It's an adventure race not for the faint of heart. For Dave Atlee of Gibsons, it was the event of his life.
Atlee recently completed the Tour d'Afrique, a unique bicycle race and expedition that combines both physical and personal challenges with fun and learning.
It's a far cry from the 41-year-old's day job, driving a mixer for Swanson's Redimix.
"This isn't an event that you just decide to do one day," Atlee said. "It's something that takes everything you've got and more to complete. For me, it was a personal challenge. I wanted to see if I could survive it."
Atlee learned about the expedition last year after reading a story in the Vancouver Sun.
"This was only the second time they had held the event," he said. "I contacted Tim Padmore, a professor at UBC who had written the article. The gears started turning in my head after I read the article and talked with him. I've travelled a lot but never on a bike. I'd been to Africa on an overland trek, but this bike trip just sounded intriguing."
Atlee finally made his decision in November to participate.
"I asked my boss for the time off. He said I was nuts but gave me the time off and told me to have a good time," Atlee added.Atlee rode two 110 km rides in Victoria to test himself and worked out at Cross Trainers gym in Gibsons every day.
He packed his gear and headed for Cairo on Jan. 10. After spending six days in Cairo testing equipment and going on a few test rides, the group off 32 set off on Jan. 17 from the base of the pyramids. The event ended May 15 in Capetown, South Africa, some 12,077 km through 10 different countries.
The group of riders consisted of Atlee, six other riders from Canada, six from the U.S., 10 from the Netherlands, two from Switzerland, two from France and one rider each from Britain, Australia, Japan, Germany and Swaziland. Of the 32, five were women.
In the end, only eight travelled the whole distance, including Atlee. The other 24 riders went out at different points along the route due to mechanical problems, sickness or exhaustion.
Atlee used a mountain bike and travelled an average 122 km per day.
He said there were 99 days of actual cycling and 21 days for rest. He added the schedule varied, but most of the time, participants rode for five then had one day off.
The longest day was in Botswana where the group travelled 212 km. Their shortest day was a mere 55.5 km in Sudan.
In all, the trip took 533 hours and 22 minutes of actual cycling time over 8,383 km of paved surface and 3,694 km of dirt surface.
"The event is a race, but I think only six considered it an actual race. The rest, like myself, were leisure riders," Atlee said.
"About halfway through, the six who were racing were knocked down to three. Three of the riders surrendered and had to ride in the support vehicles the rest of the way."
The support vehicles used during the event carried the participants gear, something Atlee says was a key factor.
"I would never had gone had there not been the support people," he said. "You could never have done this trip without the medical staff, security and the support personal. We went through areas that are very thinly populated - lots of villages where tourists never go. When you ride through a small village, it's like the circus is in town - everyone comes out to see us.
Atlee described the first half of the event as 60 per cent physical challenge and 40 per cent mental challenge.
"Ethiopia had hills that could take three hours or more to climb," he said. "Once we got to Arusha, we were in good physical shape, so it shifted to 60 per cent mental challenge and 40 per cent physical. There was never any intention of treating the event as a race - time meant nothing to me. Overall, the trip went well. We didn't encounter any real trouble. I would say the people of Sudan were the most friendly, while Ethiopia was probably the worst. Several people got really sick during that stretch, and the people were not very accommodating."
The Tour d'Afrique Foundation is a charity organization aimed at raising funds to promote human-powered transportation and protection of the environment in Africa. Partnerships will be formed with African non-governmental organizations in fields of transportation, wilderness, wildlife protections and biodiversity preservation. Five percent of the Tour d'Afrique's profit goes to projects chosen by the foundation.
"Some of the riders rode for specific charities," Atlee said. "The key to success, in my opinion, was to deal with it one day at a time. Don't worry about tomorrow, just get to camp today and treat each day with respect. You can never tell yourself that today will be easy. [That's] the quickest way to a mental and then physical breakdown.
"You just have to put your head in first gear and leave it there all day."
Asked whether he would do the trip again, Atlee said he would do the first half, but probably not the whole trip.
Atlee will hold a public slide show in Gibsons at the Heritage Playhouse on July 13 at 7:30 p.m., sponsored by the Sunshine Coast Film Society. Atlee will narrate his expedition and answer questions. Admission is $5.
