The Sunday News
Simba Jemwa, Sports Correspondent
SEVEN RIDERS belonging from top Bulawayo cycling club, Unimills-Hokoyo Cycling Club left the city this Tuesday morning enroute to Johannesburg, South Africa to take part in the 94.7 km (58.8 miles) long 947 Ride Joburg.
The seven left in the company of their coach, Chris Kazingizi himself a retired top rider in his day. In addition to being fully vaccinated, all seven riders and their coach were tested for Covid-19 on Monday and all were declared fit to travel.
Speaking just before he and his team left for South Africa, Kazingizi said he was happy with their form especially his captain Andrew Chikwaka and Advocate Phiri who are both expected to finish among the top riders in Johannesburg.
“I am happy with the way the team has been racing and training. We had four very competitive races in the last month in which our riders have been very dominant. Andrew and Advocate have proven their mettle locally and I am confident that they will be very well placed at the 947 Ride Joburg Race,” Kazingizi told Sunday News Online.
Among the traveling party are club captain, Andrew Chikwaka who won the Volta A Bulawayo this past weekend and his hard riding teammate, Advocate Phiri who was narrowly pipped to the finish line by top South African rider, Nolan Hoffman who won the 109 km (68 miles) long Cape Town Cycle Tour last month. Phiri lost out to Nolan by two seconds in the sprint finish at the Bambos Road Race held in Harare over the weekend.
Hoffman, has won his fourth Cape Town Cycle Tour finishing in a time of two hours and 37-minutes.
The annual 947 Ride Joburg, formally known as the 94.7 Cycle Challenge, is the world’s second-largest timed cycle race, after the Cape Argus Cycle Race. The race is held on cycle challenge Sunday, the third Sunday of November in the South African city of Johannesburg.
Annually, between 20,000 and 30,000 participants complete the challenging 94.7 km (58.8 mi) course every year. The event’s main sponsors are top radio station, 94.7 and Telkom although it has been previously sponsored by Momentum.
Ahead of their departure for South Africa, a local supermarket chain sponsored the cycling club to the tune of R20 000 to go towards their expenses in the upcoming 947 Ride Joburg.
Edward Gwekwete, former school mate of Muhambi from Mazowe High and now based in the Cayman Islands has also purchased donated 3-months’ supply of supplements valued at over USD3000.
This was revealed by the cycling clubs’ founder, Davis Muhambi as the team left by road for South Africa this Tuesday morning.
“As a club we are very excited with these sponsorship packages which go a long way to improve not just the quality of our riders but the sport in general. We hope more corporates will come on board and help us empower our youths in this sport,” said Muhambi.
Unimills-Hokoyo was founded in November 2020 by Muhambi as a youth empowerment program for young cyclist in Zimbabwe from underprivileged communities, and has already managed to win everything in Zimbabwean cycling so far this year.
The program has been described by many people involved in cycling as ‘real youth empowerment on steroids’.
TEAM:
Nkulumo Dube, Thulani Dube, Advocate Phiri, Andrew Chikwaka, Solomon Mugavazi, Mthokozisi Sibanda, and Amos Chakaza.
Coach: Chris Kazingizi
@RealSimbaJemwa
