2018 Freedom Challenge

[dave303e]

first rider is through osseberg crossings, wonder how those delightful cacti that jump up and stick in your legs are this year?

[Shebeen]

thought 'd have a look see at the GAP between JT and Mike

 

their schedules have been about a half day out of sync, so Mike has been having supper where JT had breakfast - but when they stop for a short rest it stretches or squashes

 

masakala 4 rhodes 6,5 moordenaarspoort 11 romansfontein 10 jakkalsfontein 14 toekomst 10 bucklands 13 cambria

0

 

 

 

looking at cambria next , mike should be between 8-10 hours behind, depedning on how long MORDOR takes

 

JT did hadley=>cambria in 7 hours.

that seems like record time, so Mike shouldn't be too slow

[Eddie Stafford]

I think there is a cut off time of 14:00 for the Baviaanskloof gate, so Mike will miss that.  At least he will get a good night's sleep before it opens tomorrow morning at 6:00.

[Shebeen]

first rider is through osseberg crossings, wonder how those delightful cacti that jump up and stick in your legs are this year?

 

 

"katjies"

 

 

DEVIL's invention they are!

 

JT went quickly, so i'm guessing no big issues. leaving hadley 4am is pretty much eprfect timing for this section.

[dave303e]

"katjies"

 

 

DEVIL's invention they are!

 

JT went quickly, so i'm guessing no big issues. leaving hadley 4am is pretty much eprfect timing for this section.

 

They are funny the first time and then the only other time those things are funny is when you pull one out your leg and throw it at a team mate to help them fight the sleep monsters

[Shebeen]

They are funny the first time and then the only other time those things are funny is when you pull one out your leg and throw it at a team mate to help them fight the sleep monsters

 

totally true,

except they're not that funny the first time.

 

 

(I did FC in 2008, do not remember them at all, after EA through mordor last year, I will never forget them!)

Edited June 25, 2018 by Abdoujaparov

[Shebeen]

I think there is a cut off time of 14:00 for the Baviaanskloof gate, so Mike will miss that.  At least he will get a good night's sleep before it opens tomorrow morning at 6:00.

oh yes, sjoe. that is a big setback!

[Marnitz Nienaber]

Baviaans gate closed at 13H00 and opened

at 6H00 last year, JT should make Willomore late night  and then a couple more days to finish.

 

It is extremely difficult to catch anyone once you hit the Biaviaans home stretch, depending on mechanical's and the wind, but not easily done.

 

 Relentless racing from the old toppies, gives me hope to return once I hit the 50 and smash my own record.

 

   

[The Crazy German]

JT Jacques Tattersall blitsing through Mordor makes me want to tell a story cos that's where we officially met and bonded.

 

We met before but that was a bit less official and maybe less amical.

 

So we met in Grootdam:

The Wally's, commander Rissink and the crazy kid on his fatbike took all the available beds and all the food(there wasn't much really) and went to sleep not expecting anyone else. But JT in his rookie year 2014 had somehow decided he was now racing this and showed up early in the morning. 

 

He woke up most of this slightly drunk jolly bunch and was greeted with shoes, helmets and all kind of crap flying through the air from angry old men wanting to sleep. The kid(me) was nicely snoring away oblivious of meeting JT and the warzone. 

 

The next day we set off not having met this still sleeping stranger and as he got well and truly lost before and on struishook he would not join us for the massive braai in Toekomst as he didn't get further then Gegun.

 

The old chaps needing a recovery day before mordor so I pulled away somewhere during the day to head for bucklands. While at kleinpoort padstal stuffing myself with candy and coke JT shows up with his racing kit. I was told by the old guys to smoke him if in could so I said hello and jumped on the fatbike, he never caught me till Bucklands where we had dinner.

 

It transpired that he was actually quite a nice guys but a bit well a lot clueless with the maps and so. So when hearing I had done Mordor in 45 degrees less then a year before he asked me if he could tag on and to be his guide. I said yes under the condition that he wasn't to slow(misunderstanding starts here)me down too much. So JT calls his wife don't worry I am gonna be fine I met this kids with a funny bike they call him The Crazy German and he's gonna look after me.

 

So at first light we leave Bucklands. Soon we pull up to a Kudu setting of at rocket pace and getting caught in a fence. Me thinking we must now go back and get some help to free it. No meet JT kung fu style he drops his bike runs to the fence grabs the kudu's back leg and untangles him and of we all go JT the kudu and Crazy.

 

Start mordor I guess about 1 pm top gate. Now I was clearly holding up this racer guy and JT thought I must hold up the kid(as I didn't want to spend the night in there). Actually I was more then happy to wait a couple of times 10min or so while JT didn't want to let me out of sight. 

