The President of the governing body for cycling in Samoa is calling for wrongs to be righted for the good of athletes.

Leniu Philip Moore said, "It's an injustice. Samoa's athletes are being denied the funding and support that's rightfully theirs."

The world body for cycling, UCI, and its regional body the Oceania Cycling Confederation (OCC) are refusing to recognise Bike Samoa as the National Federation. This is despite the National Olympic Committee SASNOC sanctioning Bike Samoa.

The Government of Samoa through the Ministry of Sport has also recognised BSF.  Instead, UCI is continuing to support Samoa Cycling, the previous group that used to be the National Federation. Led by Seti Afoa, the group was deregistered by MCIL a year ago and then removed from SASNOC membership.

It was deregistered because the group had not had its accounts audited since it was first established in 2018. Key members of Samoa Cycling also filed complaints to MCIL, SASNOC and the government about funding from UCI, and Oceania Cycling, thousands of NZ dollars, going directly to Afoa's personal bank account in New Zealand.   His group continues to operate in New Zealand and Samoa using those funds.

The Bike Samoa Federation was established in January 2024.

Since then it has started early morning training sessions at Mulinuu, fortnightly group rides, hosted a free bike repair workshop for the community, mountain bike races, road time trial events, held National Championships, and selected a National Team to prepare for the 2027 Pacific Games.

It also partnered with Triathlon Samoa to establish a group for women beginners and to run bike skills sessions for kids. The Federation recently received 25 renewed mountain bikes to assist with its development work - a generous donation from Outdoor Samoa-Cycle Journeys.

The work is already showing results as this weekend the two best youth cyclists in Samoa, trained and funded by BSF, proved they have what it takes to compete overseas and shine.

Leniu added, "There are many other youth in Samoa who have the potential to be great cyclists. But it's an expensive sport. You've got to have the right equipment. The right training. And you have to be able to get to races overseas to build the experience and exposure. They need the support from UCI and Oceania Cycling to get to the next level."