Copa2012

The Copa2012 Calendar has been unveiled finally, just in time for the summer break.

2012
Race 1 - 19th February - Corrida Imran Akuji - 70km +/-. From Maputo to Boane
This race will commemorate Imran and pass by the spot where he was killed
Race 2 - 17th March - ITT (Individual Time Trial) Goba - 10.2km A tough climbing time trial starting just out of Goba town and climbing up to Goba Fronteira, with sections nudging 9% and overall a 450m climb
Race 3 - 18th March - Volta a Goba - 66km. Starts in Pequenhos Libombos to Goba town and back on the old road. A tough jutting climb just 7km from the finish will separate the men from the boys.
Race 4 - 8th April - Hell of the South Classic/ Rei do Sul - 117km - Race traditionally held on Easter Sunday, a southern counterpart to the Hell of the North, Paris Roubaix. Some question the appeal of this race, which pits riders against a pot-holed road between Boane and Moamba, and indeed the rider with the best wheels and technique generally wins. Lady luck needs to be on your side as well.
Race 5 - 26th March - ITT Namaacha - 16.6km and 490m of climbing. Time trial starting from Mandevo to the entrance of Namaacha Town. Last year the long-standing record was smashed. Anyone game to do better than the 37:36 record now held by Miguel Teixeira?
Race 6 - 27th March - Classica de Namaacha - 130km. Race starts in Pequenhos Libombos towards Goba on the old road, then back towards Namaacha on the main highway. First KOM will be at the top of Namaacha town. The race then continues around the Canada Dry road with another KOM at the highest point of the race. A final KOM on pedreira hill just before the barragem turn-off. This classica has a few route changes and so there is no course record.
Race 7 - 3rd June - Classica de Goba - 112km - Pequenhos Libombos start but towards Boane, then up Pedreira hill and on the new road towards Goba, up to Goba Fronteira and then back down on the same road, up Pedreira Hill and then the Barragem turn-off. First KOM will be Pedreira Hill, 2nd KOM is Goba Fronteira climb, third KOM is Pedreira Hill return. Intermediate sprint will be at the Goba/Namaacha intersection, about 30km into the ride.
3 DAY TOUR OF MAPUTO:
Race 8 - 23rd June - Desafio da Pedreira - 80km - Start in Matola petrol station towards Boane, up over Pedreira hill, down the bottom, then back up and towards Boane, then the Mozal loop with a sprint finish just in front of Shoprite Matola. KOM points to be finalised, but probably Boane town, Pedreira hill going up, and then pedreira hill coming back.
Race 9 - ITT Costa do Sol - 23km - Time trial starts at Costa do Sol bridge, to Mugabe Roundabout and back along Marginal to Costa start. Fairly flat but with a rough section after Southern Sun. This will pit the Triathletes against the roadies. Wind will play a part, so beware the disk wheel
Race 10 - Volta a Cidade - +/- 70km - Route is still being designed but will be a circuit race around Maputo city with some climbs. Not a criterium mind you, so there will be a possibility for escapes and some artful dodging... More details to be announced. As with all circuit races and criteriums, there will only be Sprint points on offer, with 3 intermediate sprints and a final finish sprint.
Race 11 - 8th July - Team Time Trial Baracchi - +/- 75km - This race emulates the famous Italian race of the same name that pitted two-man teams against each other. Coppi was a famous winner, as was Merckx. Will you and your partner be the next winners? Start will be at the Sasol Petrol station on the EN4 just outside of Matola, out towards Moamba and back. No place to hide in this race, and again, wind will be a factor. Will the triathletes prove their worth, or will the roadies be triumphant?
Race 12 - 29th July - Classica Dois Picos / Twin Peaks - 170km - The piece de resistance of the Copa Ciclimso. The longest race. The most climbing. Longer and tougher than the Jock Cycle Classic in nearby Barberton, where they even had to chop the race into three to make it appealing. None of that here in Mozambique. Might be lucky there will be a waterpoint... But other than that pain and lots of KOMs. First KOM at the Namaacha Climb. Second on the Canada Dry Loop in Namaacha. Third KOM in Goba. Don't bother showing up unless your're a serious cyclist.
Race 13 - 5th August - Elimination Criterium - 44km - Back on the flats for a crit with a difference. After the first 5 laps, the last placed rider in each lap will be eliminated. 3 intermediate sprint points on laps 5, 10 and 15. Final lap also carries sprint points. Make sure you can accelerate fast!
Race 14 - Subida Monte Ponduine - 83km - Many of you may not know but Maputo Province has a highest mountain, and it is called Ponduine. The "peak" stands on the edge of 3 borders. That's the tourist info. For riders what's more important is the final 20% gradient they will have to face to get up there. Put your compact crank and mtb cassette on to make it up this monster. Race starts in Pequenhos Libombos, up to Namaacha, around Canada Dry and up Mt Ponduine for a mountain-top finish. KOM1 is at Namaacha, while KOM2 is at the top of Mt. Pondiune. A car will take you back to the start.. as you won't be able to ride back
Race 15 - Classica EN1 - 160km - Marracuene start to Palmeira and back, with a final kick up 5km from the finish. Rather boring race that may get substituted by a Classica da Cidade circuit race if we can get permission to paralyse Maputo for a day. Details will follow.
Race 16 - Critérium de Maputo - 44km - Facim circuit race, and last Copa Race. An excuse for a party afterwards, but the tough sprints will keep the riders alert. Sprints on every 5 laps. Green jersey hopefuls, this is your last chance!

