Do you know about the Kwano Cycling Academy?
The soon to be registered non-profit organisation, Kwano Cycling Academy was started by Colin Shave, Paul Owen, Peter Green, Mike Brierley, Andrew Van Blommestein and Doug Hill a year ago.
Kwano Cycing Academy is a Mountain Bike Academy with focus on coaching and nurturing of young cycling talent, while maintaining strong connections to formal education.
Mountain biking is a growing sport in South Africa, and is very popular here in the Garden Route.
The opportunity arose when we realised that most activities nowadays cost money, especially in areas such as Kwanokutula.
We started up the cycling academy and allowed children from the Kwano area to join.
Thanks to the generous donations of bikes and basic equipment from Club members and many friends, the Academy started with 10 students and has since expanded to 14.
Twice a week, the Kwano Cycling Academy fetches these 12-14 children from Kwano and takes them to the Harkerville Forest where they receive skills and fitness training.
After the ride, students are expected to clean and maintain their own bikes which are stored on the Equine Librium property thanks to Ronel van der Sijde.
There has been tremendous interest amongst the students and the only limitation on participants is the number of bikes and logistics to and from the farm.
These twice a week outings are not the only thing that these students are involved in. Many of them are entered into races and competitons.
One of the incredible highlights of this year are the two young boys who have been sponsored tickets to race in the SANI2C – which is one of South Africa’s biggest and more difficult races to get in to.
We have two riders and two reserves who are on an extensive training program to prepare them to complete the approximate 300km race in 3 days.
This upcoming weekend, we are taking these athletes to a pre-Sani2c event in the winelands, sponsored by Nedbank.
In the long run, we would like to approach the municipality and perhaps get a piece of land in order to build facitilites – we would like to have a training facility and BMX park as well as an after school program that teaches and helps students in the maths and science arenas.
Currently, the soul beneficiary of the Tour de Plett is indeed the Kwano Cycling academy – all profits made at the event are in support of the expansion of the academy and growing passion of the students for the sport.
Sponsors/donations are needed for this program to continue to grow and be a success in this wonderful community.
We would like to encourage people to get involved and even join in on one of the rides during the week – bring your bike and kit and enjoy the trails on which our students thrive.