Haley Preen (Team Honeycomb 226ers) and Alex Miller (SWATT Club) carved out clear solo victories at the Khomas100 in Windhoek, Namibia, claiming both the first running of the event as a UCI Gravel World Series race and new titles of African Continental Champion.
Miller had been out the front with Marc Pritzen (Team Honeycomb 226ers) heading into the final stages of the 155km event.
"At about 9 kilometres to go I decided to see how I was feeling and I attacked and immediately got a gap and thought OK, now I have to try and make it stick and luckily the energy was there and I was feeling good," said Miller in an interview with race organisers after taking the victory.
Miller crossed the line 49 seconds ahead of Pritzen and then Jacob Charles Van Dyk (Team Honeycomb 226ers) came third, nearly four minutes after Miller.
Alex Miller escaped his breakaway companions to win Khomas100 solo (Image credit: Khomas100 / @stefan_photography__design)
"It was quite a tactical and demanding day out under the Namibian sun. Shortly after the start at the first bit of gravel I lost one of my bottles, but Jaques Hanekom was a legend and gave me one of his, which probably saved me in the end," he noted on his Instagram feed.
"Later after the middle feedzone, I grabbed my two bottles, but unfortunately both fell out on the next downhill (yes, I will invest in some better cages now). So from there it was all about rationing what I had left in my Uswe from the start and trying to save as much energy possible. Luckily enough the legs were there and I could break away with a few kilometres remaining."
Preen, who had competed at Leadville Trail 100 MTB in the US and moved to seventh overall in the Life Time Grand Prix standings, secured the win by breaking away to ride the final 60km of the race solo.
Anri Greeff was second, with the triathlete and mountain biker crossing the line of her home nation event over three minutes back. Greeff was the only rider to stay close to Grand Prix competitor and South African gravel champion, with Sonica Klopper in third at more than 16 minutes back.
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The Khomas100 started started in the capital of Windhoek, heading toward the Swakop River and then finished in Okahandja. It was one of two UCI Gravel World Series events to take place on Saturday, with the longstanding Monsterrando in Italy won by Romain Bardet (Picnic-PostNL) and Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ).
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The 157km race began in the Khomas Hochland region, with the start chute located on Chasie Street
(Image credit: Khomas100 / @stefan_photography__design)
Haley Preen leads on the Namibia course
(Image credit: Khomas100 / @stefan_photography__design)
Elite men at the front of the race
(Image credit: Khomas100 / @stefan_photography__design)
A dry, dusty day for racing at Khomas100 for the titles of African Continental Champion
(Image credit: Khomas100 / @stefan_photography__design)
Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg. Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.
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