Looser excels at Cape Epic 

Namibia’s top women’s cyclist, Vera Looser, once again excelled when she came second overall at the Absa Cape Epic on Sunday.

After eight gruelling days and just over 600km of racing, Looser and her American partner Alexis Skarda came second overall in a time of 29 hours 24 minutes and 42 seconds, which was 21 minutes and 32 seconds behind the winners Annika Langvad of Denmark and Sofia Gomez Villafañe of Argentina.

Langvad made history in the process by winning the Cape Epic a record sixth time.

South Africa’s s Hayley Preen and Bianca Haw came third overall, 38 minutes and 7 seconds behind the winners.

Nino Schurter and Filippo Colombo of Switzerland won the men’s race in 23 hours 12 minutes and 39 seconds, with Luca Braidot and Simone Avondetto of Italy coming second, only 1 minute 31 seconds behind, while South Africa’s Marco Joubert and Tristan Nortje came third, 12 minutes 58 seconds behind.

It was the second time that Looser had finished on the podium after winning the race with Kim Le Court of Mauritius in 2023.

Looser yesterday said she teamed up well with Skarda.

“It’s been a good week and Alexis and I rode super well together. We got to know each other last year in the race and we went through some tough times last year, but this year we could just pull it all together and have a solid week with no real bad days which was super cool,” she said.

“It was a really cool week, we had a nice small team and we worked well together and I think if you have a good time off the bike then it also reflects in the racing,” she said.

Looser said the competition was getting tougher each year.

“It’s cool to see how the competition in women’s racing is picking up – seven women’s teams were on the podium this year which has never happened before.

“There were just so many international riders this year and some of the podiums were all from different nations from four different continents so it just shows how the women’s racing is becoming more competitive,” she said.

“It’s definitely not getting easier to win this race, but we are already having ideas for next year so we hope we can come back for that,” she said.