Cyclist steps closer to his dream with new bike

LYDENBURG – Promising young cyclist, Blessing Moima (18), recently took a few steps closer to his dreams when he received a brand-new 29” Momsen 626 mountain bike from Lydenburg Smelter, a Glencore Merafe venture operation.

“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 assist 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 from 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 focussed on his academic achievements,” Moodie said. “Our hope is that this sponsorship will assist Moima to establish himself as a successful cyclist in the local community and inspire other passionate youths to accomplish their goals.”

The total sponsorship totals R25 000 – R20 000 to Moima which include 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 I will try to get onto the podiums this year. I am already practicing 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 having joined in too. Last week a total of 45 athletes attended the session.”

“The athletes 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 cyclist 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.