Dan Craven scored an excellent result for the Namibian national team yesterday, taking 12th place in the first stage of the Tropical Amissa Bongo in Gabon.
Following Craven’s second place in the African Championships, the Namibian national team, which is taking part in the International Cycling Union (UCI) 2.1 ranked race for the first time, dedicated itself to helping Craven into a position to fight for a top ten overall finish.
Things went perfectly to plan for Craven, who found himself in the 21-man break that took more than ten minutes on the peloton at the finish. Despite missing out in the final few kilometers when six riders escaped to fight out the win, Craven was buoyed by his team’s performance.
“I’m pleased with the result. Everything went to plan, although I suffered for a few kilometers with cramps. Unfortunately that was the very moment that the decisive move slipped away from our group, and I wasn’t in a position to go with it.
“I came around after that and I fought hard to limit losses and stayed close to the top ten. It’s a good start for me, this is a long tour and in this heat it’ll be really tough for the European teams.”
Craven is also lying second in the best African competition on equal time with the first African rider after stage one, with a big objective in front of him now. Craven was also pleased with the performance of his teammates, who spent the day controlling the main peloton, to be sure that Craven’s break could take the maximum possible amount of time.
“The team rode well today, we have some young guys here with a lot less experience than the pro teams, but they all worked hard according to the team plan, and now we are in a great position going into the rest of the week.”
By Staff Reporter