Deviations
Freedom to challenge your mountain-biking skills on SA’s best touring route
The Freedom Challenge is a gruelling 26-day race suited for the tough and trained — but now ordinary mountain-bikers can enjoy the route in a more leisurely fashion, writes Teigue Payne
The best formal mountain-bike route in SA is also mountain-bike touring’s best-kept secret. The 2,300km Freedom Challenge route (with less than 50km on tar) can be done by anyone. The route is primarily for the 26-day maximum race from Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu-Natal to Wellington in the Western Cape, which takes place every year in winter. One of SA’s great mountain-bike races, it is for the truly tough and fit, and proof of this can be seen on YouTube videos. But people like me, with less mettle, can do any distance on the Freedom Challenge route at any time of the year. All that needs to be done is to book with the organiser, Chris Fisher. The previous organisers apparently did not publicise or promote the route for touring because of problems they had experienced with riders who did not know what they were letting themselves in for. But Fisher, who was recently appointed, says his organisation will be promoting the touring route. For cyclists interested in combining races with...
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