Freedom Challenge

Cape Epic – the tougher the better for endurance athletes

Eight days, 800 kilometres and some seriously steep ravines – this is the Absa Cape Epic, one of the most extreme things a person can do with a bicycle. The hors catégorie event is the most televised mountain bike stage race in the world. Each year a new route is chosen, as difficult and as beautiful as the last.

Only the toughest survive the Berg River canoe marathon

The Berg River Marathon is probably the most gruelling way to spend four days in mid-winter. The canoe race sets off from Paarl and ends 240 kilometres away in Velddrif, in the Western Cape. Throw in howling wind, driving rain and lots of portage, and you've got a recipe for extreme sport.

Freedom Challenge tests athletes’ limits

While most people are tucked up warmly indoors during winter, a group of dedicated extreme athletes is out riding the Freedom Challenge. The mountain bike race takes riders more than 2 000 kilometres across some of South Africa's harshest but most beautiful scenery.

Youth urged to ‘take up today’s freedom challenges’

While the youth of 1976 fought against apartheid, young South Africans of today should take up the fight against apathy, unemployment and HIV/Aids, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa said at the launch of Youth Month in Soweto on Monday.

South Africa is world’s endurance race capital

Some of the world's most extreme races are held in South Africa, where elite athletes – and ordinary people – pit themselves against the unforgiving elements and huge distances. Perhaps the most well-known is the Comrades Marathon, a gruelling 90km run between Durban and Pietermaritzburg.

The pain is soon forgotten

If you fancy a hard mountain bike ride through some of South Africa's most spectacular countryside, then the Freedom Challenge may be just the ticket. It's over 2 000km – but the man behind it has wilder dreams.
Getting to know a different South Africa

Dreyer shatters Race Across SA record

Seven-time Dusi Canoe Marathon champion and top adventure sportsman, Martin Dreyer, returned to competitive racing with a bang when he claimed the 2012 Freedom Challenge Mountain Bike Race Across South Africa title on Friday, shattering the course record in the process.

McGregor in record-setting Berg victory

Hank McGregor powered his way to a seventh Windhoek Berg River Canoe Marathon victory on the weekend, wrting his name in the record books as he bettered the mark of six victories he had shared with Robbie Herreveld.

The Ride to Rhodes experience

The Ride to Rhodes, an annual six-day challenge that takes mountain bikers on a 500-kilometre trail through some of the most rugged and beautiful countryside on the planet, is more than a race. It's a journey into the heart of South Africa, as well a unique personal challenge.

Riding South Africa’s Freedom Trail

South Africa is a beautiful country, boasting a gorgeous coastline, stunning mountains, and mesmerising bushveld. It begs to be explored, and doing that on mountain bikes is a wonderful way to go about it. The longest trail in the country is the Freedom Trail.