Safire Baynesfield MTB Classic & Swadini Youth Road Tour
The top mountain riders from the KZN Cycling Development MTB HP squad took part in the Safire Baynesfield MTB Classic on Sunday 15th September and once again, they did themselves and the team proud with their performances. In the 65km race, Lihle Ngidi was again the standout rider on the day and came 2nd overall and 2nd in his age category, Unathi Nxumalo and Chad Singh also performed well in this long race. In the 45km race, Lerato Mokela and Anele Khoza performed exceptionally well to attain 2nd & 3rd places respectively in the Youth Female categories and in the 21km race, Thabiso Zindela took line honours in his age category. Apart from these standout performances, all the other riders competing did very well and these youngsters are no longer there to just make up the numbers at events and are performing fantastically well and showing real grit and determination. Their exponential growth each time they go out to race is wonderful to see. The Swadini Youth Road Tour is taking place in Mpumalanga from 20th – 25th September and four young men from the development programme have been selected to compete in the event as part of the KZN Squad that will be competing against riders from all of the provinces across the country . Chad Singh, Smagaliso Msomi, Thabiso Shange and Banele Khanyile will be making the trip and this tour – with its concentrated racing every day – will be a huge challenge for them all but at the same time, will be a huge step up for them in their overall development and we look forward to seeing how they match up against the top young riders from across the country.
SA National BMX Championships
For the past number of weeks, the KZN BMX Commission has been staging their BMX events that have included a Development Racing Class as part of the programme so as to allow new riders to compete at BMX races against riders of a similar level with the aim being to graduate the better riders into the open classes as they progress and develop. This plan has worked exceptionally well and more and more riders are taking part in the open classes where the aim was then to be able to development sufficiently to be able to qualify for the SA National BMX Championships that is taking place in Johannesburg from the 20th – 22nd September. It really is great to see that a total of 14 x development riders have been selected to compete at the National Championships and are being supported by KZN Cycling (with the funding supplied by KZN Department of Sport & Recreation) and will travel with the large KZN contingent to take on the best BMX riders in the country.
Mandela Day Marathon MTB Dash
The Mandela Day Marathon MTB Dash was a big day for the development programme with more than 270 young riders from six different districts being involved. Fifty of those took part in the 42km and 21km races with 20 of these attaining top 10 positions in their categories on the day – a fantastic achievement. The Mandela MTB Shootout event was for the feeder riders to the HP programme and fierce racing ensued all day there too. It was also great to be able to donate a number of bikes to the Lions River Primary youngsters too. A great day all around.
