Our Purpose

The Masaka Cycling Club exists to create fair and equitable opportunities for cycling talent in developing African nations. 

Our Vision

We will bring global cycling together to remove barriers and fight for a more inclusive cycling community free of inequality.

#equalityforall

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THE G!RO COMMUNITY'S SUPPORT

We have been proud to stand alongside Masaka for the last 6 years or so, and the work that Ross and his team have done out there is truly significant and having a lasting legacy. Your regular support, both financial as well as kit/bike donations is well received and going to good use.

Its an honour to stand with such a great community there in Uganda, and see how cycling is changing lives.

Over past few years we have see Masaka build their clubhouse brick by brick, and to see the riders who started there now have Pro Contracts is so incredble!

But there is work to do, and more lives that can be helped with cycling... so lets start now!

Central Uganda is a very challenging region within the East African Nations and is home to the first known case of AIDS/HIV, a disease that has destroyed generations of Ugandans.

It boasts some extraordinary female and male cycling talent, yet this talent faces many daily barriers. Poverty, corruption, access to food & clean drinking water, basic medical support, safe infrastructure, equipment and opportunity to participate in races throughout the region to showcase this talent.

The project has been created to enable cycling fans and humanitarians from the world over to come together and use the power of the bicycle to remove some of these barriers and fight for a more inclusive cycling community free of inequality. We are Cycling Communities Building Cycling Communities. Thank you for seeing us and thank you for caring for us.

What? – This project is designed to be sustainable by way of many small recurring monthly donations from Cycling Fan’s the world over. We need 500 passionate and patient cycling fans to sign up for the cost of a coffee per month to build a truly sustainable program. There are 30 currencies to choose from in the below donorbox.

Monthly donations allow us to plan pathways to key races and events throughout East Africa and beyond. Your donations support the following key program elements:

1. Full time Club Administrator/Team Manager & Development Coach based in Masaka clubhouse.

2. Daily operation of the e-Racing Academy including, smart trainers, Zwift licenses, devices, essential services like power, WIFI, clean drinking water, food and security.

3. Supply of replacement parts and mechanical services to maintain club bicycles and equipment. 

4. Travel, food & accommodation support for riders travelling to domestic and global events to compete.

5. Cycling Scholarships for young members who meet certain performance and community behavior criteria.

Your Commitment - When you sign up, the secure Donorbox platform we use will send you an email every month which provides you with the flexibility to cancel or change your donation at any time. The Foundation has no control over your commitment.

We have been focusing on the Elite end over the past six months due to all the excitement around Florence, Davis and Richard. Let's not lose sight of the fact this project was set up primarily as a humanitarian project focusing on race, gender equality and opportunity....so I'm going to focus a little more on those areas and other club members this month so you are across those activities.

Our VISION:We will bring global cycling together to remove barriers and fight for a more inclusive cycling community free of inequality.

FEMALE CAPTAIN ANNOUNCEMENTWith Florence's pending travels, Chairman Miiro has anointed 17yo Nantume Miria with the female Captaincy. Like Florence....Miria is an absolute delight and she will have a tremendous influence on our female program. Her confidence, honesty and commitment made her the obvious choice. We gave her some space the past two years to finish her studies and have also since appointed her with a Mechanic traineeship to supplement her income. This traineeship will add 100,000 shillings to her monthly scholarship. If you have watched this clip you will appreciate the importance of this additional income in Miria's world. https://youtu.be/BYU64CFUVII?si=0d-ISWsyP2QMPx5b  We are still working hard to get Florence into Europe. Sadly.....seem's barriers exist for Africans every step. We are trying to obtain a Slovak Permanent Residency Permit with the help of Canyon SRAM. We failed the first attempt and are now awaiting another appointment. We are also attempting to get into Europe via a 90Day German holiday Visa as a fall back so Florence can get set up and meet all her teammates. Still quite a bit of work to do but the good thing is Canyon SRAM are supportive and fully understand the situation. 

MECHANIC ACCREDITATION - COACH PETERWe announced the opening of our SERK Cycling Workshop pre Christmas. Our focus now turns to the Mechanical Maintenance activity. Coach Peter does a tonne of work for Coach Owen and the eSports Program. He is also keen to develop his mechanic ability and become accredited so he can maintain the big fleet of bikes we are now accumulating. In March/April we will be looking to spend approx AUD$3,500 of donor funds to send Peter to South Africa https://www.torqzoneacademy.com/to complete his Cytech Technical 2 Accreditation. This will teach him how to manage a workshop and eventually become the first professional bike mechanic in Uganda. We don't believe there is currently one accredited mechanic in the country. Availability of parts and mechanical expertise is a massive gap in our program. We will focus our efforts on closing this gap throughout this calendar year.Spare Parts Needed: Have a dig through your bike box and if you find any of these items we would love to get our hands on them. Chains (11 Speed Preferred), Derailiers (any), hangers, levers, bar tape, cables & cable housings, nuts/bolts/screws, Garmin/Wahoo computers, cassettes, chain rings & heart rate monitors.    

SANITARY PRODUCTSIf anyone has a connection with an organisation where we might be able to leverage some sanitary products to support the female program we would love to hear from you. Unfortunately we don't have stores in Masaka that stock disposable sanitary products to help the girls' continue training and the stores that do in Kampala are extremely expensive. It's a massive barrier we are trying to remove. Our best options are to send directly to the club from whatever Nation you live, send to me in Australia so I can post for you or I'll mule in when we take bike boxes etc. Please reach out if you have any exciting ideas.