Cairo-Cape Town: the longest bicycle race ever made.

In the early morning on January 17th 2004, 32 intrepid bikers stood in front of the enigmatic Sphinx at the Great Gyzeh Pyramid in Cairo, patiently awaiting the ‘start’ flag. They were about to embark on the second annual Tour d`Afrique race - an adventure across the African continent.

In the first weeks of the race, sleeping in the open spaces of the vast Sahara the participants faced the reality of winter in the desert; extreme cold at night and hot during the day when they would easily consume up to ten liters of drinking water.

On crossing from Sudan into Ethiopia they immediately started climbing to the 3,000 meters altitude only to descend into magnificent gorges and up again culminating in ‘hair raising’ 20km km descent and then a 20km ascent of the Blue Nile Gorge.

After crossing the heat radiating lava roads of Northern Kenya, came the delight of cycling the foothills of Mount Kenya followed by the foothills of Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa.

The god of rain smiled on the riders while they were cycling ‘off road’ in the Tanzanian savannah but as soon as they hit the paved roads of Malawi they faced a daily storm, with the exception being the day of rest on the unspoiled beach of Lake Malawi.
The route continued via Zambia to Victoria Falls and then after another day-off, racing on to Northern Botswana where they were periodically slowed down by the crossing of elephants.

The flat terrain of Botswana and eastern Namibia gave the riders a false feeling that the rest of the Tour will be easy, but right after Windhoek the Tour went off-road towards Fish River Canyon and several days of century rides on dirt roads. At 1:30 PM on May 15 the tired but exhilarated bikers entered Mouille Point with the mighty Table Mountain barely visible in the mist that descended on Cape Town.

The winner of the 99 stages, 11,268 km long race is Rob Van der Geest from Netherlands who took 394 hours and 46 minutes to complete the race. Second place belongs to Wil Bonne also from Netherlands who covered the distance in 412 hours and 15 minutes and the third position belongs to Armin Koehli from Switzerland who covered the distance 426 hours and 15 minutes.
The top woman finisher was Sandra Simon from Austria who covered the distance in 529 hours and 18 minutes. In second place came Stephanie Falkenstein from USA whose total time was 610 hours and 24 minutes and in third position Yuko Iwasa from Japan who covered the distance in 655 hours and 34 minutes.

The 120 days event (21rest days), the longest and toughest race ever staged with over 65,000meters in altitude climbs is a celebration of what is possible. The total distance (including non racing parts) of this year event covered was 11,750 km. And though not everyone who participated in the Tour 2004 - whether riding the whole distance or simply joining the Tour as a sectional riders - did actively compete, they all participated in a unique adventure, that showcased the beauty of this marvelous continent as well as the challenges it faces.