The Freedom Challenge
Trail Update from Freedom Challenge
News Release / 23.06.2011
Adventure race Ugene Nel arrived at Stuttgart late last night having avoided the rhinos and buffaloes in Spekboomberg to catch up to race trail blazer Flying Garth Flanders. Today they pushed through Grootdam in the Swaershoek (halfway in distance) and descended to van de Venterskraal on the Camdeboo Plains, arriving near midnight. As in 2010, Ugene will want to be first rider home. Garth clearly wants to be first novice home.
The A team of Brett, Coen, Paul, Colin and Jack Black stopped early at Hofmeyr on Monday to clean up on the pies and to fix their bikes. Today they had a fairly leisurely day riding through to the Elandsberg support station and on through the Fish River Karoo to an early afternoon stop at Stuttgart, in the process crossing the Permian Triassic boundary.
They were joined at Stuttart at about 8pm by 2010 winner and current race leader, Alex Harris who left Romansfontein in the morning, descended off the southern Drakensberg at the Aasvoelsberg on the Hofmeyer 100 miler trail and then he followed the tracks of the A team through Hofmeyr and Elandsberg. He will be hunting down Ugene and trying to stick with his cycle of 3am starts and 8 pm finishes.
Sean Woolnough seems to be still recovering from his epic climb up Lehana's in a blizzard with Ugene as well as his subsequent night sleeping rough on the Bonthoek in freezing temperatures. He left Romansfontein with Alex (albeit only after sunrise and had a sunny leisurely day riding through to Hofmeyr where the pies stopped him).
Arriving at Romansfontein this evening was old fart Tim van Coller. He actually arrived there in the early afternoon, having left Brosterlea in the morning and continued on to the start of the Aasvoelsberg. Unable to locate the single track descent and with light fading he turned back arriving at Romansfontein again after dark. He is clearly feeling separation anxiety having lost the other fart and riding companion, Andy Masters yesterday, Riding into Brosterlea from Moordenaarspoort the previous day Andy was forced to withdraw with a foot injury.
Glenn Harrison appears consistently to be the fastest rider across the trail but riding a single speed he seems to be opting for an early end to each day. He left Slaapkranz at 3 am, did the Loutebron and Bonthoek portages in darkness and rode along the Smuts route across the Stormberg passing Moordenaarspoort and Kranzkop to arrive at Brosterlea before sunset and stopped. Despite these early stops he is only marginally behind Alex's pace (remembering that Alex started a day before him).
SleepMonsters
