Zille's lust for (pedal) power

HELEN Zille last rode a bicycle 50 years ago - to primary school in Johannesburg.

Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula also last cycled to school, growing up on a farm in the Free State.

Politically, they are poles apart but today they have something in common - aching muscles.

Zille, who turned 61 on Friday, and Mbalula, 40, will join about 35000 competitors to tackle the 35th Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour.

But fellow cyclists need not be on the lookout for a speeding VIP blue-light escort.

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

She and Mbalula will cycle 30km of the official 110km route - which means they will go as far as Simon's Town - in a team representing the SA Institute for Drug-Free Sport, alongside HIV/Aids activist Zackie Achmat and TV personality Vanessa Haywood.

Zille then hopes to complete the race by forging an alliance with cyclist Andrew Wheeldon on a tandem bicycle. For this stretch of the route she will wear clothing bearing the Western Cape's "Better Together" slogan. "I'm counting on people to push me some of the way," she said.

Mbalula, who completed a training distance of around 40km, said he was enjoying the benefits of exercise. "I'm really enjoying cycling, I think it's a good habit to keep for life," he said.

Zille has trained with bodyguards at dawn three times a week since January. "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 race in the past include actor Matt Damon, tennis great Gabriela Sabatini and Tour de France legend Lance Armstrong.

Zille said she was going to carbo-load on pasta and possibly her signature spaghetti bolognese dish.

She looked fresh in her office this week after a training session at 5am with Mbalula.

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

Unexpected adversaries have tried to deter 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," she recalled. "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."

In addition to a bruise on her calf from a fall just outside Hout Bay, Zille has had to face up to tight muscles and an equally tight schedule.

Atwell confiscated Zille's bike once in an attempt 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 2km to Laërskool Rivonia in Johannesburg.