Vusumuzi Dube
Mehluli Sibanda , Sports Editor
APRIL is promising to be an exciting month for Cycling Zimbabwe who have lined up national events in Bulawayo as well as Harare.
Davis Muhambi, president of Cycling Zimbabwe said on 15 April, elite men as well as the Under-23 male cyclists will take part in the 160km road race whose starting and finishing point is Redwood Ultra City, on the outskirts of Bulawayo.
“This year we will be having our nationals for the elite category in Bulawayo, starting and finishing at Redwood Ultra City.
On 15 April we will have our men and women elite, men and women Under-23 categories racing over 160km then we will also have our masters and our veterans who are the age groups that are above 40 also racing for national honours.
This is going to be strictly a road race. However, we are going to have other nationals being held on 20 and 22 in Harare to deal with time trials and the other categories which are the juniors, both road and the time trial,’’ said Muhambi.
For the 160km, cyclists will do laps of 40km each while for the other categories, the distance half of what the elite men and Under-23 will cover.
“On 15 April, there are two distances that are going to be ridden, there is the 160km which will be done in laps of 40km starting from Redwood, so they do 40km out and they do another 40km in, which makes it 80km, then they will do another 40km out to make it 120km then they will come back and finish at 160km, so that is the distance that is going to be covered by the men elite and the Under-23.
The women and the other categories which include the masters and veterans, men and women, they will be doing a distance of 80km, which is 40km out and 40km in,’’ Muhambi said.
National selectors will look to choose cyclists to fly the Zimbabwe flag during these races.
“This is going to form the basis of our national selection but obviously we do revisit because athletes conditions change over time, some choose to relax, some choose to keep on training so our evaluation of the selection of the national team is continuous.
National races form a big basis and score for the national selection and other races that we will have during the course of the year also contribute to the national selection at any point in time,’’ he said.
Registration for all the events coming up is 10 April, which is done so as to give organisers ample time to prepare race tags and packs.
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Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter