This past October, Rich Wyngaard and 6 others completed an extreme cycling challenge called Everesting. In an Everesting attempt, an individual cyclist attempts to cycle the vertical metres of Mount Everest in one go. That means doing a total of 8848m total vertical elevation gain. Rich organized the event to also raise awareness about the need for quality Early Childhood Development in Sweetwaters, and the work iThemba Projects does in this regard. iThemba believes if a child in Sweetwaters (a community of 60 000 people) can get the nutrition and early childhood stimulation they need to develop in their first 1000 days, these kids will have the potential to transform their world.Since investments in ECD have massive long-term impact, these off-road cyclists with a passion for adventure were invited to push their limits to unlock the potential in thousands of lives by raising money for improving ECD in Sweetwaters with iThemba Projects by completing an everlasting challenge.
Even though he was still recovering from chicken pox, Rich, the event organizer, still participated and completed 27 hours of continuous riding, completing the 8848 vertical meters. Most of the other riders completed the height in about 20 hours, with the youngest cyclist Willie van Eck, completing in a world-class 16 hours. One rider, Ann Blewett, completed a 34 hour ride, doing over 10 500 vertical meters, setting a new ladies record. Of the 8 riders who started, 7 completed the challenge. The course was on the Hilton College Estate. Because of the extreme nature of the event, Hilton College boys did not participate, but were challenged to contribute to iThemba through a 5 mile fun run later in the term, raising 30 thousand Rand for the cause.
“A lot of people we spoke to about this event said “Oh that’s impossible, you can’t do that,” says Rich about the event. “Yet what I’ve learned is that yes, something is hard, but it’s not impossible. The limits we put on ourselves are not real. The human body is an amazing thing. It’s just a matter of mindset and saying, “I will do this and no one can stop me.”
Rich is already dreaming up his next extreme cycling event - hoping for an Everesting world record in December, or an extreme endurance ride in the new year. “I hope along with the extreme cycling events, we can also have some awareness raised about a bigger issue,” says Rich. If kids can get the foundation they need in life, the possibility of impact on their world is limitless.
Attached is a photo of Rich (his instagram is rich_ridr )
News supplied by iThemba.