Winter race for 2010 Freedom Challenge

Wednesday, 21 October 2009

Previous participants in the Freedom Challenge have battled through snowstorms and subzero temperatures. As a result, the event has developed a reputation of being the toughest endurance race in the South Africa.

2010 will be no different as the 2010 Freedom Challenge will again take place in the heart of the South African winter. The Freedom Challenge race office today announced that the 2300 kilometre non-stop unsupported Freedom Challenge Race Across South Africa will start on Saturday 12 June 2010. Riders will leave Pietermaritzburg in batches spread over the next week with the last batch leaving on Saturday 19 June 2010.

Riders will then mountain bike on the Freedom Trail which takes them through the Sisonke section of southern Kwa Zulu Natal and into the Drakensberg before heading across the basin of the Great Karoo and into the Cape mountains. They will finish at Diemersfontein Wine Estate outside Cape Town.In addition to the non-stop Freedom Challenge Race Across South Africa, the Freedom Challenge will simultaneously host the 6 day Ride to Rhodes which takes riders from Pietermaritzburg over the first 500 kilometres of the route towards Cape Town. Covering the Sisonke and Maluti sections of the trail, riders will head through the deep river valleys, and over the high watersheds of the Umkomaas, Umzimkulu and Umzimvubu River catchements before crossing the floodplains of the Knira River and climbing up the face of the Drakensberg escarpment.

Those wanting to toughen up the test of 2300 kilometres of non-stop mountain biking can enter the Freedom Challenge Extreme Triathlon. On Friday 17 June 2010 they will start in Durban and run 85 kms up the valleys if the Umgeni and Umzimduzi Rivers to Pietermaritzburg in the Freedom Challenge Duzi Trail run. The following day they will set off from Pietermaritzburg on mountain bikes as part of the Freedom Challenge Race Across South Africa. They must arrive in Paarl in time to compete in the 4 day 240 kilometre Berg River Canoe Marathon.