Training camp helps hone young cycling skills

Date: 14 July 2016 By: Andries van Zyl

While many youngsters chose to stay indoors and hide from the winter cold this school holiday, there were those who decided they would rather prepare themselves for the upcoming schools mountain bike leagues.

This year saw a massive increase in the number of young cyclists who entered for the annual Limpopo Schools Cycling Association’s training camp hosted at the Schoemansdal Environmental Education Centre outside Louis Trichardt from 10 to 13 July. The camp organisers were Johan van Dijkhorst and Stanley Thompson.

Last year, 28 riders from across the province entered for the first ever Limpopo training camp, after it was decided that Limpopo had enough riders to justify its own event. Prior to that, a combined camp was held for riders from Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

Based on the success of last year’s Limpopo camp, the number of entries for this year more than doubled, with 74 mountain bikers in the age group U/10 to U/18 entering. This is attributed to the quality of skills development and training offered during the camp. “Last year we focused on both road and mountain-bike cycling. This year, however, the focus was mainly on XCO mountain-bike racing, although we did touch on aspects of road cycling,” Thompson said.

The cyclists followed a fixed programme for the duration of the camp. This entailed not only talks and demonstrations on technical skills, cycling safety and equipment, nutrition and personal health, such as heart-rate monitoring, but also a gruelling fitness training programme.

With regard to overall fitness, the camp started off on Sunday with a 40km endurance ride for the older riders and a 20km ride for the younger Nippers (U/10) and Sprogs (U/12). Monday saw the riders cycling out to the Hanglip plantation, where the focus was on riding techniques in overcoming obstacles such as rocks and tree stumps. A time trial also formed part of Monday’s hectic training schedule. This was followed up on Tuesday with cyclists taking on the steep and infamous cement road leading up to the military’s radar tower on Hanglip's summit. Following this gruelling ride and descent back to town, the cyclists held a team time trial, with the slowest team riders’ times counting. This was apart from the criterion race to determine who could complete the most 1,5km laps within a specific time. Since Wednesday was the last day of the camp, there was still no letup with regard to fitness training, with the cyclists having to complete the “Hanglip Half-Marathon”, entailing a 30km ride for the older riders and a 15km ride for the youngsters. Each night, all the children also had to complete a cycling-specific, hour-long intensive yoga session hosted by Christine Thomas.

“The aim of the camp was to get the children ready for the upcoming schools league. They all enjoyed it very much,” said Thompson. The first Limpopo schools league is the Tour de Gat at Phalaborwa on 23 July. This will be followed by the Tour de Lake at Stanford Lake College on 13 August, the Tour de Pot at Mokopane on 3 September and the Tour de Lip on 17 September, hosted by High School Louis Trichardt. “We are especially overjoyed at the number of youngsters who entered for this year’s camp. Of the 74 riders, 40 were Nippers and Sprogs. With that number of youngsters coming into the sport, Limpopo’s mountain-biking future looks extremely healthy,” Thompson said.

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Andries van Zyl

Andries joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in April 1993 as a darkroom assistant. Within a couple of months he moved over to the production side of the newspaper and eventually doubled as a reporter. In 1995 he left the newspaper group and travelled overseas for a couple of months. In 1996, Andries rejoined the Zoutpansberger as a reporter. In August 2002, he was appointed as News Editor of the Zoutpansberger, a position he holds until today.

More photos... 

Cyclists get ready for their final fitness ride on the last day of the Limpopo Schools Cycling Associations training camp hosted from 10 to 13 July. Great emphasis was placed on getting the children ready for the upcoming Limpopo schools mountain-bike league. Photo: Mark Archer.

Each night, all the children also had to complete a cycling-specific, hour-long intensive yoga session hosted by Christine Thomas. Photo: Mark Archer.

Based on the success of last year’s Limpopo camp, the number of entries for this year more than doubled, with 74 mountain bikers in the age group U/10 to U/18 entering. Photo: Mark Archer.