RACE start times are all 7:30am. Punctuality is the name of the game in 2012, and anyone getting there late will either be penalised or will simply have missed the boat and can rather go do a training ride or something.. Also, the best 12 results will count towards General Copa Classification, so you needn't worry about missing a race or two, as you can still be in the competition. Each race carries a max 15 points for the winner, and first 10 riders get points on a sliding scale. Riders from 11th place onwards who finish the race get half a point. Riders who start but don't finish for whatever reason get a quarter point as consolation.

We have the following categories in the Copa Ciclismo 2012:
Yellow Jersey for Overall winner
Green Jersey for Points Winner (sprints)
Polka-dot Jersey for King of the Mountains
White Jersey for U23 Rider. Let's hope we have more than one rider next year..
Red Jersey for Most Aggressive Rider. This isn't for the guy who throws bidon's and knocks other riders over..
Black Jersey for the rider in last place with the most number of completed races. A time cuttoff will apply though of 30% of the winners time.. so you can't just come and ride around for hours doing training.. You have to race for it. Trick here is not too fast and not too slow.

Also age-group winners will also get trophies - Juniors (16-18), Seniors (19-29), Sub-Vets (30-39), Veterans (40-49) and Masters (50+)

We are working to get the idea of teams off the ground. If this happens next year, then there will also be a team classification prize. Teams will be limited to 4 riders for the 2012 season.

The idea of the game is participation, competing, finishing races and above all having good fun.
We look forward to seeing you at the next Copa2012!

Last Copa Ciclismo Race for 2011 - Criterium de Maputo

And so we have come to the end of another Copa Ciclismo. It's been a roller-coaster ride this year, with so many things happening in cycling - some of them good and unfortunately some of them also bad. We lost two old-time cyclists - Imran to a car accident at the start of this year's Copa and more recently Rui, who succumbed to an illness. They were both cornerstones of our Copa Ciclismo and we hope they can be proud of this year's events.

On the upside we had an increace in attendance in this year's copa, with the most races staged in it's history - 23 events, not counting the national events. We had a successful Africa Games, with the first ever National team taking part and laying the groundwork for future successes. The Club attended the first-ever UCI World Cycle Tour event in South Africa, hoping to qualify for next year's final in PMZ. We had a successful prelude to the Tri-Nation's cup in October together with the Luso Africa Cycle Club and the Swaziland Cycling Association, with a circuit race in Maputo on the same course as today's race. The Club and National team riders took part in a very successful Goba Siteki race, where most of the podium spots and trophies were taken by our Club. We've seen an increase in cyclists, as well as some old names come back with a vengenace - Joao Rodrigues - no-one was expecting your second place at today's race! The strongest segment however seems to be the Veterans, and although this club racing may stroke their egos it's time to think about the next generation of cycling, and hence today's event, which was the Maputo Criterium, for men, women AND children. Thanks to the tireless work of the Mozambican Cycling Federation we were able to obtain full road closure from the Maputo City Council, which meant we could stage this event and be confident that the little ones would be able to enjoy themselves without having to worry about cars. We had the continued support of Southern Sun, who put up the prizes for the men and women's podiums. Agua de Montemor made sure we were hydrated after a tough but short race, and with the temperatures climbing steadily, it was a welcome refreshment. Many other sponsors have helped in making this year's Copa a success - Ara Sul, Kioske Digital, CDM, Vodacom, Nova Vida. We hope to count on many more in the future, and Panda Sports have already come on board and will be supplying the winner's jerseys for the 2012 edition.
For the kids the Club members pitched in to get some cycling gear and other prizes for the participants. CDM, via their Grolsch Ambassador Simon Wright had some prizes for some of the more unusual categories that don't generally get mentioned at cycle races, but are just as important as the usual 1-2-3. We need to remember that we do this for fun (especially me, seeing as I haven't seen a podium spot in quite a while :-))

