23 Oct 2024

Cycle4Life cycling club will hold its mountain bike (MTB) club race on October 26 in Oodi, after securing a P100 000 sponsorship from inq.Digital Botswana. 

The inq.Digital sponsorship came well on time as the club was not able to host one of their annual cycling challenge, the Route73 challenge, as their partnership with the previous sponsor ended. 

“We have been fortunate to have inq.Digital as our sponsor for the club race this year and the preparations are well under way for Saturday,” chairperson of Cycle4Life cycling club, Modiegi Pelaelo said. 

The race, titled inq.Cycle4Life club race, has distances of 60km, which is open category particularly for elites male and female, 40km distance for the male and female junior category and 20km distance, which is for the male and female youth category. 

There is also the 20km distance, which is for the corporate category. 

For the open category, positions one to five will be awarded P800, P700, P600, P500 and P400 respectively for both female and male winners. 

In the junior category, both female and male in positions one to three will receive P600, P500 and P400 respectively, and for the youth category the girls and boys winners in positions one to three will be awarded P400, P300 and P200 respectively. 

The winning team in the corporate category is the team with its first three riders having the lowest cumulative time. 

And the winning corporate team will receive a floating trophy as well as P800,  as well as P700 and P600 for positions  two and three respectively. 

Pelaelo indicated that this year’s club race would be one of the fastest as the route is favourable. 

“The elites should clock just about two hours for the full distance of 60km,” she said, adding that they hope it rains before the race date so that there can be mud and some dirty water to add to the MTB fun. 

Recently, the club has had an increased number of girls although it does not offer development for young riders. 

Nevertheless, as an MTB club, Pelaelo said they encourage their youth riders to move to other clubs with such an initiative where there is also another discipline of road race. 

She said this could be an opportunity for clubs to formalise some sort of agreement on this going forward. 

Registration for the race is ongoing at Grip Runner shop, Ultimate Cycle Base or www.timing.lifecycle.co.bw ; at P250, P200 and P150 for 60km, 40km and 20km respectively. 

The 20km corporate distance is registered at P600, with a team of four riders per team. Ends