Dan Craven won the National Cycling Championships in style on Sunday when he finished more than four minutes ahead of the chasing pack.
Craven won the Elite Men’s category over 135km in a time of three hours 29 minutes one second, followed by U-23 cyclists Martin Freyer (3:33:21) and Michael Pretorius (3:33:22).
Costa Seibeb came fourth overall and was the second Elite cyclist home in 3:36:01, while Jojo Hamunyela was fifth overall and the third U-23 cyclist in 3:40:08.
Craven, who rides professionally for Team Europcar in Europe, flew in especially to participate in the National Championships and was never troubled as he won in style.
He broke away from the leading peloton midway through the race on the Daan Viljoen hills and gradually increased his lead.
“I only arrived on Saturday from Europe so I was extremely nervous and tired from the travelling and I wasn’t accustomed to the high altitude here,” he said.
“I was very conservative during the first half of the race and at about the halfway stage I almost accidentally got a gap – someone didn’t chase me and I looked back and saw that I had a gap. So I thought I’d stretch my legs and see what happens, knowing that if the guys chased me the bunch would split up, which is exactly what I wanted to happen,” he added.
“Then I just put my head down and just kept going. Then after I got the initial gap the guys behind had to start racing for second place, which slowed them down and brought tactics into the race for them, which allowed me to build up a big gap,” he said.
Craven said the victory was important for him to help make more people aware of Namibia in Europe.
“The race in Namibia, in the bigger scheme of professional cycling unfortunately doesn’t mean much, but I do get to wear the Namibian champion’s jersey for the entire year and that’s the sole reason why I came.
The ability to represent Namibia in every single race that I do, wearing special colours standing out for Namibia, and doing my bit for Namibian tourism and making people aware of Namibia, makes me very excited and I’m really proud to wear the stripes in Europe,” he said.
The Elite Women’s category was hotly contested with the defending champion Vera Adrian just beating Michelle Vorster in a sprint to the line in a time of 2:48:02, while Irene Steyn came third, nine seconds behind.
The Junior Men’s category also saw a close race with Tristan de Lange beating Brandon Plaatjies in a sprint over the line in 2:35:27, with Herbert Peters coming third in 2:43:16.
Horst Neumann won the Sub Veteran Men’s category, followed by Pierre Knoetze and Adriaan Maartens; Tersia van Zyl won the Sub Veteran Women’s category, followed by Maike Bochert and Michaela Ham; Joris Harteveld won the Veteran Men’s category, followed by Louis Peens and Louis du Toit; and Barbara Ackerman won the Veteran Women’s category, followed by Mandy Huyshamen.
On Friday, Gerhard Mans Junior won the Individual Time Trial Championships, finishing 12 seconds ahead of Costa Seibeb, while Martin Freyer came third, a further 14 seconds behind.
Vera Adrian won the Elite Women’s category in 46 minutes 52 seconds, followed by Michelle Vorster (47:56) and Irene Steyn (48:31).
