Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 90, January 2017 | Page 52

Ma Schools Cycling

Spur League
Continues to
Inspire
Academy, the Tshwane Urban Riders as
well as Sedibeng, as our way of giving
back to the community,” says Deon.

A

record 2016 Spur Schools Mountain Bike
League season, that saw more than
10,500 kids competing across South
Africa, culminated in a nail-biting final
at Bekker School in Magaliesburg on 11 October.
With 438 mountain bike riders representing 84
schools, the racing was once again fierce as the
youngsters chased top honours for their schools.
Reigning Gauteng League champions, Menlo Park
High School, rode off with the boys’ team as well
as the mixed team titles, and also claimed the
coveted title of National Spur Schools Mountain
Bike League Champions. The girls’ team title went
to Potchefstroom Gimnasium, with Menlo Park
taking second place.
With the inter-school champs out the way on the
Saturday, the following day saw the 2016 season
wrapped up with the Spur Schools Mountain Bike
League Inter-Provincial Championship, which saw
the top riders in each of the competing regions join
forces for their provinces. With only the 10 best
results scoring points, defending champs North
West Province successfully held on to their title
with 242 points, narrowly beating Gauteng (240)
and Western Province (224).

MAN WITH A PLAN
The Spur Schools Mountain Bike League is
organised under the auspices of South African
Schools Cycling (SASC), which in turn is affiliated to
Cycling SA, and serves as a development initiative

to create a platform for schools to compete against
each other and raise the profile of the sport at
school level. The league has been running for 16
years, and for the past 11 years the man in charge
has been Deon Steyn, President of SASC, who
organises the Gauteng league events, oversees the
leagues in other provinces, and is in charge of the
national finals. Deon is based in Krugersdorp and
works as a Project Manager for Siemens Midrand,
but his passion for cycling dominates his spare time
– he is also one of only seven official Union Cycliste
Internationale (UCI) commissaries in Africa, and
was recently appointed chief commissaire for the
2017 ABSA Cape Epic event.
Deon says he has taken great pride in watching
the league grow over the past decade. “At my first
schools event in Gauteng in 2005, there was an
amazing turnout of just 43 riders. I was hoping
for at least 50, but I didn’t quite reach that target.
Now, 11 years down the line, the field in that
particular event has grown to nearly 700 riders
between the ages of 13
and 18, and we now have
about 80 schools in the
Gauteng league alone,
some of them with up to
80 riders. We have both
big and small teams in
the league and for the
past few years I have
also taken it upon myself
to enter riders from the
Diepsloot Mountain Biking

DEON’S DREAM
According to Deon, one of the big positives of
the school leagues is the great support from the
parents of the kids who participate, but he says
the sport still faces some obstacles. “The schools
cycling league is registered under CSA as a cycling
category on its own, but trying to affiliate cycling
as a school sport is a bit of a challenge. The
Department of Education and the Department
of Sport and Recreation are not as easy as one
would like, making it a really tough process. I
am currently busy establishing a schools cycling
committee, and although the focus is on mountain
biking, I am looking at starting a school track
cycling league as well. My goal is that I want
cycling to be reco gnised as an official school sport
and I will not stop trying until I have succeeded!”

The next Spur Schools MTB League season will start in May.
For more information go to www.bikebeat.co.za or visit the Bike Beat Facebook page.

52

ISSUE 90 JANUARY 2017 / www.modernathlete.co.za

Images: Courtesy Deon Steyn

Continuing our schools cycling series,
this month we chat to Deon Steyn,
organiser of the still-growing Spur
Schools Mountain Bike League, which
is contributing hugely to the growth of
cycling in schools. – BY KYLE DEELEY

The Spur Schools League now has
an official board in seven out of nine
provinces, and Spur has been the
national title sponsor for the past eight
years. The provincial leagues run from
May to September, and October sees
the National Final take place, just before
matriculants start their final exams, and
Deon says the youngsters really embrace
the competition. “To kick off this year’s
Gauteng league season, we decided to have a
captain’s function where we handed each of the
team captains a captain’s armband to be worn
during the series. That was a major hit!”