22 Nov 2023

The Botswana Cycling Association will hold national championships in the Mountain Bike (MTB) and Individual Time Trial (ITT) at Domius Maria and Fikeng respectively on Saturday and Sunday from 6am.

Of interest in this year’s MTB Nationals is the ‘pump track’ section, a new feature that crosses a small stream and some hard uneven soil, which creates a pump track effect, with a challenging drop.

“We are acting on feedback we received from our officials and athletes who attended similar events internationally, and the idea is to increase the technicality of the route to match what our athletes’ experience in international competitions,” BCA president Kagiso Potongwane said in an interview.

However, the route remains the same as in previous years. Riders will start off and turn into the old Saddle track, and go up the gradual incline that leads away from the Saddle track.

They will then descend back to the Saddle track, and go up, then make a turn to ride through the technical rock bed.

Then they will descend to the Batman Returns section, which is a demanding descent through big and small rocks and requires a lot of caution and skill.

From Batman Returns, the route finishes off with this new pump section.

Potongwane said this new feature is a good test for the riders, as the association is on a quest to make the nationals track more challenging and demanding for cyclists.

He appealed to cycling clubs to field cyclists with good MTB  handling skills and ability to compete in an intense race of this nature that requires tactical and power riding.

The ITT race will see female youth and junior categories riding for improved times on 14km distance, whilst under-23, veteran, master, grand master and elite categories will do their time on 30.11 km distance.

For the male, the youth and junior will also do 14 km while the under-23, elite, veteran, master and grand master will ride 42 km.

The 14 km distance is registered at P150 and all race distances go for P200.

For the MTB race discipline, cyclists will do loops according to their categories.

The youth category will ride three loops which will total 18.3 km, the junior alongside under-23 ladies, elite ladies, vets ladies, masters ladies and masters men will compete on a 24 km distance of four loops.

The 36.6 km distance, which is six loops, will be for the under-23 men alongside elite men and vets men.

All MTB categories are registered at P200. The cycling nationals are supported by Motor Vehicle Accident Fund, Water Utilities Corporation, ER24/7, Hydrate Still Water, Botswana National Sport Commission, Cycle4Life Cycling Club and Lifecycle Events and Timing. ENDS