Mountain bikers approach half way on Freedom Challenge

PDF | Print | E-mail

Wednesday, 23 June 2010 14:22

User Rating: / 0
PoorBest 

Mountain bikers approach half way on Freedom Challenge

As it approaches the half way stage, the 2010 Freedom Challenge Race Across South Africa that sees participants mountain biking 2400km from Pietermaritzburg to Diemersfontein Wine Estate outside Cape Town has seen its fair share of incidents.

The heavy snow falls of last week slowed the progress of the first batches to leave Pietermaritzburg as they headed through the deep river valleys of Southern Kwa-Zulu Natal and into the communal lands of the southern Drakensberg.  Heading up to the village of Rhodes, race front runners Ugene Nel and Trevor Ball were forced by ice and snow to walk for six hours down the Naude’s Nek Pass, a part of the trail that can normally be ridden in two. Since then Nel and Ball have maintained a consistent pace as they headed through the Stormberg before dropping into the Fish River Basin and then heading over the Swaershoek Mountains near the Mountain Zebra National Park. They are now riding across the Cambeboo Plains as they head towards the Baviaanskloof.

Behind Trevor and Ugene is adventurer Alex Harris who started from Pietermaritzburg two days after them. Over the first three days Harris made quick progress but was slowed when he reached the support station at Vuvu village below the Drakensberg escarpment in the mid afternoon and had to sit out a 45 minute time penalty for a route deviation. Unwilling to then start up Lehana’s Pass with the mountain still covered in snow, the cattle tracks hidden and the light fading he called it a day. Since then however, he has progressed efficiently and has been gradually closing the gap on Trevor and Ugene. It is anticipated that he will catch up to them in the Baviaanskloof.