Until then… ride hard, ride smart!

We brought a new message to the market. Apart from the reuse, recycle, reduce message, which we all took to heart in 2011, we championed 2 causes – carpooling and bottled water. We applied the no bottled water rule wherever possible, using it only in life-threatening situations where options were zero, and carpooled our way around the country and the world at times.

As a team, we managed to partake in some of the most amazing races around the world, events that cater for the outdoor enthusiast where results are not always the focus. Some of the events included:

The Imana Wild Ride
O till O
Sani2c
Garmin Warmwater Weekend

BoE Private Clients allowed Raoul de Jongh to tour the country on their Sani2c road trip, talking about sustainability, sharing his vision with their clients and making an impact on the cycling market. Race organisers have called to ask about reducing their events’ footprints, as athletes from all over the world have emailed to ask how to reduce their impacts fastest and as the idea of Pure Planet Racing spread.

With privateer athletes like Guy Veysey, Simon Raubenheimer and Gavin Wood on the team, we featured near the front in all races, among the professional athletes. We raced hard, played hard and came out the other end with an even bigger vision for 2012.

BoE Private Clients have taken title sponsorship of the concept in 2012 and together, expect to make a much bigger impact on not only the cycling and multi sport markets, but into the swimming, golf and other sports markets too.

This year, we will be allowing any athletes to partake as a Pure Planet Racing athlete, with toned down gear for running, cycling, swimming and triathlon to start. If you believe in the concept and want to help raise awareness for our concept, please contact us directly with your enquiries.

There will be a lot more going on on the blog this year too, so keep us in your RSS feeds and make sure to keep an eye on our Twitter account, @TeamPurePlanet

As Guy, Simon and Gavin have confirmed their team slots in 2011, we are looking forward to making a few more announcements over the next few weeks about new team members who are joining the concept because they want to make a difference. Raoul has taken up the role to blog for 52 weeks for the Sani2c race and will be traveling with BoE Private Clients again in 2012 spreading the word and racing as hard as possible where he can.

A big thanks to all the people who made this venture possible in 2011. Fairbairn Private Bank, BoE Private Clients, Garmin, Velocity Sports Lab, Axis House, Puma, Morewood and the other people who made an impact on our lives – we thank you.

PS: The image is of Guy Veysey, swimming in the Swedish Archipelago, where the term Pure Planet took on a whole new concept.

First off, below is a great clip which gives a visual summary of the year so far.

As with many other athletes and Teams, we were very disappointed with the cancellation of the inaugural Challenge Cape Town, not least because it would have been Raoul’s first Ironman-distance race as a pro. Not to be disheartened after all his training, Raoul jumped striaght in and substituted the event with the Slanghoek Triathlon in the Cape and Triple Challenge in Durban on consecutive weekends. He finished these tough multisport with great 2nd and 4th places respectively.

Max Cluer interviews Raoul at the finish of the Triple Challenge Multix

Keeping up the Team momentum, Simon and Gavin have been spending every free moment on their mountainbikes, and Simon’s phenomenal form was evident in his 3rd place finish at the hotly contested Eselsfontein Mountainbike Race last month.

This weekend was the Contego Wines2Whales, a 3-day mountainbike stage race from Somerset West to Hermanus. This is one of the biggest races of the year and Cape Town brought out its best weather conditions (and mountainbikers) for the first and second stages, although the weather turned dramatically on Day 3 leading to the cancellation of the last day. Simon and Gavin had a amazing first day on their bikes, got a bit lost on day 2, but had a big enough margin to still grab a podium, finishing 3rd in the sub-vets. This year we were honoured that one of our great product partners, Rehidrat Sport, provided a celebrity entry to Raoul, who then auctioned off the chance to ride the event with him. Greg Goodwin rose to the challenge and in the process donated funds to be used in the planting of trees along the BRT Route in conjunction with the City of Cape Town later this month. Thanks Greg for helping to contribute in maintaining our Pure Planet!

Later this month, Pure Planet Racing will be putting a team in the 212km Double Century road cycling race. The Team includes some serious sporting names, and the 12 men will be looking to place in the top of the field. After that, we will be winding down the year, but not before Simon and Gavin get married (surprising not to their bikes, but to the ever-supportive Michelle and Helen), followed by six of us riding on mountainbikes unsupported and off-road across the Klein Karoo from George to Cape Town.

We are also very excited about our coffee table book, which will be coming out in December. This will include 24 pages of amazing images of the Team racing and training across the planet. Please get in touch if you would like to get a copy.

To finish off, we would like to bring your attention to an amazing charity that many of you will already know, Songo.info in the Kayamandi township near Stellenbosch. Pure Planet Racing loves this charity for what they are doing in terms of hands-on youth development on both a sporting and social level. We were fortunate enough to spend a Sunday afternoon recently riding in Jonkershoek with Songo and some of the great kids. We would encourage you to support this great cause in whatever way you can. Below is a clip on the initiative and their involvement in the Wines2Whales MTB event this weekend.

