Members of the Rhodes University Cycling Club will be taking part in this weekend’s University Sports South Africa Cycling Championships.
Members of the Rhodes University Cycling Club will be taking part in this weekend’s University Sports South Africa Cycling Championships.
The cycling events are hosted this year by the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) in Port Elizabeth and runs from Sunday, 28 June to Wednesday, 1 July. This will be the first time that Rhodes has entered a team into the annual USSA Cycling Champs. “It’s a huge opportunity for us, as a new club we will be trying to gain as much experience as possible from the event so that one day we can be as competitive as possible in these events,” said club chairman, Devin Cripwell.
The cycling champs is a highlight on the Eastern Province Cycling calendar and will attract some of the top student cyclists in South Africa, as well as many rising stars being expected. The stages will showcase some of the scenic routes that are unique to the Eastern Cape, and will test the teams and riders in all aspects of road cycling disciplines.
The mountain bike event takes place on Sunday and is a 42km cross country event. The road event is the premier event and includes five stages spread over three days. The road event start on Monday with a 20km individual time trial in the morning, followed by an 80km road race in the afternoon.
Tuesday is made up of one stage, a 140km road race over a hilly route, starting in the morning. Wednesday is the final day and again has two stages – a 4km hill climb, against the clock. Stage 5 is a 1 hour long criterium, taking place in the afternoon, along a 1.5km flat circuit.
“Ideally we would like to feature on all the stages but will have our work cut out for us against both big names and big teams,” added Cripwell. “We will give it our best shot as underdogs and see what happens”.
Teams to look out for will be the hosts, NMMU, who will be looking to give their star Conrad Viljoen plenty of support.
The University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch are also traditionally strong at the champs. Last year’s champ, Michael Pepper, who rides for University of Johannesburg and the House of Paint Pro Cycling Team, will also be back to defend his title.
The Rhodes club will only have four team members in the road event, while most varsities taking part will have up to eight. The Rhodes team members taking part in the USSA Cycling Champs are Jono Davy and Glen Midgely (both mountain bike); Alex Joiner, Lee Stack, Nick Gaertner and Devin Cripwell (all road).
