Our trusty Team Bus has travelled all over Southern Africa, transporting the Team to various important races. However, in this most crucial year - on the verge of Olympic qualification - the bus is in need of serious attention to keep it on the road.
Lesotho is currently ranked 2nd in Africa and 45th in the world in the Olympic Mountain Bike rankings. With the only guaranteed place for Africa probably going to Namibia, we really need to keep up momentum throughout the rest of the season to earn the invitation (wild card) place available in the Paris 2024 quota.
The rider best placed at the moment is superstar Tumelo MAKAE – and we really believe he stands a great chance for invitation place. He has finished in the top 10 of African Championships the past two years and races regularly in World Championships and World Cup races.
We plan to target the following races, which means travelling a lot of kilometers:
- March: Paarl international XCO (Cape Town)
- March: SA MTB XCO Cup (Johannesburg)
- April: Namibia International XCO (Windhoek)
- June: SA MTB XCO Cup (Pietermaritzburg)
In addition to the Olympic ambitions, we want to celebrate Phetetso’s 40th birthday, by giving him a chance to challenge the South African Veterans category. Phetetso is one of the founding members of the team and has been so instrumental in getting us to where we are today. The former Olympian is still as competitive as ever.
However, at the moment, the Team Bus – Mercedes Vito Tourer – is restricted to local journeys only. It has an issue with the turbo, restricting the power output and is also desperately in need of a full service and brakes. This can only be done across the border in South Africa.
Please help – any amount will go a long way to making this happen.
