‘Supa Piet’ and Van Dyk chase glory at 2025 Para-cycling World Championships

JOHANNESBURG - Two of South Africa’s top hand-cyclists are competing at the 2025 Para-cycling World Championships in Ronse, Belgium.

Ernst van Dyk and Pieter du Preez will be competing in Belgium, 28- 31 August with both of them competing in their respective time trial on Thursday.

In 2025, the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships return to their standalone format after two years. In 2023, the UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships were integrated into the inaugural UCI Cycling World Championships, which united 13 UCI World Championships for different cycling disciplines in Glasgow and across Scotland (United Kingdom) over 11 days.

Individual time trials, road races and a mixed handcycle team relay are on the programme, with athletes competing in different sports classes depending on their impairment.

Pieter du Preez won a bronze at the 2024 Paris Paralympics and carried the South African flag at the closing ceremony.

Supa Piet, as he's affectionately known, represented the country in three Paralympic Games. The C6 quadriplegic finished sixth at the 2012 London Games in the 400-meter wheelchair track racing and won a gold medal in the para-cycling at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, which were moved to 2021 due to COVID-19.

The athlete competes in the H1 category in para-cycling, which is for athletes with highly affected movement in the trunk, legs and hands.

The actuarial analyst at Deloitte South Africa was nominated for the Laureus World Sports Awards in 2016, has won the Berlin Marathon more than six times and is a multiple African and world record holder, a world champion, and he only has 15% of the muscle function of an able-bodied person due to a cycling accident in 2003.

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Meanwhile, Ernst van Dyk is a formidable wheelchair marathon racer who has won the celebrated Boston Marathon a record nine times.

Van Dyk first represented South Africa in the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics in swimming and wheelchair events. At the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, Ernst won a bronze medal in the 400 metres.

In Athens in 2004, he won two silver medals in the 800 metres and the 1,500 metres, and a bronze in the 5,000 metres. At the Beijing Paralympics in 2008, he won gold in the hand-cycling marathon as well as bronze in the wheelchair marathon.

In 2010, the South African government awarded van Dyk the Order of Ikhamanga in silver to mark his achievements. He was also the winner of the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Award in 2006.

Ernst was born with a congenital absence of both legs.

PARA-CYCLING CLASSES EXPLAINED:

• C – Cycle: conventional bike with adaptations if necessary
• T – Tricycle: three-wheeled bike
• B – Tandem: for visually impaired athletes with a sighted pilot
• H – Handcycle.

Groups C (1-5), T (1-2) and H (1-5) are divided into different sport classes, with the lower the number indicating a higher level of impairment.

Groups C (1-5), T (1-2) and H (1-5) are divided into different sport classes, with the lower the number indicating a higher level of impairment.