 

First river crossing we have a small picknick and I share some of my candy with my new kung fu kudu hero mate. We get on with it fatbike terrain so I make really good progress but JT sticks to my wheel like a bee to honey or a fly to cow ****. So I up the pace and start clapping it not to hold up this guy any more. He sticks to my wheel like glue.

 

About halfway through I take the first stop and look around for several minutes. JT worried wants to help and gets the maps out(first time we took a map since hadley). 

JT where are we?

Kid no idea!

JT how many river crossings have we done?

Kid some, definitely more then one and there must be some left.

JT where to go?

Kid No idea don't recognise this bit.

JT what do we do? and hands map

Kid Marnitz(legendary freedom challenge rider who talks to three's and rocks to find his way) said no need for maps not gonna help

JT what else did Marnitz say?

Kid Marnitz is really good at this and he says Kudu follow the best tracks so we must think like a Kudu and move like a Kudu

JT Kudu????

Kid Jah Man Marnitz says so, so its the golden rule of Mordor

Kid see's the Kudu three and crosses the river to find track again quickly.

 

By this time JT must have seriously regretted his choice of guide and might have wet himself(at least the river crossings wash that away).

 

We get to a dead kudu, horrible smell and a bit further on I tell a story about the baboon skulls that where lying there last year and that I would really like one to attach to my handlebars to go to Diemersfontein.

 

We eventually get to the exit gate in a bit less then 4 hours so probably only 15 min slower then JT this time round. To be met with a stare at Cambria, you guys not supposed to be here yet.

 

The next morning JT is having breakfest and actually wrote a thank you note for his tour guide and put it on my map bord. 

 

We continued together too Prince Albert where I sadly had to let him go on as I had got a nasty splinter into my foot in Willowmore which made me unable to walk.

[johannrissik]

JT Jacques Tattersall blitsing through Mordor makes me want to tell a story cos that's where we officially met and bonded.

 

We met before but that was a bit less official and maybe less amical.

 

So we met in Grootdam:

The Wally's, commander Rissink and the crazy kid on his fatbike took all the available beds and all the food(there wasn't much really) and went to sleep not expecting anyone else. But JT in his rookie year 2014 had somehow decided he was now racing this and showed up early in the morning. 

 

He woke up most of this slightly drunk jolly bunch and was greeted with shoes, helmets and all kind of crap flying through the air from angry old men wanting to sleep. The kid(me) was nicely snoring away oblivious of meeting JT and the warzone. 

 

The next day we set off not having met this still sleeping stranger and as he got well and truly lost before and on struishook he would not join us for the massive braai in Toekomst as he didn't get further then Gegun.

 

The old chaps needing a recovery day before mordor so I pulled away somewhere during the day to head for bucklands. While at kleinpoort padstal stuffing myself with candy and coke JT shows up with his racing kit. I was told by the old guys to smoke him if in could so I said hello and jumped on the fatbike, he never caught me till Bucklands where we had dinner.

 

It transpired that he was actually quite a nice guys but a bit well a lot clueless with the maps and so. So when hearing I had done Mordor in 45 degrees less then a year before he asked me if he could tag on and to be his guide. I said yes under the condition that he wasn't to slow(misunderstanding starts here)me down too much. So JT calls his wife don't worry I am gonna be fine I met this kids with a funny bike they call him The Crazy German and he's gonna look after me.

 

So at first light we leave Bucklands. Soon we pull up to a Kudu setting of at rocket pace and getting caught in a fence. Me thinking we must now go back and get some help to free it. No meet JT kung fu style he drops his bike runs to the fence grabs the kudu's back leg and untangles him and of we all go JT the kudu and Crazy.

 

Start mordor I guess about 1 pm top gate. Now I was clearly holding up this racer guy and JT thought I must hold up the kid(as I didn't want to spend the night in there). Actually I was more then happy to wait a couple of times 10min or so while JT didn't want to let me out of sight. 

 

First river crossing we have a small picknick and I share some of my candy with my new kung fu kudu hero mate. We get on with it fatbike terrain so I make really good progress but JT sticks to my wheel like a bee to honey or a fly to cow ****. So I up the pace and start clapping it not to hold up this guy any more. He sticks to my wheel like glue.

 

About halfway through I take the first stop and look around for several minutes. JT worried wants to help and gets the maps out(first time we took a map since hadley). 

JT where are we?

Kid no idea!

JT how many river crossings have we done?

Kid some, definitely more then one and there must be some left.

JT where to go?

Kid No idea don't recognise this bit.

