01 March 2013

First Tanzanian Professional Cyclist?


This just came in on the Arusha Cyclist mailing list:
(If you can't understand don't worry)

On Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 3:40 PM, Richard Laizer <laizer.richard@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hii  All.
How is everyone doing?we like to let's you know we will go to the last two bigs races in S.A.
This weekend on Sunday is S A championship Nelspruit  155klm.And i will ride with MTN team.for sure i will miss Hamisi becouse UCI team is not goinng to the race.they will be waiting for us to come back on Sunday just after finish the race will driving back to Potch 865klm. And on Monday will be together drive  to Cape Town  and the second day will be in Cape Tonw Tuesday.For tour of 5 days.So i will leave tomorrow  morning and back on Sunday.
Cheers.


What this means is Richard Laizer is riding on the MTN- Qhubeka team.   "Team MTN-Qhubeka, which is registered in South Africa, has become the first African team to join the second division of world cycling; the highest level from any team on the continent after the International Cycling Union (UCI) confirmed its status as a Professional Continental team for 2013."


And from April 2006 the young kid in the middle is Richard when he was about 15 riding with the big boys.


Our club is much bigger and faster than 2006.  On our Wednesday club rides there are more like 30+ riders .  We ride moderate for 15km, then we do intervals of different types for 30 km, then ride 15km at 40-45kph.  That last part is me just barely hanging on the back, and two days ago they dropped me the last 3 km.  Technically I should not be riding that hard at the end, but i think my 85% is their 70%.