A New Domination in Pro Cycling
There’s been a change recently in the sport of pro cycling. Over the past couple years, the focus has been on performance enhancing drugs…..but the fact that there’s a new domination taking place is the real story.
Royston from Knights of Mo’Bay cycling clothing and accessories is here with his thoughts and predictions.
The Kenyans are Coming: New Domination in Pro Cycling
by Royston
In 2011, the wheels of change were in motion for the Tour de France. The Grand tour welcomed its first black cyclist, Yohann Gène….Guadeloupian member of the Europcar team that year. When the sport of cycling got rocked with the news that Lance Armstrong took Performance Enhancement Drugs, pro cycling was thrust on the ropes of its tainted PED history going into this year’s 100th edition of the Tour de France.
This year’s big news was not PEDs, but by the domination of cyclists from Africa and South America. The Tour will never be the same. We had two third world, born athletes from high altitude regions standing on the final podium. Chris Froome of Nairobi, Kenya, first and Nairo Quintana of Colombia, second. We also had Daryl Impey of South Africa became the first African to don the famous yellow jersey.
I believe the cycling world will start to look to Africa, South America, and the Caribbean to change the face of cycling, the same way the Kenyans changed long distance running at the 1968 Mexico Olympics. Chris Froome was trained by the Kenyan Cycling Development team of Safari Simbaz in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Kenyans gave Chris Froome his first bike and trained him to be a racer. Froome speaks proudly of his Kenyan heritage and cycling development foundation. My prediction is that all of the major teams are putting together travel plans to go south of the equator looking for the next Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana.
Maybe there is some truth the Kenyan Slogan, the Kenyans are Coming!
Up until this very moment I always thought Froome was from the UK.