JT what do we do? and hands map

Kid Marnitz(legendary freedom challenge rider who talks to three's and rocks to find his way) said no need for maps not gonna help

JT what else did Marnitz say?

Kid Marnitz is really good at this and he says Kudu follow the best tracks so we must think like a Kudu and move like a Kudu

JT Kudu????

Kid Jah Man Marnitz says so, so its the golden rule of Mordor

Kid see's the Kudu three and crosses the river to find track again quickly.

 

By this time JT must have seriously regretted his choice of guide and might have wet himself(at least the river crossings wash that away).

 

We get to a dead kudu, horrible smell and a bit further on I tell a story about the baboon skulls that where lying there last year and that I would really like one to attach to my handlebars to go to Diemersfontein.

 

We eventually get to the exit gate in a bit less then 4 hours so probably only 15 min slower then JT this time round. To be met with a stare at Cambria, you guys not supposed to be here yet.

 

The next morning JT is having breakfest and actually wrote a thank you note for his tour guide and put it on my map bord. 

 

We continued together too Prince Albert where I sadly had to let him go on as I had got a nasty splinter into my foot in Willowmore which made me unable to walk.

Marty McFly tells the truth, but he didn't go into too much detail about how or why he got the splinter.....

...but I'm sure it will be an entertaining story.

 

Maarten, out with it.

[The Crazy German]

Marty McFly tells the truth, but he didn't go into too much detail about how or why he got the splinter.....

...but I'm sure it will be an entertaining story.

 

Maarten, out with it.

There is the official story of me being a respectfull gentlemen. Beautifull wooden floors and walking on socks to not damage them.

 

Then there is Meryl's version that I was just after an extra day in Prince Albert. I did officially ask permission to use some of my spare time in there and was told only for medical emergency's ....

 

And two-three days later I get this miracle medical emergency on the way to Prince Albert, the last day to find a doctor in days. And I did get there conveniently late so that doctor was well closed when JT and I arrived

 

I do still have the official doctors bill and the splinter in a cup. Which I did show to Glenn who was send too kick my lazy as out of Dennehof and back onto the bike. We might actually never really now what happened in Willomore or not?

 

Personnaly I believe the ride from Brosterlea to Hofmeyer with you commander Rissik and playing chess with two unknowing other players is more of a laugh.

There is Marnitz again in that story and a small side role for Leon die Leeu side kick of JT

[Shebeen]

Baviaans gate closed at 13H00 and opened

at 6H00 last year, JT should make Willomore late night  and then a couple more days to finish.

 

 

yup, same time this year, JT slept 9 hours, just to keep it interesting for us!

[Shebeen]

you might find yourself asking - who's going to win the Freedom Challenge.  here is the answer:(spoiler alert - no answer yet)

 

 

 

 

Every year a bunch of crazy cyclists line up outside Pietermaritzburg Town Hall and ride their bikes all the way to Wellington, of course they do this in the middle of winter. For most it is all about the journey – physical, mental and spiritual. There’s a select few who are lined up in the final batch, with the intention of fast times and/or the win.

There are two former winners on the trail, the first – Graham Bird (2014) is not ‘racing’ and trailblazing from the first group with his partner Sarah – the second Tim James (2008,09,15) is in the racing batch, and was the first rider to really become a student of the trail. Being a pilot had the time (and toys) to fly out to sections of it before Google earth was a thing. He has twice managed to shatter the race record, I’m never going to make the mistake again of thinking he is getting a bit over the hill for this event.

Then there’s Jacques Tattersall, who is now on his 4^th consecutive RASA – the bug has bitten proper! He has taken his finishing time from 18.5 days, to 14.5 days to ~11.5 days, and this time last year is the 6^th fastest ever.

Finally, we’ve got Mike Woolnough, who is one of the candidates for Mr Freedom Challenge. Mike has been on the trail every year in one way or another since 2006, and transformed himself from an ‘Ordinary Joe’ biker to a total endurance racing machine.

 

As it stands, we are now into the 8^th day of the racing batch. Tim fell ill and was off the pace in the KZN section. He’s pulled back into 3^rd overall, but is about 36hours off the lead.

In a solid 2^nd place we have Mike Woolnough, who has been dangling behind Jacques Tattersall ever since the start. The elastic has stretched, but never broken. Mike was 6 hours behind into Rhodes, and it grew to 14 hours as they end up stopping in different places at different times.

