Young riders hopeful of making Youth Olympics cut
Road cycling
Following the UCI road cycling world championship in Kigali, Rwanda, Namibia and other nations will be eagerly awaiting the decisions regarding the qualification criteria for next year’s Youth Olympic Games in Dakar.
Qualifying for the first Youth Olympics on the African continent has been a stated goal of the Namibian time last week, and despite numerous enquirires from the participating teams no official statement has been made regarding the qualification criteria for the Games in Senegal next year.
In Friday’s junior men’s 119 km road race, Roger Surén finished in 44th position. Out of 141 riders from 71 nations at the starting line, only 66 finished the race which was held on a sunny day at 24 degrees Celsius.
Coach Hans du Toit is very happy with Surén’s performance, who was well-positioned until the fifth of seven laps. Two weeks earlier, Surén won the silver medal at the UCI cross-country mountain biking world championship in Switzerland.
“The fact that we were focused on the cross-country, which is a very different sport, and the amount of travelling we did recently would have had an impact,” Du Toit says.
“We came here striving to qualify for the Youth Olympics in Senegal next year. Among the African countries, only South Africa and Eritrea were ahead of us, so we can’t really complain and we’ll hope for the best.
“The last time we competed with any juniors at the UCI road cycling world championship was 2017, with two male riders who did not finish the course.
Du Toit said he feels sorry for Marco Thiel, who worked hard to be there, but fell during a crash in lap two.
“Marco was well-placed in the race and feeling well, but unfortunately in road cycling things can go wrong pretty quickly. Luckily the injuries could have been worse than the scrapes he picked up.”
“Roger and Marco are on the level to compete among the national champions of the nations here, but they still lack some experience of riding in such really big groups of 70-80 really strong riders.
Junior men’s road race, leading results:
1 Harry Hudson (Great Britain) 2:55:19 +0
2 Johan Blanc (France) 2:55:35 / +16
3 Jan Jackowiak (Poland) 2:55:35 / +16
35 Josh Johnson (RSA) 3:00:17 / +4:58
44 Roger Surén (NAM) 3:05:48 / +10:29
47 Keven Teklemariam (Eritrea) 3:06:22 / +11:03
Junior women
Namibia’s Delsia Janse van Vuuren completed the junior women’s road race of 74 kilometres in 57th position at the UCI Road Cycling World Championship in Kigali on Saturday.
Out of a strong field of 70 riders from 34 nations, Janse van Vuuren rode a long distance on her own and fought hard to finish the highly challenging course, instead of being withdrawn from the race.
Rwanda (two riders) and Ethiopia were the only two African nations to finish ahead of her. Both South Africa’s entries, Errin Mackridge and Megan Botha, did not finish; neither did Nigeria, Burundi, Benin, Kenya or Lesotho.
Namibia’s Rosemarie Thiel experienced issues with her bicycle chain and due to time lost she was withdrawn and did not finish the race. It was expected that the relative inexperience of handling a big bunch would require a big step up for both of the Namibians.
Janse van Vuuren commented afterwards: “Wowww, what a race! This was absolutely brutal. I definitely left it ALL out there today!
“First lap was so hard to try and stay in the front of the bunch, because these people just push their way through. I made the first climb and at the start of the cobble climb, the bunch just faded and the pace was a little bit too quick and I dropped...
“I then just focused to keep a consistent pace to try and manage the gap to the front. I then got on the back of a French rider\'s wheel, but dropped her on the first climb of the second lap and from there on it was a solo mission.
“I also cramped in the start of the fourth lap which was SOOO not nice, but luckily the team car could help me with some electrolytes to help with cramping.
“From there on it was literally just to push as hard as I physically can to cross that finish line to go into my last lap and when I did that, I had one goal and that was the finish line.”
Junior women’s road race, leading results:
1 Paula Ostiz Taco (ESP) 2:09:19
2 Chantal Pegolo (ITA) same time
3 Anja Grossmann (SUI) same time
4 Sidney Swierenga (CAN) same time
48 Yvonne Masengesho (RWA) 2:21:39 / +12:20
49 Liliane Uwiringiyimana (RWA) same time
51 Rahel Gimbato (ETH) 2:25:55 / +16:36
57 Delsia Janse van Vuuren (NAM) 2:33:39 / +24:20
• Du Toit again expressed appreciation to the Namibian Cycling Federation and Windhoek Pedal Power for contributing to make their trip possible.
