Looser leads impressive performances in SA

Vera Looser excelled to come fourth in the elite women’s category of the Ride Joburg competition on Sunday, despite suffering a heavy bout of flu.

Kim le Court of Mauritius, who three months ago made history when she became the first African to win a stage at the women’s Tour de France, won the race over 97km in 2:37:26, followed by Lucy Young of South Africa in 2:38:44 and Magda Nieuwoudt of South Africa in 2:39:08.

Looser, meanwhile, gave a great performance to finish fourth in 2:40:37, despite not being in peak condition.

“Ride Joburg keeps proving to be such a special race. I put a lot of energy and thought into this year’s edition, and everything was looking great, until I landed in bed on Wednesday and didn’t leave it for the next three days,” she says on Facebook.

“I felt slightly better on Saturday and decided to give the race a go. Unfortunately, I woke up this morning feeling quite bad again, but I figured I’d start hard and see how it went. I expected to get dropped once the climbs started in such a strong field this year. So I attacked, had some fun, and – as expected – got dropped on the first climb. I was totally fine with that,” she says.

Despite her condition, Looser remained among the leaders.

“Somehow, I kept coming back to the front group. It felt like very few riders were really willing to invest into the race today. At the end, I surprised myself with a sneaky long sprint and crossed the line in fourth place.

“I’ll happily take that, considering I almost pulled out halfway through,” she says.

Looser, however, says she had mixed emotions after the race.

“Once again, I leave this race with a mix of frustration and fire. Not frustration about how I raced, but about how the race was raced. Still, the thrill and adrenaline reminded me why I love it so much. I just wish there were more women willing to really go all in,” she says.

Anri Greeff also put in an impressive performance in the same category, coming 12th in 2:41:16, nearly four minutes behind Le Court.

Ride Joburg is an annual cycling road race over 97km or 35km in Johannesburg that draws thousands of cyclists and various age group categories.

In the boys u17 97km category, Mike Baartman impressed to finish fourth overall in 2:35:25, finishing just a second behind the winner Henko Lombaard of SA, while compatriot Quintin Knoetze came second in the same time, and another South African, Tristan McGiven third in 2:35:24. Namibia’s Theo Janse van Vuuren came 13th in the same category in 2:41:13.

In the boys u19 97km category, Namibia’s Marco Thiel came 2:16:55, finishing 5:21 behind the winner Gustav Roller of SA.

NAMIBIANS AMONG LEADERS AT GRAVEL BURN

Meanwhile, several other Namibian cyclists are excelling at the inaugural Nedbank Gravel Burn, a seven-day 800km stage race which is currently taking place in the Great Karoo.

After the third stage was completed yesterday, Melissa Hinz and Drikus Coetzee had both built up impressive leads in their categories.

Hinz is leading the women’s 40 to 44-year-old age group with a time of 12:08:25, more than 15 minutes ahead of Anneke Lund of South Africa (12:24:03), while Janine Muller of SA is third in 12:33:19.

Coetzee led the men’s 19-34 year category in a total time of nine hours, 49 minutes and 12 seconds, more than a minute ahead of Verster Venter of South Africa (10:48:30), while Simon Stofberg is third (11:25:17).

Ingram Cuff is lying second in the men’s 40 to 44-year-old age group in 9:59:30, about three and a half minutes behind South Africa’s Erik Kleinhans (9:55:58), while Frank Snyman is lying third in the men’s 60 to 64-year-old category in 11:54:32. Mario Kummer of Germany leads the category in 11:34:14, while Stewart Goodman is second in 11:51:29.

Martin Freyer and Alex Miller are showing progress in the professional men’s category.

After finishing the first stage in 24th and 25th positions, 17:14 behind the leader Matthew Beers of South Africa, they have moved up to 17th and 19th overall with Freyer now 33:36 behind Beers and Miller 36:09 behind Beers.

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