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Although Bahrain doesn’t have any mountains, it still has a growing off-road cycling community and avid biker Dr Jamal Saleh hopes to some day whip up a national team to compete on a global stage.
The 61-year-old consultant orthopaedic and sports surgeon chairs the board of directors of the Bahrain Association of Sports Medicine and Sports Sciences (BASMASS) and the Mountain Biking Committee at the Bahrain Cycling Association (BCA).
His dream is to see mountain biking progress in the kingdom and believes young cyclists are the future of the sport on the island.
“Road-cycling is the prevalent form of cycling in Bahrain,” explained Dr Saleh, who is also the president of (BASMASS). “And, since Bahrain doesn’t have mountains, mountain biking stayed undeveloped for many years. But it started taking shape eight years ago with many going to the desert for the scattered hilly terrain.
“However, I still wish to see the sport getting more official recognition and support. Mountain biking cross country has been an Olympic sport since 1996 and we have the potential in Bahrain to have a good team. But we don’t have a mountain bike coach or trainers, which I believe is a limiting factor for creating a national team.”
Mountain biking is a sport often ridden over rough terrain that requires endurance, core strength and balance, bike handling skills and self-reliance.
In the 1970s, it developed as a fringe sport in the US with bikes featuring fatter tyres, rapid-shift gears, drum brakes and ground-breaking suspension. These bikes gave thrill-seeking cyclists more freedom and the sport was born.
The first national mountain bike championships were held in 1983 in the US and the first mountain bike World Championships, recognised by the International Cycling Union (UCI), were organised in 1990.
Olympic recognition followed and mountain biking made its debut at the Atlanta Games in 1996, with a cross-country event for men and women. The programme has remained unchanged ever since.
“It is very challenging for a sport to develop without the support of a professional training team,” added Dr Saleh who was the team physician for the national football team for many years as well as the team physician for the Bahrain National Olympic team at the Asian Games in 2002.
“It is better to start the mountain biking skills at an early age; hence, we prefer to train children and invest time in training them, representing Bahrain at international events.
“We also need the trails to be protected, since considerable time and effort is put into creating them only to see people destroying them.
“Ideally, we need land designated as a training site and a school for mountain biking, as it requires a whole set of skills not needed for road cycling.
“And, since the pandemic, many people have started cycling to keep fit and many new cyclists in Bahrain have started buying mountain bicycles. They use those bikes for road cycling and off-road cycling to escape the dangerous roads.
“The main roads in Bahrain are not suitable for road cycling at the moment so mountain biking can be considered a safer alternative.”
Last year, BCA organised a cycling festival at Bahrain Bay and launched Cycle Safe Bahrain, an initiative to promote safe road sharing practices, especially after a series of biking tragedies struck the island.
In November last year, Scottish expatriate banker and sporting figure Allan Sword was killed while cycling with friends on the Wali Al Ahad road near Hamala after being struck by a car in a hit-and-run accident and more recently, Indian cyclist Mohammed Haneen, 19, died in a collision with a car on the Dry Dock Highway in Hidd.
BCA president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa urges drivers to stay focused on the road, to keep at least 1.5m away from cyclists at all times and is also spearheading a series of new initiatives.
One thing being considered is a cycling app to help inform safest routes and provide emergency response details.
Other plans include a road safety education series and infrastructure improvements to provide safe cycling routes.
Until then, Dr Saleh, who has represented the kingdom at the Executive GCC Sports Medicine Committee for many years, advises cyclists and mountain bikers to remain careful and vigilant.
He also supervises a programme, called the Advanced Trauma Life Support, for training physicians on how to deal with major trauma, either from road crashes or other incidents.
The Mountain Biking Committee has already organised three races within the last 12 months and has two more races scheduled for the season, unless affected by Covid-19.
