(We tend to focus mostly on football whereas the caption of this column says, Sports, which implies all sporting activities other than just football or soccer. This week, News in Africa Online is breaking the jinx by looking at Cycling in Kenya)
As early as eight o’clock in the morning, members of the Kenyan cycling team, known as the “Kenyan Riders,” would have already trained for two hours with buckets of sweat dropping from their bodies.
Sometimes, the training ride extends over 130 kilometers, taking all of five hours. Such morning rides and yoga sessions are calculated to prepare the team for strenuous global competition.
But the painful workout is already paying off. Kenyan Riders have become the first African team to qualify for the world-famous Tour de France, the pinnacle of cycling endurance.
Kenya is renowned around the globe as the home of endurance race champions. In the past 15 years, 12 Kenyans have won the London Marathon. The East African country is also home to Dennis Kimetto, the current marathon world record holder.
Now, there is a resolve to get the country to produce world class cyclists. The aspiring pedal spinners have joined the runners in Iten, a town known as the Home of Champions. Iten is located in the rift valley region about 7,000 ft. above sea level, making it the ideal high altitude training grounds for cycling athletes.
The man regarded as the inspiration for Kenyan cycling is 46-year old David Kinjah. He is optimistic that his younger compatriots will soon hit gold. After playing football and commuting to school on his old model bike, in the 1990s, he gradually dropped football and embraced cycling.
But, the coach of the Kenyan Riders, Simon Blake, believes that Kenyan athletes have a genetic advantage because most of the traits required for running are also beneficial in endurance cycling.
Coach Blake feels that the future of cycling in Kenya depends on more hard work such as developing young riders from grassroots, creating new clubs and teams, and bringing positive energy into the scene.
For the inspirational Kinjah, “A Kenyan team of just Kenyans, black Africans, seriously preparing to go to the Tour de France is a good dream but it will require a lot of funding. It could take, at least 5 years or more”.
The two men berate the lack of government support for cycling in Kenya as one of the main factors responsible for the slow growth of the sport.
They, however, hope that will not stop Kenya’s determined cyclists from reaching the top.
