The Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho has a new hashtag – #MountainBikeKingdom and Mark West reckons it’s a fitting description.
Completely surrounded by South Africa, our tiny nation is renowned for high mountains and rough roads. These tracks used to be the exclusive domain of intrepid 4×4 drivers, but now more and more adventurous mountain bike riders are experiencing the delight of exploring Lesotho.
The most recognised of the MTB activities inside our borders is the annual Lesotho Sky stage race. However, the MTB bug has also spread amongst the indigenous Basotho people leading to the formation of the first ever African UCI MTB Team outside of RSA (ACE-The Sufferfest Lesotho MTB Team) with a goal of taking Lesotho’s finest riders to races all over the globe.
Every year more and more opportunities are opening up, and 2016 looks to be a great year for Lesotho MTB with the hosting of the African Continental MTB Championships at the Afriski Mountain Resort.
Cycling, as an organised sport, is still in its infancy in Lesotho. Back in the early 2000s the big attraction was the annual Tour de Lesotho road race, which featured the cream of South African and world riders, such as Malcolm Lange, Nic White, the Velits brothers and a very young Chris Froome! We soon realised how high the standard was (and how unfriendly the riders) in the professional peloton. Even training was a problem because it was difficult to find a long flat road to practise group riding. It was almost by accident that we discovered that our riders were actually pretty good at MTB and switching disciplines made perfect sense considering the landscape of Lesotho.
The switch to MTB also coincided with the emergence of the Lesotho Sky race as a major annual focus and the rest, as they say, is history.
Alongside Lesotho Sky, the AfriSki Mountain Resort in the north of the country is also working hard to develop mountain biking. As the names suggests, the resort was developed to take advantage of the alpine conditions in winter. Now the resort boasts a myriad of wonderful trails – from exhilarating downhill tracks (making great use of the ski-lift to get up to the top again) to sweeping XC trails and longer routes to the top of the Drakensberg Escarpment. The last weekend of each summer month is set aside as MTB Weekends and are very popular with riders from South Africa.
One thing that cycling in Lesotho highlights is that you don’t need a carbon fibre, dual suspension, 100k bike to ride. In fact, one of the jokes at the most recent Lesotho Sky was the failure of electronic shifting systems leading to very expensive single-speed bikes on some of the hardest stages. More and more cheap, second-hand bicycles are arriving in Lesotho, thanks to projects such as Mikes Bikes Africa, Bikes for Lesotho and Bicycles 4 Humanity. As a result, it is not unusual to be riding out in the middle of nowhere and suddenly be joined by one or two village riders pedalling like crazy to keep up and this has also led to a few ‘Spaza’ bike shops springing up. The newest is Teboho’s Bike Shop situated adjacent to Maseru Mall with plans to develop BMX and MTB tracks for children.
The Cycling Federation of Lesotho manages the sport of cycling in the country. The cycling calendar of events is actually quite busy, although many of the races do not reach sufficient an organisational standard to be worthy of involving visitors. These informal races do, however, provide a fertile breeding ground for young riders and that’s where the ACE Lesotho MTB Team comes in.
ACE Lesotho, or to give it its full title, ACE – The Sufferfest – Lesotho MTB Team powered by Unitrans was formed as a consequence of Team Lesotho’s participation in the 2013 MTB World Championships in Pietermaritzburg. It was such an honour for Lesotho riders to perform on such a big stage and there was undoubtedly a lot of raw potential, but it was obvious that they were lacking in basic MTB skills and the only way to address the deficiencies was to get to more races. We took a cue from teams we had met and realised that what Lesotho needed was a pro-mountain bike team.
In many ways, we try to emulate other pro teams – we have registered as an official UCI MTB Team, we endeavour to maintain a professional look and keep a high profile on social media. In that respect, I think we offer great value for money for sponsors as our operational costs are a small fraction of other pro-teams. However, we do not allow ourselves to be dwarfed by the bigger teams and hold our own in the UCI World Rankings by being smart and focused. Despite having little operational cash at our disposal, we have built up a great range of product sponsors (who we call our #DreamMakers) from suppliers all over the globe.
At the heart of the team is the underlying goal to give these young Lesotho riders an opportunity they would not normally have been given. Most of the team are from very disadvantaged communities and have experienced the hardship of losing parents at a young age and having to fend for themselves. Instead of being sucked into the despair and hopelessness that many of their peers have encountered, cycling gives them an immense sense of self-belief and hope. They not only become better cyclists, but they also become better citizens.
Visiting Lesotho is not as difficult or adventurous as you may think. We can certainly encourage anyone to come and visit us and guarantee you a warm welcome and an unforgettable experience.
Hopefully we will see you soon in our #MountainBikeKingdom and until we do, Lesotho wishes you “Tsela Tsoeu!” (pleasant trail!)
Bio:
Mark West is a Welshman living in Lesotho. He manages the ACE-The Sufferfest Lesotho MTB Team. Follow him on Twitter @lesothocycling.
