Endurance cyclist Nico Coetzee recently completed an unsupported, non-stop 600km road bicycle ride, informally known as the “Tip of Africa”, and confessed afterwards that he is addicted to long-haul cycling.
The ride formed part of a series of Brevet des Randonneurs Mondiauxs staged by Audax South Africa, which is a non-profit association for long-distance cycling.
“A brevet is not a race. It’s a challenge. There is no official ranking. All finishers are equal,” said Coetzee.
Endurance cyclist Nico Coetzee (second from right) recently completed an unsupported, non-stop 600km road bicycle ride. Photo: Facebook/Wimpie van der Merwe
His ride started at 9pm on April 5 from a wine farm just outside Stellenbosch.
“The 600km circular route must be completed within 40 hours, so this allows us to cycle through Friday night, the whole of Saturday and to be back home before 1pm on Sunday afternoon.
“We were eight cyclists, each armed with a brevet card that had to be signed at 10 different stops along the route in order to prove our passage.
“These control points were at Wolseley, Rawsonville, Robertson, Swellendam, Bredasdorp, Agulhas, Bredasdorp [again], Onrus, Kleinmond, Strand and back at Vrede Wines.”
The 36-year-old said there were many highlights to his ride.
“Climbing up Bainskloof pass at night, 2am coffee stop with 120km in the legs, the cold before daybreak, cycling into the warmth of sunrise, welcome breakfast in Swellendam, rolling hills that flatten out to the ocean, beers in Agulhas, fixing the southernmost puncture in Africa, steak dinner in Bredasdorp, dead quiet roads through Napier, speeding down Akkedisberg pass, stillness of the Overberg, daybreak over Clarence drive and finally, the Lord Charles sprint before arriving home.
“These things are better experienced on a bicycle.”
He added that he enjoyed cycling alone, but with the safety concerns in South Africa they tried to ride in groups of two or more.
“This has its own pros and cons – you have someone to talk to and to share the workload up front, but different cyclists have different highs and lows at different times, so you might end up going slower as a group than as an individual when it comes to longer distances.
“But it works both ways and we had lots of fun.”
Coetzee added that being an introvert meant that he was very content with spending many long hours alone.
“These long rides are my meditation, offering productive time to think and be creative away from the office.
“You certainly go through a series of highs and lows on such a long ride and I find a good distraction is to think about what I’ll have to eat or drink at the next stop. Giving up is never an option.
“I’m built for comfort, not speed. Fortunately, on very long rides it is not necessarily about outright speed as much as it is about conserving energy and having the right mindset. Remember the tortoise and the hare?”
Coetzee, who has competed in 40 individual rides of 200km or more at a time, added that this ride motivated him to participate in more endurance events.
“Endurance cycling is addictive. At this stage I’m still wanting to go further and longer so I’ll keep exploring and having fun while doing so. I think we are capable of so much more than we realise or give ourselves credit for.”
He has also tackled the 1 200km Paris-Brest-Paris in France, the 1 400km London-Edinburgh-London in the UK, the 4 100km Transcontinental from Belgium to Greece – covering 15 European countries in 16 days – and the local 1 000km Munga from Bloemfontein to Wellington.
“The three main solo and unsupported bicycle races I’d love to do, in no specific order, are the 6 700km Trans American Bike Race from the East Coast to the West Coast of North America, the 1 600km LEJOG from the bottom of England to the top of Scotland and the 1 700km mostly off-road Silk Road Mountain Race through the mountains of Kyrgyzstan.
“Who knows where we go from there?”