We need to backup a little bit here, as the Freedom Trail is no ordinary race course – but a combination of farm tracks, open road, bushwacking and buffalo back garden. It is never the same, there are often minor route changes due to changes in support station stops or permissions/land ownership. The weather is also a real lucky dip and can range from sunny to windy to snow – it looks like it’s been very mild this year (but it’s always frigidly cold). With the large scale reintroduction of buffalo to the Baviaanskloof megareserve there is now a ‘gate’ which riders need to cross between 6am and 1pm. This plays quite a factor into your schedule, and one can push for this from 2/3 days out. This is preceded by the Osseberg jeep track, which is an eroded trail that goes down into the Grootriver valley. There is an abandoned campsite and that’s about it. The path is being grown over and apart from the odd animal going through it it’s only really a handful of cyclists every June punching their way through it. When I did it in 2008, there was no buffalo gate after Cambria, but it was seen as being a no go area in the dark. Alex Harris tried it in 2010 at night and dubbed it Mordor – a name that has stuck.

Jacques got through it at 12:30pm on day 7, Mike missed it by about 7 hours, so has now crossed it at 6am on day 8. This is effectively a 17 hour lead that JT had, but there are no absolutes here. We have no way to know how much JT pushed to get through this gate, and how much extra rest Mike would get by sleeping an extended period. There was the possibility that JT would try and extend his lead as much as possible, to effectively snap the elastic. Luckily for us armchair adventurers that is not what happened, and he slept a full 9 hours. We now have both riders having a long extended sleep, and Mike would be about 6-8hours behind JT.

Now the obvious question – can Mike overhaul Jaqcues? Firstly, there is the small matter of 800km of mtbing to get to the finish at Diemersfontein – so anything can go wrong from here! I’m going to look quickly at the pace that they’re on.

The current record is Martin Dreyer’s 2017 time of 247 hours total. He did however drop about 10-12 hours on the final hurdle. JT was about a day behind MD last year, before falling back to about 36 hours behind from the Baviaanskloof. He has been on almost the exact same schedule as what he had been on last year (he left DamseDrif at 5am, 2 hours later this year) which is a finish of 279 hours. All things being equal, he has about 90 hours of riding left. Mike could overhaul him, but would need to drop his best time by anything up to about 36 hours to do this! Incidentally that best time is from 2016, and he is about 20 hours ahead of that.

Sometimes it is easier to be the chaser, if Mike can get the gap down to 4 hours, then he has the chance of arriving at a SS before JT leaves it – a huge psychological boost. Does JT keep looking back over his shoulder and push to try and stay ahead or just ride his own race? Both will definitely be going for the win more than the time. The only thing we know for sure, is that we’ll have the answers soon – so stay tuned!

Edited June 26, 2018 by Abdoujaparov

[Shebeen]

There is the official story of me being a respectfull gentlemen. Beautifull wooden floors and walking on socks to not damage them.

 

Then there is Meryl's version that I was just after an extra day in Prince Albert. I did officially ask permission to use some of my spare time in there and was told only for medical emergency's ....

 

And two-three days later I get this miracle medical emergency on the way to Prince Albert, the last day to find a doctor in days. And I did get there conveniently late so that doctor was well closed when JT and I arrived

 

I do still have the official doctors bill and the splinter in a cup. Which I did show to Glenn who was send too kick my lazy as out of Dennehof and back onto the bike. We might actually never really now what happened in Willomore or not?

 

Personnaly I believe the ride from Brosterlea to Hofmeyer with you commander Rissik and playing chess with two unknowing other players is more of a laugh.

There is Marnitz again in that story and a small side role for Leon die Leeu side kick of JT

so much codelanguage going on here... 

 

 

Commander Rissik, how is the koffiekroeg looking this year?

[Marnitz Nienaber]

 

Sometimes it is easier to be the chaser, if Mike can get the gap down to 4 hours, then he has the chance of arriving at a SS before JT leaves it – a huge psychological boost. Does JT keep looking back over his shoulder and push to try and stay ahead or just ride his own race? Both will definitely be going for the win more than the time. The only thing we know for sure, is that we’ll have the answers soon – so stay tuned!

 

I can tell you one truth, JT is racing himself and not competing against any other racers, he just want to better his best. Mike the ordinary cyclist is in racing mode and enjoying every bit of it.

 

The other truth, without mechanical's and bad weather it basically impossible to catch anyone once you turned into the Baviaans home stretch, I have chased a certain James in the past without any success, Alex have chased Martin without any success and the list goes on. It is not impossible but very rarely done.......

 

   

[The Crazy German]

Jacques explaining the Osseberg 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BkgBZL5A12C/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=aefrgzciclqo

 

So he did pay attention to Marnitz his wise words and acted as the animals to find the secret tunnel. Well under 4 hours from top gat to bottom gate. Tim james in there now tackeling it at night on purpose takes a special breed do dare an an even more exclusive breed to pull it of smoothly VASTBYT Tim