By DEBBIE COSIER
PHOTO 1 Caption: The whole team training near their base in Iten, Kenya.
PHOTO 2 Caption: Paul Ariko and John Njoroge, Kenyan Riders’ best two cyclists, lead the way on a training ride in Kenya.
ELEVEN promising Kenyan cyclists and their crew, have been invited by Murwillumbah Cycle Club to train and race through the mountains and on the back roads of the Tweed Valley this winter.
“We’ve just received word that the visas are approved,” Australian head coach of the project Rob Higley said.
They will have three-month sporting visas and their stay here will strengthen an existing bond between Kenya and the Tweed that started with a water and sanitation project in 2006: The Tweed Community-Kenya Mentoring Program.
“As part of the mentoring program, there’s also been a connection between the soccer clubs in Murwillumbah and Kenya,” Tweed Council Waterways program leader Tom Alletson said. “This will hopefully be an ongoing relationship between us.”
The trip to Australia will give the team a greater chance of realising their dream of becoming the first Kenyan professional cycling team.
“The Tweed Valley is ideal for us because it has relatively warm winters and offers a racing program that includes one-day races, time trials, flat road criteriums and shorter one day climbs,” Higley said.
The group also hopes to ride some of the main cycling events around Australia that coincide with their winter visit.
The team have come off two years of intense cycling in Europe and Africa, competing in events such as the Haute Route and l’Etape du Tour in the French Alps, several criteriums, the Tour of Rwanda, and the Tour du Gabon.
Not yet professional, Kenyan Riders is the dream-child of Singapore entrepreneur Nicholas Leong, who argued that the inherent endurance and athletic capabilities of Kenyans, who have dominated long distance running events on the global scene for several decades, should also be tested in road cycling. His ultimate vision is to get a Kenyan national team to the Tour de France.
Higley says Leong did not set an easy target and that there are a number of obstacles to his dream. “We’re up against European and Australian cycling, where kids are on bikes from a much younger age than the Kenyans. They learn the skills of bike riding using gears, cornering, descending, and all the stuff that builds confidence and evolves naturally through casual practice before they hit their teens.”
In Kenya, bikes are expensive and the market is dominated by heavy steel Chinese Black Mamba bikes that are used to transport goods and people rather than for leisure or sporting pursuits.
“Unlike the Europeans, Americans and Aussies, and even the best African cyclists, the Kenyans have never experienced regular club competition,” Higley said.
“However, given all of this, the team are learning and developing very quickly, and the Murwillumbah Cycle Club will offer the regular racing practice that the squad needs.”
Murwillumbah Cycle Club president Dennis Burger believes that the benefits to the club will be far reaching.
“We believe it will be good for our club. The extra numbers in races, competition for our members and the cultural exchange will be a boon.”
The Tweed Valley’s siren song has lured many first class cyclists over the years, not the least of whom is Australian former road cycling champion Robbie McEwen, who lived and trained on the Gold Coast for several months each year, heading out the back to maintain his racing condition.
“The growing reputation for fabulous riding in the region is born out by the fact that Cycling Australia likes to have the under-19s selection trials in the valley because of the variance in terrain and road conditions,” Burger said, knowing the potential for great cycling in the ranges, plateaus and valleys forming the largest erosion caldera in the Southern Hemisphere.
This will be a dream come true for Kenyan Riders who have only one bitumen road close to their training base in Iten. “We take the road straight down into the Great Rift Valley and then back up the other side. Some days, our warm down is two or three hours’ ride up, out of the valley,” Higley said.
“It’s brutal, and why we need to go to places like the Tweed Valley and Europe to get experience on other descents, and other technical roads and courses.”
