24 Jun 2019

Botswana Cycling Association (BCA) will this Sunday host the Mountain Bike National Championships in Gaborone at Old Dumping Site in the Riverwalk area.

The BCA MTB national race is anticipating between 50 and 100 riders.

“The MTB race does not have the same appeal as the road race due to its technical nature, therefore it usually attracts fewer participants than road championships,” stated BCA public relations officer, Kagiso Potongwane.

Potongwane said the race has participants representing juniors, youth, elite, vets and masters.

He said this year’s route was the same as last year’s, with slight variations to the course to make it a little more challenging.

“Although the location offers variety needed for a challenging MTB XCO course, all in one area, we will be taking safety into consideration,” noted Potongwane.

The event will bring some of the best riders in the nation to the course to compete in the race such as female youth, Myra Mantle, male junior, Lobopo Mompe, female junior, Lobopo Kono, male under 23, Jameel Noor and female elite, Bakang Ebudilwe.

Noor comes in as a new rider, and together with Ebudilwe and Mompe, it will be an exciting race to see if the trio will use experience gained at the 11^th African Continental MTB XCO Championships held in Namibia in April.

BCA recently staged the National Road championships in Lobatse; which Potongwane indicated was a platform for BCA to identify new talent as well as monitor performance of riders.

Registration for youth and juniors is P200 while under 23, elite, vets and masters is P250. ENDS