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…

The fantastic association that KZN Cycling has with the Bambisanani Partnership took yet another step forward yesterday when a joint project day was undertaken in Nkandla with over 90 x learners involved from six schools in the area that saw training of local coaches undertaken with skills development training sessions being done with the youngsters, who then took part in an inter – schools competition to round out the day. The Bambisanani Partnership is a multi-award-winning UK based charity that uses the power of sport as a catalyst to promote education, health, global citizenship and leadership, and they are assisting KZN Cycling to be able to carry out projects in the Nkandla area, an area where Bambisanani has operated for a number of years. For the second year running, The Bambisanani Partnership has been named as International Sport and Physical Education Charity of the Year at the annual Acquisition International Non-Profit Organisation Awards. The partnership involves more than 40 schools and universities in both the UK and South Africa, and students from the University of Leeds, Leeds Trinity University and Newcastle College and others travel to the region each year to be part of upliftment projects in the region. A large contingent of students from the various universities are in the region presently which presented an ideal opportunity for six development coaches and staff to travel to Nkandla and to stage the day’s activities yesterday. Michael Dladla and the other HP coaches ran training sessions for both aspirant coaches and learners with the students, and these skills were then used later in the day during the competitions. Kit and equipment that had been collected in the UK together with a large amount of kit and equipment collected by KZN Cycling as part of its CSI projects was distributed to the learners and schools as well. Staff and headmasters from the various schools were on hand to witness the programme rollout first hand, and their enthusiastic endorsement of the programme and activities will certainly help the projects in the area to continue to build momentum.

An innovative partnership has been developed between organisations from the UK and South Africa to establish a specialist cycle hub which will enable thousands of children in rural South Africa to learn how to ride and maintain bicycles. Since 2016, the University of Leeds and the Bambisanani Partnership have devised and delivered a Cycling to Success programme based at Mnyakanya High School in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal. This programme has led to almost 200 young people learning how to ride bikes safely, and to also maintain and fix bikes in the community. The programme has also operated a bike rental scheme to allow leaners who live great distances from school to ride to and from school. The project has gained widespread acclaim, including praise from World Champion professional cyclist, Lizzie Diegan MBE, who has even given her own kit to support it.  The ambition has always been to expand and grow the programme to further schools in the area to broaden the reach and numbers of children gaining these valuable life skills. Over the last two years, the University of Leeds and the Bambisanani Partnership have been working with the highly respected KZN Cycling, the provincial cycling federation, to identify opportunities for collaboration and to expand the project across a great number of schools and across the calendar year. The Bambisanani Cycling to Success programme introduced in the remote Nkandla region has had an enormous impact. This is an area where children can routinely walk two hours to and from school each day. The bikes have subsequently been used for transportation, recreation, informal sport and even by the local football team for fitness training. Other remote rural communities also approached the Partnership to see if they could be involved, but until now this has not been possible. The collaboration with KZN Cycling dramatically increases capacity to bring cycling, with all its transformative benefits, to other communities. Over the past week, the Bambisanani Partnership and KZN Cycling have signed a three-year agreement worth over R520 000 to establish a cycling hub in the Nkandla region. This new hub will have a local community member as a member of staff to deliver schools cycling programmes, as well as community clinics and organise races and events across the area. The new hub will enable 5 000 young people per year to attend training clinics, as well as acting as a talent identification programme for KZN-Cycling performance pathway. This new partnership provides an exciting opportunity to empower the young people of Nkandla, as well as providing a blueprint for future programmes and projects. The commitment and enthusiasm for this project is clearly evident from those involved: “We are all excited to develop this new partnership. A cycling hub like this, run by the community, for the community is development at its best,” said Andrew Lockwood from the University of Leeds who is a Bambisanani Partnership Trustee. “We have already seen the significant impact our cycling projects have had in Nkandla; and this expansion is great news and I am sure will make a long-term impact on those who benefit from it.” Alec Lenferna, Chief Executive Officer of KZN Cycling, is excited to see the province’s already impressive programme expanding. “We’ve always believed that we have a good programme in place across all eleven districts in the province, and every year we have tens of thousands of youngsters that get included in the various elements,” said Lenferna. “However, the new agreement that has been put in place with the Bambisanani Partnership, not only endorses the hard work being done by all, but more significantly, allows for longer-term strategic planning linked to elements that are going to positively impact on the lives of the people of the Nkandla region.” “For people in the deep rural areas of KZN, bikes, and the linked opportunities that bikes have, are life changing. If there were more organisations like the Bambisanani Partnership that got behind development programmes like this, whether here or elsewhere in the world, there would be more smiles on more faces every day.” David Geldart, CEO and Founder of the Bambisanani Partnership, is grateful for the partnerships that have allowed the programme to grow. “I am absolutely delighted to have signed this agreement to work in partnership with KZN Cycling,” he said. “Our own cycling programmes in the deep rural areas have been a resounding success and it is a wonderful opportunity to be now collaborating with KZN Cycling to bring cycling to thousands more young people.” “Significantly, this work will also involve the KZN Department of Education and the KZN Department of Sport and Recreation, who we have worked with closely for many years. Massive thanks must go to Andy and Alec for working tirelessly to create this pioneering programme.” With final preparations now underway the first children will be participating in the programme by early June of this year.

In the week of 25th – 30th April, 110 x young riders from all 11 x districts were transported to Pietermaritzburg on Sunday 25th 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: 1st place – eThekwini 2nd place – Zululand 3rd 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.