Cyclist to compete in SAOne of Namibia’s most promising cyclists will get the chance to test his mettle against his peers in a prestigious race in South Africa. One of Namibia’s most promising cyclists will get the chance to test his mettle against his peers in a prestigious race in South Africa. 0 Namibian cyclist Pascal Marggraff recently qualified for the Western Province endurance team and will participate at the inter-provincial event Cape Town Grand Prix on 8 October. This is a first for a Namibian rider, as his selection was based on the results of a track cycling league event, and thus no further trials were necessary for his inclusion in the team.
The rider’s recent accomplishment is the culmination of years of hard work, which led to him representing Namibia at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.
Marggraff said participating in the Cape Town Grand Prix came after he did well in a series of events.
“I started to study engineering at the University of Stellenbosch last year, and doing track cycling in the middle of September2015, because I was not able to train the long hours necessary to compete in the elite category in road cycling,” he said in a press statement issued by the Namibian Cycling Federation (NCF).
“I joined Track Cycling South Africa club and took up training with my coach Jaco Scholtz.
“Track cycling is, compared to road cycling, rather dangerous, due to the fact that the bicycles are single speed, fixed gear and have no brakes,” he said.
It is because of this element of danger that the rules are quite strict when it comes to track cycling.
But although Marggraff is quite experienced, he had to prove his worth as he had to start competing at the lowest of three categories.
“Confidence and winning in a certain number of races allow riders to move up in the categories. And In the first race in 2016 I was then allowed to move up to the B category, and I finished the first leg (consisting of four races) in second place.”
It was after this success that Marggraff started training seriously.
His dedication also meant that he had to wait for quite a while before getting a shot at competing among the elite riders.
“I was finally permitted to race with the elites exactly one year after I had started with track cycling.
“In that race I finished in seventh place in the 1 500m sprint discipline, fourth in the 8km points race (there are points awarded to the first five riders that cross the line after every eight laps) and third place in the 15km race.
“With these results I qualified for the Western Province endurance team,” he said.