For Dave Bell the inaugural Race Around Rwanda was an opportunity to explore another African country and push himself to the limit in an ultra-endurance event.
Dave Bell finished eighth overall in the individual category at the recent Race Around Rwanda. Photo: Charmaine Sander
The 51-year-old from Centurion, who calls himself a “middle of the pack rider, at best”, finished eighth overall in the individual race and was the only South African in that category. He completed the almost-1 000km distance in four days, nine hours and 38 minutes.
Alex Percival, the other SA rider in the field, and his partner, finished third in the pairs category.
Ultra-endurance racing is familiar to Bell, who has completed two Race Across South Africas and a few 1000 Miler events. He was initially attracted to the sport by the various Freedom Challenge events.
“The race was an unsupported, non-stop event that started in the capital of Rwanda, Kigali, on February 2 at 4.30am and the clock stopped 950-odd kilometres later when you crossed the finish line back in Kigali.
“It consisted of about 70% tar roads and 30% gravel. There were four checkpoints along the route and riders were tracked on a tracking system.
“There were time cut-offs at each checkpoint and riders had to reach the finish line by midnight on the Friday night, 131-odd hours later.
“The race had 17 000m of climbing, so it was pretty much either up or down for most of the route.”
Bell said the race went as well as could be expected for him. He only decided to enter at the end of December and went into it rather underprepared, hoping to ride himself into fitness during the course of the event.
“Also, I was the only competitor on a mountain bike. All the others went with gravel bike options. As it turned out there were pros and cons for each.”
Bell had between three and five hours of sleep each night at the checkpoints, depending on how he felt. He also slept for a couple of hours in bus shelters and under bushes along the way when the “sleep monsters” attacked.
“My strategy before I started was to ride as many hours as I could every day. I knew I would not be able to match the other competitors for speed, because of my bike choice (and my age!) and planned to just have the odd sleep on the route.
“This didn’t work out from the first night as it started raining, so I decided to sleep longer in the support stations. The rain set in for the week to such an extent that there was severe flooding and mudslides and tragically lives were lost of people living there.”
His lowest moment came on his fourth day when the wheels fell off – figuratively speaking.
“This was my major low point of the race. In a solo endurance event there is no one to pick you up emotionally or physically.
“It was a planned day of 215km with 5 000m vertical ascent. Nutrition is key for me whilst riding, and the previous day I had battled to get food that I could stomach. After about 120km I couldn’t go on any more.
“The lack of food on the previous day had caught up with me. I was cycling through a rain forest at the time so I found a bush, lay down and was asleep immediately.
“My wife and I have a saying when we are doing endurance events that ‘it will always get better’, and when I woke up fortunately the sleep had done the trick and I was able to work my way, albeit slowly, to the next checkpoint.”
Regarding the route, Bell said it was scenic throughout and very pleasant. He enjoyed the dirt, gravel and mud sections far more than the tar.
“If truth be told, with all the rain around there was a lot of mud and I had a distinct advantage on those sections on my MTB with skinny tyres which gave great mud clearance.
“I was able to ride most of those sections whilst the riders on gravel bikes on occasion had issues. The shoe was on the other foot on the tar sections obviously.
“I must make mention of the tar roads. They are simply magnificent. They are pothole-free and amazing to ride on. Drivers in Rwanda are used to sharing the roads with bicycles.”
After experiencing it for the first time, Bell said Rwanda was a beautiful country and on his third day he felt privileged to see volcanoes, one of the great lakes and a rain forest all within 150km of each other.
“It was certainly a unique and worthwhile experience. The organisers were very good and it was great value for money. Plane tickets from SA to Rwanda are also relatively cheap.”
Furthermore, he said Rwanda had a unique and tragic history, with a genocide having occurred just over 25 years ago.
“As a country they have turned themselves around in an amazing way. I visited the Kigali Genocide Memorial after the race, which is something that you must do if you visit Rwanda and do this race.
“It gave me an understanding of the country that I didn’t have before. At no stage during the race did I ever feel threatened in any way. There is apparently close to zero theft or petty crime, and I certainly did not experience any.
“It’s a safe place to travel to. The whole country is virtually litter-free which was a true joy. Plastic bags are outlawed in Rwanda. What a great law.”
He added that one of the outstanding things about Rwanda was the sheer volume of bicycles used by Rwandans and there was a fully-fledged transport system to transport both people and goods by bicycle.
“I have never seen as many bicycles outside the start of the 947 Cycle Challenge. Rwanda has the potential to become the hub of African cycling. On many occasions I was overtaken going uphill by a Rwandan single-speed bicycle-taxi carrying a passenger and quite possibly some cargo too.”
The next race on Bell’s radar is another inaugural event in August, the 2000 Miler.
“This starts in Gauteng and heads down to the Cape and then back up the country and finishes in the Free State.”
