01 Nov 2021

Cycle for Life Club (Cycle4Life) staged an annual MTB race at Staywell Gardens near Bokaa on Saturday.

This year’s race attracted over 100 cyclists, who paddled from Rasesa bypassing Bokaa on the western side to enjoy and endure the slight undulations before hitting the hilly rocky sections and heading back to Rasesa.

Race organisers constantly reminded and ensured spectators of the COVID-19 safety protocols compliance at the start and finish points.

The race started at 6:30am as scheduled with the 50km distance group, which was followed shortly thereafter by the 30km one.

The distance groups followed the same route exiting Staywell Gardens and turned left towards the North South Carrier Water pipeline then turned right riding along the pipeline open road until just before Bokaa and made another right to start the undulating trails.

Ashlee Van Tonder was the first to concur this year’s Cycle4Life challenging club race to reach the finish line in the women’s 50km, followed by Natalie Cloete and our MTB National Champion Bakang Ebudilwe in third place, while in the men’s category Gontse Lethokwe finished first followed by Thato Madimabe.

In an interview, Lethokwe expressed delight at the opening of competitive sport, saying it had been a quiet and dry season for them as cyclists.

He said the race afforded riders an opportunity to get back to their competitive mood and continue on their cycling goals. Lethokwe, an aspiring professional cyclist, said his dream was to compete outside Botswana.

On one hand, Madimabe said he was excited that cyclists were now back at the game.

Madimabe, a former national MTB champion, partnered with Lethokwe on the Saturday race, something he said gave him a chance to recover and they gelled well as a team, adding that the partnership also gave him good rhythm to finish well.

In a rather unfortunate incident, Lebopo Mompe could not competitively contest the way he had planned following a tyre puncture he experienced at around 25km into the race, nearly taking him out of the competition.

In the good spirit of sportsmanship, another cyclist gave Lebopo his bicycle to continue the race. ENDS