Cycling

Namibian Under 23 cyclist Till Drobisch won the Under 23 category and finished sixth overall in the Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour on Sunday.

Drobisch’s performance was the best ever yet by a Namibian in the famous tour since it originated in 1978.

More than 36 000 cyclists competed in the 109km race which is the largest individually timed cycle race in the world.

Drobisch had a slow start and after 10km dropped his chain and had to fix it before continuing.

Namibian cyclists excelled at the African Mountain Bike Championships in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday, by winning one gold, one silver and two bronze medals.

Tristan de Lange won the gold medal in the Youth Men’s four-lap race in 1 hour 14 minutes 23 seconds, with South Africa’s Mathew Lombardi coming second in 1:17:12 and Julian Jessop third in 1:18:24.

Martin Freyer won a silver medal in the Junior Men’s category, finishing the four-lap race in 1:14:13.

Till Drobisch completed the double when he won the Cymot National Road Race Championships on Sunday morning, after winning the National Time Trial Championships two days earlier.

Drobisch beat Costa Seibeb in a sprint to the line to finish the 132km event in a time of 3 hours 38 minutes 50 seconds, with Seibeb coming second three seconds behind.

Drobisch and Seibeb broke away from the leading peleton going up the Daan Viljoen hills and worked well together as they pulled further ahead of the chasing pack, which included Petrus, Kohne, Fiffy Kashululu and Joze Barth.

Till Drobisch won the National Time Trial Championships at Gross Barmen on Friday.

Drobisch was in a class of his own, completing the 40km event in 54:06 to finish nearly two minutes ahead of Gerhard Mans (56:02), while Costa Seibeb came third overall a further three minutes behind (59:14).

Drobisch also won the Men’s U23 category, followed by Seibeb and Xavier Papo (1:03:34).

Mans won the Elite Men’s category, followed by Heinrich Kohne (1:00:52) and Klaus Frielingsdorf (1:07:44).

The U23 cyclists did very well with seven of the top 10 cyclists coming from that category.

Namibia’s top cyclists will battle it out for honours this weekend when the Cymot National Championships will be held in Windhoek and Gross Barmen.

The championships, which have been sponsored by Cymot to an amount of N$30 000, will consist of the Cymot National Time Trial Championships on Friday and the Cymot National Road Race Championships on Sunday.

The popular annual Cymot Warm Up ride for social riders, which is traditionally held as a warm up ride for the Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour, will also be held on Sunday.

Namibian cyclist Tristan de Lange won his first race in South Africa on Sunday when he came first in the Youth category of the Sabie Mountain Bike Half Marathon.

De Lange dominated the Youth category, completing the 40km course in a time of one hour 48 minutes nine seconds to finish four minutes ahead of the second placed youth cyclist.

Top South African junior rider, Dylan Rebello who is currently leading the Junior category of the Nissan Half Marathon Series, was the overall winner of the race in 1:44:49.

The future of Namibian cycling looks bright after some exceptional performances by Namibia’s top junior cyclists this season, culminating in Sunday’s Nedbank Cycle Challenge.

Junior cyclists Mike Swanepoel and Martin Freyer have dominated this year’s Windhoek Pedal Power series, while Costa Seibeb, who turned 21 on February 7, won the Nedbank Cycle Challenge for the second year in a row on Sunday.

In recent years cyclists like Mannie Heymans, Erik Hoffmann, Dan Craven and Marc Bassingthwaighte have represented Namibia internationally as well as at the Olympic Games.

Costa Seibeb, who won the Nedbank Cycle Challenge for the second year in a row on Sunday, was elated with his victory.

“It was quite hard but I made it and I’m happy now. We worked together in the front, but the guys were keeping the pace down and I was really worried that the second bunch would catch us,” he said.

“So I was shouting at them to keep up the pace, so that the other guys cannot catch up and then I tried to attack at the end,” he added.

Costa Seibeb won the Nedbank Cycle Challenge for the second year in a row when he completed the 100km event in a time of 2 hours 28 minutes 36 seconds.

Heinrich Kohne came second five seconds behind while junior cyclist Martin Freyer came third in 2:38:44.

Another junior cyclist Tristan de Lange came fourth in the same time, while Namibia’s defending road race national champion Loto Petrus came fifth in 2:28:48.

Riding in sunny but cool morning conditions, a record entry of about 1 200 cyclists started the 28th Nedbank Cycle Challenge in Independence Avenue.

A record entry can be expected when the Nedbank Cycle Challenge takes place for the 28th year in Windhoek on Sunday.

The race has grown dramatically since its debut in 1986 when 84 cyclists entered the race.

Since then it has grown steadily each year to become one of the major mass sporting events in Namibia, with more than 1 000 cyclists regularly participating over the past few years.

Sunday’s race will see the introduction of a new category, over 100km, for the first time.