Roger Suren and Anri Greeff were the overall winners of the first race in the Hollard Gravel & Dirt series, the Vegas MTB Challenge on Saturday.
Suren, who is still a junior cyclist, was a comfortable winner of the men’s 60km marathon at Little Las Vegas farm about 20km outside Windhoek on the Otjihase Mine road.
Suren won the marathon in 2 hours 3 minutes and 39 seconds, beating another junior cyclist Marco Thiel by 22 seconds to the line, while Justus Beulker came third, a further 28 seconds behind after beating Brandon Plaatjies in a sprint to the line.
The junior rider Theuns van der Westhuizen came fifth in 2:07:49, while Drikus Coetzee came sixth in 2:09:32.
The defending women’s champion Anri Greeff was a comfortable winner of the elite womens race, beating the junior rider Rosemarie Thiel and Melissa Hinz by nine minutes to the line.
Greeff completed the 64km marathon in 2:26:24, with Thiel coming second in 2:35:23, after beating Hinz in a sprint to the line.
Louis Breed came fourth in 2:39:26 and Hester Prins fifth in 2:40:44.
Beulker and Greeff won the men and women’s elite categories; Suren and Thiel won the junior men and women’s categories; Stefan Bohlke and Karin Brockmann won the men and women’s grand master categories; Greg Chase and Elanor Grassow won the men and women’s master categories; Marc Bassingthwaighte and Melissa Hinz won the men and women’s veteran categories; Drikus Coetzee and Michelle Doman won the men and women’s sub veteran categories; Michael Lowe and Claudia Suren won the men and women’s Ebike categories; and Hans Hashagen won the Rhino men’s category.
In the 30km half marathon race, Simon Johannes won the elite men’s race in 1:10:00, followed by Franco Thiel in 1:10:53 and Andre Cornelissen in 1:11:35.
Ulande Viljoen was a comfortable winner of the elite women’s race in a time of 1:21:48, with Silke Bean coming second in 1:28:25 and Ulrike Steidler third in 1:28:46.
Theodor Janse van Vuuren and Nicole Suren won the junior men and women’s half marathon races, while Mark Stehle and Lionie Meyer won the men and women’s half marathon Ebike categories.
The Vegas MTB Challenge saw a fine turnout of close to 200 cyclists.
The Gravel & Dirt series consists of six races and is being sponsored by Hollard Namibia with total prize money amounting to N$100 000.
The next race in the series is the Friedenau Gravel Challenge close to Matchless Mine on 10 May.
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