Velokhaya race in Cape Town, South Africa. By Lloyd Ramsay

Sep 22, 2009

Written by Bart de Jong

Read 8124 times

Velokhaya is a government funded effort to get more kids from impoverished areas onto bikes. On the entry form it read that they would only accept 120 riders but I had my doubts that so many riders would be there. I was wrong. So many kids arrived they had to cut off the entries and they were all ready to race! German coach Swen Lauer has done a great job as I saw all the riders doing stretches and warming up properly before the race as opposed to myself who just did skids in the parking lot to get ready.

The track was the roughest BMX track I have ever ridden on. When the locals get to a smoother track they are going to kill it. The Team Jeep bmx team was present as was local television station E-TV. On the mics were Glyn and Sipho with race commentary in English and Xhosa respectively. Not many venues that can boast that.

I have never seen a crowd go so crazy at a BMX race and they were in turn treated to some awesome racing. Kids having fun on bikes is what it is all about.