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DRIKUS Coetzee won the Tour de Windhoek for the second time after a great solo ride on the final stage yesterday.
Coetzee emerged victorious after finishing in the leader’s bunch on the Von Bach Dam road yesterday, which was won by South Africa’s Brandon Downes of Team Teg Procycling.
Coetzee won the overall general classification, followed by Kimhan van der Merwe of the South African Team Tufo BMC, while Downes finished third overall.
In a very exciting finale to the five-stage tour, Coetzee and Van der Merwe were dead level after Stage 3 with an overall time of five hours 31 minutes 4 seconds, with South Africa’s Brandon Downes of Team Teg Procycling third a further 42 seconds behind.
In the final stage yesterday morning, Coetzee had to weather numerous attacks from the South African teams before he emerged victorious.
“It was a tough day, the guys really attacked me all out. At a stage with about 10km to go Alex (Miller), Brandon and another Tufo BMC rider were in the lead, so I had to chase very hard on my own, but I managed to bridge the gap and draw the bunch with me back to the leaders,” Coetzee said after the race.
“After that there were some more attacks and at the halfway mark a strong group of leaders attacked again, but I could at least join them, my legs felt strong. Then on the last climb about 5km before the end, the guys attacked hard again, but I could go with them and thats where I managed to drop Kimhan so I went with the other leaders till the last climb, and just made sure that Brandon didn’t get a 40-second lead over me,” he added.
It was Coetzee’s second Tour de Windhoek title following 2020, but he rated this victory higher.
“It feels great to win the 2023 Tour de Windhoek against all the South African riders here – I think that’s probably the strongest performance of my whole career. It was a huge challenge to basically ride on my own against the South African teams, but it shows you we Namibians have the heart to do it, and I think I definitely have the mindset and the perseverance to go through a lot of depths and to see it through,” he said.
“It’s a great honour for me to have won the Tour de Windhoek and it’s definitely one of the highlights of my cycling career, but this is also for Namibian cycling – it’s awesome that the yellow jersey can remain in Namibia and that we can carry Namibian cycling just as high as we did last year. I knew I could do it, I believed in myself, and as I said, it’s for me, but also for Namibian cycling, so let’s celebrate it.”
Melissa Hinz of Team Simonis Storm powered by Hollard won the women’s race, beating her team mate Anri Krugel into second place, while Genevieve Weber of Lela Ladies came third.
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