The Rock and Rut Mountain Bike Club held its 2024 annual general meeting (AGM) at the Nedbank Campus in Windhoek on 13 November, where the 2024 Nedbank Rock and Rut XC Series winners were announced. 

Elite male cyclist Kevin Lowe and elite female cyclist Jean-Marie Mostert, took the honours, and were crowned the series champions after accumulating most points in the highly competitive category. 

Rock and Rut Mountain Bike Club chairperson, Hanso Diehl, lauded the series as successful and said the club hosted 10 successful races in just-ended 2024 season. 

“We innovated by introducing two new venues – Farm Bergquell and Farm Towerbos – which made the series interesting and challenging for the riders. They provided different types of trails and terrain from the traditional IJG Trails at Farm Windhoek in Kleine Kuppe. This was great for the cyclists who are aiming to ride internationally. We also introduced the Enduro Mountain Bike series, which are meant to attract a different segment of mountain bike riders,” he said.

Diehl said the club is happy with the performances of Vera Looser, Rodger Suren, Alex Miller, Delsia Janse van Vuuren, and a host of other riders who won or finished on the podium in various international mountain bike competitions, such as the XCM World Cup, where Looser and Miller, received honours. 

In a recent top-quality event in South Africa, the likes of Miller, Piet Swiegers and Frank Snyman dominated their age categories, with Miller in particular, showing excellent form.

Diehl paid tribute to Nedbank Namibia for sponsoring the XC series, which kicked off in April with the 2024 Nedbank Namibia XC1 Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) C1 and UCI Junior Series XC1 races at the IJG Trails.

These were followed by the XC0 National Cross-Country Championships in April and the XC2 at the same venue in June. Up next was the XC3 at the new venue – Farm Bergquell, before the final race of the season, the 2024 Nedbank Rock and Rut XC Series, which took place at the Towerbos Trails.

Nedbank Namibia executive head for marketing and communications, Gernot de Klerk, congratulated the club for yet another successful season of the series, saying Nedbank Namibia is thrilled to celebrate the club’s achievements.

“The team’s dedication to growing mountain biking in Namibia and the club’s commitment to innovation through bringing in fresh venues and challenging courses continues to excite and push our riders to new heights, keeping the spirit of mountain biking alive and thriving,” De Klerk said. “It is no surprise that our cyclists are doing such a sterling job in their competitive races abroad.”

He added: “Since we began this journey with Rock and Rut, we have seen an uptick in participants over the years which tells us that the series popularity has contributed to the growth of mountain bike races in the country. With the 2024 series now done, we await Africa’s ultimate mountain biking race, the Nedbank Desert Dash.”

The 2025 Rock and Rut XC Series season is scheduled to kick off on 5 April at a venue to be announced.