We’ve built a winning team by pushing limits

[From left inwards] David Ndatha, Justine Ouma, Gabriel Ambuko and Charles Mbugua. The first three represented the country at the Multisport World Championships in Spain (April 2019) Justine Ouma is an upcoming dedicated female duathlete who trained with the team in the weeks leading up to the event.

“Cycling is like a language, it gives you access to people from around the world,” says Charles Mbugua, co-founder of the cycling group, Velonos. “When you cycle as a team, you become part of a larger family, which inspires you to aim for more.”

Charles started cycling in 2013. A year later, he and other riders formed Velonos, which today has 15 members.

In 2018, Charles won The Tilsnar Cycling Challenge, a worldwide event that awards a cyclist for completing the most kilometres in under 24 hours. The following year, Velonos sent two members of their team to represent Kenya in the World Multisport Championships in Spain.

Their dream is to improve, build talent and mentor the upcoming generations of cyclists. Charles spoke with Hustle about his passion and vision for cycling.

What made you start riding?

In 2013, Kenyan-born Chris Froome won the Tour de France cycling race.

Though he was flying the British colours, he was brought up and trained in Kenya. I was inspired by his performance and decided to take on cycling.

I bought my first bike for Sh15,000 and started doing simple things like cycling to work and back. Soon I was hitting distances of about 100 kilometres, which to me was a lot but in cycling circles is nothing.

How did you go from that to over 300 kilometres?

I met some brothers who were cycling enthusiasts and they convinced me to join them. I was skeptical because I knew their stats and didn’t think I could keep up.

The very first event we attended together was the Limuru SOS Time Trial, which took place in January. It was a 30-kilometre ride.

I didn’t do well but David Ndatha, one of the brothers, came in fourth even though he was riding a mountain bike instead of a road bike.

What’s the difference?

A mountain bike is built for off-road cycling while a road bike is built for speed. I got my first road bike in 2015, for Sh27,000. My second bike, which cost Sh40,000 coincided with my best training years between 2016-2017.

Some of your memorable cycling events?

The first one was the Tilnar Cycle Challenge in 2017. Tilnar stands for ‘This is life not a rehearsal’, and their mantra is, ‘Do your biggest ride.’ As a team, we decided to do a triple century, which is anything in the 300km range.

Five members of the team took the challenge, riding from our base in Thogoto, Kikuyu to Namanga and back. Only two of us completed the race.

On the way back it was dark. At some point I paid a motorbike taxi to ride behind me and light my path. I made it back to Thogoto with over 10 hours moving time.

What made you keep going when others dropped out?

The thing about team riding is that the credit doesn’t just belong to the ones who finish, it belongs to everyone because we push each other along the way. So when one of us accomplishes, it’s a win for everyone.

How exactly does the Tilnar Challenge work?

Participants ride from around the world and use an App, STAVA to record their distance and time, then upload it on the Tilnar site. They verify the data and allocate placements for all the participants.

In 2018, we registered for Tilnar again, this time gunning for 400km. I had to keep stopping to charge my phone because this was the only way to record our distance.

We hit Kajiado at 5pm. A rider who had joined us along the way asked if we had a plan B, because we still had 130km to go and people didn’t look like they would make it back. We hadn’t come up with a plan B because without one, the only option was making the 400km.

David and I made it back. The other person who came close was a rider called Brian, but when we got back to Thogoto and realised we had clocked 388km instead of 400km, he decided to quit. David and I kept going to make up the 12km.

That year, we won the Tilnar challenge. We were awarded the coveted Tilnar jersey which hangs at our base, Camp David, so-called because it’s at David’s house.

How did you end up qualifying for the MultiSport World Championships?

We started participating in the duathlon events. A duathlon is like a triathlon but without the swimming. David won two of the ones we participated in and we ended up qualifying to represent Kenya in Spain. The thing is, though, we had to come up with the funds to go.

Were you not backed by one of the Government sporting federations?

There is a Kenya Cycling Federation, but they are not very active - at least they weren’t for us. We were still determined to go. We knew we couldn’t take the entire team, so we picked two people to represent us.

The official uniforms we were required to wear to represent the country cost Sh25,000 each and the total amount we needed including airfare and accommodation came to Sh500,000.

How did you plan to raise the money?

We decided to do a fundraising challenge, and this time push ourselves to cover 500km in under 24 hours.

A different group led by David Kinjah - Chris Froome’s original coach - had completed 488km from Nairobi to Mombasa and we wanted to challenge that distance.

How did it go?

It was one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to do. We started out 11 people, three of them joining us from a different group. The idea was to ride past Namanga until we hit 250km, then turn back to Thogoto.

Making it to Namanga wasn’t difficult, in fact two of us went an extra 8km after we hit the 250km mark.

The greatest challenge came on the return journey. But we were encouraged by all the messages that were coming in from people who were tracking our progress.

They would call or text the support car to know where we were and how we were doing. It was amazing to know people were rallying behind us, so we continued.

What was the toughest thing about the ride?

The body giving up. It got so bad in places you’d find yourself falling asleep on the bike and veering off the road only to be startled awake by the hooting of the support car behind you. David had an issue with his knee, and we kept stopping to spray it. I was severely dehydrated and hungry but afraid of drinking water or eating because I wasn’t sure my body could handle it.

Everyone dropped off except David and I. The most exhilarating part of the ride was when we turned onto the Southern Bypass, because from that point we could smell home; the air changed, and we knew we would finish the race.

We made it to Thogoto at 2am after nineteen hours and five minutes, moving time. We had left our homes at 3:24am. David clocked 500km, I clocked 516km.

Did you manage to raise the funds you needed?

Yes. When we got home, I loaded the results of our race, ate and blacked out. In the morning I woke up to several messages of congratulations and donations streaming in. The best call I got that day was from Steve Strong of Farmer’s Choice. They donated Sh100,000.

After one more event we organised, we met our target and sent David and Gabriel to the World Championships.

Why do you cycle? Is there a monetary benefit?

At the highest levels of the sport? Absolutely.

But we are clear that for now, we are supporting charities like Tilnar, who have a feeding programme in Kenya dubbed, Porridge and Rice.  

The bigger reason we do it is because we believe cycling can and should be big in Kenya. We bring home running medals, why not cycling?

What needs to change?

Our federation needs to organise more races, support cyclists who qualify for events around the world, invest in coaches who understand cycling tactics and give publicity to the sport. We went to Spain to fly the Kenyan flag but bought our own uniforms. That needs to change.

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