Former Olympic pole-vaulter and reality show survivor Okkert Brits will face his toughest challenge yet when he takes on the three-day Rocky Mountain Garden Route 300 in Knysna from February 22 to 24.<\/p>\n
Brits will be participating in his first ever mountain bike stage race as a guest of First National Bank, which is sponsoring the R70 000 prize purse.<\/p>\n
However, he said he would not have his eyes on the prize, as he was relatively new to the sport and had only been training for the past 10 weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe objective is just to finish and have as nice a time \u2013 and break as few things \u2013 as possible,\u201d said Brits.<\/p>\n
The 39-year-old said it was a great opportunity and that he had heard the Knysna event was one of the toughest and most beautiful stage races on the national calendar.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re not an endurance athlete it\u2019s really hard,\u201d said the former track and field star. \u201cI have no experience and no idea what I\u2019ve gotten myself into!\u201d<\/p>\n
Brits, who will be competing in the Absa Cape Epic alongside former Welsh rugby captain Colin Charvis in March, said he needed to test his endurance as much as possible ahead of the eight-day event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to see if I can make it. The great thing about the GR300 is that I\u2019m really going to find out where my problem areas are.\u201d<\/p>\n
He will be riding with FNB\u2019s Mike Howell, who has completed multiple Ironman competitions, in the 300km Garden Route event.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a pole-vaulter you pretty much do everything on your own and you know how to sort yourself out. But now it\u2019s different because you\u2019ve got a partner to worry about and you\u2019re both going to have good and bad days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Okkert Brits, pictured here at a charity sports event, will test his endurance at the Rocky Mountain Garden Route 300 from February 22 to 24. <\/em><\/span>Photo: Coetzee Gouws\/Fullstop<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Although, weighing in at 105kg, the big man was not looking forward to the climbs, he said he would rely on his skills as a high school BMX racing champion to assist on the technical descents.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve already had a few proper falls but as a pole-vaulter you make your living out of falling, so I\u2019m used to it,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n One of an elite group of athletes to have cleared the six-metre mark, Brits said he had done intensive research into this new discipline and was training as hard as possible.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything is so new but so interesting. It\u2019s tough going, learning what or what not to eat and drink, going to bed early and dealing with pain.\u201d<\/p>\n Never one to shy away from a challenge, he has previously also shown his mettle as a contestant in the celebrity edition of the Survivor: South Africa reality television show.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Survivor I initially said no. You\u2019ve got cameras on you all the time and I\u2019m the type of guy who, when I\u2019m hungry and tired, turns into The Hulk.<\/p>\n \u201cBut at the end of the day it was one of the best experiences of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n The Port Elizabeth-based athlete said he hoped the same would prove true of his new sporting adventure.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time you try something new, the hardest part is always just before you do it. But it\u2019s an incredible feeling once you\u2019ve conquered it.\u201d<\/p>\n Having completed the 121km Attakwas Extreme Challenge near Oudtshoorn in January and The Herald VW Cycle Tour\u2019s 80km feature race at Addo this month, Brits said he had a newfound respect for mountain bikers.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how people do this. They\u2019re either mad or stupid or just exceptional.\u201d<\/p>\n He will be riding the Cape Epic on behalf of the JAG Foundation, which offers disadvantaged children positive alternatives to the social ills they face through the medium of sport.<\/p>\n To support the cause, visit www.givengain.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n For more information on the Rocky Mountain Garden Route 300, visit www.gardenrouteevents.co.za<\/a>.<\/p>\n For regular updates, go to facebook.com\/gardenrouteevent<\/a> or follow @GardenRouteLive<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former Olympic pole-vaulter and reality show survivor Okkert Brits will face his toughest challenge yet when he takes on the three-day Rocky Mountain Garden Route 300 in Knysna from February 22 to 24. Brits will be participating in his first ever mountain bike stage race as a guest of First National Bank, which is sponsoring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"featured_location":[],"class_list":["post-22048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22048","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22048\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22048"},{"taxonomy":"featured_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikehub.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured_location?post=22048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}