06 Jul 2012 Hout Bay Cycling Club just gets better and better!
The Hout Bay Cycling club celebrates its second successful year based at James House, a community NGO serving the poor of Hout Bay which provides a base for the club.
By way of a thank you to Christo Reid, Director of James House, the club organised a charity ride to raise funds for James House projects. The ride was the brain child of Josh Rubenstein, a grade 12 Waldorf student and one of the club’s volunteer coaches. Josh selected four of the top riders to take part in the epic 400 km three day ride, which started from Hout Bay and averaged 133 km per day. The route took in three major passes: Helshoogte, Franschhoek and Bains Kloof and took the riders to places they had never been to before. The four HBCC riders all survived and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
“It was a great achievement for Uzusiphe (Bob), Viwe, Luvo and Victor as they had never ridden so far in one day let alone 400 km over three days! With more than 20 hours in the saddle this ride was the equivalent of riding an Argus Tour (and more) three days on the run!” Josh explained.
It was a major highlight for the club when the team proudly handed over a cheque for R15 000 to a delighted Christo Reid at James House. The presentation took place on 16 June which coincided with the National Youth Day celebrations. In Christo’s words “This demonstrates to me that today’s youth can work together in true Ubuntu style to improve the lives of others less fortunate. The timing of this donation could not have been better as James House is busy making up food parcels to give to starving families in the local community. Thank you all for this very welcome donation.”
This event also marked a milestone for the club which came into being two years ago when the Pedal Power Association recognised the need for a development club in this area and granted funding. This was the start of a journey which saw the club membership growing from 7/8 riders using old and dilapidated MTBs to today where the club has 18 regular riders each riding a good second hand road bike. The members are all drawn from the informal settlement Imizamo Yethu in Hout Bay, most living in shacks and supported by only one parent or a relative.
This year saw 17 riders completing the Cape Argus/Pick n Pay Cycle tour in much better times than last year. Our top rider, Mmeli Mkuku finished the event in 3 hours 28 minutes, a fantastic achievement while several other riders beat 4 hours. The club continues to grow and is focussing on recruiting younger riders from the ages of 12 or 13 as older riders leave to concentrate on their education.
The Tuesday afternoon session is dedicated to bike cleaning, bike maintenance and repairs with Themba Mekoa our resident mechanic overseeing activities. Thursday afternoon sees the club taking to the road with a brisk ride over to Noordhoek or into Sea Point accompanied by one of our ride leaders. Saturday they are able to do a longer ride of +- 60km leaving the clubhouse at 8.30 am and heading for either Simon’s Town or Kommetjie where the boys stop for a drink and something to eat before returning home.
In the summer months the club attends as many of the PPA funrides as possible using the trailer kindly donated by Pedal Power Association which carries 13 bikes.
As you can imagine this takes lots of energy and support from the small committee which is made up of Stewart Banner, Tim Cartwright, Mark Crisp, Iain McIntosh, Janet Moss and Solly Moeng.
Sadly, Mark Crisp, our treasurer/accountant and general helper has just left us to travel around the world visiting his family. Janet our secretary and one of the founder members, is also leaving later this year. So the club is hoping to fill these roles with two or three (or more) volunteers who would like to help us carry on the good work started here.
If you would like to find out more please contact Janet Moss 021 790 0807 or email janet.moss@telkomsa.net
The club would also like to thank PPA once again for the continued financial support, without which this project could not survive
