When Daniyal Matthews dipped for the line to win his first senior national elite road race cycling title in Midvaal, Gauteng, on Sunday it was more than a belated 26th birthday gift from late January.
You see, for the Team Siata rider and captain, who has been a number cruncher of note throughout school and beyond, the victory was truly a sum of the parts.
That’s because the influences and input on his career have come from far and wide.
Forged in Fairways, Cape Town, wisened at Wynberg Boys High in the same town and then primed in Paarl — could well describe his road to success but there’s so much more.
A true road warrior, he spends much of the time training in Johannesburg and rides for the Durban-based Siata team.
Throw in the fact that Siata is headed up by Nigerian-born/UK-raised Ibrahim Sharif and that Matthews’ coach is South African Zaahier Stanley based in Malaysia and his fitness and conditioning coach Josh Francis (also South African) is based in Switzerland, and it’s soon evident that we’re dealing with a global village.
Matthews explains how it all started. “I was about eight when I started track cycling because my dad Abdul was a pretty good track rider and even raced at some World Cup events.
“Paarl has particularly fond memories because the annual Boxing Day event was the first ever race that I rode, after being there every year since the age of eight and being able to actually win it in December 2022 was very special, after watching my dad race there over all those years.”
Mom Nooria may not be a cyclist herself but has been there for Daniyal in every other means of support throughout his career.
Incredibly, as recently as 2024 Matthews was without a spot on any local team. His two teams until then were Alfa Bodyworks Pro Cycling and then 2018 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Clint Hendricks’ Enza Pro Cycling outfit.
“But when Enza folded I had nothing and it was at the start of the season. I bumped into Ibrahim [Sharif] and he asked me to send him my CV and two days later I was part of the team. They’re also so much more than just a cycling team, they also do a lot of community work like delivering food parcels to the needy and helping out during the recent KwaZulu-Natal floods.”
Going into nationals, Matthews would have been happy with a top 10! “I’ve progressed gradually from finishing about 20th, then getting inside the top 20 to 14th last year! That 14th spot still helped because it got me selected for African Games in Ghana where we got two silver medals.”
His build-up to Midvaal was hampered by a heavy crash at Gauteng champs but by the halfway mark of nationals, after sneaking off the front of the peloton, Matthews and a group of about 12 riders had a 7min lead at halfway and that became a group of four with two laps to ride.
“I attacked on the climb in the last lap and Casper Kruger countered, though I was able to follow ... and we both knew if we worked together we were just about guaranteed first and second places.
“On the last drag we tested each other but couldn’t drop each other. I knew it would go to a sprint and when he kicked, I waited a bit and then gave it everything and slowly came around him and remember thinking ‘wow, this is actually happening!’
“I definitely think me knowing the roads to the south of Johannesburg and my track background contributed to this win.”
He’s hoping his national title will be something of a gamebreaker and perhaps springboard him onto a slot on a Continental outfit in Europe.
And like every young cyclist he has dreams of one day riding a Grand tour but also has a healthy dash of realism.
“As a young rider riding a grand tour feels attainable but as time passes and you put in all that effort and you don’t see much happening, you don’t know how much more work you have to do to get to that level.
“Obviously an important part of it is genetics and how far you can push your body ... you won’t know until you put the effort in. You pretty much have to be in a World Tour team to race those events.
“Continental level is two tiers down so it’s a hard reality right now but I’ll keep on working.”
Working is something he doesn’t shy away from, being in the saddle for up to 25 hours of a six-day training week. Goals this year are the Tour of Rwanda at the end of February, then perhaps a stint in Germany and national and continental track champs could feature.
Out of the saddle he keeps his mind well and truly applied and has a Bachelor of Science in Applied Maths and Statistics and is doing his honours in Statistics. “When I’m done with cycling I’ll probably go into the data science or data analysis field. One of my dreams was to do actuarial science but I’m not sure now.”
And right now he may have teammates but there’s no time for a life partner and his reason for that is as logical as his thought patterns. “A partner takes time and effort and I’d like to afford that partner my time and effort ... cycling is a sport that often makes you selfish with training hard and getting enough sleep and eating properly. But one day, hopefully!”
For now then, it’s just a man and his machine from the Mother City — hoping for the next victory in the global village.
Last word belongs to Captain Sharif, himself a pilot in the aviation business.
“I was a track and road rider myself but always saw a need to give back to society... I’m a humanitarian at heart.
“But in giving back to young and underprivileged communities it has to be in a holistic way. It’s not about giving a rider a bicycle but also looking at a rider’s wellbeing at the same time.”
Sharif says Team Siata is not a professional outfit as such but operates in a 100% professional manner.
“It’s not about window-dressing. We want to create a new SA. We can all learn from each other across all races and we’re also looking into the rest of Africa, which has so much underdeveloped talent.
“Daniyal’s a very humble person. I liked what I saw from the beginning ... he’s not just a rider he’s a brand of his own, just so professional. He brought his overseas experience and at the end of last year we gave him the managerial position of the CSI and Entrepreneurship programme as well as being team captain.”
Captain Matthews has been given the freedom to fly ... he’s set to soar even higher!
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