Ok time to start training ????

Well its 14 days to the start of the 2013 Freedom Challenge Race Across South Africa, start date the 9th of June batch A, Tim has decided to have a holiday this year and to complete the new section of the Lodge at Bushwise, he is also training for the War Trail triathlon down South somewhere, details to follow. I will be riding with Peter who rode last year to keep me company. This years fund raising is again for the Freedom Challenge Scholarship Fund, we supported this very worthwhile charity two years ago and managed to raise some funds that have enabled several underprivileged kids down in the Eastern Cape to attend High School and hopefully learn how to spell better than I can !!! The guys have put a lot of effort into the Scholarship Funds efforts over the past Two years under the stewardship of Allen Sharp and Ben De Lange, both Freedom Challenge blanket wearers , that means they finished the blooming race !!! They have close to Ten kids on bursaries and their progress is monitored through out the year by Allen and Ben as well as the Teachers and also lets not forget young Sepho who works for the Freedom Challenge down at Masakala, he oversees the students and liaises with the parents on a daily basis. If you ride the trail at any time you will meet him, a great personality that is an integral part of the Scholarship Fund and the Freedom Trail. We all have our own BackaBuddy links and any donations really will be appreciated towards the Scholarship Fund, please support this cause, education is the key for the future of not only South Africa but africa as a whole, my link is http://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/andy-2013 any donation matters, thank you. Now the begging is over ! The race training is kind of complete, every year I seem to put on a couple of kilograms before the race, yep just like a hamster stocking up for winter I am stocking up for the race. The weather forecast is the usual cold, wet and crappy, but thats what make the race so special. This year there there are close to 70 starters, hopefully they will all finish, although the average drop out rate is over 40% for this race, I hope we all have the wind at our backs and only get snow in Cape Town. Alex Harris is not racing this year and Martin Dreyer is riding with his wife, I suspect the woman's record will be smashed this year, Tatum Prins currently holds the record. So who will go for the podium placings ???? My money is on Glenn Harrison, a nicer guy you would not meet, he's has a great pedigree with the race, knows the route backwards and he's been very quite at the moment, this race is a bugger and anything can happen on the route even to the most experienced rider, lets hope this is Glenn's year. The Ride to Rhodes is now called the Race to Rhodes and R100.00 is being donated to the Scholarship Fund by David Waddilove for every rider that gets to Rhodes under 6 days, the record is 54 Hours set last year by Martin Dreyer. Tim James is back for the race and I suspect Tim will set the bar very high, but how on earth you can get to Rhodes any quicker amazes me, the guys will not sleep and just ride the 600 kilometers, hats off to them. Next post will be from the race, I am going to try and use the mobile version of Blogger, if it does not work hopefully Annette can type the race summary up for me !!! In Engels I hope !!! Safe riding to all competitors and please support the Scholarship fund its a good project !!!