JORIS Harteveld won the Namibian National Cycling Championship in Windhoek on Sunday after an exciting sprint finish.
Harteveld won the 156-km race in four hours, 26 minutes and 28 seconds, after managing to keep up with the leading pack that included Ingram Cuff and Victor Krohner, who ended second and third respectively. The 41-year-old, who rides for Windhoek Pedal Power, was very excited about winning the race because of all the preparation he put into it.’The race was very hard, I prepared myself very well for the race and as a result in the end I still had some energy to sprint for the first place,’ Harteveld said.’It feels fantastic, I am actually a little bit older than the normal elite cyclist. I trained very hard for the race, and I enjoyed it,’ Harteveld added at the end of the race.African mountain bike champion Heletje van Staden was the winner of the women’s race. She finished the race in three hours, 23 minutes and 11 seconds over 98 km. She managed to beat last year’s winner Carmen Bassingthweighte who finished second ten minutes later. Charmaine Shannon was third.’It was a very difficult race. I rode alone for about 80 km because the others dropped off in the first 20 km. That was very tough to ride by myself,’ Van Staden said.The championships served as a final selection event for the African Championships due to take place in Rwanda in November and the Junior World Championships due to be held in Offida, Italy, from August 5 to 8. Till Drobisch won the Junior Men’s event with a time of four hours, one minute and 59 seconds over a distance of 138 km, after beating out Mathias Kreft and José Barth who were second and third respectively.Drobisch was also the winner in the time trial event that took place on Saturday morning. ‘I misjudged the race earlier on and went too fast, as a result it was very painful in the end,’ Drobisch said.Vera Adrian was the winner of the junior women’s event and also won the time trial. Michaela Milz was second in both events. Adrian finished the 78-km race in three hours, 14 minutes and one second’It’s a great honour to win, I will have a whole month to prepare for the world championship. I will also ride in the Eric van Enter tour as part of my preparation,’ Adrian said.Louis du Pisani, the President of the Namibian Cycling Federation was pleased with the weekend racing.’I am very pleased with happened here this weekend. Everything played out the way we expected,’ Du Pisani said.’The turnout wasn’t great but we expected that because this is the time cyclists in the southern hemisphere would normally take a break. We also decide to have it now so that our cyclists would be in better shape for the African Championships and the World Championships,’ Du Pisani added.’We also deliberately increased the distances to make sure that the managed to make sure that the cyclists will not be overwhelmed at the international events,’ he added.In the time trial, Jacques Celliers was first after he finished the 40-km distance in 57 minutes and 59 seconds. Harteveld was second, clocking in a time of 58 minutes and 59 seconds. Echardt Brand was third in 1 hour, 17 minutes and 45 seconds. In the women’s section Charmaine Shannon came first with a time of 37 minutes and 56 seconds over 20 km. in second place was Hayley Brand who had a time of 39 minutes and 56 seconds and Odette van der Westhuizen was third with a time of 44 minutes and 35 minutes.- namibiasport.com.na
