RMB Change a Life MTB Academy founder and keen adventurer, Martin Dreyer was in awe of the incredible vistas he was greeted by throughout his record-breaking Ride to Rhodes journey this weekend as he remained sleepless throughout his conquering of the self-navigated, non-stop, 575km mountain bike event from Pietermaritzburg to the Eastern Cape town of Rhodes. Supplied\/ Gameplan Media<\/span><\/p>\nWith his record-breaking goal firmly in his mind, Dreyer was faced with the daunting task of tackling the ultimate challenge of the event \u2013 hiking up the notorious Lehanas Pass \u2013 in darkness and sub-zero conditions.<\/p>\n
As he hiked up to the ridgeline of Lehanas, Dreyer stumbled on a shepherd\u2019s hut he hadn\u2019t seen before, throwing him off course.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo cold and can\u2019t see a thing. Going to have to back track,\u201d Dreyer posted on a supporters\u2019 WhatsApp group at 02h20 on Monday morning. \u201cFlip, I have lost my bearings. Really struggling to find my way \u2013 pitch black, freezing cold and cloud cover \u2013 complete disorientation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Believing he was lost in the mountains, Dreyer took the difficult decision to let go of the time goals he\u2019d set himself and take cover for the night, waiting for sunrise to continue his journey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d settled down when I thought \u2018No, get back out there!\u2019\u201d said Dreyer. \u201cI went back out, took the tiger line to the top and used the fence line as a hand rail down to the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEarlier I\u2019d actually been right where I wanted to be but my complete disorientation meant that for two hours I had no idea of my whereabouts \u2013 the two hours that cost me going under 48 hours in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the tough climb behind him and a downhill stretch to the finish, the challenges kept coming for Dreyer as he desperately sought the finish line at the Eastern Cape town of Rhodes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe snow wasn\u2019t a problem because that at least offered some traction but there were patches that the sun didn\u2019t often get to and were very icy and slippery.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though it was an effortless, energy-saving free ride down due to gravity, I had to be very careful and go very slowly.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy then, having not slept at all since Saturday morning, I was also completely exhausted and twice found myself falling asleep on the bike \u2013 once I hit a rock and woke up just before I reached the edge of the road and the cliff below!<\/p>\n
\u201cI decided for my own safety I\u2019d have to walk and I kept shouting and singing to myself to stay awake.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I eventually made it to Rhodes, I was filled by sheer relief!\u201d<\/p>\n
The renowned adventurer, who during his paddling days won seven Dusi Canoe Marathon and seven Non-Stop Dusi titles and has also successfully completed the Freedom Challenge proper three times, completed the task in 49 hours and 47 minutes.<\/p>\n
Dreyer, coach and mentor of a crop of talented paddling, mountain biking and running athletes from the Valley of a Thousand Hills through his RMB Change a Life MTB Academy, was inundated with messages of support along the way while \u2018legend\u2019, \u2018inspirational\u2019, \u2018monumental\u2019 and \u2018champion\u2019 were used by many in their post-race congratulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cMart, what an example you set, not only for us as individual sportsmen and women, but for your mentees (as well),\u201d commented Rand Merchant Bank (RMB)\u2019s Maureen Gleeson. \u201cSalute from RMB!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUnbelievable what you have achieved!,\u201d added Ursula du Plooy, Executive Director of Computershare, sponsors of Dreyer\u2019s paddling arm of his Change a Life Academy. \u201cWhat a privilege to have you as our Change a Life ambassador.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSuper congrats on a ride that\u2019s incomprehensive to the average man,\u201d chimed fellow cycling enthusiast, Jaco Retief.<\/p>\n
More information is available at www.freedomchallenge.org.za<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irrepressible adventure racer Martin Dreyer stunned the mountain biking fraternity this weekend when he became the first person ever to officially complete the treacherous 575km Ride to Rhodes race from Pietermaritzburg to Rhodes in the Eastern Cape in less than 50 hours, battling cold and snow, fatigue and sleep deprivation, to shatter the previous record […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":42079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1678,2644],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-18019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-martin-dreyer","tag-ride-to-rhodes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18019"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=18019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/a>RMB Change a Life MTB Academy founder and keen adventurer, Martin Dreyer has broken the Ride to Rhodes time record by over a day after completing the self-navigated, non-stop, 575km mountain bike event from Pietermaritzburg to the Eastern Cape town of Rhodes in 49 hours and 47 minutes. Supplied\/ Gameplan Media<\/span><\/p>\n