← All eventsRace Across South Africa (Freedom Challenge RASA)
A ~2,000km non-stop self-supported traverse of South Africa on the Freedom Trail, navigated by map and narrative (no GPS), over cold, portage-heavy mountains with a ~15-day cutoff. Elevation is approximate.
No GPS. You navigate roughly 2,000km across South Africa by paper map and written route narrative, the old-fashioned way. Getting lost is common here, and it costs you dearly.
The Freedom Trail runs diagonally from Pietermaritzburg to the Western Cape winelands, across the Drakensberg, the vast arid Karoo, and range after range. Around 34,000m of climbing, much of it earned carrying the bike.
The field is tiny, roughly 25 to 40 riders, and the cutoff is 15 days. Sub-zero nights, empty country, one simple truth: navigation errors and cold cost you more time here than fitness ever will.
Who finishes, and how
Patterns like these, drawn straight from 2024 race data, are baked into how Beina coaches you for this event.
Is Race Across South Africa (Freedom Challenge RASA) for you?
- Confident map-and-compass navigators. With no GPS routing, route-finding skill decides your race far more than raw power on the pedals.
- Cold-hardy riders. It runs into Southern-Hemisphere winter with sub-zero nights and possible snow, so tolerating the cold is non-negotiable.
- Patient, self-sufficient types. Roughly 15 days across the empty Karoo with sparse water rewards steady pacing and careful resupply, not early aggression.
- Riders who accept carrying as much as pedalling. The famous portages mean hauling a loaded bike over mountains on faint or absent trails.
Training plan for Race Across South Africa (Freedom Challenge RASA)
A training plan for Race Across South Africa (Freedom Challenge RASA) isn't a generic base build. Beina reads the event's exact demands, looks at your specific profile and the time you actually have, and maps a highly adapted plan to the start line.
- Map-and-narrative navigation with no GPS: getting lost is the single biggest time-sink
- Portages that make you carry a loaded bike over mountain passes on faint or absent trails
- Sub-zero nights, wind and possible snow over roughly 15 days into the Southern winter
- Long remote stretches, the Karoo above all, with sparse water between support stations
- Map-only and narrative-following rides to build the core route-finding skill from day one
- Long Z2 endurance rides building from 5 to 10 hours off-road, plus back-to-back big weekends
- Hike-a-bike sessions and, in the specialise block, a 4 to 6 day self-supported multi-day trip
- Cold or sub-zero rides and a cold bivvy night to prove your warm sleep and clothing system
- Built from your current fitness and the time you actually have
- Adapts every week as Beina learns how you respond
- Syncs your sessions straight to Garmin and Wahoo
- One clear next session, never a wall of spreadsheet
