Phetetso Monese and Tumelo Makae team up at 2018 Lesotho Sky Race

Phetetso Monese is going for gold alongside Tumelo Makae at this
year's Lesotho Sky Race...

Lesotho’s premier cyclists Phetetso Monese and Tumelo Makae are teaming up for this year’s Lesotho Sky Race which started today and ends on Saturday

The ACE-The Sufferfest Lesotho MTB Team cyclists are racing under for Alliance Insurance this week and are part of 33 teams competing at the annual mountain bike showpiece.

This year’s running of the Lesotho Sky is the eighth edition of a race that has grown from strength to strength each year since its launch in 2011 and now carries International Cycling Union (UCI) ranking points.

This year 66 cyclists from 11 countries have registered to take part with South Africa leading with 37 the entrants while Lesotho has eight.

The other competitors come from as far afield as Germany and the USA.

2018 Lesotho Sky participants by country:
Lesotho	8
South Africa	37
Germany	5
USA	3
France	2
Belgium	1
UK	1
Netherlands	1
Belgium	1
Switzerland	1
Austria	1

This year is the first time 2016 Olympian Monese is teaming up with a local cyclist in the race contested by teams of two riders.

Last year Monese paired up with Stuart Marais from South Africa and the duo won silver.

This year Monese is looking to go one better alongside Makae who is now based in Switzerland as part of a Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Scholarship.

In total, Lesotho has three teams at this year’s Lesotho Sky. Standard Bank Lesotho has a team comprising Malefetsane Lesofe and Katleho Manasi.

There is also a Vodacom Lesotho women’s team made up of the promising Likeleli Masitise and Botswana’s Bakang Ebudilwe.

Other prominent riders at the Lesotho Sky 2018 include the French Olympic pair of Basile Allard and Rémy Bourdon.

In total, competitors will cover just over 360 kilometres across six days.

The race began today with the 60 kilometre Metolong loop which passed by Thaba Bosiu and Qiloane mountain. Tomorrow cyclists will embark on an 85km ride from Roma to Malealea.

Cyclists will then race in Malealea for two days before the race returns to Roma on Friday. The 2018 Lesotho Sky will conclude with a 42km Roma loop on Saturday.