The Nedbank National Road and Time Trial and Cycling Championships are set to take place this weekend in the capital, featuring elite athletes competing for national titles in the time trial and road race categories.

The activities will kick off today and end on Sunday. The event, organised in partnership with the Namibian Cycling Federation, is an important step towards international and regional competitions, as it qualifies Namibian riders to compete at the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) World Championships and the African Continental Championships.

The Namibian Nationals will include categories for Elite and U/23 men to complete a distance of 40km, and Elite and U/23 women, cycling a total distance of 30km.

Additional categories include Junior men and women, Sub Vet men and women, Vet men and women, Master men and women, Grand Master men and women, U/16 boys and girls, U/14 boys, and more, who will cycle a total distance of 20km.

The youngest categories, including U/14 girls, U/12 boys, U/12 girls, U/10 boys and U/10 girls, will cycle a distance of 10km.

To date, a total of four Namibian cyclists have competed at the UCI World Championships, participating in the road race and time trial disciplines. They are Dan Craven, who competed in the road race in 2011 and 2013, and in the time trial in 2014, 2015 and 2017; Adriaan Louw, who contended in the road race in 2015; Rohan du Plooy, who competed in the road race in 2016 and 2017, and in the time trial in 2017; and Johann Rabie, who competed in the time trial in 2018 and 2019.

The prize-giving ceremony for both the National Time Trials and the Road Race will take place on Sunday from 14h00 at the Nedbank Campus.

Dirkus Coetzee is the defending road race champion, while Vera Looser was the winner of the women's category last year. Jean-Paul Burger was the winner of last year's time trail, and Looser holds the women's time trail title.