Author: Rebecca Lenferna

The ongoing activations in and around Durban – especially in areas like KwaMashu and Newlands East – continue to grow in popularity and the rider development is on an augmented curve through the efforts of all involved. Due to the large areas to be covered and the large numbers of schools and riders in the district, a series of mini hubs have ben established in eThekwini, and includes venues in Newlands East, KwaMashu, Hambanathi and Cato Manor with all being well supported by the local communities and cycling has taken a foothold in all the areas as a healthy and constructive way for the youngsters of the areas to pass their times.

This past weekend saw another great event taking place at Freedom Park in KwaMashu staged in conjunction with the Go Academy, and 13 riders from the Newlands East Mini Hub and 19 riders from the KwaMashu Mini Hub were part of the programme. The young riders performed exceptionally well, with several podium finishes achieved including:

– Under 10 Boys: Kenzo Mtambo (3rd place)

– Under 10 Girls: Kesley Gamble (1st place), Skyler Smith (2nd place)

– Under 15 Girls: Teiya Williams (2nd place) These community events are proving to be not only beneficial to the people taking part, but are also allowing for more and more talent to be unearthed during competition phases. More will continue being done…

In the week of 25^th – 30^th April, 110 x young riders from all 11 x districts were transported to Pietermaritzburg on Sunday 25^th April to take part in the KZN District Final, with training activities and competitions taking place in all four major cycling disciplines, namely Road, Track, MTB & BMX. This event was the culmination of the clinics training programme that has been ongoing in all 11 x districts, and district events were held so as to be able to select the ten best riders from each region – from the clinics programme and not those that are already in the HP squads or who have taken part in provincial events previously – so as to allow them to be able to compete against their compatriots from all over the province.

On the first two days, the group was divided into smaller training groups and they all received training in the different disciplines and to get them used to using geared road and mountain bikes, as well as using the track bikes and competition level BMX bikes. On Wednesday and Thursday, competitions were then held in all four disciplines so that the youngsters could put into practise what had been learnt in the training sessions. Apart from allowing the riders to be able to compete – and also win individual trophies in their respective age categories – it is an event that allowed for those riders with talent in the different elements to be identified so that they can be progressed into the HP groups in each of the districts, to receive additional training from the HP officers during this next phase of the programme in the 21/22 time period. This portion in itself was extremely successful in that a significant number of youngsters have been identified – the future looks bright for the next crop of riders.

Regardless of where the riders finished in each of the competitions on an individual basis, all riders were allocated points in the competitions towards the District prize, and the top three performing districts overall were as follows:

• 1^st place – eThekwini
• 2^nd place – Zululand
• 3^rd place – uMkhanyakude

The attitude and willingness of the youngsters that were at the event this week was great to see and they all gave of their best and tried really hard throughout which was fantastic to see. The event also showed that the district programmes are working, and the various district officers are working hard to ensure the youngsters in their regions are being well trained. They have now all returned to their home districts with new skills and with added incentive to continue training hard.

For the past number of years, all involved with the KZN Cycling Development plan have been making continual improvements and innovations and now, the programme is recognised as the leading development programme on the African Continent and there are very few programmes anywhere in the world that can rival what has been achieved in KZN with the support of the KZN Department of Sport & Recreation over the past few  years. This is certainly the case in the cycling realm, and it is even looked at as one of the leading general sports development programme with principles that can be used across all disciplines.

Alec Lenferna was asked to meet with and make a presentation to the leading role players of the Egyptian Cycling Federation as well as the Egyptian Ministry of Youth and Sport so that they can learn of what KZN Cycling is doing and how these lessons could be transposed into their cycling and other sports programmes.

It is great to see a homegrown programme receiving international attention that has been very well received.

Apart from introducing young riders to the sport through the clinics programme and nurturing the talented riders in the higher performance element of the project, a significant pillar of the KZN Cycling Development programme is to undertake capacity building programmes across all the districts. This programme is structured so as to be able to provide training in the various “backend” elements of the sport to adults across the province so that the sport can be grown at all levels.

Introductory courses are run in elements such as coaching, mechanics, event safety, event management, officiating and club and event administration and over the past years, a large number of people have passed through the programmes and are active in the different fields.

This year, focus was also given to some “high end” courses to not only increase the overall capacity in the province, but also with the express aim of making people more employable in the different elements allied to the sport. A national commissaire course and also a team manager’s course was held earlier in the year, and a number of people from these courses have already been active at the different events in the province. These courses were supplemented by a “bike technicians course” at the end of 2019 and recently the first ever Trail Builders course being held with 15 x representatives from four of the KZN districts attending. The course was run by Tim Keep who was able to impart his knowledge and experience to the attendees – both in the lecture room and more importantly, in the practical sessions that made up part of the course. This all culminated with a new trail being designed and built at the Cascades MTB Park in Pietermaritzburg and the experience gained by all will stand them in good stead in being more employable with new skills in their home districts.

It’s no use running training programmes if people are not going to be able to use the skills learnt so it’s exciting that those that attended the bike technicians course have now been contracted to undertake the extensive bike maintenance programme that has started to roll out across the province. KZN Cycling has a large number of clinic and racing standard bikes in all 11 x districts that require continual maintenance, and as time goes on, through the normal rollout of the programme, these bikes and other linked equipment require more and more upkeep. The process has started this past week with all of the trained mechanics being on duty sorting out all the uMgungundlovu District bikes and equipment and over the next weeks, they will be going out to all the districts to carry out the necessary repairs and upkeep of the equipment.

As the programme builds, so too will all these elements increase.

Since the start of the New Year, it seems that things have been moving in fast forward around the development programme with all that has been going on of late. The district officers have been at the schools on a regular basis making sure that the clinics programme across all eleven districts are ongoing and more than 8000 x youngsters have gone through the programme since the beginning of January alone. Capacity building courses in King Cetshwayo, eThekwini and iLembe have all gone ahead and these will be followed soon by the courses in uMgungundlovu. The racing seasons have all started off and large groups from the respective development HP squads have all been competing with some superb results being achieved including various provincial championships titles and a number of podium positions across the board.

The development programme is ever changing and what started three years ago, is now a mature programme that is now being used as a template for all provinces in the country as well as other countries in the developing world. A good result for all that have been involved thus far.