Namibia: Wright Wins West Coast MTB Challenge

By Helge Schütz

CAMERON Wright of Australia won the West Coast Mountain Bike Challenge which took place outside Swakopmund on Saturday.

Wright completed the 75km race in two hours 39 minutes 58 seconds, to finish 16 seconds ahead of the first veteran rider, Ingram Cuff, while Gerhard Mans, who won the sub veteran category, came third overall in 2:40:44.

It was an impressive ride by the three cyclists, who all took a wrong turn early on and had to fight their way back to the front, as Wright explained afterwards.

"We took a wrong turn after about 20km, so we had to chase back and just consolidated and recovered. Then a few of us broke away for about 40km together and it was only over the last 5km that I started turning it on," he said.

"There were a few little climbs and I just put on the power and got my gap and just gunned it to the finish," he added.

Cuff said the conditions were nice although the sand was a bit thick.

"It's always nice coming here from Windhoek to the coast to do the race - the route is familiar and the tracks are nice although the sand was a bit thick," he said.

"The three of us worked well together, but over the last couple of kilometres, Cameron just got away from on a bit of a bumpy downhill," he added.

Mans said they lost time due to a wrong turn.

"It was fast from the start but unfortunately we took a wrong turn somewhere and lost a bit of time. So we had to regroup just to get back to the front and at some stages the wind was also head-on, so this last bit was just empty," he said.

The Elite Women's category over 75km, meanwhile, saw an exciting finish, with Candice Wiggill winning the gold medal in 3:05:53, while Courtney Liebenberg followed two seconds behind, and Irene Steyn came third in 3:16:53.

The various category winners were as follows:

Elite Men: 1. Cameron Wright (2:39:58), 2. Danzel de Koe (2:44:57), 3. Brandon Plaatjies (2:44:57).

Sub-veteran men: 1. Gerhard Mans (2:40:44), 2. Andre Vermeulen (2:44:46), 3. Jurgen Sander (2:46:22).

Veteran men: 1. Ingram Cuff (2:40:14), Philip Steyn (2:57:00), 3. Ian Grassow (2:57:02).

Master men: 1. Tobie Gerber (2:58:43), 2. Hans du Toit (3:01:17), 3. Klaus Frielingsdorf (3:04:36).

Grand master men: 1. Gerhard Mans (3:07:11), 2. Peter Sander (3:37:49), 3. Roland Graf (3:42:17).

Rhino men: 1. Morne Honiball (2:59:49), 2. Fana Lambert (3:16:32), 3. Jan Nel (3:25:49).

Elite women: 1. Candice Wiggill (3:05:53), 2. Courtney Liebenberg (3:05:55), 3. Irene Steyn (3:16:53).

Sub veteran women: 1. Jean Marie Mostert (3:22:35), 2. Michelle Doman (3:26:05), 3. Belinda van Rhyn (3:34:48).

Veteran women: 1. Jeanne Heunis (3:02:23, 2. Nina Holtrup (3:18:40), 3. Elanor Grassow (3:18:40).

Master women: 1. Annemarie Roets (3:33:18), 2. Wilmien Chaimberlain (3:43:59), 3. Monika Grossmann (3:44:28).

Grand master women: 1. Debbie Baillie (4:04:30), 2. Karin Brockmann (4:27:16).

There were also various races over 35km, 20km and 10km as well as 5km and 15km runs.

This article originally appeared on Namibian

Photo: Namibian