BIKE4BEASTS Race Report 2007

Race Report 2007 |	Race Report 2008 |	Race Report 2009 |	Race Report 2010
DOWNLOAD Race Report 2007

For many of the riders and volunteers, attending the inaugural De Beers BIKE4BEASTS MTB Challenge on 28 April 2007, it was the first time they had traveled to this remote piece of the country.

Organised by Lycaon Logistics, with support from the EWT fundraising team, the event attracted 81 participants. The riders, their families and friends and a huge group of volunteers drawn from the EWT, Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve, Global Vision International volunteers, locals and corporates made sure the event was a jovial, fun, light-hearted gathering of like-minded people.

De Beers provided major financial support for the Challenge as well as Barloworld Equipment with a generous sponsorship of the cycling jerseys.

Musina SuperSpar, Oryx Aqua and Coca-Cola kept the riders re-hydrated whilst Kenwood and Global Communications provided the very important radio back up. SAB provided major support through providing every rider with a limited edition commemorative BIKE4BEASTS T-shirt of the challenge, as well as supporting the post race function alongside Messina Bottle Store. Hanley Wildlife Services provided the on site emergency helicopter that kept all of the riders safe during the race (particularly when the breeding herd of seventy elephants decided that they also wanted to take part!)

Champion Chip provided the timing of the event with race results at the end, whilst Richard Durrant acted as commissaire.

As Dr Nick King, EWT Executive Director of Sustainability (and a keen mountain biker himself) took the participants through the pre-event briefing, listing how tough the course was, the punctures they could expect and the dangerous animals they would probably encounter, the crowd laughed nervously as they became aware of exactly what lay ahead of them.

The field of participants ranged in age from 13 to 64 and while the winning time was a little over 2 hours 30 minutes, the last rider squeaked in a few minutes shy of the 9 hour cut off time, on what has been described as a tough and challenging course of 65.4km.

When all was said and done George Oertel walked off with the first place and generously donated his R5000 prize money back to the EWT. First woman across the line was Gillian Howard and she donated R2000 of her prize money back to the cause. The first team home was The Stamp Shop. We encouraged the participants to raise at least R1000 for conservation over and above their entry fee and 21 of the participants did so with Hannes Bester raising R2400 and walking away with a magnificent mountain bike for his efforts. These riders will all receive a year’s free membership with the EWT. Some special awards were also made to the oldest rider - Bruce Irvine-Smith (64), the youngest rider - Simon Marincowitz (14), the rider with the most endurance – Ashleigh Cronje and the rider with the most spirit – Gert Bosch.

Sponsorship donations are still flooding in and we have so far raised R30 000 for the Endangered Wildlife Trust.

A newsletter of the results as well as a feed back form has been sent out to riders to enable us to build on our success of this year. Feedback from the riders on the day was extremely positive with many riders provisionally booking their places for next year and willing to spread the word. We have no hesitation that we will not only fill all of our places next year but also have to turn people away. Many of the riders liked the personal, exclusivity of the race and we believe that this is something we should continue to market.

The demonstration of sportsmanship was awe inspiring – and many of the riders were lucky enough to have some fantastic game sightings – reports included the elephant breeding herd as well as zebra, impala, giraffe, kudu and even a cheetah.

The eight-strong team of photographers took some amazing photographs of the event – a CD has been compiled with some of the events from the day as well as promotional shots.

This was a mammoth undertaking but one that Lycaon Logistics and the EWT are eager to grow and develop into one of the premier events on the mountain biking calendar. Long-term plans include expanding the event into neighboring Zimbabwe and Botswana, but we will keep you updated on progress in this regard. Judging from the feedback we have received it certainly has the potential of becoming a premier event on the South African MTB calendar.

Contact: Wendy Collinson
wendy@lycaon.co.za
www.bike4beasts.co.za
Cell: 083 657 1551
Fax: 086 628 8303