Cycling

Marc Bassingthwaighte was a comfortable winner of the Elite Men’s category of the Namibia National Mountain Bike Championships which took place in Windhoek on Sunday.

Bassinghtwaighte completed the 36km course in a time of 1 hour 46 minutes 30 seconds, to finish nearly five minutes ahead of second-placed Mannie Heymans.

Heymans, who turned 41 on Saturday, came second in 1:51:15, and was involved in a titanic battle with Heinrich Kohne, who came third in 1:51:22.

The Namibian Mountain Bike season comes to an end on Sunday when the National MB Cross Country Championships will be held on Farm Kleine Kuppe in the hills above Windhoek Gymnasium School.

More than 70 of the country’s top riders are expected to be in action from 09h00 when the first junior categories start, through to about 12h00 when the Elite Men’s category is expected to start.

Namibian cyclist Dan Craven said he hoped to be back training soon again after crashing out of the RAS cycle race in Ireland on Wednesday.

The crash came 50km before the end of the third stage when Craven was lying in fourth place in the peloton.

Two of his team mates slipped on the greasy descent and Craven saw his rear wheel slide from under him. With nowhere to go, the rest of the peloton ploughed into Craven, leaving the road strewn with bikes and bodies.

With only two weeks left of the longest timed stage race in the world, the Tour d’Afrique, the winner is yet to be decided – a rare occurrence when it comes to a 12 000km race over 94 stages.

As participants move closer to their final border crossing and the finish line in Cape Town Christian Sailer from Switzerland and Raffael Schrof from Germany are still entwined in a battle for first position with less than two hours separating the speedsters.

In total, the participants have travelled through nine countries and just crossed the 10 000km mark.

The Tour d’Afrique cycle trek from Cairo to Cape Town arrived in Windhoek on Wednesday for a quick stop over before they continue their trek to Cape Town on Friday morning.

More than 50 cyclists from all over the world are participating have in the tour which started in Cairo, Egypt on January 14 and covers close to 12 000km through 10 African countries until its destination in Cape Town on Saturday, May 12.

Most of the riders are social riders, but several are also participating in a race, with Namibia’s Alaric Britz currently lying fifth.

Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, Botswana.

The Tour d’Afrique cyclists have entered their 8th country, Botswana.  Only two countries left to go.

Botswana’s notoriously long, flat and easy roads see the cyclists ride up to 200km on some of their longest days. It is easy to lose your mind when you have to keep yourself occupied for 6 to 8 hours in the sun.

Christian Sailer is still in the lead, with Raffael Schroff and Adam Lister in 2nd and 3rd places respectively. South Africa’s Steve Smith is in 7th place, Alan Emerton is in 12th place and Miguel Teixeira is 20th.

Marc Bassingthwaighte won the first leg of the Namibian Mountain Bike Cross Country series in Windhoek on Saturday when he completed the course in a time of 1 hour 40 minutes 15 seconds.

Mannie Heymans came second just about three minutes behind in 1:43:14, while Heinrich Kohne came third in 1:46:17.
A record 178 riders turned out for the event which started at the Windhoek Gymnasium School.

In a report on his personal website, Bassingthwaighte said he was amazed at the turnout.

Lotto Petrus caused a major upset by beating Namibia’s Olympic cyclist Dan Craven to win the Namibian Cycling Championships on Saturday.

Petrus beat Craven in a sprint to the line to win the Elite Men’s category over 132km in a time of 3 hours 23 minutes 6 seconds, at an average speed of 39km per hour. Craven followed one second behind, while Marc Bassingthwaighte came third in 3:23:23.

It was the second year in a row that Petrus had won the title and he said he was determined to defend his title.

Development rider Costa Seibeb on Sunday won the Nedbank Cycle Challenge in dramatic fashion after just holding the chasing pack off in a climb to the line.

The 20-year-old Seibeb won the 75km race in a time of 1:54:48, to beat Heinrich Kohne by two seconds to the line, while Michael Pretorius came third in 1:54:51.

Jaco Hanekom came fourth in 1:54:52, followed by Tristan de Lange, Jacques Tattersall and Willie van Zyl who all finished in 1:54:53.

Namibian mountain bike rider Marc Bassingthwaighte came third overall in the first leg of the SA Exco Cup series in Durbanville, Cape Town last weekend.

The South African champion Burry Stander won the Elite Men’s category after completing the seven-lap course in a time of 1:24:19, finishing well ahead of compatriot Philip Buys who came second in 1:26:02. Bassingthwaighte came third in 1:29:57.

Bassingthwaighte started off with the leaders but could not maintain the blistering pace set by Stander and Buys and dropped back.