In little more than 2 years this club has gone from riding bikes sourced from the scrap heap to becoming the strongest and most consistent junior team in Uganda, and the de facto National Youth and U23 squad, representing Uganda at East African UCI events, winning Team Bronze at the ANOCA zone youth games (Olympic Committees of Africa) and individually winning events such as Tour de Machakos in Kenya in 2019.

4 riders picked to represent Uganda at the African Continental Road Championships in Cairo 2nd-6th March 2021. So all now have passports.

Following these championships, the riders will have UCI ranking points; the first step on their way to a potential career in cycling! The perfect time for somebody to link to/sponsor theses riders for a run of good news stories / general media exposure. The opportunity for international travel and a chance to ‘achieve’ for these children is phenomenal, considering where they come from and what their prospects would usually be. The inspiration they are generating for the whole school cannot be underestimated. Though the government are now on board with representational funding, and Kampala Cycling Club will also support the riders; it is critical that these riders are able to exploit their upcoming opportunities and invitations, and this may require some funding support beyond 1mC’s present capabilities. To inspire future development of the club and younger riders it is also important to put independent funding streams in place.

At the same time as trying to provide for these ‘elite’ riders we still want to grow the club and expand the general cycling activities to provide transport, mechanical training and business opportunities for a much wider number of students. We see it being feasible, with investment, to build more of a cycling hub in the town of Jinja for the burgeoning road and MTB cycle tourism that has sprung up around what is the source of the river Nile ( Jinja is trying to fill some of the void left by the decimation of a truly World Class white water rafting community following the building of hydro plants).