03 Jun 2020

 Botswana Cycling Association is working with clubs to come up with safe and easy to implement health and safety protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The associations president, Mmetla Masire said they were working on a revised calendar of events. He said their events were scheduled to concide with specific months and weeks in a month. He said their plan was not to rush into staging events in order to afford the cycling community and stakeholders’ time to plan for such events. He added that they lost a lot of time during the lockdown.

He also noted that it would take time and  resources to rebuild. He said the association would establish how much of this year’s season would be used for races as they revised their calendar.

Masire said race organisers and sponsors would decide on the cancellation or postponement of races, adding that some races may not get slots in the revised calendar due to financial challenges.which may result in postponement. Masire also said although riders made use of technology to keep fit during the lockdown, the environment was different from reality. He said cyclists would struggle to get back to their former fitness levels. He also said they were worried that some sponsors may pull out because they wee also affected by the lockdown. The association’s secretary general, Tlamelo Dube said they have encouraged riders to train and prepare for races, adding that they were advised to train in numbers compliant with COVID-19 regulations.

Dube also urged clubs to register and record temperatures of riders if they trained as a  group.

He noted that prior to the lockdown, cycling was doing well with some cyclists competing in neighbouring South Africa as well as taking part in competitive races such as the Cape Cycle Tour in Cape Town, South Africa. ENDS