* Mbeya, a developing Malawian professional cyclist, is a clinical officer from Mzimba District
* He is set to compete in three demanding and very different cycling disciplines, including the Gran Fondo (Friday, August 4)
* A distance of 100 miles through the Perthshire countryside, which entails 1,663m of ascent
* Also to undertake a 60-mile Cross-Country Mountain Bike Marathon (August 6) and a 14-mile time trial in Glasgow (August 7)
By Duncan Mlanjira
Neil Bilsland, manager of Billy Bilsland Cycles in Glasgow, Scotland has supported Malawian cyclist, Macpherson Mbeya with a loan of three top-of-the-range bikes for different disciplines in his quest to participate UCI Cycling World Championships scheduled to begin on Thursday, August 3-13.
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Mbeya, a developing Malawian professional cyclist, is a clinical officer from Mzimba District who is set to compete in three demanding and very different cycling disciplines, including the Gran Fondo (Friday, August 4) — a distance of 100 miles through the Perthshire countryside, which entails 1,663m of ascent.
He is also undertaking a 60-mile Cross-Country Mountain Bike Marathon (August 6) at Glentress in the Tweed Valley and a 14-mile time trial in Glasgow (August 7).
Mbeya’s participation has been facilitated by Scotland-Malawi Partnership, a civil society network coordinating that supports and represents people-to-people links between the two nations, and in a statement, the network said they approached Neil Bilsland after he also “generously lent out bikes to Malawian athletes to compete in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow”.
The statement said Bilsland swiftly accepted to assist “within minutes of an e-mail to his shop, saying that he’d love to support Macpherson with a 51 Cervelo Caledonia with Ultegra; a 51cm Cervelo P3 Di2 and a Genesis Mantle HT.”
Mbeya is quoted as saying: “This will be the first time in my life that I’ve seen, let alone used such bikes! I never dreamed that I would get to ride a bike that’s the correct size for me.
“I’ve had to modify the road bike which I use in Malawi, which is too big for me. I’m really looking forward to competing in Scotland, to meeting friends there and to representing my country.”
The statement also quoted Stuart Brown, interim CEO of the Scotland Malawi Partnership as saying they are thrilled of Mbeya’s participation, saying: “Each of the cycling disciplines is for elite riders and it’s particularly impressive that Macpherson is taking part in three of these gruelling events.
“Billy Bilsland Cycles in Glasgow are again being so supportive and we really appreciate the generosity of Manager Neil Bilsand and his team. Along with our Scottish riders, we’ll be cheering for Macpherson.”
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Mbeya is accompanied by Cycling Federation of Malawi president Malombo Kayira, who will also attend the World Championships.
The Federation is providing some financial support to Mbeya and a GoFundMe account has been set-up to help cover the cyclist’s costs.
Organised by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), this is the inaugural championships awarded to Glasgow and across Scotland that has attracted more than 2,600 athletes to win over 200 rainbow jerseys.
According to UCI’s website, the championships are set to be held every four years in the year preceding the Olympic Games, brings together various disciplines of cycling for them to be held as part of one event, including the UCI Road World Championships, UCI Mountain Bike World Championships and UCI Track Cycling World Championships.
The inaugural event, whose funding is from various local and national bodies, including the Scottish Government and UK Sport, will host 13 individual UCI World Championships, and be the biggest ever cycling event — in total, over 190 world champions will be crowned.
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