Saturday cycle races - MTC & Petromoc

Saturday 28th of May saw The Ministry of Transport & Communications (MTC) as well as Petromoc each organising a short cycle race.

The 8km MCT race, which started at 8am from Shoprite Maputo and finished at FACIM ended with the following results:

1st Gustavo da Silva
2nd Antonio "Kinha" Fonseca
3rd Joao Antonio "Betinho" Cuambe


Petromoc's 14km race started at 10:15 at the OMM square and was two laps of the Lenine / Mao Tse Tung / Nyerere / Kaunda roads, and saw the following finish in a hotly contented sprint:

1st Joao Antonio "Betinho" Cuambe
2nd Gustavo da Silva
3rd Joao Rodrigues

It is good to see these initiatives promoting cycling within Maputo. The races had good TV coverage, police escort as well as ambulance on stand-by. We thank the organisers and sponsors for organising and hope to see more of these events in the future

Cape Argus certificate!

It's finally arrived. I have proof.. I missed a sub-3 hour Argus by TWO EFFING minutes..
Well, it was still an absolutely fantastic race, and if I can improve my downhill speed it can blow a blizzard but I'll still make it in under 3 hours.. That is if I don't have a flat.. Those I can't handle. Anyway, here's the certificate in all it's (momentary) glory..

Mafutseni Dups Road Race in Swaziland - Race report

The Mozambique Cycle Club was invited to participate in the Mafutseni Dups race in nearby Swaziland on the 21st of May. The race comprised three distances - 80km, 50km and 20km.

We met up the morning of he race at 5am at the Ronil petrol station in Maputo. Our team comprised Eugénio, Kinha, Carlos, Patrick, Vicente, Yazid and Mario (yours truly), with Messias, Antoninho and Marques along in a support capacity. We set off, made quick time to and through the border, and just as well as the indications of the starting point for the race were a tad off.. by 40km in fact! However we quickly reached Mafutseni and were met with a warm welcome by the Swazi cyclists. Little did they know that we were there to take some of their medals.. or at least try!

The main race started at 8am and had a strong police presence as well as race marshals, first aid and was littered with waterpoints along the way. The Mozambique team kept a strong pace right from the start, which caused a few grumbles in the peloton as some were having trouble keeping up along the "flat" route, which comprised of several hills strung together for the first 20km or so. Once at the top we were down to a third of the starters, but the pace didn't relent as now the Swazi's kept the pace high on the front.
A few km's before the turning point Carlos drifted off the front, while the Swazi's took a breather and the rest of the Moz team found itself on the front. An attempt was made to get a breakaway with the whole team, but some miss-communication meant that the group was eventually caught before the turn.
At the 40km turning point one of the Swazi cyclists, Fana, managed to slip off the front which meant that the Mozambique club had to do the chasing and the majority of the Swazis sat in the back. Vincente was keeping a stong pace until his rear derailleur packed up, putting him out of contention. Carlos then took up the batton trying to close the gap to the lone cyclist but with no help from the Swazi's and with everyone tired it was a doomed effort. At around the 50km mark the peloton split as Kinha, Thulani and another Swazi kept a strong pace uphill, while the rest were getting out of breath. However after a breather a chase group formed with Patrick, Mario working well in co-ordinated pulls, with Calvin in tow. At around the 70km mark, just as the Kinha group was catching Fana they were caught by the chasers, with Calvin finally putting in a few pulls to close the last 500m gap. The final 5km to the finish were uneventful with everyone looking around and no-one wanting to commit to any attacks, knowing that the uphill finish would play havoc with the legs. In the end a simultaneous attack by Kinha on the left and Mario on the right annulled themselves as Thulani and Calvin took the centre with the latter's strong sprinter's legs carrying him to the finish line with a nice 10m gap from Thulani, closely followed by Kinha and Mario, and finally Patrick.

Cameraderie between Swazi and Mozambican cyclists - Thulani & Eugénio

Carlos eyeing the race start

The start - Good police escort ensured a trouble-free and safe race

In the 20km race Yazid Imran put in a sterling performance to win top honours

The Mozambique Club puts on the pressure right from the start - Patrick powering forwards

Mozambique Club again on the front - race record was broken mostly due to the high pace we kept

However the Swazi's weren't about to be outdone on their own turf!

