Imana Wild Ride 2008 came and went, with much spinning and pumping of the legs over four days along the beautiful Transkei coastline.
Due to the terrain of the race (riding on the beach; cattle paths; hiking paths and some dirt roads), a single speed is ideal. Sure, we got smoked on the flat or slightly down dirt roads. However, if it was a hill, we waved our geared friends goodbye as we pumped our legs up and over the top. The stuff we could not ride, was normally unridable for the geared guys, or we were pushing at the same speed as they were riding.
One thing is for sure: 29inch wheels are made for beach riding, as they just keep on rolling through soft sand and rocks. Johann would leave me a couple of bike lengths back in the soft sand, but I would catch him up when we had to push.
The scenery was incredible, the local people friendly and the race organization was slick. What more could one ask for from 4 days on a bike?
So, how did we do…?
Day 1 = 43Km
This was very much the unknown. We started off slowly and rode with Johann’s wife and partner for two thirds of the day.
The race is not marked and all you get is a route map with rough explanation and told to always keep the sea on your right (VERY important). You very quickly get used to spotting bike tracks and following the procession of riders along the coast. The word ‘sneak’ comes into play in this race, as some of the teams do pre-race rides and search for short cuts that may save them seconds/minutes on race day. Thus it is not always the raciest Snakes that cross the line first, but more the cunning and sly teams that keep a constant speed, with no mistakes.
Anyway, back to Day One: Having gone out slowly, we tried to catch up in the last 12km, but got caught with the soft beaches, as the tide had turned and was starting to come in – anyway that was our excuse.
Day 1 = 42nd for the stage in 4h 13 – not too bad for a first up!
Day 2 = 38Km
We had initially set ourselves a goal of just finishing the race. When we had got through Day One fairly comfortably, we changed our goal to achieving an overall position lower than our team number board. Which was team number 33.
Teams start each day in allocated batches according to their overall placing. We had just sneaked into C Batch and I had earmarked a team that was starting in our batch that we should try and beat. Well, we caught and passed them within the first 6km and just kept on going. The day suited us with lots of beach riding and hiking trails.
We caught up with a very quiet bunch of teams on one of the long beach sections, gave them some chirps and got to the front of the bunch, where we started to pull them. After about 2 km, we were on our own – blown off by a pair of single speeders. What an awesome feeling.
DAY 2 = 17th for the stage in 2h 58, and now 35th overall.
Day 3 = 46Km
This is the business day of the race with some HUGE hike-a-bike hills and some truly spectacular views of sea and land. Starting in Batch C, we hit the first climb up to the Light House and pumped the legs over the top and into some awesome forest single-track. From then on, we did not see our batch again. The views from the top of ‘Mother 2’ even outweighed the effort to get to the top, although Johann did not agree with me. 
On this day you meet a couple of ‘Mothers’ (which are large hills that cannot be ridden) and then come the Mother-in-Laws, these are steep, but the very strong can ride them. Unfortunately we did not have the legs nor gears to grind up the ‘Mother-in-Laws’, but the teams around us didn’t either.
After descending one of the many grassy hills down to the famous ‘Hole-in-the- Wall’, we took a quick breather and a photo to prove that we were there and off we went for the last 10km to Coffee Bay. Well it was a long 10km on a gravel road, which was either straight up or straight down. Johann managed to ride the first hill out of Hole-in-the-Wall (which was very impressive) then decided that he might as well just push with me. We hung in and found the sneak around the lagoon to get to the finish tired, but happy. Even happier when we found out that we had just scraped into the top twenty for the day.
Day 3 = 20th for the stage in 3h 40 and now 34th overall.
Day 4 = 63Km
This is the longest day and the day with the least amount of beach riding. With a lot of inland routes, it is a day when good navigation is vital.
With the start going straight up a rutted and rocky ‘track’ behind the picturesque Ocean View hotel, we got a good jump on our batch again and raced off to the Umtata River crossing. This was the first of three ferry crossings in the day. We shared the boat with a team from Cape Town who were riding at our pace and knew the route from having done the race a couple of times before. Johann and I decided that we needed to ask them if they would be our guide for the day, which thankfully they were happy with and on we went - going from grassy single-track on to short beach sections and back to the hill inland routes.
When riding single-speed, you ride at a constant pace both up and down the hills. As we were making our way through the Huleka Nature reserve, this had started to take its toll on our guides. They suggested we go on ahead, which we would normally have done, but we decided to play it safe and slow down and get the guided tour. 
At about 20km to the finish, the route goes inland along a river, which our guides loved, as they clicked into big blade and we sat spinning our hearts out trying to stay in their slip. Straight after the flat road, we climbed the ‘last big hill’ ,which was just the right gradient for our gearing and off we went again- to the dismay of our guides.
We descended to the last ferry across the Mngazana River, which took us onto the last beach of the day and race. The tide was out and the beach was lovely and hard , just perfect for a leisurely finish. Our guides then announced that they had never ridden under 5h for the last day and that they were now going stretch their legs in big blade to make it home within the five hours. As they geared up, I decided that it was worth us doing the same and started spinning my legs off, with Johann asking why and what for?
We crossed the finish line with the symbolic ringing of the Gong.
We had made it and exceeded our expectations of not just finishing the race, but being competitive – Single speeds rule!
DAY 4 = 20th for the stage in 3h 40
26TH overall, in 15h 36min 52sec
A big thanks to our Cape Town guides, Deon Engela and Alan Chesterton, who did admit that they were not going to tell too many of their friends that two guys on single speed bikes had out-ridden them on the last day of the Imana Wild Ride 2008. 