So, here goes the photo essay for today's race. Enjoy.

Impressive - the start line.

Ready...

Steady..

Go!

First neutral lap.. Some of the instructions however were lost in translation. Anyone have a Swedish phrasebook?

Kinha taking the first sprint point. But would he last at this pace..?

What lap is this?!?!

Mathieu taking the second sprint followed by some tough competition

Lars taking the third sprint of the day. Look at the gap!

Make way for the ladies coming through - Liliana taking the fifth lap

Patrick taking the race in his normal understated style

Joao Rodrigues hanging onto second with a desparate Lars pushing right to the line for third. Bruno in his first race showing comes in an incredible 4th place! Watch out for the new blood..

Vicente and Mathieu, 5th and 6th. Look, there's a UFO!

No.. it's just Betinho trying to fly. 7th place

Ooops, my shoelaces are undone. 8th place.

Grichon showing how it's done in style..

..and double hip-replacement Ian, showing how bionic men do it

KIDS RACES - 8 to 13 years old

Um.. wait, these are the ladies. What are they doing here?!?!

KIDS RACES - 4 to 7 years old

Ahem.. what's this Triathlete doing in the kiddy race?!

KIDS RACES - 2 to 3 years old

PRIZE-GIVING

Best-dressed male cyclist with best-dressed female cyclist. Will they still be dressed after all the beers?

And the cyclist with the longest hair prize goes to.... a man! Well done Assane

Messias,the backbone of our race organisation

The cyclist with the most spare parts replaced. Good on you Ian.. we expect to see you at more Copa races in 2012!

Results:
Mens:
1st - Patrick Verissimo - 1:14:32
2nd - Joao Rodrigues - 1 second
3rd - Lars Noren - s.t.

Best sprinter: Lars Noren with 16 points! He's also our oldest cyclist.. Goes to show

Ladies:
1st April Kelley
2nd Joanna Knuepple
3rd Liliana Sultane

Kids 2-3 years old
1st Alex
2nd Mei
3rd Charlotte


Kids 4-7 years old
1st Federico
2nd Riade
3rd Yanick


Kids 8-13 years old
1st Belton
2nd Xiwewa
3rd Mario

94.7 done and dusted - now it's time for the ARGUS

Another 94.7 race is finally over.. This was the 15^th edition of the Cycle Challenge, everyone’s race as they like to call it. Although not every race in the world can boast a commentator like Phil Ligget, the “Voice of Cycling”. But above all it is a litmus test for cyclists all over South Africa and surrounds to battle it out against other cyclists. The Clube de Ciclismo de Moçambique was present again this year, although with a slightly reduced complement. Here are their results:

Patrick Verissimo	97.4	2:43:31	D
Mario Traversi	97.4	2:53:56	A
Carlos Sales	97.4	3:03:27	K
Francisco Nobrega	97.4	3:04:16	E
Simon Wright	97.4	3:34:45	E

