Gaborone — A team of five riders will make their maiden appearance in the 2023 Munga Grit North West cycling challenge in South Africa this weekend.
The quintuple; Tito Sebonego, Kago Monamodi, Victor Mlalazi, Kagiso Potongwane and Tshepiso Mmokele will represent Botswana in one of the enduring and mentally challenging cycling race any rider aspired to undertake.
The two-course race entails 400km and 250km and are both done in one stage, lasting for 50 hours and 24 hours respectively.
Being the local Mountain Bike (MTB) riders debut in the fulfilling, yet grueling race, they opted for the 250km one stage course.
A single stage MTB through the North West province, the race will start and finish at Die Krip, near Magaliesburg.
Following the 50-hour route for approximately 120km before looping back to the start, the 24-hour route race will give the riders a chance to experience the format of this race challenge in a smaller and maybe less gruelling version.
The 400km 50-hour and 250km 24-hour route races will start and finish at the same spot.
Riders will traverse through two villages with the 400km course having four water points, and 250km with three water points manned by farmers in those villages, 70km to 100km apart.
"I, Sebonego, Monamodi and Mlalazi, will be doing the race for the very first time and we opted for the half Munga as a start as opposed to the full 50 hours," said Potongwane about their mission.
He said the plan was to go in full route next year provided they managed to complete the 24-hour course.
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Preparing for the Munga Grit has been a project for the local riders as they took into consideration all elements needed to prepare for an endurance race of this magnitude.
"You need to dedicate time to train, research, stick to a specific diet, hydrate and all that is needed to have a successful race," Potongwane said.
He said without physical and mental preparedness, one would not be able to complete such a race.
He implored young cyclists who aspired to be champions to have a mindset of winning.
"They should learn that there are no short cuts to success. It takes commitment, focus and dedication to win," he said.
Participating in such enduring cycling challenges always aroused interest for benchmarking purposes to having similar racing challenges locally and/or improving on the local cycling scene with experience from such race events.
"An endurance sport is quite different from our normal cycling events and it is not a key focus for development of cycling as a sport in Botswana," Potongwane said when quizzed on prospects of having an enduring MTB race locally.
However, as a BCA executive, Potongwane said they were willing to partner with any entity that was interested in hosting an endurance race in Botswana.
"It is another exciting form of cycling," Potongwane said.
BOPA
