01 Aug 2022

Botswana and Lesotho cycling teams have embarked on collaborative training to strive for better results at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

In an interview, Botswana cycling team coach, David Lebalelo, said they believed joint training would help the teams.

“I believe our collaboration will yield fruits for our boys, Gontse Lethokwe and Matlhogonolo Botlhole. We will be sharing ideas and plans for the coming races,” said Lebalelo.

The two countries will compete in the road race discipline, but Lethokwe will also do the Mountain Bike (MTB) discipline, while Botlhole would do the Individual Time Trial (ITT).

Lebalelo explained that Lesotho coach, Mark West will be assisting Lethokwe with the Mountain Bike discipline, whilst Botswana will take care of road discipline.

“West is one of the best coaches in SADC and being a United Kingdom-native is a plus, as he is more familiar with the race terrains and routes, which will be used for these games,” he said.

Lebalelo, however, said they were not putting too much pressure on the riders as this was their first international race of this magnitude.

“We want them to gain experience and learn as much as they can from the professional cyclists,” he added.

Lethokwe and Botlhole will paddle off with the likes of Welsh professional cyclists, Geraint Thomas and Luke Rowe, who ride for UCI World Team Ineos Grenadiers, as well as Mark Cavendish from Isle of Man and riding professionally for another UCI World Team Quick-Step.

“It is going to be a tough event, and we are anticipating a fast and competitive race in the road race, especially with these professional cyclists as well as other world tour riders, some of them also have just completed the Tour de France,” Lebalelo said.

He said they had the opportunity of training on the race route and observed that it was relatively flat, with no climbs and with the highest point of almost 250m above sea level.

Lebalelo said the training gave the riders a better chance of performing well at the games. “They could keep up with the fastest boys at an average speed of 46km/h on a track race,” he said.

He said their race plan was to have the riders keeping up with the first bunch of the peloton and position themselves well in the bunch to make it to the finishing cut point. “We are confident that they can sustain the pressure after the rigorous training and the intense road race training in Cardiff during our training camp,” he said.

Lethokwe got third position at the Rowe and King Maindy Classics Round 7 track race during their training camp prior to the Commonwealth Games.

Team Botswana will race the MTB tomorrow and individual time trials on Thursday, while the road race is scheduled for Sunday. ENDS