The 2023 Pupkewitz MegaBuild Tour de Windhoek racing cycle tour, Namibia’s premier road bike race, once again did not disappoint.

Melissa Hinz and Drikus ‘The Machine’ Coetzee triumphantly won their respective elite divisions yesterday.

Coetzee, in particular, must have come up with a superhuman effort to win the last stage and the tour in its entirety. He told Namibia Media Holdings: “This is definitely one of the highlights of my career and a performance that I am very proud of”.

With the five-kilometre prologue last Thursday to determine the wearers of the yellow jerseys for the first stage, the South African men’s teams already made their mark.

Hinz flew Namibia’s flag high, with her team-mates from Simonis Storm Powered by Hollard (SSPBH) short on her rear wheel. Gustav Basson of Team DMS won the elite men’s division.

On Friday morning during the first stage (109 km) on the Dordabis road, Basson had to give up the yellow jersey when Brandon Downes from TEG Procycling was crowned victorious.

Hinz kept her golden garb after Anri Krugel, her team-mate, beat her over 80 km.

Coetzee and Krugel (both SSPBH) won the polka-dot jersey when they were named King of the Mountain (KOM) for stage one.

Team time trial

The second stage on Friday afternoon at the Tony Rust race track did not affect the positions yellow-jersey wearers. TEG (23 minutes 15 seconds) won the competition by two seconds against Tufo BMC (13:17), with the Cymot A Team (23:58) placing third. This stage is contested over a distance six laps of 2.6 km each.

For the women, SSPBH (19:42) beat Lema (20:14) and Cymot (22:33) over a distance four laps of 2.6 km.

Meanwhile, during Saturday morning’s challenging third stage (117 km) on the C28 road and Western Bypass, Coetzee turned on the gas and won the stage in 2:55:30.55, with Kimhan van der Merwe (Tufo BMC) in 2:31:08 short on his heels. Downes (third in 2:56.50) was obliged to relinquish his yellow jersey to Coetzee while Hinz easily kept hers over 79km.

Kevin Lowe (Cymot A team) picked up the KOM jersey, while Krugel successfully defended hers.

Stages 4 and 5

The fourth stage on Saturday afternoon from Pupkewitz MegaBuild past the Snyman Sircle produced the usual excitement for fans as teams competed for points. Hinz and Coetzee’s yellow jerseys were once again safe for the fifth stage on Sunday morning on the Von Bach Dam road.

This stage over 53 and 77 kilometres respectively for the elite women and men once again delivered superb racing by Namibia’s Coetzee to secure an excellent victory against the professional South African riders.

In the team competition, Tufo BMC (22:15:29) won the division with DMS (22:52:14) coming in second and TEG (22:54.26) in third. For the women, SSPBH dominated in 19:48.52, while Lema (20:22.18) finished second and Cycles4U (21:02.18) third.

– tielman@republikein.com.na