Nedbank Rock and Rut XC Series rewards winners

Kevin Lowe and Jean-Marie Mostert were named the top competitors of the 2024 Nedbank Rock and Rut XC Series during the Rock and Rut Mountain Bike Club’s annual general meeting in Windhoek on Wednesday.

The meeting was held concurrently with the club’s prize-giving ceremony for the Rock and Rut XC Series, where elite male cyclist Lowe and elite female cyclist Mostert were crowned the series champions after accumulating the most points in the highly competitive elite category.

Rock and Rut club chairman Hanso Diehl lauded the series run as successful and said the just-ended season saw the club host 10 successful races in 2024.

“We innovated by introducing two new venues, namely Farm Bergquell and Farm Towerbos, which made the series interesting and challenging for the riders. They provided different types of trails and terrain from the traditional IJG Trails at Farm Windhoek in Kleine Kuppe.”

“This was great for the cyclists who are aiming to ride internationally. We also introduced the Enduro Mountain Bike series, which is meant to attract a different segment of mountain bike riders,” he said.

Diehl said as a club, they are happy with the performance of Vera Looser, Rodger Suren, Alex Miller, Delsia Janse van Vuuren, and a host of other riders who won or finished on the podium in various international mountain bike competitions, such as the XCM World Cup, where Looser and Miller, received honours.

In a recent top quality event in South Africa, the likes of Miller, Piet Swiegers and Frank Snyman dominated their age categories, with Miller in particular showing excellent form of late.

Diehl paid tribute to Nedbank Namibia for sponsoring the XC series, which kicked off in April with the 2024 Nedbank Namibia XC1 Union Cycliste Internationale C1 and UCI Junior Series XC1 races at the IJG Trails.

These were followed by the XC0 National Cross-Country Championships in April and the XC2 at the same venue in June. Next was the XC3 at the new venue — Farm Bergquell, before the final race of the 2024 Nedbank Rock and Rut XC Series, which took place at another new venue namely, Towerbos Trails.

Nedbank Namibia executive head for marketing and communications Gernot de Klerk congratulated the Rock and Rut Mountain Bike Club for yet another successful season of the series, saying Nedbank Namibia is thrilled to celebrate the club’s achievements.

“The team’s dedication to growing mountain biking in Namibia and the club’s commitment to innovation through bringing in fresh venues and challenging courses continues to excite and push our riders to new heights, keeping the spirit of mountain biking alive and thriving,” De Klerk said.

“It is no surprise, thus, that our cyclists are doing such a sterling job in their competitive races abroad.”

He added: “Since we began this journey with Rock and Rut, we have seen an uptick in participants over the years which tells us that the series popularity has contributed to the growth of mountain bike races in the country. With the 2024 series now done and dusted, we await Africa’s ultimate mountain biking race, the Nedbank Desert Dash.”

The 2025 Rock and Rut XC Series season is scheduled to kick off on 5 April at a venue to be announced.