Cyclist step closer to his dream with new bike

LYDENBURG – “It is the first time I got a brand-new bike and I have never been so excited,” he said with a broad smile. With very limited resources, Moima showed a lot of promise since the day he took up cycling. “From the first day he came across as a motivated and passionate cyclist,” Elzanne Moodie, HSEC manager of Lydenburg Smelter, said.
The company decided to help this young man to become a professional athlete and to assist him with proper cycling equipment to enable him to compete on a provincial and possibly national level.
They also provided a smaller sponsorship to a professional cyclist of the community, Lourens Beeslaar, who will assist Moima in his training and race planning. “Beeslaar will provide feedback on his development and assist Moima where required to enable the young athlete to accomplish his goals while still remaining focused on his academic achievements,” Moodie said. “Our hope is that this sponsorship will help him establish himself as a successful cyclist in the local community and inspire other passionate youths to accomplish their goals.”
The total sponsorship totals R20 000 to R25 000 to Moima which
includes a mountain bike, cycling kit as well as race entries, and R5 000 to
Beeslaar which will go towards race entries for the 2014 cycling year. Moima would like to thank Lydenburg Smelter and Beeslaar for their support. “I promise to do my absolute best and will try to get onto the podiums this year. I am already practising and every day after school I join Beeslaar. He is a very good mentor and I will try my best not to disappoint anyone,” he said.
Every Wednesday at 17:15 Moima trains with Beeslaar near BUCO and they encourage cyclists and runners to join them (Gears and Tears) for half an hour’s training.
“The idea is to create an opportunity for the community to get active and
involved in sports,” Beeslaar said. Gears and Tears is an initiative that
“accidentally” happened while they were training.
“Moima brought a few friends along and before we knew it there were more than 20 cyclists. Since then, it has grown weekly with runners joining too. Last week a total of 45 athletes attended the session.”
“They get the opportunity to see how many laps they can complete within the 30 minutes,” Beeslaar said. He compared it as a crit race, except for cyclists being stopped after half an hour to prepare for the final race lap.
A crit race is better known as a bike race held on a short course – in this case 1,1km, on blocked-off city streets.
“Riders, and in this case runners also, have the opportunity to improve their personal best each week, and still compete in the final racing lap if they wish to.” There are also various prizes up for grabs sponsored by BJF Financial Services. For more information visit Gears and Tears’ Facebook page.