#MyFokMarelize gatecrashes Cape Town Cycle Tour

The teenager who has won worldwide fame in the past 10 days with her starring role in the #MyFokMarelize video will be on the starting line of the Cape Town Cycle Tour on Sunday.

Marelize Horn, 19, and her mother Heidi — who uttered the immortal words after her daughter cycled into a rugby post — have been flown south from their home in Windhoek, Namibia, by event sponsor Pick n Pay, and arrived on Saturday.

The 35,000 cyclists who will cycle 109km around the Cape peninsula on Sunday need not fear that Marelize will cause them any #MyFok moments.

"She will be at the Cape Town Cycle Tour start VIP tent from 6.30am and will fire the start gun for the safe cycling group at 7.56am," said Pick n Pay spokesperson Janine Caradonna.

On Saturday afternoon, Marelize was due to get "pro-cycling tips (on a grass field) from rising cyclist stars from the Velokhaya Life Cycling Academy team", said Caradonna.

Cycle Tour posts referencing  Marelize have piled up on social media in the last few days, and numerous T-shirt makers are marketing garments immortalising Heidi’s exclamation at the end of the 16-second video.

On Saturday February 23, Horn was practising riding a bicycle on the rugby field at Affies Park in Windhoek, filmed by her mother.

In the video, she rides in a circle then heads straight for a rugby post, crashes into it and falls off. Starting to walk towards Marelize, Heidi sighs "My fok, Marelize" before the video ends.

Speaking to News24 after the video went viral, Marelize said she was accident prone. “My mum Heidi says, ‘My fok, Marelize’ to me almost every day. I fall off things, walk into things — it’s insane how clumsy I am,” she said.

Marelize is heading to The Netherlands to work as an au pair, and said she was learning to ride a bike so she could get around there.

The Velokhaya Life Cycling Academy, sponsored by Pick n Pay and based in Khayelitsha, aims to use after-school cycling "to give children from disadvantaged communities the skills and opportunities they need to make a success of their lives".

Its website says: "We use the sport of cycling to teach them important life skills such as discipline, determination, dedication, teamwork and how to win and lose.

"Sport also teaches children about resilience and perseverance; it gives them the opportunity to become physically and emotionally stronger and it also teaches them to strive for excellence, to be gracious in victory and to persevere in defeat. In other words, it help us grow champions on and off the bike."

The safe cycling group Marelize will set on its way on Sunday consists of Pedal Power Association members wearing "Stay wider of the rider" jerseys.