Author: YASINTA AMOS
AfricaPress-Tanzania: A TOTAL of 60 riders, consisting of men, women and children have cycled from the City Centre to Arusha National Park, at the foot of Mount Meru, in preparation for the September Cycling race also to be held here.
According to the Arusha Cycling Association’s Secretary General, Joel Senny, the cyclists covered 60 kilometers to the National Park as part of a cycling warming up ahead of the forthcoming grand race, coming up in September this year.
The race to be held from September 11th to 13th this year, will set history of being the longest cycling event this year with 360 kilometres to be covered in three days.
Dubbed ‘Tanzania Heritage Tour,’ the maiden larger-than-life cycling event is being organised by the Arusha based, ‘Rexlex Cycling’ Company, in conjunction with the regional cycling association here.
According to Senny, more than 100 riders from all over the country, including Zanzibar will participate in the so-called ‘Stage Tour’ cycling event.
The cycling tour will be flagged off from Arusha City, heading to Mirerani Mining Hills of Simanjiro, in Manyara Region where the youth aged between 15 years and 45 years will make a stop at the Great Wall, surrounding Tanzanite Gemstones Mines.
The second leg of the tour will see the riders returning to Arusha and diverting into Arusha National Park then cycle within the tourist attraction sites before heading to Engikaret animal corridor on the third day and also touch the highlands of Mount Meru.
The bicycle tour aims at branding the country, promoting tourism after the Covid-19 lockdown, boosting youth health, creating entertainment and providing employment for young people.
As it happens, the main 360 kilometers race will be partaken by healthy male youth, the women cyclists will just cover 300 kilometres, a lesser distance which will also be undertaken by older riders as well as younger youth at the rate of 100 kilometers per day.
