‘Grateful to be back at the start line’ – Ashleigh Moolman Pasio resumes racing with Olympics

Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal) hasn’t raced since her early June crash at Volta a Catalunya Femenina, where she broke her T10 vertebrae, but now she’ll be pinning a number on again.

After her injury, the target and key motivation was always focussed on a return for the key races in August – the 158km women’s Olympic Games road race on Sunday August 4 and the eight stage Tour de France Femmes from August 12-18. It is a target Moolman Pasio has hit, with her name on the start list for South Africa in the Sunday August 4 road race that begins in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.

“Of course, it took a lot of discipline to find the right balance between training enough to be well-prepared and not training too much to delay the recovery,” said Moolman Pasio in a media statement from her trade team AG Insurance-Soudal. “This meant that I had to focus completely on training and resting, which may have been a blessing in disguise.