Ben conteh

The Lunsar Cycling Team is brimming with dedicated riders and our aim has always been to foster this talent, encouraging the riders to enjoy riding and racing their bikes. In the first of our rider profile series we talk to one of our senior riders, road captain Mohamed Ben Conteh. A Lunsar resident, Ben has been a top rider in the team since its inception and is committed to helping the younger riders in the team. 

As well as being a great racer, road captain and role model in the Lunsar Cycling Team, Ben is also the program trainer at the Sierra Leone branch of the Village Bicycle Project. The Project’s mission is to mobilize communities, readdress gender imbalances, enable better access to jobs, schools and healthcare, promote the environmental and health benefits of cycling, and generally improve the lives of people in West Africa.

We recently caught up with Ben to talk about how the team are coping with the cancellation of the 2020 Tour de Lunsar, the challenges they face as they continue to train amid the Covid-19 world pandemic, and his hopes and aspirations for the future of Sierra Leone cycling.

Like many countries, cycling in Sierra Leone is currently under regulation due to a national state of emergency implemented by President Julius Maada Bio. Large gatherings have been banned but cyclists are still able to train between the hours of 7am and 7pm. 

Ben has been riding to the neighbouring town Makeni and back as part of his daily training, and uses the opportunity to ride with his teammates, boosting the morale of riders in the area. 

“If you like, you can train outside, and if you don’t like, you can use your rollers and turbo trainers at home. As for us, we are very fortunate. I am lucky because the state of emergency did not really affect me because I use my bike to travel. Before, we were training for the Tour, but we are still training as a team. We have no problem with that.”

Sadly, one victim of the president’s twelve-month ban on mass gatherings is the Tour de Lunsar which is a bump in the road for the development of West African cycling.

“For the past years cycling has been struggling in the country and we are trying to develop. But now we have this kind of problem again, it’s very bad for us,” says Ben.

The cancellation of the Tour de Lunsar has of course hit the team hard as it would have been the first time the racers were part of a three-day race in Sierra Leone. Many of the riders, including Ben, were in the midst of their training programs in the lead-up to the race, so the news has been hard to take. 

As Ben explains, this new format would have had a huge impact on the development of the riders:

“Ever since we have been racing in Sierra Leone, we’ve just had one-day race after one-day race. This one should have been three days which would have been a great experience and would have had an impact on the development of all the riders.”

As road captain, Ben has a unique role and responsibility within the Lunsar Cycling Team. This includes leading group rides, keeping in contact with other teams, motivating riders and being a role model to the younger generation. He even has ingenious social media strategies in the build-up to races.

“As for me, I told my boys not to post because we have to race against other teams, so we don’t need to post while training because that way we leak our secrets.”

A big task for Ben over the ensuing months will be to keep up the spirits of his riders who may feel there is no need to train. 

“Even today, at the shop, I met with some guys and tried to interview them and all of them were telling me the same story: that they were not going to be training for now because of this.”

Developing and growing a sport anywhere will always have its setbacks, but there is always a horizon to these events and thanks to the commitment of riders like Ben, who continue to train and showcase the many benefits of cycling in the area, the team will overcome this adversity. 

Cycling will return to Sierra Leone and Ben will certainly be ready once again to race, coach and inspire in the colours of the Lunsar Cycling Team. In the meantime, our founder, Abdul Karim Kamara is helping the relief effort in Sierra Leone by asking for donations through PayPal so that he can buy and distribute masks to the country's key workers.

To keep up to date with the Lunsar Cycling Team, make sure to follow the team on Instagram and Twitter. 

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