Freedom Challenge

[Slowbee]

heavy snow falls predicted ! going to be interesting

[timM]

heavy snow falls predicted ! going to be interesting

Poor b@stards!

[BigBlade001]

for anyone wanting to follow the race this year subscribe to the Twitter feed @freedom_trail.

2012 is one of the most exciting and closest races to date.

After 7 days of racing, Martin Dreyer (Dusi King) is about 4 hours ahead of Alex Harris (defending champion). Both are cycling up the Baviaans today from Cambria all the way up to Willowmore.

 

Anyone think of doing the race, consider doing the Ride to Rhodes first - basically the first 6 days but with support.

[Pieterg]

Sound beter then the rest of the race

[Manx18]

Cairo to Cape! Lady I know did it last year as Medical Support Staff, so did not ride all the days.

Only a few get EFI status (Every Fricken Inch!)

 

http://www.tourdafrique.com/dreamtours/browse

[Tieffels]

for anyone wanting to follow the race this year subscribe to the Twitter feed @freedom_trail.

2012 is one of the most exciting and closest races to date.

After 7 days of racing, Martin Dreyer (Dusi King) is about 4 hours ahead of Alex Harris (defending champion). Both are cycling up the Baviaans today from Cambria all the way up to Willowmore.

 

Anyone think of doing the race, consider doing the Ride to Rhodes first - basically the first 6 days but with support.

 

Jis those guys are giving it horns. It blows my mind.

 

I did it last year, not "too" hard to finish (OK, with a long list of conditionals and qualifiers), but having done it I cannot even begin to imagine how the guys at front manage to do what they do..

 

Once they are through Die Hell, it's flat taps till the end. Like Shebeen aka SteveCT aka Dictator said somewhere else, it's basically a science experiment from here on out..

 

Would love to see Martin Dreyer take it! Rode with him and Andrew last year from Ntsikeni to Masakala, what nice and normal okes. But hats off to Alex too, absolute machine!

[G-Unit]

Cairo to Cape! Lady I know did it last year as Medical Support Staff, so did not ride all the days.

Only a few get EFI status (Every Fricken Inch!)

 

http://www.tourdafri...eamtours/browse

 

It's amazing how there is always something badass-er than what someone is doing. I would be the bliksem-in if i just finished FC and some dude said to me "Ja, but have you done 'Cairo to Cape'".

 

Not aimed at you Manx18, but just a comment about people in general (myself included).

[Pieterg]

Always bigger and better

[Tieffels]

It's amazing how there is always something badass-er than what someone is doing. I would be the bliksem-in if i just finished FC and some dude said to me "Ja, but have you done 'Cairo to Cape'".

 

Not aimed at you Manx18, but just a comment about people in general (myself included).

 

I was very keen to do the Tour d'Afrique, but its just along main routes and highways, you can do it on a commuter type bike. Ja, the distance is impressive, but the terrain is not that challenging. When it comes to "badass-er" terrain, nothing I know of touches the FC. Then throw in winter and it gets quite nasty..

[TYGA]

(OK, with a long list of conditionals and qualifiers

 

These okes are absolute machines, what a pity Hillbilly is out the mix, I was looking forward to seeing how he measured up on a geared bike this year.

 

Chickenrun what's the criteria (short version...no need for too much detail...) to be a able to enter? Qualifiers and conditionals as you mentioned above.

[Tieffels]

Before hand:

 

1. Agreeable work/home environment where you won’t be missed for 3-4 weeks.

2. LOTS of money. If you want a cheap MTB event, do the Epic. The FC is a lot of things, but cheap is not one of those. But like the Epic it depends how you do your math, i.e. calculate your cost. I took a month’s unpaid leave. It hurts. Its WAY worth it. The FNB guys got full sponsorship and had accumulated leave, so no problems.

 

On the ride

 

This depends entirely what you want from the race. What drew me to the event was the route, the 2223km of pure MTBing bliss. My point of departure is that I wanted to enjoy the route, thus I didn’t want to ride at night. Navigating at nights is a disaster. On all but 3 days (took a leisurely 21) I made it comfortably in daylight hours, and of the other 3 nothing past 9pm. I basically “toured” the race, some days I put my feet up at lunchtime. But my unofficial claim to fame is that I had the fastest moving average in the race. To do this you need to be

 

3. A pretty decent rider, nothing too serious, but being able to keep up a good average.

4. Know how to fix your bike. Many people would have their finisher’s blankets if their mechanics skill was up to par.

5. Be a competent navigator.

6. Be organized and disciplined. 2 of my night time excursions was because I rode with other people and we wasted time during the day.

