After reading Ronelle's thread and I also pm her, I came to the conclusion that there are fantastic people in South Africa.
I am involved with races in my area (Queenstown) and on Saturday we had our annual Longhill Challenge MTN race.
We had a development team here consisting of 15 young black riders , from a very small town called Molteno.
This is a very similar story to Ronelle's except that in this case we have 2 samaritans called Rudi de Wet and Hannes Aucamp. They are both 2 very keen mountain bikers and have organised bikes, clothing etc for these black riders, and now take them to all the races here in the Border area at their expense.
The best part of the story is that one of little chaps were riding with a Bell sweep helmet ,that belonged to a person by the name of Burry Stander.( I hope it makes him faster!!) I assume Burry is also involved.
There were also numerous Mongoose riders -- old shirts from Caitlin de Wet, the ladies SA halfmarathon champ from last yr. etc etc
One of these chappies got a podium on Saturday in the 40km half marathon and another a 4th place -
I think its brilliant that these 2 gentleman have taken these riders from nowhere and assists them with training and maintaining there bikes. Apparently they train up to 4-5 times a week and is very enthusiastic.
I dont want to hijack Ronelle's thread, and therefore spoke to her about this. She suggested i start my own story.
Would it not be fantastic if we that can afford bikes and attend races, do similar things in every town in SA?
If you feel that you can make a difference to these very keen development team riders lives with parts or bikes. Pls mail Hannes at hospadmin@molteno-sa.co.za or tel 045-9670089 option 4 on keyb.
(I noticed that some of these chappies still ride on rigid fork bikes and i think 7 speed gears.)
