Makae fine-tunes for Commonwealth
NTHAKO MAJORO
MASERU – Lesotho’s Tumelo Makae will fine-tune his Commonwealth Games preparations with the Union Cycliste International (UCI) Mountain Bike (MTB) World Cup. The upcoming UCI MTB World Cup is set to take place in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, from July 8 to 10 this year, while the Commonwealth Games are scheduled to take place in Birmingham, England, from July 28 to August 8.
This is going to be Makae’s second time competing at this global cycling event. His first time was in 2018 while still relocating in Switzerland. Makae did not finish the competition after he was overlapped on fourth lap out of six. But this time around, Makae is looking to intensify his 2022 Commonwealth Games preparations and nothing else.
“Of course, my main aim is to intensify my preparations for this year’s Commonwealth Games with the upcoming UIC MTB World Cup,” said Makae in an interview with Public Eye on Wednesday this week. The UCI World Cup, Makae said, was a highly competed cycling event in the whole world.
“Obviously, this is the highly competed cycling event in the world and it is therefore worthy for any cyclist to compete, whether in preparation for other major events or out to win it. It is so competitive, probably XCO (cross-country) race because that’s the highest level of racing.” But Makae said since his main aim was not to actually win the Lenzerheide event, he is therefore not going to put himself under pressure.
As part of his preparations for the same Birmingham Commonwealth Games, Makae has already competed at several cycling races outside the country and in the country. “I have competed at the Free State Championships held in Bloemfontein, South Africa on February 20 this year where I came out in first position. I also competed at the SA (South Africa) Cup on February 26 where I finished on position 19.”
Makae also competed at the Criterium National Road Championships held on March 12 this year, where he made fifth position. He came on third position in another national road championship held on April 2, before coming on 7th position at the MTB African Championships which were held in Namibia on April 23. “These are cycling events which I have used to prepare for the Commonwealth Games and I can say so far my preparations for the games are going well,” Makae said.
This is going to be the second Commonwealth Games for Makae after the 2018 edition of the games which were held in Gold Coast, Australia. Makae finished the men’s cycling competition on position 19 at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
