Confidence boost before champs
Kargo Pro MTB had a confidence boost ahead of this weekend's African Continental Champs in Cape Town with the confirmation of their International Cycling Union (UCI) status, team manager Shaun Peschl said on Thursday.
Picture: Gallo Images
The team has broken new ground in the local mountain biking fraternity by becoming the first ever South African mountain bike outfit to be registered with the UCI as a UCI Cross Country MTB World Cup Trade team.
“We are thrilled by the news that we can now officially call ourselves a UCI mountain bike team for 2014,” Peschl said in a statement.
“The timing could not have been better, with African Champs less than 24 hours away, and I’m sure all our guys will now be even more motivated to do well in Cape Town than ever before.
“Looking at how far Doug Ryder has gone with his MTN Qhubeka team on the road: he has truly been an inspiration for us and we hope to have the same impact on the South African MTB scene,” he said.
The UCI’s acceptance of the Kargo setup would result in the ‘Proudly South African’ outfit turning their full attention towards their short term goals, while bearing in mind their ultimate motivator, the Olympics.
“We really are very proud of the fact that almost all of our setup is South African. All our riders are from SA, our title sponsor, Kargo, is a South African company and even the bikes we ride, Momsen Bikes, are from here.
“We had a really good pre-season and our season began nicely a couple of weeks ago. Now it’s all about fighting for every UCI point available.
“Short term goals for us are to be as consistent as possible locally, to achieve good results at the UCI World Cups and the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and to have at least five of our riders compete at the 2014 World Champs, while our long term dream is definitely all about the Olympics.”
– Sapa
