“One’s age is merely a number and has no bearing whatsoever on the state of one’s health, fitness or mind,” are the words of cyclist Rod Gilley. This 70-year-old recently proudly finished the Telkom 947 Cycle Challenge, which started from the Riversand Commercial Park in Fourways. Rod was participating in the Top A group and pedalled off in the 70+ age category for the first time this year after moving up from the 65–69 age group.
“Despite rising temperatures as the day progressed, the forecast rains held off during the day. This year the race route included lapping the Kyalami Motor Race Circuit, while the loop through Ghandi Square and Hillbrow was eliminated. This maintained the customary 94,7 kilometre distance. There are four kilometres of severe climbs in the final seven kilometres, specially to test the cyclists,” he said.
Rod beat out more than 500 cyclists in his starting group to finish in first position with a time of 2:39:49, an improvement on his time by three minutes.
This year’s Cycle Challenge had more than 34 000 entries but there were only 20 485 classified finishers. The race also had 14 000 non-finishers.
Rod is now looking forward to taking part in the Fast One Race in Meyerton during January 2017.
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