 

When the paw-paw hits the fan, it is never a singular event, but a combination of smaller, and often preventable problems that builds and snowballs into a serious incident.

 

Having said that, many of the people who finished with me had none of the points listed above. So basically it’s the recipe that worked for me, and worked very well.

 

The only golden thread that I could see that tied all the successful campaigners together was a relaxed and unshakable positive disposition.

[TYGA]

Thanks for that Chickenrun, your approach to the ride ("disciplined touring") is pretty much the way I would like to do this around 3 years from now. Getting a month's work of leave from home and work may be a hard one to arrange but it needs to be done. Other than the unpaid leave, what do you reckon you need to budget for the month of the FC and what sortof training did you put in during the 6 months or so leading up to FC? Apologies for all the questions...we all follow the heroes but it's nice to hear from a "normal" okes point of view. Given a carte blanche what bike would you use?

[GLuvsMtb]

Probably been asked before, but what equipment, kit and spares did you ride with CR4M?

[Ceres]

Now these guys are hardcore. I think people must stop asking (if you mountain biker) "have you done the Epic"? It should be "have you the balls to do the FC"

[NotSoBigBen]

Now these guys are hardcore. I think people must stop asking (if you mountain biker) "have you done the Epic"? It should be "have you the balls to do the FC"

 

The only question being asked is 'have you done the August', all else is of no consequence

[Tieffels]

Thanks for that Chickenrun, your approach to the ride ("disciplined touring") is pretty much the way I would like to do this around 3 years from now. Getting a month's work of leave from home and work may be a hard one to arrange but it needs to be done. Other than the unpaid leave, what do you reckon you need to budget for the month of the FC and what sortof training did you put in during the 6 months or so leading up to FC? Apologies for all the questions...we all follow the heroes but it's nice to hear from a "normal" okes point of view. Given a carte blanche what bike would you use?

 

The actual entry was around R17k. Then there are a number of stuffs you need, some okes might have it, I had to buy:

 

Cycling shoes you can walk 8km up a mountain with: R1k

35L Backpack : R800

Lights: R1k

Winter Riding gear: +R2k

Spares on the bike: R1.5k?

Leatherman : R400

 

The thing that also nudges the budget up nicely are the snacks and supplies you send in your icecream containers to the support stations. There were close to R1k's worth of batteries (hardly used any..). Think for a novice this is the hardest thing to get right, so you tend to overcapitalize. Some of the boxes I saw must have had over R100 worth of stuff per box just from Woolies. My GF helped out and baked quite a bit of stuff for me to reduce costs.

 

Training wise, I was firmly in the "get fit along the route" camp. 10h a week max. Biggest thing was to ride with a 12kg backpack, that takes a bit getting used to. But generally I'm very comfortable on the bike doing long rides, so I was not too fussed about fitness. I knew, that up until Rhodes I'd be ok to finish in daylight, and from there I'd be able to settle into a rhythm. The mental prep is far more NB than the physical prep IMO.

 

Guys think Epic, J2C and then use that as the context for the FC. It is at the other end of the spectrum, esp intensity wise. You ride slowly. The top okes don't even ride in granny blade, they rather get of and push to save the knees. And they do 18h+ stints with NO recovery in between, so legs just aren't there. I could afford to ride MUCH faster, get to the next SS and recover to be able to ride quicker again the next day, because I was on a day by day race strategy.

 

Bike wise? Whatever you have confidence in and enjoy riding for a moer of a long time. Comfort is you mayor concern, then reliability. I'd actually be very tempted to go the SS route if I do it again. It makes a lot of sense to me.

 

Probably been asked before, but what equipment, kit and spares did you ride with CR4M?

 

Spares.. On me I had: 1*Tyre, 2*tubes, middle blade, Stans, gear cables, brake pads, patches (tubeless and normal), bombs, duct tape, cable ties. Think I had a chain as well..

 

My rear hub started packing up, got new rear wheel just before Willowmore. Did the chain replacement there as well. Only mechanical I had was rear gear cable replacement just outside Rhodes. Oh, and dodgy slime used in replacement rear wheel did not work, replace with stans on the second last day.