30 Oct 2023

Cycle4Life cycling club has appointed Modiegi Pelaelo as the new chairperson, making her the first woman to lead the mountain bike cycling club since its establishment in 2015.

Pelaelo has replaced Themba Giddie and the new development is viewed as a symbol of how the cycling sport has evolved and hope to open more doors for companies to sponsor the code.

“We are committed to diversity and inclusion and this is a powerful symbol of progress on inclusivity,” said the club secretary Boitumelo Lobelo in an interview.

Other members include Aubrey Kono who is the deputy secretary, Galeboe Mmelesi has been elected treasurer while Pako Lenkopane is the captain of the club.

The club also appointed two additional members, Frank Montshiwa and Ditirahalo Mosinyi with Gobe Mbayi responsible for events and sponsorship.

Lobelo said having a woman led committee in a male dominated sport was also a response to the national mindset change campaign.

She said going forward, the intention was to form partnerships with companies to grow the participation of girls and women in cycling sport and create a platform for them to take leadership roles in cycling, in turn setting example for inclusivity.

“Through the support of private and public partnerships, we aim to expand our efforts and reach out to more communities through these collaborations. Our goal is to touch more lives, particularly those of women and girls,” she said.

Having navigated their way through the use of technology in the recent Dimension Data Route 73 (DDR73) race, the new committee has vowed to continue on the path curved by their predecessors by making technology the basis of their first 12 months in office.

She said their wish was to make the use of technology standard for all their future Cycle4Life races, adding that they hope their sponsors see the value in this.

Additionally, Lobelo said her club also aims to use available and cost effective technology to manage the club’s administrative processes.

“In today’s digital space, we embrace technology and make use of applications that allow our members to develop training programmes tailored to their strength and competitive goals,” she said.

An active rider herself, Lobelo also said they endeavour to launch campaigns for cyclists to use a bike computer for management of their training progress.

“Some bike computers like Garmin Edge have inbuilt capabilities for incident detection that can send your name and location to your emergency contacts should any incident occur,” Lobelo said.

This would enhance cyclists’ safety especially MTB riders, who rides in the bush, she added. ENDS