![\"ccs-58780-0-79978800-1481525015.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.bikehub.co.za\/production\/uploads\/2023\/02\/ccs-58780-0-79978800-1481525015.jpg\")
<\/a>Former Dusi Canoe Marathon winner Martin Dreyer (left) and Craig Greenland (right) charge through the dark during the early stages of the uBhejane Xtreme MTB Challenge on Saturday, 10 December. Anthony Grote\/ Gameplan Media<\/span><\/p>\nStarting in the dark at 2am and finishing in the day\u2019s dwindling light at 6pm, the encounter\u2019s gruelling 340km Long Horn event from Cadence Cycling Performance Centre in Hillcrest to the Zululand venue challenged participants\u2019 physical and mental toughness like few others.<\/p>\n
The day\u2019s programme of endurance cycling also included a 240km Short Horn option as the event sought to raise vital festive season funding for Project Rhino KZN\u2019s province-wide anti-rhino poaching efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was long and it was hard but it was a great day!\u201d said former Springbok captain and 2007 Rugby World Cup winner, John Smit after completing the Short Horn.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot many people would normally ride 240km in a day but it is an unbelievable thing to do, especially because we were riding for a purpose.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou go through some incredible places that you\u2019ve never seen before \u2013 and you wouldn\u2019t if you weren\u2019t putting your hand up and raising your voice for the rhinos.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was also great to be thrown into a group of people of whom I probably knew three or four beforehand and, after the fourteenth hour together, you feel like you\u2019re family,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Not ridden as a race but rather a ride, the event concludes with a memorable 35km final stretch through the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve\u2019s bushveld, albeit a segment that includes some lung-busting hills at the end of an already brutal day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe camaraderie out there amongst everyone was brilliant!\u201d explained international cycling commentator Phil Liggett who, together with his wife Trish, joined Long and Short Horn participants for the last leg to the finish line.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone pulled together and made sure the whole group got up those hills \u2013 I felt like I had my own team of super domestiques.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a wonderful occasion and one that I felt very privileged to be a part of,\u201d added the \u2018Voice of Cycling\u2019.<\/p>\n Global mountaineer and adventurer Sibusiso Vilane, like Smit, tackled the Short Horn event as he pushed himself well beyond his previous best of 100km in one sitting.<\/p>\n The inspirational figure however dug deep and completed the task, all the while leaning on the day\u2019s ultimate purpose to drive him on.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was very tough, long day in the saddle, particularly for someone like me who isn\u2019t a regular cyclist, but as tough as it was, it was very worth it.\u201d said Vilane. \u201cI had a wonderful, supportive group and so it ended up being a team effort.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI adore animals and love watching them in their natural habitat but that\u2019s where we need to leave them; people must go see them there, take pictures but don\u2019t kill our animals!<\/p>\n \u201cMany of us are not happy about what is happening as far as rhino poaching \u2013 or the killing of any of our wildlife for that matter \u2013 goes, but what are we doing to stop it?<\/p>\n \u201cWe all have a role to play; you don\u2019t have to have a certain status to get involved, any ordinary person needs to help be the voice for the voiceless \u2013 our animals!<\/p>\n \u201cThe animals need us to talk \u2013 even shout \u2013 for them and to protect them for our future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Sharks rugby player Jeremy Thomson was another to through his weight behind the cause \u2013 one very dear to him through his involvement in the Kingsley Holgate Foundation\u2019s anti-rhino poaching efforts \u2013 as too did seven time Dusi Canoe Marathon winner and regular extreme cyclist and adventurer, Martin Dreyer.<\/p>\n<\/a>The varying sights and sounds of Zululand were a treat for uBhejane Xtreme MTB Challenge riders on Saturday, 10 December. Anthony Grote\/ Gameplan Media<\/span><\/p>\n