Africa-Press – Lesotho. African Dream Team manager Mark West says the cycling club is battling for sponsorship as it looks to rebuild for 2022. The African Dream Team is Lesotho’s only professional cycling team and West said it has struggled since losing The-Sufferfest, an Australian company, as title sponsors in 2019.
According to West, the African Dream Team, which was founded in 2014, has been unable to continue with the same activities as in the past and that may continue until it secures sponsors.
Cycling, of course, remains a niche sport with a small audience and the pandemic has only made things more difficult for those in the sport to stay afloat.
It is also a lot more difficult to secure sponsors and, as a result, the African Dream Team has not been registered with the International Cycling Union (UCI) for the past two years after being members every year since its affiliation in 2014.
West said this has impacted the team’s riders seriously because many of them depend on allowances received from the team. “Sponsorship for our team from The Sufferfest, which is an international cycling brand based in Australia, ended in December 2019.
So, even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, we were not going to be able to continue with team activities as we had done in the past,” West told thepost.
“As a result, we did not resister with the International Cycling Union (UCI) as a team for both 2020 and 2021.
The impact was devastating for the team as cycling is their passion, and many of them depended on the allowances from the team to survive,” he added. The African Dream team is home to several well-known Lesotho riders.
The main name is Phetetso Monese. The 36-year-old Olympian has been cycling all his life but is now nearing the end of his career. Another big name is 31-year-old Teboho Khantši who won the Lesotho Road Race National Championships last Saturday.
The team also boasts young, highly-rated riders such as Tumelo Makae and Ramohanoe Ramohanoe who have made big strides and are now household names in the team.
West said the team is grateful to the Lesotho National Olympic Committee (LNOC) for its continued support of Makae and Ramohanoe. At the moment the team is left with one sponsor, Unitrans Lesotho.
West said this has enabled the team to continue with its bare minimum of activities, including the Sani2C race in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa last December and some races in Free State recently.
“Going forward, I doubt that 2021 will be much different than last year, but we can start working towards 2022 with the hope of rebuilding the team,” West said.
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