MARK ETHERIDGE: The farmer who started a bike race and lifted a community

Allow me to spirit you away from the bitter disappointment of the twice-defeated Blitzboks sevens rugby side at the Stade de France, Paris on the opening day of the 2024 Olympics on Wednesday, and take you to a place and an event that offers a deep breath of fresh air, sanity and paradise.

Far away from the hustle-bustle of the commercially-driven multi-code Olympics is an annual three-day mountain bike event called Sani2C, ridden from the Sani Pass to Scottburgh on the KwaZulu-Natal coast.

This is an event that was purely community driven and the project of a remarkable human, farmer Glen Haw.

A third-generation born-and-bred dairy farmer from Ixopo in the KZN Midlands, it was Haw, now 62, who 30 years ago saw the pressing need to keep the kids of local farmers in the area once they reached school-going age.

Haw took some time off from early-morning milking this week to share how the event was born.

“The local Lynford school was very poor so kids weren’t coming home to a community without a school and were sending kids away to schools in Pietermaritzburg or beyond. Community is very important to me and we needed to raise money for the school.

“So we started what was called the Lynford Country weekend, which involved an annual weekend of mountain biking, adventure racing, downhill racing – and it really took off, and raised upwards of R300,000 a weekend to help the school.”

That idea worked well but invariably other schools soon started copying the ideas and jumping on the bandwagon. Lynford school was growing in terms of classrooms and administration rooms but then it needed a house for the headmaster (headmistress at the time), a pool was added and astrofields created.

That’s about when Sani2C was born.

Before that though, one must remember that Haw had been a key force behind the country’s oldest multi-stage mountain bike ride, what was originally the Imana Wild Ride on the Wild Coast (now simply Wild Ride) and another event that has seen more than 50 classrooms being built for the local communities along the route in its 25-year history.

Regarding Sani2C though and Haw was your typical farmer’s kid, entranced by the outdoors and with a curiosity second to none, always wanting to know what was around the next corner and spending hours away from home on weekends home from boarding school.

“I’d loved watching Comrades and Dusi Marathons and was fascinated by point-to-point adventures. My wife, Mandy’s parents, lived in Scottburgh and she would go down there and drop me and my bike off at various points and slowly I’d find different routes to the coast, from one valley to the next.”

It took 10 years before Haw had found a way that worked! 

“We were training for the first Cape Epic mountain bike race back then and a neighbour’s son, who lived in Joburg, asked to come and ride with a few of his mates. So we met at Sani Pass Hotel and I remember being impressed by their fancy imported bikes, I was astounded at the sheer cost!

“Day two of the ride was from our farm into the Umkomaas Valley and I remember one of the guys absolutely screaming behind me as we entered the valley… it was a scream of pure joy and at that point I knew I was onto something and realised  this was our target market, guys who had the means and could bring outside money into the area while enjoying themselves.”

February 2005 saw the first event, with 300 teams. Having done the Dusi and Comrades Marathons, Haw realised  the mountain bike community appreciated more luxury than canoeists.

“The race village had to have double-ply toilet paper, if we thought we’d need 10 toilets, rather make it 15, people wanted a great experience and were willing to spend money on something they were excited about, so there were non-negotiables, like having hot water for everyone between noon till 7pm at least and we devised ways of making it work, like 10,000-litre diesel tanks with fires going inside them to ensure hot water.”

And from day one, the community was core.

“Sani2C just exploded and the school made proper money! It was entirely a community-based model – we identified schools along the route and brought them in, if we needed bike washers or the putting up of tents we’d use the locals etc.”

Now sponsored by KAP, the Sani2C hasn’t always been that way. “That was a new experience for us, we were just farmers working towards a common goal but sponsors had their own interests at heart and my team and I have always had the community and riders’ interest as a common goal – to the extent that if your kid attended Lynford School, you were obligated to help work on the Sani2C project in some way.”

“The school now competes with any private school in the country… and the local kids and parents are coming back home to the community, now almost every farm has kids coming back to farm locally, which is so rewarding. Every year, you see the smiles and read the letters of thank-you, but the biggest reward is seeing the opportunity for people along the route.”

The event just grew to the extent that there are now three events incorporated into the original, with more than 1,000 participants, and the community involvement just gets more extensive to the point they now have permanent race villages.

“The start venue moved to a small farm in Underberg which we bought and put up our own village,” says Haw.

“We used to use it for three days a year and we’ve since developed it into a wedding event called Glencairn Weddings and it’s one of the most successful wedding venues ever. It’s already sold out until the end of next year."

That venue alone employs up to 50 people a weekend and 20 permanent people in the lines of building, plumbing and electrical work.

Success breeds success and Haw’s recently married daughter Bianca, a top mountain biker in her own right, with an African and three national titles under her saddle, runs the Glencairn Wedding venue and son Murray and his wife both live on the farm and are working there.

And Farmer Glen’s other daughter Tamika is a sports star in her own right, having won the Dusi Marathon.

As for Haw senior, his own success has grown – from 25 cattle to 150, tells the tale – yet he remains as grounded as ever.

He swears the success to a good life is surrounding oneself with the right type of people and having a balanced life.

“I spent a year in Janesville, Wisconsin, working with some of the hardest working dairy farmers on the planet. At the time, tennis ace John McEnroe was at the height of his career, and throwing his toys out of the cot. We were watching TV after morning-milking and he was on television, yet the owners didn’t even have a clue who he was.

“There’s a lesson for you, that you can’t go through life only milking cows, you have to have something outside of life!”

And he’s seen with his own eyes how his Sani2C event has changed lives. “It’s about commitment to life in general. I’ve seen a family of couch potatoes change one by one to full family participation, so get involved and inspired.”

But one of his most memorable moments during his San2C tenure was something of a patriotic and life-changing moment.

“There was a headmaster from a school in Bluff, Durban. This guy had literally packed for Perth, Australia. He came and rode Sani2C and shortly afterwards, we got a letter from him saying  he’d changed his mind and that came through the experience during the ride, and seeing that there is still massive opportunity in this country.”

They say cream will always rise to the top, and Farmer Glen and the Sani2C experience are living, breathing proof of just that!