We did the Kremetart Stage Race on Saturday 05 June. The race is run over 4 stages in one day. Kremetart is the Afrikaans name for a huge tree (Baobab) that is found North of the Tropic of Capricorn. The race is run over three 50 km stages starting in Makhado running around the Soutpansberg and a last 20 km stage back to the town of Makhado (Louis Trichard) in the north of South Africa. It is an amazingly scenic race where the first stage takes you over a mountain range called the Soutpansberg. Sub tropical and amazing!!!!! and Malaria free. On the north of the mountain it is more arid but here you have spectacular views of the Kremetart Trees (Baobab) The race was a real tester for us being the furthest we have been on a bike in one day. The last stage was absolute hell with me cramping almost all the way with a steep hill to get over. We managed an ave of 29km/ hour on the first 150 km with and ave of 20 km/ hour dropping our ave for the day to 25 km per h. Cannot wait for the race next year.

Keep those wheels spinning!!!!!

Big H

Wow, thanks for the report. 25 kmp average for that distance (with climbs) is impressive.

In the book "The Tandem Scoop" there was a great chapter about racing tandems. The author participated in the Burley Duet Classic, which used to be held here in Oregon. What was amazing was that typical tandem teams could participate, and that overall the racing seemed less prone to crashes because tandem teams are normally more cautious about handling and group tactics. Made me think that one day it would be fun to try.

Thanks for the report!

When you measure our time with the winner it was not that good, but still an achievement for to 50+ people. The winner came in with an ave of 40,7 km/h in a time of 4:18. There was about 50 tandems in this race with another 850 cyclists on "half bikes"