Kenyan cyclist Suleiman Kangangi welcomes the warm weather that greeted his arrival on the Gold Coast for the Commonwealth Games.
Kangangi is preparing in unseasonably warm weather of 26-30 degrees Celsius and expects similar conditions when the Road Race begins on the afternoon of April 14.
“The weather is warm, but I prefer warm weather,” he said, after surveying the course.
The course and the competition will also be hot, and a direct contrast to the cold and heavy rain which battered Kangangi in Glasgow in 2014.
“I think the race will be tough. There are two nasty climbs inside the course, it isn’t completely flat. I think the teams without sprinters will try to stretch it as much as possible.”
The host nation will be without injured sprinter Caleb Ewan, but Mark Cavendish is listed to ride for Isle of Man.
“I think the Aussies will try a breakaway later in the race. Without Ewan they wouldn’t fancy a sprint,” surmised Kangangi,
“I see a sprint of very few people.”
Kangangi will partner with compatriot and fellow Bike Aid rider Salim Kipkemboi and do battle with another Bike Aid rider, Charles Kagimu, from Uganda.
He will also catch up with New Zealander Jason Christie, with whom he rode on an Australian-based team. Christie is part of a small, but strong, Kiwi team which will feature Jack Bauer and Shane Archbold and, possibly, young MTB sensation Sam Gaze.
The Commonwealth Games is also a chance for the boy from Eldoret to renew his rivalry with Rwandan Joseph Areruya, who won the 2017 Tour du Rwanda, in which Kangangi finished third.
Images:Bike Aid
kieranblakewriter 