Gaborone — Mountain Bike (MTB) race lovers witnessed an adrenaline fueled action on Sunday as riders endured the new gravity defying features of mountain biking at the National championships in Kgale.
The pump track section with a challenging drops was added to improve the nationals and further give riders a competitive feel of the international stage.
This was a pretty good move by the association given also that the National championships are a big deal. The new feature had tactical sections, which needed a rider to have a good handling balance skills and able to control speed to avoid crashing on the drop.
Gontse Lethokwe, the defending champion, with his sterling performance reclaimed the championship title with a time of 1:37:14 in a loop race, ahead of Edwin Banyatsang and Thato Madimabe who came in second and third respectively.
Banyatsang registered a time of 1:55:34 while Madimabe clocked 2:00:40.
Lethokwe cruised easily doing the first two laps of six loops, which were 6.1km each at 15 minutes each and taking on laps three, four and five in 16 minutes and finishing the last in 17 minutes.
His runners up were not much competition, but Banyatsang came close. Lethokwe had two minutes gap over Banyatsang in the first lap, and three minutes gap on laps two, three and four; whilst he did four minutes gap over in the fifth lap and dropped to three minutes in the last lap. It was not an easy podium finish for Madimabe, who was lapped out by Lethokwe on the fifth lap.
"Today's race was amazingly challenging and I am excited about the new features the association added to the course," said Lethokwe in an interview after his win.
He commended the association for the addition and improvement of the course for the National MTB.
"I am glad they added the drops, which we always appeal for because we often encounter them during international races. Racing on them at home will definitely give us more confidence and experience as we compete internationally, and I urge the association to add more of such features," said Lethokwe.
BOPA
