Namibia’s national female champion Vera Looser and Namibian-born South African rider Marc Pritzen were on Sunday crowned champions of the Pupkewitz Tour de Windhoek after the completion of Stage 5 of the tour.

The last stage of the tour was held in the Von Bach Dam area at Okahandja.

Looser, riding for Mannie’s Bike Mecca (MBM) Ladies and Pritzen, riding for South African team Honeycomb Pro Cycling, held onto the yellow jerseys they won after the completion of Stage 3 Saturday morning.

The last race of the tour saw Anri Krugel riding for Food Lover’s Market (FLM) getting the better of Looser in the sprint to finish first, while Looser took the second position and her teammate Courtney Liebenberg was third. Melissa Hinz riding for FLM took the fourth position.

All three riders crossed the finish line with a time of one hour, 41 minutes and 37 seconds (01:41:37) after 53 kilometres of riding.

With such results, the female general classification saw Looser retaining the yellow jersey she has won since the beginning of the tour. Her teammate Liebenberg was second and Hinz was third.

Meanwhile in the men’s classification, South African riders dominated the podium positions, with Pritzen taking the first position and Brandon Downes riding for TEG Procycling Team second. Pritzen’s teammate Travis Barrett was third.

On Sunday, however, Barrett won Stage 5 of the tour followed by his teammate Ricardo Braxham and Namibian rider Alex Miller, who was third after 01:50:08 of riding on the 77km route.

Miller, who rode for Megatech Elite, finished fourth overall in the general classification at the end of the tour.

The team classification saw Honeycomb Pro Cycling winning the Pupkewitz Tour de Windhoek with a time of 16:55:41. Megatech Elite became the first Namibian team to finish second in a tour that had more than one South African team.

They were five minutes and 41 seconds behind the winner with a time of 17:00:00, while another South African team, TEG Procycling, came third with a time of 17:08:15.

In the women’s team classification, FLM Ladies won the tour with a time of 15:24:32 followed by MBM Ladies, who were four minutes and 11 seconds behind with a time of 15:28:41. The Cymot Racing Team Ladies finished in a time of 15:49:55.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency