After MTN-Qhubeka opted not to continue their partnership with the Wolrd Cycling Centre Africa, the centre will take a new direction for the future, starting in 2016.

“Basically we will just be doing development training camps now,” stated WCCA director Jean Pierre (JP) Van Zyl to CyclingTips. He revealed that the team would instead transport its feeder team to Italy, ending a long association.

“We will concentrate more on women’s cycling. We will still work with the men but we will shift the focus a bit more on women’s cycling going forward. That will also fit into the budget that I do have from the UCI.”

Established in 2005, the likes of Tsgabu Grmay, Youcef Reguigui, Merhawi Kudus, Natnael Berhane, Adrien Niyonshuti, Daniel Teklehaimanot and Dan Craven have all spent time with the centre before moving on to pro careers.

The UCI provides 80% of the teams funding, MTN-Qhubeka the last 20%. Now though, the UCI are the only ones left sponsoring the team. Van Zyl explained what that means for the centre now.

“I still have that budget. The UCI has been the majority partner here, always doing everything. But we did get clothing, we did get bikes [under the MTN-Qhubeka deal]. We hope to keep the bikes as per the contract that we had in the last three years where we were supposed to get 40 bikes a year, although not everything materialised. We are hoping to keep these bikes for the purposes of development.”

Despite seemingly being left high and dry, Van Zyl says he has nothing bad to say about MTN-Qhubeka and their team principle Doug Ryder.

“I have nothing bad to say about my collaboration with Douglas. He has done what he has done, he has given my riders opportunities to do the Tour de France, which has been amazing.”

“We must see the good thing that is happening for cycling, not be bitter because it was taken away from us. Just look at the positives, get on with life and continue finding the riders that we did that are riding in his team now.”

Turning to the future, Van Zyl says he will spend more time focusing on women’s cycling, which the WCCA hasn’t, until now, treated on an equal footing with men’s racing. He says that if the opportunity arose, he wouldn’t turn down the chance to partner with a professional team in the same way his centre did with MTN-Qhubeka. He also hasn’t lost sight of the reason why his centre was established in the first place:

“The thing for us we shouldn’t lose sight of what the World Cycling Centre is trying to achieve. That is to get riders to the world championships, to get riders qualified for the Olympic Games and for them to have a life in cycling.”