[ad_1]
ALEX Miller and Ingram Cuff were the big winners of the Paratus Namibian Cycle Classic that took place over the weekend.
Yesterday, Cuff won the Men’s Open 100km cycle race, beating Miller and Drikus Coetzee in a sprint to the line, while Miller took the honours in the 50km MTB race on Saturday, after comfortably beating Xavier Papo and Kaita Simon to the line.Miller and Cuff received cash prizes of N$2 000 and N$2 500 respectively for winning their titles, while Miller pocketed a further N$3 200 for having the best combined time of the two races.
In yesterday’s road race, in windless conditions on a flat course out on the Okahandja road, a group of about six riders broke away from the leading peloton, before Cuff made a break with about 10km to go. Miller and Coetzee led the charge to haul him in, but Cuff managed to stay ahead and went on to break the tape in two hours 21 minutes 22 seconds, with Miller coming second in 2:21:31 and Coetzee third in 2:21:33.
They were followed by Martin Freyer (2:21:44), Kevin Lowe (2:21:45) and JP Burger (2:21:48).
Cuff said he was proud of his achievement.
“The first half wasn’t so hard, and there was no wind today, so it was difficult to get away, the guys tried but could not get away. Then just after the turnaround point Drikus and Alex went, but I managed to bridge across and then we were about six guys who worked together. There were a couple of attacks and then I got away with about 10km to go or so and just managed to hold them off. The competition was strong with riders like Alex and Drikus, so I’m very chuffed to have pulled it off,” he added.
Miller said he was a bit disappointed after losing out on a second gold medal.
“I was a bit disappointed at the end of course, but Ingram timed his effort really well – when he went away with about 10km to go I could see there were some team tactics involved between him and Martin (Freyer) and I knew coming from my of season, I wouldn’t be able to follow everything. I tried to bridge across to him, but it was just a bit too late, but I’m happy with how I felt and it’s good to be back on the bike,” he said.
The women’s 100km road race was a thriller as seven cyclists remained together till the end, with Melissa Hinz taking gold after a dramatic sprint to the line.
Hinz won the race in 2:41:04, followed by Michelle Doman, Courtney Liebenberg, Risa Dreyer and Anneke Steenkamp, who all finished in the same time, while Anri Krugel and Marion Schonecke followed one second behind.
There were various other winners, over different categories ranging from 15km, 25km and 60km, while just over 800 road race cyclists entered the cycle classic.
On Saturday, Miller was rather fortunate to win the MTB race after the initial winner Kevin Lowe was disqualified.
The 17-year-old Lowe gave a great performance to finish about two minutes ahead of Miller, but unfortunately he was disqualified because his timing tag was not functioning properly.
Miller was the official winner in a time of 1:53:37, with Xavier Papo coming second in 2:01:19, and Simon Kaita third in 2:03:24.
Genevieve Weber won the women’s 50km MTB race in 2:15:21, followed by Courtney Liebenberg (2:18:01) and Monique du Plessis (2:21:38).
There were also other category winners over 15km and 30km, while a total of about 250 mountain bike riders competed at the IJG Trails on Saturday morning.
[ad_2]
Source link