Tour de Windhoek yellow jersey winners Vera Looser and South African rider Rickardo Broxham on Friday morning won stage one of the Tour after impressive sprints.

Stage one of the tour saw male riders covering 109 kilometres of the Dordabis route while their female counterparts did 80km of that route.

Looser who is ridding for Mannie’s Bike Mecca (MBM) female team beat her competitors Melissa Hinz and Anri Krugel riding for Food Lover’s Market (FLM) on the sprint. Hinz and Krugel finished four seconds behind her.

Looser crossed the line with a time of two hours, 30 minutes and 14 seconds (02:30:14) while Hinz and Krugel came second and third in a photo finish of 02:30:18.

Courtney Liebenberg riding for MBM came fourth with a time of 02:30:25 while Michelle Doman riding for FLM took the fifth position with a time of 02:30:54.

In the men’s division, Broxham riding for Honeycomb Pro Cycling continued with his dominance after beating fellow South African, Tristan Cuthbert riding for TEG Procycling Team and Broxham teammate Marc Pritzen who was third.

Dutch rider Daniel Abraham riding for MBM was also in that photo finish in fourth place.

Broxham completed the 109km ride in a time of 02:38:26 while Cuthbert was just a second behind with a time of 02:38:27 and Pritzen with a time of 02:38:28 and the Dutch Paralympian rider three seconds away from the leader with a time of 02:28:29.

Brandon Downes, a rider for TEG Procycling Team locked out the top five positions with a time of 02:38:30.

Namibian riders Alex Miller and Drikus Coetzee were a minute and 25 seconds behind the leading team in sixth and seventh position respectively.

In the team classification, Honeycomb Pro Cycling extended their lead at the top with four seconds from their South African counterparts TEG Pro Cycling Team. They now lead the team ranking by 07:56:51 while TEG Procycling is on 07:56:55. Namibian team Simonis Storm p/b Hollard are third with a time of 07:59:51 followed by NCCS who are fourth with a time of 07:59:55.

Megatech Elite are fifth in a time of 07:59:56.

FLM Ladies also extended their lead in the women classification with a time of five minutes and 29 seconds. They lead the classification with a time of 07:31:29 followed by MBM Ladies with 07:36:58 and Cymot Racing Team Ladies in a time of 07:44:43 while Hollard Ladies are fourth with a time of 07:49:00 and PSG/Cycletec Ladies Team fifth in a time of 08:08:39.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency