Freedom Trail Podcast

Season 1, episode 4: day 4 RASA 26

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 21:56:40 GMT

Hello, freedom Family, and we love that with this new event that Freedom Family is growing.

Thank you for listening in to the Freedom Trail Podcast as we follow all the action on day four of Race Across South Africa.

Paul Ingen once said to Chris and I, "who doesn't want to ride their bike across the country". That's precisely what RASA is all about and what these brave men and women are doing. The opportunity to have freedom ahead of you and tackle day by day the most exquisite scenery that South Africa has to offer. The photos coming out are just spectacular. This first section up until Rhodes is almost a third of the course, but it holds nearly half the elevation. It has been relentless out there.

After leaving this first section of rough tracks and quad shattering climbs, big thunderstorms have now rolled in over the Rhodes and Barkley East Jamestown area.

Riders featured in this episode:

Drikus Coetzee - cap 43
Zane de Decker - cap 26
Duncan Luke van Niekerk - cap 40
Willie du Plessis - cap 1
Ingrid Avidon - cap 36
Oliver Greaves - cap 11
Merak Greaves - cap 10
Greg Fisher - cap 29
Sue Wadley - cap 14
Shaun Slabber - cap 6
Mark Fitzjohn - cap 28
Cindy Rutherford - cap 41

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Season 1, episode 3: day 3 RASA 26

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 19:44:52 GMT

Hello, and thank you for tuning into the Freedom Trail podcast.

I'm Julia Fisher, and today we are gonna be unpacking day three of race across South Africa, where riders tackle the Freedom Trail touring route, a tough, grueling to thousand kilometer cycle from just outside Durban in South Africa, all the way to Wellington in the Western Cape. Just on the outskirts of Cape Town. So these riders are essentially riding from Durban to Cape Town with a 15 day cutoff.

Fortunately, everyone has got to checkpoint one, which helds the first cutoff, which is gonna be at tomorrow at 8:00 AM and everyone has already come through there. So we are celebrating all the stamps of the Brevet cards as riders successfully reach the first checkpoint.

Last time we spoke, Drikus , the race leader had just arrived at Rhodes. He got in at 6:00 PM last night, and he ended up having an early sleep. He slept there at Rhodes until midnight. So the rider's strategy of where they sleep. It's quite important and I think it was a good decision for Drikus because the next stop is Barkley East and it's a small town and if he gets there in the middle of the night, it's not a guaranteed bad option. So I think he took the wise option, slept at Rhodes, and then when he left Rhodes at midnight, he went through Barkley East about half past three in the morning. And he has opened Checkpoint two at Kranskop. He got in at half past one today and he stayed there for four hours, leaving then at quarter past five this afternoon.

Riders featured in this episode:

Willie du Plessis - cap 1
Rudi Bassi - cap 30
Nic Stathoulis - cap 23
Merak Greaves - cap 10
Oliver Greaves - cap 11
Giles Clinton - cap 8
Mark Fitzjohn - cap 28

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Season 1, episode 2: day 2 RASA 2026

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 18:15:18 GMT

Hello, freedom Family and thank you for joining us on the eve of day two of Race Across South Africa 2026.

We have riders spanning all the way from Rhodes to Two Springs at the moment. We've just got news from Rhodes that's Drikus, race leader, has arrived and he's looking great. Not sure yet of what his plans are from there.

The field goes all the way to Two Springs. A large group of riders staying there tonight, and these riders are making sure they are ahead of the three day cutoff at Checkpoint one. So the strategy of this group has been to sleep at Centocow night one, tonight at Two Springs and tomorrow they'll be at Malek, ahead of Thursday morning's cutoff at 8:00 AM. It is very durable if nothing bad goes wrong for that group.

Tonight we are gonna be joined by Kevin Benkenstein. He is one of South Africa's most accomplished and respected gravel bike riders. He came a few years ago to do the Freedom Circuit 700 kilometer route and he absolutely smashed it.

Riders featured in this episode:

Giles Clinton - Cap 8

Guest: Kevin Benkinstein

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Season 1, episode 1: Day 1 RASA 26

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 17:20:05 GMT

Hello, freedom Family, and we are back with the first day of the inaugural Race Across South Africa. Our new Freedom Challenge event that allows riders following a GPS route to race the Freedom Trail. As quoted by Sue Wadley, she says, "this race is for those who prefer riding bikes than carrying them." Race across South Africa has started today.

It has been the brainchild of the original Freedom founder David Wadilove. He had always dreamt about having a race on the trail where a large section of the trail is raced with GPS enabled navigation, and today it has come into fruition in 2026.

To share the adventures of the trail we are launching today, episode one of the Freedom Trail Podcast, so all your faithful followers who are normally following on the voice notes during our event coverage. I hope it won't be too tricky to move across to receiving the podcast daily and in this way, we hope to share the love of the Freedom Trail to a wider audience. So welcome to our first episode of Freedom Trail Podcast.

I'm Julia Fisher and my husband Chris and I host the events and tours along the Freedom Trail.

And today on the start line we had 45 participants lining up for race across South Africa, including six internationals and five women, quite a hot and fiery men's race as well as ladies. So Drikus Coetzee is the race favorite. He has led out from the beginning. He is going far faster than we had anticipated, and he has Willie hot on his wheel. For most of the day Willie has been about 15 minutes behind. Drikus got to Centocow at a crazy four hours 15 minutes. He went past Centocow at quarter past 12 today, didn't even pull in there, and got through to Ntsekeni at ten past four. He spent 10 minutes at Ntsekeni and is now heading out for two Springs.

In the ladies race, we have the beautiful duo of Sarah Van and Ingrid Avidon riding together. They have ridden a few freedom events together. Ingrid has ridden, I think over 20 Freedom Challenge events, so she is no stranger to this trail. She loves it, and it is great to have them both, showing the men how it's done.

Riders featured in this episode:

Willie du Plessis - Cap 1
Nic Stathoulis - Cap 23

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