Miller, Mostert victorious at first XCO MTB race 

Alex Miller and Jean Marie Mostert won the elite men and women’s titles at the first Nedbank XCO MTB race of the season at Farm Windhoek on Saturday. 

Miller was a comfortable winner of the seven-lap men’s race in one hour 25 minutes and six seconds (1:25:06), finishing well ahead of Kevin Louw (1:26:36), while Martin Freyer came third in 1:28:15. 

They were followed by Daniel Hahn (1:30:56), Theuns van der Westhuizen (1:31:46) and Adrian Key (1:32:52). 

Miller, who recently returned to Namibia after competing on the South African MTB circuit for his Toyota Specialized team, said it was nice to be back. 

“It was a good day out in the sun, and it’s nice to be back in Namibia for a bit. I’ve been racing in South Africa for a while so its nice to be back and to see the familiar faces,” he said. 

“It’s nice to kick the series off with a win and Im looking forward to the next few weeks – we’ve got the Nedbank XCO C1 race coming up where we will hopefully see some international riders and then a week later its the Namibian cross country nationals, so I’m looking forward to that,” he added. 

Miller has been in fine form on the SA circuit so far, winning the Attakwas Extreme MTB Race – South Africa’s premier one-day MTB race over the Outeniqua mountains, as well as the four-day stage race, the Tankwa Trek, with his South African partner Matt Beers. He, however, had to withdraw from the Cape Epic after picking up flu during the race. 

“The year has gotten off to a good start, but the trick is trying to keep it on a high – it’s not always possible, but I’m looking forward to it. At the Cape Epic on the third or fourth day I started catching a flu and I knew if I carried on Id just do damage to myself, so unfortunately I had to pull out. Obviously that wasn’t too nice, but sometimes it happens and you just have to make that call,” he said.  

Mostert, meanwhile, dominated the elite women’s race over four laps, winning in 1:02:05, with Mimi Hough coming second in 1:09:53, Ulrike Steidler third in 1:16:38, and Ashanti Auchas fourth in 1:27:56. 

Roger Suren won the junior men category over six laps in 1:13:54, while Delsia Janse van Vuuren won the junior women’s category over four laps in 58:57. 

Micah Chase won the sub-junior boys category over three laps in 40:37, followed by Daniel Hennes (41:11) and York Ahrens (47:10), while Nicole Suren won the sub-junior girls category over two laps in 30:57, followed by Anne Cramer (32:47) and Joadri de Beer (38:18). 

Ananias Tamati won the sub-veteran men’s category over five laps in 1:08:53, followed by Pierre Lambert (1:09:07) and Heinrich Kohne (1:10:48), while Vernon Maresch won the veteran men’s category over five laps in 1:09:14, followed by Philip Steyn (1:10:15) and Marcel Suren (1:11:58). 

Michelle Doman won the sub-veteran women’s category over three laps in 46:10, followed by Nicola Fester (46:18) and Carmen Johannes (48:59), while  Genevieve Weber won the veteran women’s category over three laps in 43:59, followed by Irene Steyn (46:26) and Sonja Obholzer (49:05). 

Anneke Steenkamp won the master women’s category over three laps in 50:36, followed by Elanor Grassow (51:21) and Mandy Huysamen (56:56); Carolin Janik won the grand master category over two laps in 40:14, followed by Berrit Graf (41:04); while Rolf Adrian won the grand master men’s category over three laps in 48:39, followed by Eckhard Waldschmidt (49:14) and Roland Graf (54:08).