The learners of the Breede Valley School of Skills with principal Llowellyn Syce. (Photo: Provided)
What began as a story of preparation and perseverance eventually became one of courage, leadership and inspiration when learners from a school for children with special needs had to complete the Cape Town cycle tour without their principal on Sunday.
Five learners from the Breede Valley School of Skills spent months under the guidance of Llowellyn Syce, principal, preparing for the cycle tour under challenging conditions.
Some of the learners do not have bicycles of their own and the region’s drought conditions have made exercises difficult. Still, they persevered and pedaled a minimum of 150 km every week.
The highlight was when the children received their race numbers on the Thursday before the tour, which made the experience even more tangible and exciting.
“What people don’t understand is that our learners are classified as moderately intellectually disabled, and for the last few months I’ve been driving ahead so I can show them exactly what to do,” explains Syce.
“Some of them don’t have a concept of time and distance and five minutes after the races have started, they will ask how long or how far it is still. They don’t understand when you say how much time is left.”
On the day of the cycle tour, however, Syce and the children were ready for the challenge – until fate struck.
The riders had progressed barely 500 m when the cyclists in front of them suddenly braked and caused an accident. The learners were able to avoid the fall, but Syce could not untie his cleats soon enough and fell on his left leg and hip.
Emergency workers suspected he had suffered a fracture and his participation was summarily terminated.
The learners visit Syce in the hospital. (Photo: Provided)
The learners wanted to stay with Syce with all their might, but he encouraged them to complete the races for which they had trained so hard.
Syce says he could see the fear and uncertainty on the learners’ faces when the accident happened on Sunday morning, barely two minutes after the races started.
“They didn’t know what was happening and how badly I was hurt. They wanted to come with me, but I had to encourage them to finish the races. I told them this was the event they had trained so hard for, just keep doing what you’re doing and remember everything we talked about.”
Syce was taken to the nearest hospital where it was confirmed that he had broken his femur. After they finished the races, the learners – still emotional about the day’s events – went to visit Syce in the hospital.
Here they also presented him with their finisher’s medal in honor of his leadership, motivation and the role he had in their achievement.
Syce says he had tears in his eyes when the learners handed him the medal.
“One of the boys said: ‘Here’s your medal, we know you didn’t finish the race, but you were with us every step of the way’.
“The fact that the learners were able to complete the races and honor the principal afterwards speaks volumes about how our schools cultivate bravery and kindness in learners,” said David Maynier, Western Cape MEC for education.
“I can tell individual stories about each of the boys about the challenging family circumstances and things that happened, even just a week before the races,” says Syce.
“They persevered. In the end they were the champions because they were used to my leadership and suddenly they were thrown in at the deep end among 30,000 other cyclists. They had to pedal on their own.”