Defending women's champion Ischen Stopforth from George will make her comeback from injury at the Old Mutual joBerg2c, which starts at Heidelberg south of Johannesburg on Friday.
The nine-day mountain bike race will be the ultimate test of fitness for Stopforth, who fractured her right arm just weeks before she was scheduled to ride the Absa Cape Epic with British partner Catherine Williamson.
Although it has only been eight weeks since she sustained the injury, the 40-year-old George resident said her arm had felt good since returning to the bike and that her fitness was on track for the 900-kilometre Jo'burg event.