South African ultra endurance cyclist and motivational speaker Grant Lottering had a near-fatal crash speeding downhill during a race in the Italian Alps in 2013. After a miraculous survival, Grant overcame physical obstacles and just one year later returned to Trento where he had crashed to ride the Im’possible tour in 2014.
In total, Grant has ridden five Im’possible tours and in 2017, after surviving cancer, he attempted another of these brutal alpine tours.
In the Im’possible tours of August 2016, Grant became the first cyclist to complete a solo, non-stop, 1,000-km ride through the French Alps in under 50 hours and in another world first on 1 September 2018, he cycled the length of the French Pyrenees and Alps non-stop in less than 72 hours.
Now, Grant is about to undertake a 1,340-km solo cycle tour for charity in South Africa. The ride has been dubbed the Im’possible Solo, a throwback to the five Im’possible Tours he previously cycled to raise funds. Money from this ride, which Lottering will begin on Thursday 23 May 2019, goes to the prestigious Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, which supports sports-related community upliftment projects.
Image supplied/ grantlottering.com
The adventure will have Grant cycling both on- and off-road in South Africa for the first time.
For this Solo Im’possible, Lottering plans to cycle 1,340km over 17 mountains, which equates to 16,000 metres of uphill climbing. On flatter slopes, he’ll easily manage 450km on tarred roads, but 890km on gravel roads will be no easy ride. He also wants to complete all of this in a non-stop ride of 96 hours.
He’ll take off from Patensie in the Eastern Cape, along Baviaanskloof and finish in the Cape Winelands near Stellenbosch.
This solo cycle tour is certainly gruelling, but if completed, will be the toughest ever to have taken place in South Africa.
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