Miller shines at XC1 MTB race

Alex Miller and South Africa’s Candice Lill were crowned the elite men and women’s champions at the Nedbank XC1 MTB race at Farm Windhoek on Saturday. 

With the event forming part of the international UCI calendar with international ranking points up for grabs, a strong field was in action including some of South Africa’s top riders. 

In the elite men’s race Miller came up against the South African champion Philip Buys, but the Namibian immediately stamped his authority on the race when he broke away at the start and gradually pulled away from Buys and the South African u23 champion Johan van Zyl. 

After three laps Miller was already 40 seconds ahead of Buys and he continued to pull away further to eventually finish more than a minute and a half ahead.

Miller completed the seven-lap race in a time of one hour 31 minutes 42 seconds, while Buys came second in 1:33:15, and Van Zyl third in 1:33:51. 

Hugo Hahn was the second Namibian home, finishing fourth overall in 1:34,35, while another South African Luke Moir came fifth in 1:35,02. 

After the race Miller said the competition was tough. 

“Having Phil up here and all the other South Africans didn’t make it easy, so I had to put in a fast first lap and managed to do that and then I just kept the pace from there and slowly extended the lead,” he said. 

“I was riding on my home course so I had a bit of an advantage, but it wasn’t an easy ride and I’m happy to have pulled it off,” he added. 

“Seeing that it was a class one event, there were 60 UCI points available, so that’s a lot of points and very valuable for overall rankings and I hope it will pay off when I go and do some races in Europe later this year,” he said. 

Buys said he struggled with the altitude. 

“It was definitely tougher for me than it was for Alex. I raced here before when I competed at the continental champs, and I struggled quite a bit on this course. It’s not necessarily the route, but the air is quite dry and Alex had me on the first lap already, so for me it was just about settling into my own pace and just surviving out there. But it’s a lot of UCI points, so I’m happy with it and it has been a nice trip to Namibia,” he said. 

Miller and Buys earlier teamed up at the Cape Epic a month ago where they competed against the world’s top riders, finishing eighth overall and winning the prize for the first African team. Buys said it was a great experience. 

“It was a big goal for us quite early in the season, it was about five weeks ago so after the Cape Epic for me it was all about recovery and finding motivation to get going again. It takes quite a while to recover from that race, but I think we are well recovered now and it gives us quite a good base for the rest of the season,” he said. 

Lill, meanwhile, comfortable won the elite women’s race, finishing just over two minutes ahead of her compatriot Tyler Jacobs. 

Lill, who earlier this month won the South African Championships, completed the five-lap race in 1:15,21, with Jacobs second in 1:17,22 and Namibian champion Monique du Plessis third in 1:23,51. 

Massimiliano Ambrosi of South Africa won the u18 men’s category over five laps in 1:06,36, with Namibia’s Daniel Hahn second in 1:06,44 and Erni Roets of South Africa third in 1:09,16. 

Ada Kahl of Namibia won the junior women’s race over four laps in 1:14,19, followed by Eden Spangenberg of Namibia in 1:24,30.

The complete results are attached.