Kelsey Robson, Elisa Wundersitz Molly Booker, the list just goes on, and competition there is so strong!
Recently I was becoming very despondent that I would never gain the racing experience to be competitive at the world championships in 2013 so I'm extremely grateful to my sponsor bizhub, and Alan Griffiths from Konica Minolta SA for making my dream a reality. With the program that has been devised for me I will almost have six months of international racing in my legs by 2013
Monique’s race program is set to include the following
9th December: Australian Junior under 19 pursuit champs
10th December: Junior u/17 National Track Series 5th leg.
11th December: Lakes Road race
20th January: State Sprint Championship
21st January: State Points/ Endurance Championship
22nd January: State Pursuit Championships
Monique will be taking part in selected criterium racing so as not to limit the program to track events.
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