National champions fight hard in tough Spanish races

Mountain biking
Andrew Poolman
  • 2 Days Ago
Vera Looser has concluded another busy season of representing Namibia in high-profile mountain bike races and says she feels content, despite having to relinquish her 2024 status as Hero UCI Marathon World Cup elite women’s series winner.

After a memorable triumph last year when she won two of the three marathon races and clinched the overall title, Looser found the going much tougher in this year’s expanded series of five events.

The last Hero UCI Marathon World Cup event of this year’s series delivered a very difficult course at La Tramun Sea Otter in Girona, Spain, last Sunday – about 80 kilometres, with an enormous 2,969 metres of vertical ascent.

After an endless slog lasting six hours and seven minutes, the Namibian finished in fourth position behind Paula Gorycka-Kurmann of Poland (5 hours 54:56), Rosa van Doorn (Netherlands; four minutes later) and Amanda Bohlin of Sweden (eight minutes behind the winner).

“Added with some pouring rain and mud, it made for a very long race. You know, if you don\'t even average 13 km/h,” Looser wrote on social media afterwards, adding the German phrase: “Wer sein Fahrrad liebt, der schiebt (If you love your bike, you push it).”

“At first, I was disappointed with my fourth place, but I guess that is all I had in me on that day. Still a good result and it definitely leaves me hungry for more next year!

“And just like that, my European season is over, and it\'s time to head south soon.”

The 2025 elite women’s series rankings finished as follows:

1 Rosa van Doorn (Netherlands), 1060 points.

2 Sandra Mairhofer (Italy), 830

3 Paula Gorycka-Kurmann (Poland), 770

4 Lejla Njemcevic (Bosnia), 700

5 Adelheid Morath (Germany), 620

6 Debora Piana (Italy), 580

7 Vera Looser (Namibia) 550

The 2026 Hero UCI Marathon World Cup series will include six races between 21 February and 20 September, to be held in Spain (two events), Italy (two events), Andorra and Germany.



Miller a strong competitor

Also in Girona last Saturday, Namibia’s Alex Miller competed strongly for his professional Spanish-based team Swatt Club in the Sea Otter Europe Girona – an event in the UCI Gravelbike World Series.

The race over a 100 kilometre route (1,567m of accumulated elevation) was won in 3 hours 10 minutes 49 seconds by Daan Soete of Belgium, in a sprint finish against Dorian Godon of France by just a one-second margin.

Miller finished in seventh place of the 81 finishers of the race, 3 minutes 49 seconds behind the winner.

“Another fast @uci_gravelworldseries_girona race ticked off! Struggled a bit with the start, but then slowly fought my way up to 7th amongst quite a strong field which saw a few World Tour names line up as well! A step in the right direction for myself at least I feel,” Miller posted on Instagram to his 13,400 followers.

The three-day Shimano Sea Otter Europe Costa Brava-Girona’s ninth edition consolidating itself as the leading cycling festival in Europe last weekend, with nearly 74,000 visitors.