Drikus Coetzee made history on Friday when he became the first person to defend his title at the The Munga ultra-marathon cycle race.
In the process he overcame tremendous odds, including losing about two and a half hours after getting lost and incurring a one-hour time penalty for missing a section of the route, but still managed to win the race comfortably.
Coetzee completed the 1 127km ultra-marathon between Bloemfontein and Wellington in a time of about 54 hours 30 minutes, or to put it in context -- he cycled for more than two days and six hours during which he only slept for 20 minutes.
Coetzee yesterday said it was tough, but he was elated at writing another chapter in the history of the race.
"It was tougher than last year, we had extreme head winds from Bloemfontein all the way to Wellington, but I managed to pull it off and I am very happy to become the first rider to defend his title," he said.
Coetzee didn't come close to his record of 47 hours 37 minutes that he set last year, but he still managed to beat the second-placed Marco Martins of Portugal by more than two hours.
"My overall time was 54 hours 30 minutes, which is about seven hours slower than my record set last year. But I didn't come to The Munga with the aim of breaking my record. My main aim was to write a bit more history by becoming the first athlete to win back-to-back Munga titles," he said.
"I also wanted to conserve as much energy as possible for the upcoming Desert Dash on Friday where I will once again do the solo ride," he added.
Coetzee had to overcome several setbacks along the way, suffering some punctures as well as a faulty light with its clamps coming loose, but the biggest setback came at about the 700km mark when he got lost and had to incur a time penalty.
"I managed to build up a 40km lead at about the 700km mark but then got lost on the 'Razzle Dazzle' section, where you needed to go off the main road onto farm roads. I completed 95% of that section, but unfortunately, at the last turn, I went through a wrong gate and took a left instead of a right turn, and ended up somewhere six kilometres away from Water Point Eight," he said.
"So, I navigated my way back to Water Point Eight and did an extra 15km. By the time I got there I just sat and relaxed because I didn't really know where I was in terms of the race placings after that mishap," he added.
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By then, Martins had closed the gap to about 3km, but Coetzee managed to increase the tempo to pull away.
"As I left the water point, I saw the light of Marco in the distance, so I pushed harder to open up the gap. I managed to open up a gap of more than 30 minutes, that allowed me to sleep for 20 minutes at Sutherland, which was the only time I slept for the duration of the Munga," he said.
Coetzee, however, was informed that he was struck by an hour penalty for missing a section of the route at Razzle Dazzle.
"I rode another 80km before I heard that I got a one hour penalty because of the mis-navigation, so I needed to pick up the pace again to increase my lead, because I knew I had to sit out the penalty at the last race village. I sat out my penalty at the last water point and before Marco even came in, my hour was done and I could leave," he said.
"After my time penalty, I had about a 35km lead with 80km to go to the finish line, so the penalty just helped me to pick up the pace and really go for it. I'm very glad that I managed to pull it off and now I'm looking forward to the Nedbank Desert Dash starting on Friday," he added.
