Cycling

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.

Junior cyclists dominated the Nedbank Mountain Bike Challenge, with 17-year-old Martin Fryer beating 15-year-old Tristan de Lange to take the honours.

Freyer, De Lange and senior cyclist Heinrich Kohne broke away from the chasing pack early in the race and steadily increased the gap, as they set a terrific pace.

Towards the end fortunes changed as Freyer took a fall, with De Lange taking over at the front, until he got a puncture, which allowed Freyer to once again take the lead.

The Nedbank Cycle Challenge takes place for the 28th consecutive year, starting with the Nedbank Mountain Bike Challenge on Saturday and culminating in the Nedbank Cycle Challenge on Sunday, February 17.

At a media conference on Thursday, the Managing Director of Nedbank Namibia Erastus Hoveka said that they had decided to split the two events to give riders enough time to recuperate between the events.

Hoveka said that this year’s event would go under the theme of ‘Riding for a Greener Namibia’ which underlined Nedbank’s commitment to caring for the environment.

The Physically Active Youth (PAY) cycling team has been catching the limelight with some great performances in the Windhoek Pedal Power (WPP) cycling series over the past month.

In the three races to date in the WPP series, cyclists of the Katutura-based team have consistently finished amongst the top five overall cyclists, while they have also been dominating the Under 23 category with three victories to date.

Junior cyclist Martin Freyer of the Kia Motors team won the third leg of the Windhoek Pedal Power cycling series, the Matchless Road Race, when he finished the 106,6km event in a time of 2:47:13.

Freyer was a comfortable winner, with Heinrich Kohne coming second in 2:47:22, while another junior cyclist, Pascal Marrgraff of the NMC team came third in 2:47:31.

Heinrich Kohne won the Elite Men’s category, followed by Jacques Celliers who came fourth overall in 2:47:55 and Ananias Ananias who came ninth overall in 2:49:32.

Namibian development cyclist Costa Seibeb recently joined the UCI African Continental Cycling Centre (WCCA) in Potchefstroom, South Africa after being nominated to attend the 10-week training camp by the Namibian Cycling Federation (NCF).

Seibeb, a talented development rider from Katutura, recently made great strides in Namibian cycling, winning the Nedbank Cycle Tour and coming second in the Namibian Cycle Classic last year, while he was also selected for the Namibian team that participated at the African Cycling Championships in Burkina Faso in November.

Junior cyclist Michael Pretorius recorded his second consecutive victory in the Windhoek Pedal Power series when he won the Dordabis road race on Sunday morning.

As in the first leg, he beat his junior team mate Martin Freyer in a sprint to the line to win the 100km road race in 2:44:01. Freyer came second in the same time, while Jacques Celliers was the first senior cyclist home, coming third overall in 2:44:02.

Fiffy Kashululu won the Men’s U23 category, coming fourth overall in 2:44:14, while another junior cyclist Pascal Marrgraff came fifth overall in 2:44:16.

Cymot on Tuesday announced that it will sponsor the Namibia National Cycling Championships for the next three years.

The sponsorship, which will amount to about N$30 000 per year, will cover the National Road Race Championships as well as the National Time Trial Championships, with this year’s event due to take place at the beginning of March.

The managing director of Cymot Axel Theissen said they decided to support road cycling so that it could gain momentum again.

Junior cyclist Michael Pretorius won the first race of the 2013 Namibian cycling season, the Mannie’s Bike Mecca Dobra Loops, when he beat team mate and fellow junior cyclist Martin Fryer in a sprint to the line.

Pretorius, who rides for the KIA Motors team, completed the 90km event in a time of 2:13:48, beating Fryer by one second to the line.

Elite cyclist Adriaan Maartens came third in 2:14:08, followed by Xavier Papo and Fiffy Kashululu of the PAY (Physically Active Youth) team.

Both the junior cyclists and the Elite Men covered six laps or 90km of the race.

The cycling season gets underway this weekend when the first leg of the Windhoek Pedal Power (WPP) cycling series, the ‘Mannie’s Bike Mecca Dobra Loops’ will be held on Sunday morning.

The organisers, WPP, are expecting about 100 cyclists while they have also shortened the distance for the Elite riders, who will now cover 90km along with the Under 23 and Junior Men.