Moorosi Tsiane
LESOTHO’S number one cyclist, Phethetso Monese, says he is still hopeful of improving his performance in last year’s edition of the Lesotho Sky despite enduring a difficult start this year along with his partner Tumelo Makae.
Monese and Makae are riding for Alliance Insurance Company and were by yesterday in third place after day three of the competition.
French duo of Allard Basile and Remy Bourdon came first on the first day while the second stage was won by Reinhard Zellhuber and Andrew Hill of South Africa.
Basil and Bourdon were once again the winners on the third day with second day winners now coming out as runners-up.
The first stage of the race was the 60-kilometre Metolong loop on Monday. On Tuesday the riders competed in the 85 kilometres from Roma to Malealea.
Yesterday it was a 36-kilometer Malealea loop while today they will ride the 56-kilometer Malealea Monster before going back to Roma on Friday. They will finish with a Roma loop (42km) on Saturday.
Sixty-six cyclists from 11 countries are competing in the eighth edition of the race which will see winners sharing among themselves a whopping M80 000.
Monese told the Lesotho Times yesterday that he was still hopeful that they will do much better than last year although he now has a new partner.
“So far we are number three and it hasn’t been an easy battle,” Mosese said.
“However, I still think we can still do better. We just need to push harder on the remaining days and see how far we can go.
“Last year I was partnering with a South African and we came out second in overall but this year I am with one of the best in the country and I believe in him and we still have three days to fight.
“The competition is not really different from last year and this is one of the reasons for which I still have hope and believe we can do better.”
Other local riders in the race are Malefetsane Lesofe and Katleho Manasi who riding for Standard Lesotho Bank and are currently fourth.