Carlos about to launch his solo attack just before the 40km turning point

40km turning point - Mario closely followed by eventual race winner, Calvin Lowe

Moz Club in a paceline, chasing the breakaway

Vincente is out! His race has been derailed

Calvin at the finish line, having just broken away from the pack

Kinha & Mario at the finish, battling for 3rd place

Menzi congratulating the Mozambican Club

Prizegiving!

Kinha 3rd overall in the 80km race

Yazid, 1st overall in the 20km race


Mario, 1st in the Veterans Category and 4th overall in the 80km

Patrick, 2nd Veteran and 5th overall 80km race

Classica de Namaacha cancelled!

Hello everyone. I was hoping to be able to share a fantastic result at the latest copa race, the Classica de Namaacha, a 145km race climbing up to Namaacha and finishing at Shoprite Matola. The race started well enough with about 14 entrants and more or less on-time at 7:10. However descending to the Matola River and past the Police check-point the fog got so bad that visibility was down to 10-15 metres. To make matters worse two riders (including yours truly..) went down on a patch of oil in the road. The race organisers decided to call it a day, in view of the fact that besides the fog we'd be battling the oncomming traffic for the better part of the race, due to the religious ceremony that had finished that morning in Namaacha itself. Close to 2000 cars and countless walkers had made the pilgramage to Namaacha the previous friday and saturday and would be returning..
So we opted for a reverse Mozal loop where we simulated a sprint and then headed out towards Moamba and back.

The good news is that we have 10 entrants for the Swaziland Dups Mafutseni race which will take place next Saturday. This race will be the first event of the Tri-nations cup, which will be disputed between Mozambique, Swaziland and (maybe) South Africa.

As for the Classica.. all is not lost - we'll most likely substitute it in the coming weeks so as not to lose this iconic race.

Cheers, and until the next post.

PL Training ride

This past Sunday, 7th of May, an intrepid trio braved the cool Maputo Autumn for a "quick" ride out to the district of Namaacha. Not the climb mind you. That we'll tackle this weekend at the Classica da Namaacha race. No this would be a pleasant training ride to keep the muscles supple in preparation for our race. And who was this intrepid trio? Mathieu Destrooper, a Belgian cyclist who has recently embarked on his Mozambican adventure; Patrick Verissimo, our up and coming vet climber; yours truly, Maputo resident for almost 18 years (and counting).. We met at the designated spot in front of FACIM in downtown Maputo at 6:30 (ish..) hoping for some other cyclists who seem to talk more about cycling than actually training. When they didn't appear we set off at a leisurely pace down the glass-strewn 25th of September. Must have been quite a party the night before.. Out to Matola and the pace gathered speed as we descended down to Matola bridge on the wet road from the rain the night before. Fortunately no big puddles on the Boane road and the sun slowly warmed the road up and everything turned dry. Arriving into Boane we stopped off at our usual Galp Petrol station for a quick expresso, no pun intended, and then set off to conquer pedreira hill, which would be the steepest climb of the day.
The pace was high from the start and we suffered along the final uphill section... at least 2 of us did. Mathieu seemed like he was cycling down a hill. Once to the top we descended down the other side and then back up again, training for the KOM sprint spot.
Then on to the Pequenhos Libombos loop, over the dam wall and past the Libombos resort village. It was a glorious day, fresh but with few clouds and the gentle slanting sun that warms but doesn't over-heat. With the cold southerly wind it made a nice combination.
Once through the Libombos peritimetre gate we set a fast paceline hitting over forty km's per hour right up to the railway crossing. Then over the damaged bridge, open only to pedestrian traffic and back up to Boane and a little refreshment at the Galp station. We'd pushed hard and long, but all still felt strong. After that it was another strong paceline through to Belhorizonte and up Matola Hill, which after 100km proved a bit of a killer. There we separated as Patrick and Mathieu went for some extra Mozal loops and I headed home to a nice breakfast. All in all an energetic training ride that was a bit of fun as well. A perfect cycling outing. Looking forward to the race though. Cycling is a drug!