Many of you will know Chris Van Zyl as a long time Randonneur and current holder of the current South African record for Paris-Brest-Paris.
I was both surprised and delighted to bump into him at the start of the 36One Challenge last weekend, a somewhat different endurance ride to the norm – being both offroad and supported. Needless to say in our brief chat by the coffee van, he was typically modest about his ambitions, but in his usual understate style he totally demolished the ride – finishing in 6th place in a fabulous time of 16hrs 22mins time. I have no idea how anyone’s legs can spin that fast over 361km of mountains, gravel, bumps and corrugations, mine were just barely able to hang on and carry me home.
Huge congratulations to Chris for a superb performance. Hope the legs recover for next weekend’s 600km – I know mine won’t, but I’ll see you at the start at least.
— Rob Walker