Having shattered the course record in 2024 by over 20 minutes, Arno du Toit and Keagan Bontekoning shaved a further 3 minutes and 44 seconds off last year’s time to cross the finish line in 7 hours, 25 minutes, and 21 seconds on Saturday, 9 August 2025. The Insect Science team was pushed hard through [...]
Last year, Insect Science’s Arno du Toit and Keagan Bontekoning crushed the long-standing Trans Baviaans course record. They reset the mark by 22 minutes to post the new benchmark of 7 hours, 29 minutes, and 5 seconds. On Saturday, 9 August 2025, they will have another go at bettering their time as they line up [...]
In Episode 6 of the rebooted Diverge Podcast Seamus Allardice chats to EcoBound and To Hell and Back’s Zane Schmahl about the oldest mountain bike stage race in the country. Over beers in Gamkaskloof – as Die Hel is actually known – they spoke about the history of the event, the difficulties of staging a [...]
In Episode 5 of the rebooted Diverge Podcast Seamus Allardice reflects on a stellar edition of the FNB Wines2Whales Shiraz race. Toyota Specialized dominated the final event in the Epic Series’ 2024 calendar, winning all three stages, despite Alex Miller crashing heavily on Day 2. With serious stage race season now completed we then pivot [...]
“Hulle Weet Nie Wat Ons Weet Nie” might have been popularised by the Springboks and Dricus du Plessis, but it could well be the watch words of the men and women who frequent the To Hell and Back pilgrimage. Three decades on from the inaugural edition, which started the South African love affair with stage [...]
I hadn’t ridden a Trans Baviaans since 2018 – I think. It might have been 2019, but I’m not really sure. After a few years have elapsed it doesn’t really make that much difference. As long as its far enough back in your memory to forget how much you suffered going up MAC it’s time [...]
The 2024 Trans Baviaans marks the 20th edition of the country’s favourite single-stage marathon mountain bike event. Over the last two decades the Baviaanskloof has presented challenges as varied as the magnificent nature reserve itself; from sweltering heat to icy cold, torrential flooding to arid droughts. This year’s traverses of the largest wilderness area in [...]
The iconic Trans Baviaans celebrates its twentieth anniversary in 2024. Racing from Willowmore, in the Karoo, to Jefferys Bay, on the South African East Coast, through the Baviaanskloof has remained a stern challenge throughout the last two decades; despite advancements in mountain bike technology. Due to the size of the challenge, which least we forget [...]
South Africa’s oldest mountain bike stage race, To Hell and Back, celebrates its 29th edition this year. On the 11th of November 2023 riders will race up the Swartberg Pass and down the road to hell. Then on the 12th they will turn around and climb back out of Gamkaskloof along a route which is [...]
The 2022 Trans Baviaans Repeat took place in challenging – if not quite as cold as the Race, the weekend before – conditions on Saturday, 20 August. Yet, rain still fell, the wind still blew and riders were subjected to a muddy finale after a wet 24 hours in Jeffreys Bay before their arrival. It [...]
