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Oudtshoorn Youth Cycling Festival

The Youth Cycling Festival in Oudtshoorn took place from 11 to 13 July 2023 and is open to all under-13 and under-19 cyclists in South Africa. This year over 2 000 cyclists competed in various cycling disciplines such as criterium races, road races, team time trials, mountain bike cross-country and mountain bike oval track events.

A total of 25 cyclists were selected from the Nedbank Sports Trust Cycling Development Programme. They attend schools in the West Coast, Cape Metro and Winelands.

The races tested the cyclists’ skills and ability to perform as a team and exposed them to high levels of performance from all the provinces within the different disciplines. This festival is a top event for talent identification with the view to develop the future stars of professional cycling. Participants earned points for both themselves and their provincial teams.

The cyclists performed well and managed to achieve the following podium placements:

  • Third place in the under-19 boys category
  • Third place in the under-19 boys team time trials
  • Third place in the under-13 and under-17 girls mountain bike events

Each cyclist who achieved a podium placement will be eligible to participate in the January 2024 Western Cape Road Cycling and Mountain Bike Championships.

‘This is a wonderful annual festival of youth cycling that identifies and nurtures talented cyclists during and beyond their school years,’ explained Tobie Badenhorst, Head of Group Sponsorships and Cause Marketing at Nedbank. ‘We are very proud of the Nedbank Sports Trust development cyclists who competed and achieved these good results.’

Mike Tippett, Manager of The Sports Trust Cycling Development Programme, said: ‘We were very happy to have had 25 of our cyclists selected for Oudtshoorn this year. Not only is this festival a great place for these cyclists to race competitively and prove themselves, but it is also a great team-building and barrier-breaking event where they get to meet with other cyclists from all over the country. Our three-year plan and goal, going forward, is to have 200 cyclists participating in the cycling development programme by the end of 2024.’

The Sports Trust thanks Nedbank for its continued funding of this programme for the past 18 years, which has given these school learners the opportunity to participate in the sport of cycling. The trust also wishes to thank Cycling South Africa and Eden Cycling in the Western Cape for hosting this year’s Youth Cycling Festival.

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