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SPORTS
THE MESSAGE. BRINGING INTO FOCUS FILIPINO PRESENCE IN AUSTRALIA
www.kalatas.com.au | Volume 6 Number 7 | APRIL 2016
Heart to heart with Sikad girls
WESTERN Sydney’s Sikad Ta Dai (STDai)
all-female cycling group joined Bicycle
NSW’s Gear Up Girl (GUG) cycling event
last month in support of the NSW Heart
Foundation.
By MARILIE BOMEDIANO
STDai followed the formation earlier
of the male-only Western Sydney-based
Sikad Ta Bai (STB) cycling group which
held its first anniversary recently at
Penrith’s Sydney International Regatta
Center.
Sikad Ta Bai is composed mainly of
Visayan-speaking male riders who took
part in last year’s 34th annual charity ride,
the Multiple Sclerosis Sydney to the Gong
Ride a one-day community cycling event
held in Wollongong.
The group was founded by the
duathlon cycling group Fil-Oz Australia,
formed four years ago in July.
STDai started off as a group of wives
of STB members led by Cleo DianaMantua.
“Wives started to feel the lengthy
absence of the boys’ bonding during
their cycling events, so we decided to
“chaperone ride” every Wednesday at
6:30pm and Saturday at 6 am,” Mantua
said.
“Wives cycled alongside their
husbands, sweat together and eventually
this gave birth to Sikad Ta Dai.”
STDai is inviting more female riders
to join the group for their next event on the
program, the Spring Cycle and MS Gong.
Members of Sikad Ta Bai who participated at the MS Sydney to the Gong Ride (Wollongong)
Members of Sikad Ta Dai posed for posterity during their last ride as a group.