Miller, Looser earn hard-fought titles

It took a long, hard sprint finish against Tristan de Lange for Alex Miller to win and retain his Nedbank Namibian national mountain biking marathon championship title on Saturday, after the pair had been neck and neck for all of the 60 kilometres.

The new venue at Farm Otjompaue, a private wildlife reserve east of Windhoek near Matchless, was a hit among riders who had been given access for the first time by the owner – although the hilly route was described as exceptionally tough.

The three laps of 20 kilometres for the elite groups were undoubtedly worthy of a national championship course.

Miller eventually won after two hours, 29 minutes and 46 seconds – barely one second ahead of his fierce rival De Lange.

Ingram Cuff finished the men’s race in third position (2:38:07), ahead of Simon Kaita (2:53:01), after Xavier Papo and Danzel de Loe had also been entered but did not start.

Cat and mouse

“It was an awesome day on the bike. I wasn’t sure what my form would be like, but it was really great having Tristan to race against. I think both of us were not sure how strong we would be, but luckily I managed to win the sprint and retain my title,” Miller, the 2022 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, said. He also praised the organisers and sponsors for putting the race together.

De Lange said both he and Miller came fresh out of a short off-season.

“It was a long day of cat and mouse, testing each other’s strength. In the sprint, there was a second when I thought I had him, but he just had those extra 20 watts at the end to get half a wheel in front of me.

“That’s racing. I had a lot of fun out there and was a good race to finish off what for me was quite a terrible year.”

'Anything can happen'

The 28-year-old Vera Looser also returned from probably her best-ever season in Europe to win the women’s race ahead of Anri Krugel and Courtney Liebenberg.

“It’s a new course so we all didn’t know what to expect. It was nice to have some good riders on the starting line.

“The climbs were quite long and hard and Anri was never too far behind. Anything can happen during a race, so there was no jolling around. I had to push quite hard until the finish, but I’m glad I could bring the title home.”

Looser (two hours , 57 minutes and 23 seconds) was only about half a minute ahead of Krugel (2:57:47), who beat out Liebenberg (3:19:31) and youngster Monique du Plessis (3:27:19). Du Plessis managed to finish in front of Nicola Fester and Melissa Hinz.