Training Log Archive: Stijn

We managed to get away at first light this morning, in a chilly 3 degrees up at 2600m. The first mission for the day was to ride along the "contour" road towards Tiffendell, a track I had been wanting to ride for years. It was much tougher than expected with another rocky rutted dual track to follow, with many short steep climbs along the way. It was incredible riding through the Lesotho highlands at dawn and we felt like we were in a very remote & wild place. The track ended up climbing 500m total in the 25km to Tiffendell and we took a whole 4 hours to cover that stretch with all the hike-a-bike and pannier fixing along the way.

Barkly East was starting to seem very far away but the roads improved past Tiffendell and we started making much better progress. Volunteershoek Pass down to Wartrail was surprisingly steep and rocky but then we were spat out onto the smooth, flowing valley roads again.

A last fast 50km from Wartrail to Barkly East took us to the end of our tour and our earliest finish yet at 16:30.

All in all it was a tough but incredible trip, taking us to some wild places :) We had a strong group who were all happy to just ride all day, which was pretty necessary this time around. Highly recommended!