Team RiVive, a newly formed mountain-bike team, are gearing up for their official launch at the Mandela Day MTB Dash on August 25, team manager Amanda Low said.
Married to David Low, who is currently a professional mountain-biker and coach, Low said she has been involved in the sport for over 10 years.
She has experience in marketing and communications and together with her husband founded Low-Profile Racing, a sports marketing agency.
They had tried for many years to secure a sponsor to establish a professional mountain-bike team, she said. Then recently they were presented with the opportunity to get RiVive Smartphones as title sponsors and John Craig and Dunns as partners.
David Low (pictured) will be the only rider for Team RiVive until the end of the season. Photo: Supplied
Together with their sponsors they had now established a KwaZulu-Natal-based MTB team. It was a team, Low said, that she wanted to see achieve at the top level of racing in terms of a long-term vision.
“We believe mountain-biking is one of the fastest growing sports in South Africa,” she told In the Bunch. “And we would like to give riders who we feel have the potential and talent a chance to fulfil their passion by getting the relevant financial support.”
She said David Low would be their only rider for the remainder of the year, at which point “we will be looking to expand the team”.
“Our long-term goal is definitely to establish one of the top mountain-bike teams in the country.
“We also want to develop our team by taking on young and aspiring riders. These riders would then be coached and mentored by David.
“Inevitably, this should help us achieve our future ambitions.”
She said the team would primarily focus on marathon and stage races, with the Mandela Day event in Howick set to be the first “official” avail of RiVive.
They would “hopefully” use the event to do the official announcement of the team, Low added.
“We want to get more riders onboard before next season,” she said. “We will hopefully move from one rider to two and ultimately we would perhaps want a four-man team.
“We’ve just managed to get our foot in the door and now it’s just about taking one step at a time and building relationships.”
