After Cherise Stander crossed the finish line of the Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour, she lifted her hands and revealed a tattoo: Love Life and Burry.
Stander - wife of the late, great Olympian Burry Stander - took pole position in the women's event yesterday.
Nothing, not even gale-force winds or male cyclists crashing mere metres in front of her at the line, deterred her from winning and dedicating the race to her husband, and to her late grandmother, Annatjie Taylor.
"I kept on thinking how much they would want me to cross the finish line in first place. That is what kept me going," said Stander.
Burry Stander died after a taxi driver knocked him down in KwaZulu-Natal last year. Months later, Cherise Stander' s 79-year-old grandmother died.
She said she was on antidepressants and most of the year had been "kind of a blur".
It was her grandmother who helped shape her cycling career.
"The Argus was the main race for her, she didn't care about anything else. She was at my first one when I was nine," Stander said.
Njabulo Nyawose, the driver who i s accused of causing Burry Stander's death, will appear in the Port Shepstone Magistrate's Court later this month .
But Stander said she was not "too involved" in the case.
"It is not going to make a difference.
"It is not going to bring Burry back," she said.
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