The most lucrative cycling series in Namibia, the Hollard Grand Prix, concludes with the Hollard Hearts Cycling Festival on Sunday, with N$770 000 in total prize money on the line.
Sunday’s event forms the final leg of the Grand Prix series that was launched this year and consists of five races over six months, incorporating MTB, gravel and road race events.
The series started with the Moon Landscape MTB race outside Swakop on 4 April, followed by the Friedenau MTB race a month later.
The first gravel bike race took place at Na/aankusê on 25 July, while the Khomas100 gravel bike race, that also served as the African Gravel Championships, was held from Windhoek to Gross Barmen on 22 August.
The series will now conclude with the Hollard Hearts Cycling Festival road race where several cyclists are in with a chance of winning up to N$277 000.
There will be individual prizes for Sunday’s race with the elite men and women each receiving N$25 000, while the overall series winners will receive N$250 000 each. Besides that, King of the Mountain spots worth N$2 000 are also up for grabs.
The 18-year-old junior cyclist Marco Thiel is currently in pole position to win the men’s prize with a healthy lead over Martin Freyer and Ingram Cuff.
Thiel built up an early lead after winning the first two races at the Moon Landscape and Friedenau and leads the series with 65 points, followed by Freyer on 43 and Cuff on 42 points.
With the points allocation on Sunday counting double, the top three riders will receive 50, 36 and 30 points respectively, with the result that the grand prix race is still wide open.
The elite women’s race is also still open although Anri Greeff holds a firm advantage with a 21-point lead over Vera Looser.
Looser won the first race at the Moon Landscape with Greeff second, but Greeff won the title at Friedenau with the South African rider Catherine Kruger coming second.
Kruger won the Na/aankusê gravel race, with Greeff coming second and Looser third, while Hayley Preen of South Africa won the Khomas100, with Looser beating Greeff in a sprint to finish second.
Greeff now leads the series race on 81 points, followed by Looser on 60, Kruger (56), Rosemarie Thiel (45) and Belinda van Rhyn (38).
Sunday’s Hollard Hearts Cycling Festival will also cater for social riders with various categories and activities being staged to make it a fun festival according to event organiser Johan Pretorius.
“We want to stage a cycling festival for young and old where the emphasis is on participation, social cohesion and fun. There will be lots of prizes, also with categories for the best dressed riders, while cyclists can nominate their favourite charities to donate some of the prizes,” he said, adding that they expect between 350 and 400 entries.
Sunday’s race will include distances of 100km, 72km and 32km with the 100km riders starting at 06h30 in front of the Hage Geingob National Rugby Stadium in Olympia.
The route will take the cyclists out on the Hage Geingob Freeway towards the Hosea Kutako International Airport and back, before once again finishing at the rugby stadium.
There will also be several other events for young cyclists and social activities at the adjacent FNB Namibia Cricket Ground.
