Thursday, October 7, 2010

Boane - Namaacha Race

Riders started at 7:20 sharp after a quick race-briefing. Race conditions were perfect with cool weather at the start and a light crosswind. Two riders arrived just as we were setting off (Ricky and Joao Rodrigues) though they managed to eventually catch up with the peloton at the base of the Namaacha climb. Boane hill warmed up the legs and lungs, and the Pedreira hill a few short km’s afterwards split the peloton with Imran, Carlos, Mario, Kinha and Gustavo in front, and the rest behind. On the flat section Kinha flatted but was reached by the race support vehicle which swapped out his wheel and so he managed to re-join up with the lead group, which had slowed their pace to wait for him. Abilio also managed to bridge to the front group and started the Impaputo/Mandevo climb with them. Mario attacked at the start of the climb and managed to pedal solo for the KOM points, with Kinha 2nd, Imran 3rd, Carlos 4th and Gustavo 5th. Mario maintained his lead on the down-hill whereas Carlos flatted twice on the descent, putting him out of contention. Gustavo to his credit stopped to offer assistance and inner tubes. Meanwhile Kinha and Imran were hot on Mario’s heels. Carlos then flatted again on the Pedreira descent putting him beyond contention, but still able to finish the race ahead of one of the back-markers. Mario managed to beat the previous course record by 17minutes and also maintain a lead of 4 minutes in front of 2nd placed finisher Imran. Kinha rounded out the podium in 3rd place with just a minute behind Imran and Simon managed 4th place. Ricky and Joao managed 5th and 6th which considering their late start is very god. Abilio Matusse came in 7th, just behind Joao (perhaps the memory of his accident during the previous race casting a shadow on his performance around the Pedreira). Chico managed 8th place with Gustavo a few minutes after him in 9th and finally Carlos and Simoes in 10th and 11th respectively.

Position

Name

Nac.

KOM

Time

1

Mario Traversi

ITA

15

2:56:00

2

Imran Akuji

MOZ

9

3:00:00

3

Antonio Fonseca

MOZ

12

3:01:00

4

Simon Wright

GBR


3:18:00

5

Ricardo Trindade

MOZ


3:19:00

6

Joao Rodrigues

MOZ


3:23:00

7

Abilio Matusse

MOZ


3:23:00

8

Chico Nobrega

RSA


3:27:00

9

Gustavo da Silva

POR

3

3:31:00

10

Carlos Sales

POR

6

3:41:00

11

Simoes Eugenio

MOZ


3:51:00

12

Manuel Malaia

MOZ


DNF

13

Yazid Imran

MOZ


DNF












Podium: (from left) Imran 2nd, Mario 1st, Kinha, 3rd


Ressano - Maputo cycling expedition

Saturday 2nd October 2010 a contingent of Clube de Ciclismo de Moçambique cyclists drove to the border town Ressano Garcia, planning to meet up with the LusoAfrica Ciclismo club, who were on a 4 day cycling tour from Johannesburg. Let's just say that things didn't go QUITE according to plan...

Andre and Theron keeping cool

Colette and Richard giving each other moral support



The LusoAfrica "broom wagon". Somehow they lost the rest of the cyclists.

Kallie in the 2m championships


Michael also competing..

And the winner is...... KALLIE, by several bottle lengths

No, Colette wasn't competing.. just waiting to start already!!

And they're off!

Simon still has a sense of humour..

Andre putting on a brave (blue) face


Simon... not smiling anymore



Well, the cycle expedition only managed to hook up with our visitors in Moamba after an interminable wait, were tempted with Beer and Pregos, had to face 25km/hr winds and 42 degrees of heat, but they still all managed to make it to Moamba. Some even went further.. but that's another story (Michael please send us the "after" pictures of your bike!).

Diehard cyclists who pedaled all the way back to Maputo