Zille on her bike again after 50 years

HELEN Zille last rode a bicycle 50 years ago when she travelled to primary school in Johannesburg. Today the Western Cape premier, who turned 61 on Friday, joins about 35000 cyclists to tackle the gruelling 35th Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour.

But fellow cyclists need not be concerned about a special blue light brigade for Zille.

"I tried to get a blue light for my bike but couldn't. So now I'm sticking to conventional red and yellow lights," she quipped.

Zille will cycle 30km of the official 109km route to Simonstown in a team representing the SA Institute for Drug-Free Sport, alongside Sport and Recreation Minister Fikile Mbalula, activist Zackie Achmat, former Bafana Bafana player Mark Fish and TV personality Vanessa Haywood.

Zille will then forge a coalition with cyclist Andrew Wheeldon on a tandem bicycle wearing the Western Cape's "Better Together" slogan.

"I'm counting on people to push me some of the way," she said.

Zille has trained with bodyguards at dawn three times a week. She ruled out any wild birthday celebrations as she needed sleep before today's race. "I'll probably be too nervous to sleep on the night before the race so I'd best get some sleep on the night before the night before." Others who have cycled the world-famous race in the past include actor Matt Damon, tennis great Gabriela Sabatini and cyclist Lance Armstrong.

She said she was going to carbo-load on pasta and possibly her signature dish, spaghetti bolognaise.

Zille looked fresh in her office in the afternoon this week after a training session with Mbalula that began at 5am.

The two met up on the road after Zille left her official residence and appeared chatty and jovial as they cycled.

Admitted Zille: "I didn't have the guts to tell my husband that I'm doing the tour. He read about me participating in the newspapers."

Unexpected adversaries have tried to derail Zille as she prepared for the race - notably a yapping Maltese Poodle that engineered her downfall as she trained with triathlon coach Steve Atwell in February.

"I was pretty new on my bike and still quite shaky," recalled Zille. "There was a woman walking two dogs, one was a poodle; one of those seriously pampered Sea Point poodles. It started barking at me, in front of my bike so I swerved and fell. I went head over heels! And the dog just continued barking.

"The woman looked at me and said in horror, 'Are you Helen Zille?' Lying on the ground, I said 'Yes'."

Said Atwell: "So Helen got up and apologised to the dog's owner for nearly running it over. The owner in turn started apologising profusely for knocking over the premier of the Western Cape."

Other challenges included tight muscles and an equally tight schedule.

Atwell confiscated Zille's bike once to force her to rest. But she sent her bodyguards to fetch it.

Zille said that, apart from two rides on tandem bicycles for official engagements, she had last ridden a bike by herself 50 years ago, when she cycled two kilometres to Laerskool Rivonia in Johannesburg.