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Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
CYCLING has been on a downward spiral in recent years with most events being held socially, but the election of a new board to manage BMX, road biking and mountain biking activities has given birth to a reinvigorated approach to the sporting discipline.
UniMills-Hokoyo team principal, Davis Muhambi, who was appointed the new president of the Cycling Zimbabwe, an affiliate of Union Cycling International, told Post Sport that their main thrust is to improve participation in cycling, leveraging on the wellness and health benefits the sport offers.
Muhambi said one of the key strategies in rejuvenating the sport would be through breaking barriers to professional cycling where costs have been a major hindrance.
Muhambi said: “We are geared to reinvigorate cycling in the country and there is huge potential. What has been lacking is coordination and we are of the opinion that we just need to take steps to remove some of the barriers that have existed in the past for one to become a professional cyclist.
“One of the major barriers has been cost. To solve this, we just need to tap into the Chinese market where we can get cheap, but up to standard bikes.”
Of late, a number of competitions have been held including the recent Manicaland Cycle Challenge – Vumba Hill Climb held a fortnight ago as well as the Sweepers Big Ride held on May 25 in Harare which was hosted by Tsvaira Cycling Club.
The 100 Miler Traffic Race, a competition held since the 1970s, was also staged in April this year wherein cyclists cycled from Gweru to Bulawayo, a distance of 100 Miles or 164km.
Zimbabwe also played host to the Africa Continental Championships, an equivalent to the African Cup of Nations in football, early this month in Bulawayo.
Going forward, cyclists are now looking forward to the Zim Nationals set for November 11 to 13 in Harare where participants are expected to race along Shamva Road.
Muhambi, who owns and runs arguably the country’s best cycling team, UniMills-Hokoyo, will lead the cycling mother body for the next two years following their recent appointment in August.
The rest of his national executive committee comprises vice-president, Paul Denslow, secretary general, Elsie Mahumbe, treasurer, Tammy Petersen and technical committee chairperson, Crosby Mashiri.
Muhambi said the new board also intends to move along with the latest global trends in the sport of cycling where novel competition formats are being introduced.
“We are moving ahead with introducing and promoting new formats of the sport so that we move along with the trends elsewhere in the global village. For example, we are interested in promoting crip racing. Crip racing is much better in spectatorship than the usual road racing.
“Crip racing is a fast paced contest done over a short distance, hence spectators can watch the contestants in action unlike road racing where a spectator might have one chance to see a participant pass by as they complete a long distance race,” he said.
Crip racing, although not yet incorporated by the UCI, is fast gaining popularity in the United States of America and Europe.
Other emerging formats of cycling competition include gravel racing and cyclo cross, the latter being a hybrid of road and mountain racing while the former involves competing on gravel surface.
Online Reporter