On the road again

The Freedom Challenge - Race Across South Africa (RASA) 2007 is almost 2 years behind me now. Last Year I entered and rode the Freedom Challenge - Ride to Rhodes (R2R) 2008, a 600km, 6 day stage "race" that coincides with the RASA event. More of a non-competitive ride than anything. Still required long days of up to 13 hours on the bike to get it done.

I entered only 4 weeks before the event and had just a few weeks to coax a little endurance into my legs. Kind of worked. Rode really slowly finishing last every day in our start group. I found it really enjoyable, particularly since I only had to figure out a few bits of new navigation and after the previous event I had it more or less figured out.

2009 has me entered for the full RASA from Pietermaritzburg to Paarl (actually in Wellington next door to Paarl this year). As a twist I have entered with Glenn Harrison (Forest as we affectionately call him after his 2007 escapades) on a tandem. This will be the first tandem attempt on the route so will be interesting to see how we get along. I received the Tandem on the 18th Dec '08 and we headed out to the Maluti section of the trail the very next day and had 3 days of riding on "The Beast" as we call the tandem. With various stokers (the stoker is the person who sits on the back and just pedals) I have managed to crank out just over 3500km on the bike. It has been an interesting learning experience as tandem riding is a whole new kettle of fish. More to follow.....