The “numbers” don’t tell the full story though. For that one must dig a bit deeper. Group D was a massive group with 500 odd cyclists, containing Patrick, a few Swazi riders, and a lot of South African riders bent on carnage. Patrick managed a fantastic 2:43, just 2 minutes behind the leaders of his group, and the best time of any Moz Club cyclist this year, and probably 3^rd or 4^th time overall Club time through the ages.. Mario (that’s me) on the other hand started in the altogether more rarefied “A” group (13^th start group of the day…) with some seriously competitive cyclists who tore the peloton apart in their attempts at a best time. He (I) managed a “disappointing” sub 3, just a minute over last year’s time, so no personal best improvement, and the group position was nothing to write home about either. It was only the finish line coming when it did that avoided me coming in with Patrick’s D group, because B and C had already thundered past! Carlos on the other hand managed to get into group K, and through the “traffic” of slower riders coming off the front groups managed just over 3 hours, but more importantly came in 10^th out of his whole group, and shaved off 20 minutes off his previous PB (personal best for those in the know..) so a big round of applause for his effort. Chico also missed on breaking the sub 3 barrier, but also put in a personal best time, beating his previous time by one and a half minutes, and that is considering that his previous best was done on the 3km shorter course. Simon finished a little bit over his personal best time, so still has a target for next year. Let’s hope his road bike sees some more riding action this year.

The next cycling appointment is the Cape Argus on the 11^th of March, just 16 weeks away. For any of you who have any doubts, the Argus is the world’s largest cycle race, and perhaps also one of the most beautiful. I know that many who didn’t take part in the 94.7 this year are “saving” their legs for the Argus, so we should see a massive number of riders from the club taking part. Our Swazi brethren are organising a Coach option, and have extended an invitation to us to go down with them, so we might even try and field a super-group once down there. There is also talk of doing a “double”. But most importantly we’ve seen a shift in power amongst the Club riders, and some challenges being laid down ahead of next year’s Argus. For starters there is the Sub-3 prize, which I believe has not been done by any Clube Ciclismo riders, although if I may have wronged any of my readers then please send appropriate Racetec results or copy of your timing certificate, to set the record straight. And then there will be the title of fastest club cyclists. This is no Copa Cicilsmo event. This is no 94.7. This race is the BIG one, and to be considered a racer of renown, you need to complete it and do well. So get out there during the holiday season and start laying down those base miles, because it’s going to be a long 110km race in March…

Long Tom Pass

The "start" of the climb. To reach here we'd already done 55km, most of them uphill


"Long Tom" Cannon, a Boer gun used against the British. We thought we'd arrived, but were still far from the summit! Good place to fill water bottles though

After many tortuous switchbacks and some steep climbs the road opened out onto a mountain-top plateau.. We'd finally arrived. Note Carlos holding on to the sign so as not to collapse!

..and me leaning on the pole so I don't fall flat on my face!

Cycling in Africa can be a bit of hit and miss. As in you almost get hit, or just miss getting hit by a passing truck or car. Or hooted at for no reason. However, even so, there are some fantastic roads to cycle on, and many of them conveniently located close to Maputo, Mozambique, where I live.

On the 10th of November 2011, Carlos Sales and I set about taming one of South Africa's highest roads, the Long Tom Pass. This road connects Sabie with Lydenburg, and before the existance of the N4 highway, was possibly one of the main roads to reach the rich goldfields of Pilgrim's Rest. The aptly named "Lowveld" region is peppered with mountains and mountainpasses, though none as high or as long as Long Tom Pass. However, it didn't quite start out like that.. Our expedition was supposed to be a gentle ride from Nelspruit to Maputo, 209km away, on a generally downward slope from 650m down to sea level. However we decided, almost last minute, that this rather long but boring straight road would not do, and so turned our attention to Long Tom. Then, as if we weren't already looking for trouble, we decided to attempt our ascent not, like any normal soul would, from either Lydenburg or Sabie, the two towns on either end of the road, but from the rather further placed town of Nelspruit.

Our climb would start from 650m on sea level and finish at 2150m. In between lots of rolling terrain and some demoralising switchbacks, a fantastic day for driving, but not for cycling with temperatures in the high 30's (celsius..). To call it a tough climb is not to understand the point. It wasn't tough. It was impossible. It was unrellenting. It was wondrously beautiful, but at the same time as dangerous as a sharp knife. The steep ascents would have to be decended carefully, the chasms below separated by a thin steel barrier.. It was two cyclists against the elements (heat), against a mountain, against what is humanly possible. After 150km though we'd tamed the beast, had a new appreciation for Long Tom, and made it back safe and sound. Our bodies were sore and tested, but we still managed a wry grin. Because of course we're not satisfied.. We've done it once, we'll have to do it again!