In a remarkable series of events, Abdullah Zeinab has won the inaugural Rhino Run, rolling into Windhoek in the early hours of the morning. Abdullah completed the extremely tough 2,741 km course across South Africa and remote Namibia in 7 days 20 hours and 4 minutes. Kevin Benkenstein finished just 17 minutes later. Both riders dominated the race from the very start, but the final hour was one of the most exciting seen in this style of racing.
It is extremely rare for an ultra-endurance race to be decided by a sprint finish, but that is exactly what happened in the mountains surrounding Windhoek late on Friday night. The race started with Abdullah and Kevin testing each other on the first climb of the race, not far from the idyllic start on the beach at Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. They continued to test each other, every day of the race. When one of them established a gap, the other would somehow manage to close it. Such a close battle is rarely seen in this racing genre, and with daily update videos showing the race unfolding, dot-watchers around the world were captivated by the remarkable performance of the first two finishers.
Abdullah is an experienced ultra-endurance athlete, with wins in the Trans Am Bike Race and the Indian Pacific Wheel Race but this was his first time lining up for an off-road ultra. Abdullah’s resilience was tested to ridiculous levels and each time he somehow found a way to keep going. If the script of his ride was sent to a Hollywood producer it would be returned as too far-fetched. Early on Abdullah struggled to sleep, he lost his phone, he seriously damaged a rim on a rocky descent, he lost his sunglasses, destroyed at least two backpacks and had two major falls on technical 4WD tracks. When his ultra-light backpack was destroyed, Abdullah bought a backpack from a shop along the way – the sort you see on schoolkids’ backs. When that failed, he bought another one to carry the huge amounts of water he needed to ride the brutal course safely.
At a pivotal moment of the race, Abdullah lost a grub-screw essential for tightening his rear axle. It slipped through his fingers and disappeared in the deep desert sand while replacing a derailleur hanger. He searched the sand for two hours without luck. Eventually Abdullah worked out that a bolt from his Garmin mount would solve his problem. He tried it. It worked, and Abdullah was off into the desert again, but the lead he gained by sacrificing sleep had evaporated.
Abdullah and Kevin started their final push to the finish from the remote desert outpost, Betta, on Thursday evening, 480 km from the finish. It was a harsh push in the heat through some very remote country. After cresting the Gamsberg Pass with a stunning sunset overlooking a sea of rugged mountains, Kevin saw that he had a 20 km lead on the race tracker. At this stage he only had 115 km to ride. Remarkably Abdullah was able to close the gap, using Kevin’s flashing rear light as motivation. Dot-watchers around the world were furiously refreshing the tracker trying to work out who was in the lead. When Abdullah finished first, race fans were scratching their heads. How on earth had he done it?
Both Abdullah and Kevin put on a remarkable show. Kevin’s performance was extremely impressive – he pushed Abdullah to the limit and the pace they set was the fastest seen in an off-road ultra of this type. At the finish line Abdullah apologised to Kevin for the heartbreaking conclusion. Kevin stated that he was proud of both his and Abdullah’s performance, in this first race of its kind starting in his home country. The next rider on course, Steve Halligan, was 380 km from Windhoek as Kevin and Benky dragged their fatigued bodies away to search for some food and clean clothes. 10 minutes later, the Christuskirche returned to darkness and it was like nothing ever happened.
Great images. Remarkable course. Heroes and heroines, all of them.