Qualifying for the first Youth Olympics on the African continent has been a stated goal of the Namibian time last week, and despite numerous enquirires from the participating teams no official statement has been made regarding the qualification criteria for the Games in Senegal next year.
In Friday’s junior men’s 119 km road race, Roger Surén finished in 44th position. Out of 141 riders from 71 nations at the starting line, only 66 finished the race which was held on a sunny day at 24 degrees Celsius.
Coach Hans du Toit is very happy with Surén’s performance, who was well-positioned until the fifth of seven laps. Two weeks earlier, Surén won the silver medal at the UCI cross-country mountain biking world championship in Switzerland.
“The fact that we were focused on the cross-country, which is a very different sport, and the amount of travelling we did recently would have had an impact,” Du Toit says.
“We came here striving to qualify for the Youth Olympics in Senegal next year. Among the African countries, only South Africa and Eritrea were ahead of us, so we can’t really complain and we’ll hope for the best.
“The last time we competed with any juniors at the UCI road cycling world championship was 2017, with two male riders who did not finish the course.
Du Toit said he feels sorry for Marco Thiel, who worked hard to be there, but fell during a crash in lap two.
“Marco was well-placed in the race and feeling well, but unfortunately in road cycling things can go wrong pretty quickly. Luckily the injuries could have been worse than the scrapes he picked up.”
“Roger and Marco are on the level to compete among the national champions of the nations here, but they still lack some experience of riding in such really big groups of 70-80 really strong riders.
Junior men’s road race, leading results:
1 Harry Hudson (Great Britain) 2:55:19 +0
2 Johan Blanc (France) 2:55:35 / +16
3 Jan Jackowiak (Poland) 2:55:35 / +16
35 Josh Johnson (RSA) 3:00:17 / +4:58
44 Roger Surén (NAM) 3:05:48 / +10:29
47 Keven Teklemariam (Eritrea) 3:06:22 / +11:03
Junior women
Namibia’s Delsia Janse van Vuuren completed the junior women’s road race of 74 kilometres in 57th position at the UCI Road Cycling World Championship in Kigali on Saturday.
Out of a strong field of 70 riders from 34 nations, Janse van Vuuren rode a long distance on her own and fought hard to finish the highly challenging course, instead of being withdrawn from the race.
Rwanda (two riders) and Ethiopia were the only two African nations to finish ahead of her. Both South Africa’s entries, Errin Mackridge and Megan Botha, did not finish; neither did Nigeria, Burundi, Benin, Kenya or Lesotho.
Namibia’s Rosemarie Thiel experienced issues with her bicycle chain and due to time lost she was withdrawn and did not finish the race. It was expected that the relative inexperience of handling a big bunch would require a big step up for both of the Namibians.
Janse van Vuuren commented afterwards: “Wowww, what a race! This was absolutely brutal. I definitely left it ALL out there today!
“First lap was so hard to try and stay in the front of the bunch, because these people just push their way through. I made the first climb and at the start of the cobble climb, the bunch just faded and the pace was a little bit too quick and I dropped...
“I then just focused to keep a consistent pace to try and manage the gap to the front. I then got on the back of a French rider\'s wheel, but dropped her on the first climb of the second lap and from there on it was a solo mission.
“I also cramped in the start of the fourth lap which was SOOO not nice, but luckily the team car could help me with some electrolytes to help with cramping.
“From there on it was literally just to push as hard as I physically can to cross that finish line to go into my last lap and when I did that, I had one goal and that was the finish line.”
Junior women’s road race, leading results:
1 Paula Ostiz Taco (ESP) 2:09:19
2 Chantal Pegolo (ITA) same time
3 Anja Grossmann (SUI) same time
4 Sidney Swierenga (CAN) same time
48 Yvonne Masengesho (RWA) 2:21:39 / +12:20
49 Liliane Uwiringiyimana (RWA) same time
51 Rahel Gimbato (ETH) 2:25:55 / +16:36
57 Delsia Janse van Vuuren (NAM) 2:33:39 / +24:20
• Du Toit again expressed appreciation to the Namibian Cycling Federation and Windhoek Pedal Power for contributing to make their trip possible.
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