GOOD NEWS TRAVELS FAST!
Some time past midday on Sunday 11th of September, 2016,
the 3rd and last day of the Ride2Nowhere, I was on my way to visit a friend. As
I left the premises, in the road, beyond the back gate, were four young men on
bicycles. Having just completed stage 3 on the final day of the event, they had
come hot-footed and triumphant to share their news and were enthusiastically engaged in an animated conversation over the gate with
Suenel and the Breede Centre’s Pieter Holloway.
There was a festive feeling to it. The lads were
fired up. I sensed that something good had happened, and it had. Here in the
street before me was four sevenths of the WeChat-McGregor MTB Cycling Team that
had just competed as First Timers in the gruelling Ride2Nowhere.
The good news was that in a field of seasoned
riders and professionals, with only a month and a half to train from scratch
for the event, all seven of our McGregor competitors got to the finish line in all
three stages, including among the top 30 First Timers in the first stage. Even
more remarkable individual results were returned by certain members of the
team.
During the initial stages of setting up the
Ride2Nowhere event in McGregor, the sponsor, WeChat, was concerned that
McGregor would not have a home team competing in the race.
This apparently was unacceptable to them, so ... ‘n
boer maak ‘n plan ...
A TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE:
The Ride2Nowhere has come and gone. The village has
settled back on its heels and resumed its leisurely routines. All is back to
normal. For the members of the WeChat-McGregor MTB team, life will never be the
same again... They have come from nowhere and after the experience are going
somewhere.
From just being ordinary members of their community
and going from day to day living out routines of their conventional student
lives they were catapulted into an exciting new action oriented milieu that
demanded that they sit up and take notice.
First came the surprise opportunity ... word
had gone out from the Breede Skills Centre that WeChat, along with
Ride2Nowhere, was wanting to sponsor a local MTB team and that those
who were interested should apply for selection.
WeChat, an organisation that was concerned with
community, provided seven team mountain bikes and footed the bill for the cost of
competing.
Ride2Nowhere picked up the spirit of the idea and
sponsored the cost of entry for the WeChat-Mcgregor team. Max, a professional
rider, organised sponsored riding gear. The Breede Skills Centre fulfilled the role
of Co-ordinator and was the glue that kept it all together.
After that it was INSPIRATION, PERSPIRATION,
CO-ORDINATION AND CO-OPERATION all the way to get the team ship-shape and onto
the starting line one and a half months hence. A big ask ... how would our
First Time Competitors meet the challenge?
Dawid Booysen, of amiable character and ease of
manner and the only young adult in the team, filled me in on the process...
“How did you get involved?” I asked.
“I was at the Centre when the bikes arrived. It was
exciting. I was inspired by the opportunity. I felt the need to get involved
... to get fit. I could manage the team. So that’s what happened.”
“How did it go from there?”
“From the applicants, Con Viljoen of Ride2Nowhere
identified seven potential competitors. Six were finally selected and I took
the seventh spot so I could manage the team and the riding.”
“Do you know if any of the applicants had any race
experience?”
“They had bikes to get around, but that’s about it.
There had to be a training schedule followed by a lot of hard work.”
“How did that all happen?”
“The training was overseen by Stephan Viljoen and
Max. On week days we met at 5pm and concentrated on technique. Mostly we rode
on short courses on single track.”
“Where?”
“Stephan Viljoen allowed us to ride the single
track MTB routes on his farm at Steenbokvlakte.”
“What did you do about building up endurance?
Surely you had to get some kilometres on your legs?”
“That’s for sure. On Saturdays we did long distance
endurance rides of around 60 kilometres.”
“Were all the team members up to it?”
“We were all into it. We were really pumped. To us
it was getting into the big-time and we were going to make the most of it.”
At this point I was non-plussed that these young
competitors with a history of only casual daily riding behind them could become
credible competitors with such limited preparation and deliver admirable
performances in an event that was a challenge even to professionals. It sounded
like pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking to me.
I am an ex-cyclist, and over the years having
ridden the majority of tracks and back roads around McGregor on a regular
basis, I had a good idea of the calibre of the achievement.
In the end I had to put the success down to
youthful strength and fitness. The real news was the transformative effect.
A NEW VISION
After chatting to each of the team members in turn I
have no doubt that the Ride2Nowhere challenge, in which they took part with
distinction, has given them all a boost in self-esteem, self-belief, and
self-respect.
Recognition from parents and the pride they took in their boys was a wonderful
confirmation of self-worth for all the participants.
They have become “somebody” in their community and engender respect and
admiration wherever they go. Pivotal is that they have become role models
for the younger children.
They found that their peers looked up to them ... and regarded them as heroes.
Most significant was the fact that they had proved their self-worth to
themselves and could take themselves seriously. There seemed to be a burgeoning
of a will to achieve something in life. If any benefit from their
participation in the event should be treasured, this is it.
From my point of view I sensed in these boys a new assertiveness and inner
confidence ... but where will that go and how will that be applied after the
initial flush of triumph and recognition?
Well, the Breede Skills Centre, in its drive to enable self-empowerment in the
community, has thought of that. It will assume a continuity role and organise
new rides and ongoing participation in events on the MTB Calender - next up is
the Van Loveren Event. To complete the process, it will also develop a girls
team.
Certainly, The Ride2Nowhere has come and gone, but it has served as a catalyst.
The effect will be enduring and the McGregor community will reap the benefits
for a long time to come.
Adapted by the Breede Centre from the original article by PAUL PANOS
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