How Chalk Air Won the Double Century With Six Riders
Last year Chalk Air WC CMC lined up at the Double Century as underdogs and beat the double defending champions by 88 seconds. This November, they’re the team everyone is chasing. Liesel Prentis grew up in her family’s compressor hire business in East London, discovered road cycling on the back of her husband’s tandem, and now owns the company that sponsors one of South Africa’s strongest women’s teams. She talks honestly about what the bike gave her as a mother of four, why the result is secondary for so many of the women she rides with, and why backing a women’s team is a business decision she’d make again. Then their road captain takes us inside the 2025 Old Mutual Wealth Double Century: a derailleur gone in the first kilometre, seven riders over the big climb, a broken chain on the run home, and six women digging deep enough to hold off ASAP Ladies and Nana Cycling Club. There’s also the local derby, the drafting debate, the watts it takes to sit on the front, and how you plan for a new route when nobody knows where the water point is. Part of our Double Century 2026 series.