Bassingthwaighte wins mountain bike nationals

MARC Bassingthwaighte won the Namibian National Mountain Bike Championships for the second time in a row in a race he dominated on Sunday.

Bassingthwaighte led the pack that included former Namibian champion Mannie Heymans from the start of the race. He won the race in one hour and 58 minutes after overlapping Jacques Celliers and Damien Agnew on the final lap. Heymans came second while Heinrich Köhne came third.’The start of the race was not as fast as it normally is, and that was good for me because it meant that I could go at my own rhythm,’ Bassingthwaighte said at the end of the race.’On the third lap, I already started feeling cramps because the conditions here are very different to the ones I was riding in when I was in Germany. Here it was very dry and therefore very difficult to ride in, but I’m glad I managed to keep it together in the end,’ he continued.’I am very happy about keeping the title. Now I am going to take a week off and relax a bit before I get back to cycling.’Bassingthwaighte was not sure about whether he would be able to compete at the World Championships that are due to take place in Montreal, Canada in November. ‘It is going to be difficult to go to the World Championships because it will cost a lot of money to get there. If I go, it should be something worthwhile, because I don’t want to go there and finish 50th, that will just be a waste of money,’ he said.Till Drobisch was the winner of the junior men’s category when he finished the four laps in one hour, 32 minutes and 48 seconds ahead of Sebastian Jahnke and José Barth who came third.’It was a very nice track, and I enjoyed riding on it. In the beginning I tried to keep up with Mannie on the first lap and that made me tired on the second lap so I slowed down to conserve my energy,’ Drobisch said.The Under-23 category was won by Heiko Redecker in two hours 11 minutes and 46 seconds. Vera Adrian was the only rider in the junior women’s category and she finished the three laps in one hour 21 minutes and 37 seconds. The President of the Namibian Cycling Federation, Louis du Pisani was not very happy with the turnout of the riders.’I am slightly disappointed in the entries we received. There were just 34 riders, and last year we had 43 riders. It is probably because the course is too technical and difficult,’ Du Pisani said.’We deliberately presented the riders with a difficult course in order to present a challenge to them to prepare them well for international competitions,’ Du Pisani added. Other winners on the day included, Ian Grassow and Monika Grossman who won the men’s and women’s veterans’ category respectively and Aidan de Lange who won the masters’ category. See attachment for the rest of the results and times.- namibiasport.com.na