The EMG cycling team, sponsored by the Mail & Guardian, will be competing in the 14th annual Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge on November 21 2010.
The race has been in existence since 1997 and has become the biggest event of its kind in Gauteng. This year 26 000 cyclists are expected to compete.
The EMG cycling team has been competing professionally for over seven years and the newspaper took over their sponsorship from Neotel earlier this year.
“Transformation in cycling has been quite limited,” says M&G editor-in-chief Nic Dawes. He said the paper was very pleased to be associated with a team that not only helped to develop disadvantaged youngsters into competitive cyclists but was also a winning team.
The Western Cape’s Yorkshire EMG Cycling Academy is growing constantly and 35 children from disadvantaged backgrounds, between the ages of 10 and 18, are trained to cycle competitively. Chairperson Ian Goetham said the academy does not only target gifted riders but aims to develop young people into lifelong cyclists.
The EMG professional team consists of six riders. Spectators on Sunday can look out for Dennis Van Niekerk, Loto Petrus, Clint Hendriks, Reynard Butler, Tyler Day or team captain James Perry.
Dawes will also be competing in Sunday’s challenge and is looking forward to a “fun day out”.
Hailing from Cape Town, Dawes will be racing for the first time in Johannesburg. The city, he said, is “enormously unfriendly” for cyclists. Roads are busy and dangerous and drivers are blithely ignorant of cyclists.
The race is about human powered transport reclaiming the city for one day, he says.
Professing to not be as fit as he once was, Dawes adds: “I don’t expect to win any medals.”
The race will begin early on Sunday morning at Maxwell Drive in Sunninghill and ends at the Waterfall Country and Equestrian Estate in Kyalami.
Go to http://www.cyclechallenge.co.za/ for more information.