Pritzen pips Mans to post

KAI Pritzen was a surprise winner of the Virtual Cycling Tour for All series when he pipped Gerhard Mans Junior by a point to the title.

The Tour for All, which forms part of the virtual online Zwift Namibian league, came to an end last week, with Pritzen just catching Mans after completing two catch-up races. Mans held the early lead in the five-race series, but cyclists who didn’t initially compete were allowed to do catch-up races and with Pritzen still having two races in hand, he finished third in both, to pip Mans by a point to the title.

Pritzen was the overall winner with 207 points, while Mans came second on 206 and Drikus Coetzee third on 174.

Pritzen’s victory was all the more surprising since he had initially not even considered to compete till the end.

Ï went to the coast last week and was planning to take it easy, but when I read about the series in The Namibian I thought it would be good for my confidence if I go all out and challenge for the title,” he said on Wednesday.

“I did two catch-up races within three days, but there were only four participants from Namibia, so it was very tough. The cyclists didn’t work together and we couldn’t benefit from slip-streaming and it was basically like riding an individual time trial. But I came third in both races and managed to beat Gerhard by a point,” he added.

The series was keenly contested with even the third-placed Drikus Coetzee also in with a chance to win the title. He’, however, didn’t complete all his catch-up races and eventually finished third on 174 points. Of the five races, Pritzen won two, Coetzee two and Mans one.

“The three of us weighed up very evenly, the competition was very strong, and the series went down to the wire. So I was quite surprised to win and it has given me a lot of confidence and now I’m really excited about the upcoming season,” Pritzen said.

“I think the Zwift series has definitely got a future, especially because the racing is much safer – you are riding in your living room and you don’t have to worry about the traffic,” he added.

Class B for men was also keenly contested with up to five cyclists still in the running before the final race. Allan Viviers eventually won the title with 175 points, followed by Braam Vermeulen with 166 and Sarel Boshoff with 128. Vermeulen, however, had the most stage wins with two out of five, but he only completed four races, thereby missing out on the top spot.

Nicolaas Hoeksema won Class C with three stage wins and 224 points; Kevin Fisch came second with two stage wins and 207 points; and Dirk Coetzee came third with 170 points.

Jandre Engelbrecht won Class D with four stage wins and 241 points, while Dirk Louw came second with one stage win and 214 points.

Amongst the women, there were only two competitors in Class B, with Adele de la Rey winning with 91 points, while Melissa Hinz came second on 50.

Patricia Hoeksema dominated Class C with four stage wins and a total of 241 points, while Silke Bean, who only completed one race that she won, came second on 50 points.

Marguerita Maritz won Class D with three stage wins and 241 points, followed by Monique du Plessis with one win and 132 points, and Erna Opperman on 107 points.

Sarel Boshoff, who organised the Namibian Zwift series said he was already working on a new series which will start next month.

“The series went well and all the classes were keenly contested. I’m now busy preparing a winter league for July and the chances are good that I’ll get a sponsor, which will help grow the sport,” he said.

Virtual racing, which requires cyclists to compete at home on their trainers, linked to a virtual race on their computers, is still quite a new concept for Namibian cyclists. Only about 50 Namibian cyclists competed in the Zwift Tour for All series, but Boshoff said he was positive that it will grow.

“I think there’s a need for it and it will definitely grow. A lot of cyclists prefer to compete from the privacy of their homes and more coaches are now recommending that their cyclists use Zwift cycling as part of their training programmes. It will help a lot if we can get more of Namibia’s top cyclists to join, but I think some of them are not too keen to reveal their results online,” he said.

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