Suren, Greeff – Namibia’s cycling champions 

Roger Suren and Anri Greeff were crowned Namibia’s road cycling champions after winning the Nedbank National Road Cycling Championships outside Windhoek yesterday.

Suren (19) beat the defending champion, Alex Miller, in a sprint to the line to win the 165km elite men’s race in four hours and two seconds, while Martin Freyer beat Theuns van der Westhuizen to the bronze medal, coming in 40 seconds behind the leaders.

Suren officially won the men’s u23 title, while Miller won the elite men’s category, but Suren gets the national championship title and the national jersey, which he may wear for the next year.

Riding in overcast and rainy conditions on the Dr Hage Geingob Highway and the Dordabis Road, Suren, Miller, Freyer and Van der Westhuizen, as well as Tristan de Lange broke away from the pack on the Dordabis road and gradually opened up a gap on the chasing peleton.

Back on the Dr Hage Geingob Highway, Suren and Miller dropped the other three, and Suren went on to take the title, just pipping Miller to the line.

This was the latest accolade for Suren, who last year made history by winning Namibia’s first-ever medal at the UCI MTB World Championships, while he recently also returned from a stint in Europe where he hopes to ride professionally.

“I think it’s the longest road race I’ve done. It wasn’t too much climbing, so the speed was quite high. We did about four hours in total. In the beginning, the legs were not 100%, but at the end I felt really good.

“I knew I just had to hang on, because I knew I had a good sprint.

“I was also very lucky with the wind, because it came from the front on the way back, and it was a bit difficult to attack. Alex hurt me a few times on the way back, but I managed to stick with him till the end,” he says.

“I still need to think about it [the title] a bit,” he says.

Miller says it was a tough race.

“It was one of the hardest Namibian road races in the sense that we were a strong group that formed fairly early on, and there was no sitting around and just looking at each other, which I feel in some Namibian road races is the case, especially in some of the club races where there are only one or two dominant teams,” he says.

“It can be quite boring and not so good for the development of the sport, so it was good to have a road race where all of us worked hard, and at the end of the day the strongest guy won . . .

“I’m a bit disappointed, but Roger is an upcoming talent and I think he has a very exciting year or two ahead of him,” he says.

GREEFF DOES THE DOUBLE AGAIN

Greeff dominated the women’s race from the start, breaking away after about 25km and then building up a big lead to eventually finish close to five minutes ahead of u23 rider Delsia Janse van Vuuren, while Belinda van Rhyn came third.

Greeff completed the 114km race in 3:09:21, with Janse van Vuuren second in 3:14:13 and Van Rhyn third in 3:17:06.

After the race she said the weather was slightly challenging.

“The rain was definitely unexpected — I don’t think us Namibians do very well in the rain and the cold, but it was a good race and not too hot.

“I managed to get away quite early in the race, kind of by accident, because I made a few attacks in the beginning, which they followed.

“After that I managed to get a break which I managed to keep till the end,” she said.

On Friday, Greeff also won the individual time trial title, while it was the second year in a row that she had won the double.

“I’m very happy to keep the title. It’s always good to do it two years in a row,” she said.

Freyer won the elite men’s individual time trial on Friday.

Marco Thiel won the junior men’s road race over 114km in 2:57:05, beating Christiaan van der Westhuizen in a sprint to the line, while Sean Lowe came third in 2:57:29.

Marco’s sister, Rosemarie Thiel, won the junior women’s race over 80km in 2:26:28, while Bianca Nell came second in 3:05:22.

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