28 Nov 2023

Botswana Cycling Association (BCA) delivered a competitive elite men’s national Individual Time Trial (ITT) in Fikeng on Sunday.

It was the tightest competition the elite men’s national time trial has seen in years, with the riders all within three to five minutes of the winning time in the closing event of the 2023 Botswana championships.

 Lloyd Molale, Thabiso Mokalake, Abeng Malete, Matlhogonolo Botlhole and Thebeyame Ruele were strong competitors, in both elite and Under-23 men categories.

Next year will even be a more competitive elite men’s category in local cycling with the likes of Botlhole graduating to the elite category.

Malete of Jwaneng Cycling Club, who has not enjoyed the ITT title in over three years, finally stepped up to claim it registering a time of 1:05:34.

He has had a disappointing national record due to bike mechanical gliches, and small mistakes owing to lack of cooperation from his teammates.

In an interview after his victory ride, Malete said he was determined to claim his title, and he trained hard for the competition.

“It was also an easy task for me as the route was on what I refer to as my playground,” said Malete.

Team Swift Cycling Club duo, Molale and Mokalake settled for silver and bronze medals respectively, while Botlhole also from Team Swift will be advancing gracefully to the elite category with not only the Under-23 national ITT title but also Under-23 national road race title, which he bagged in June this year.

Molale clocked 1:05:52 followed by Mokalake with 1:13:26. Botlhole recorded 1:06:28 beating Ruele over five minutes as he registered 1:11:18.

For the women, Nonofo Maswabi from Jwaneng Cycling Club retained her elite women title with a time of 54:30 followed by Wame Ntwayakgosi who came second with 57:24.

Former national champion, Bakang Ebudilwe did not finish the race. Maswabi, also a national road race champion, has been giving everything to deliver outstanding consistent performances since the cycling season started; not only bagging national titles but also local races.

Elite men were doing 42km distance with elevation gain of approximately 250 meters whilst Elite women were doing 30km with elevation gain of approximately 150 meters. Temperatures were averaging 29 degrees celsius on the day.

 The 2023 Cycling Nationals came at a time when two of the bigger BCA affiliate cycling clubs, Cycle4Life and Tsela Riders had just ushered in new club leaderships.

Newly elected clubs leadership promised to bring improvements and change to the cycling sport, working with the national federation.

“These competitions are for cycling clubs, and to see our affiliates bringing athletes is good and it shows they are doing their ground wok to better improve the sport,” said BCA president Kagiso Potongwane in an interview.

Potongwane said as an association, they are also working on improving the nationals by introducing a point system for all races in the cycling calendar next season for riders.

 “All points accumulated will count for national selection. We currently select athletes according to their single win at the nationals, which we realised is not fair as some riders are disadvantaged by just missing a national championship, whilst they have consistently been performing well on races,” Potongwane added.

He further said after attending the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Congress in July, which was held in Glasgow, Scotland, they will be sending national results to the UCI. He said it is something that they learnt when attending the congress.

“Botswana has not been doing this, and it actually helps as UCI will recognise that there is competition in the country and they take that into account when offering opportunities and support funds,” he said, adding that the international body categorises riders’ times with other riders across the world.  ENDS