Drikus Coetzee once again made history by winning the inaugural Race Across South Africa in a total time of seven days, 12 hours 2 minutes and 47 seconds on Monday evening.
Coetzee who has already won the Big Munga over 1 000km twice, and holds the record time for the event, has now added the longest MTB race in South Africa to his growing list of achievements.
The Race Across South Africa covered 1 969km, starting in Byrne, Kwazulu Natal last Monday, with the route stretching through KZN, the Eastern Cape and the Klein Karoo, before finishing in Wellington in the Western Cape.
The route mostly traversed gravel roads, farm tracks and mountain passes and included 25 000m of vertical climbs, while the conditions were very challenging, including rain, mud and strong winds.
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When Coetzee reached the finish line at about 20h00 on Monday evening, another Namibian Pierre Lambert was lying second about 280km behind. Lambert was eventually passed by South Africa’s Zane De Decker and went on to finish third.
“We did it, Namibia! I’m incredibly proud to say I’ve won Race Across South Africa,” Coetzee said on his FB page.
“This one pushed me in every way: physically, mentally, and emotionally. There were moments I didn’t think I had much left … but somehow, I kept going,” he added.
“Thank you to everyone who followed the journey, sent messages, and supported me along the way; it was a massive confidence boost.
It’s honestly hard to put into words how much it lifts your spirits to feel an entire community cheering you on while you are taking on such a huge challenge. Grateful. Proud. Honoured,” he said.
When contacted yesterday Coetzee said the conditions were very challenging.
“It was a brutal race with some spectacular landscapes and views, but the weather conditions made it extremely challenging. I think, out of the seven days, five days were raining, the roads were full of water and mud, and the wind was extremely strong from the front, the head wind all the way, battling the wind,” he said.
“To be honest, I didn’t expect the event to be this tough – the farmers around the area we went through said they haven’t experienced these type of rains this time before, so the weather made it challenging, but that’s what we do – it’s the challenge to get through the cold and wet nights,” he added.
“But I had a very good race, I had a small mechanical brake pad failure because of all the mud and the rain, which I managed to change at about the 650 kilometre mark,” he added.
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Coetzee said he adopted a different apprach with more sleep than during previous long distance races.
“I decided to take on a different approach and reduce the tempo which I was riding at, so I tried to sleep more – six to seven hours a night and see what the effect of sleep has on the pace you can ride the next day, and just looking after my body. So the main focus for me for this whole event was to get to the finish line safely and in one piece and to try and win the overall event, which I’m very glad I managed to do – it’s very special to win an inaugural event of this calibre,” he added.
“I’m very happy with how the accomplishment and how my body felt afterwards – I’m glad that I could make the nation proud and I would like to thank all the supporters back home,” he added.
He won’t have much time to rest though as he plans to be back in action this weekend.
“Now it’s time to recover, but I’ll see everyone at the Windhoek Pedal Power time trial on Sunday,” he said.