Simon during one of the many water crossings at Imana Wildride

Earlier this year, many of the professional riders took notice as Simon and Gavin cruised to a top 12 finish at the 3-day Sani2c Race in Kwazulu-Natal. Considering a field of 1,400 teams and many top-level pros this was no mean feat. This result was quickly followed up by top of field finishes for both of them in the Knysna Oyster Festival 80km mountainbike and 100km road bike race. They also grabbed comfortable top 10 positions at the recent Lourensford Race.

Our team was fortunate enough to take part in an event that must be the ultimate showcase of our Pure Planet, the 4-day Imana Wildride, which traverses the beaches and mountains along the Wild Coast. Following some mechanical difficulties on day one, the team ended up riding the remainder of the event with the race founder and legend Sani2c man Farmer Glen and his partner Steve Stamp. This made the event a very special experience for our team and enabled them to appreciate the incredible setting in which they were riding, albeit still at quite a pace as Farmer Glen is no slouch on a bike! Simon’s view on the race… “being able to ride a bike through some of South Africa’s most beautiful and unspoilt coastlines is an unbelievable privilege. With the route unmarked and unsupported (making sure the sea is to your right at all times…), and having to navigate mountains, cliffs, rivers, beaches and villages – not to mention cattle – this took mountainbiking to another level. The organisation of the race is absolutely top-notch, and the vibe and atmosphere is incredible. It’s impossible not to make plenty new friends along the way. 
To top it all, it’s for a good cause, and the humanitarian element of the race is what eventually leaves the most lasting impression.”

Gavin showing characteristic focus on Day 2 of Imana Wildride

Last weekend we took our first ever double-individual podium at the very popular Apple Blossom Mountainbike event in Grabouw where Simon and Gavin took 1st and 3rd places respectively.

The major focus now for Simon and Gavin is the upcoming Wines2Whales 3-day stage race in Grabouw in early November. They will be looking to defend their incredible podium finish last year in this year’s race, which will entail some heavy racing given the depth of the field predicted for the 2011 event. We are sure they will be right up there again! Good luck and well done on a great season so far.

In our household, we recycle everything possible. We check the packaging and buy goods that are able to be recycled as much as possible. The building we are living in also has a recycling program. I would say that we have reduced what goes onto the public waste area by about 80%. Instead of taking 1 bag of rubbish down to the black bins every day, we now take one a week. The rest is all going to recycling. I found this infographic today and wanted to share it, as it really drives a solid point home.

Recycle. You will feel great about yourself and the environment you are saving. Make the small change. If you are going to do just 1 thing, make a habit out of recycling to make the change.

For a few days I have been trying to digest what happened out there on Monday. How big was the experience? How hard was it out there? How amazing was the scenery, the organization and the experience of sharing it with a good partner?

I feel I may never sum it up completely in one post. I can say that this race isn’t for everyone. It’s a big day out and the cut off times are a lot harder than an Ironman, for example. Add the continuous movement across 19 islands (38 ins and outs) to the stress. Add 1 meter chop and swell and going the entire 70 odd kilometers into a 30km/h headwind and you’ll understand why the race had a 62% finish rate this year.

I am going to run through some of the high and low points of the race so that you will hopefully get a sense of what it’s about. It’s a magical race and certainly one I will be back to race again. But first…

It’s 5:40am and I can see my partner is overwhelmed by the experience. His eyes are classic deer-in-the-headlights and I am trying to calm him down. He is a good man, a strong man and I want him to have the best experience possible on the day, as he has trained incredibly hard for the day.

At roughly 6:15am we enter the first swim, a big, 1650m open-water swim. The water is black, the chop is 1m high with rhythmic waves over the incoming Baltic currents. It’s an ugly sight and 50m in, my partners eyes tell me he is near panic. I know the feeling well. You feel you aren’t going to make it. I resolve to keeping him on course, telling him to chill and have some fun, as we have 10 hours, at least, ahead of us today. I can tell he thinks the training was for nothing, that this isn’t doable. Around us, people wash up onto the rocks, looking for their partners and I know that we’ll get through this, if Pete can calm down.

The islands are mega technical running and there are very few paths in islands 1 through 5, a rock scramble really, in a wetsuit and racing flats carrying hand paddles and trying to keep the heart rate down. It’s raw, its epic and I am loving the vibe. Pete is starting to relax a little and we make our way from islands to island, one step at a time. Pete is having stomach issues but the Rehidrat is curing that. The Orca S3′s are wonderful and easy to swim in, probably the perfect suit to modify for a race like this and our Puma shoes are holding up like champions.

At roughly 10:40am, we get to the first big stop. There were a few swims in the first 4 hours that will go down in my mind as the 3 toughest swims ever. You are being thrown side to side, it’s cold, it’s windy and you are aiming for a little yellow banner you can hardly see. We are swimming very straight compared to other teams and despite being 40min off our target pace, we are holding pace and starting to speed up on the open stuff. Pete is holding tough, despite himself and I applaud him for that. To face demons like that for 4 hours before it starts coming right is the sign of a tough man, someone I would always be proud to go to battle with. A good thing, considering we have 6 hours to go. We are 25th at this point.

The islands are beautiful and when crossing big swims, we always have a boat with us. The organization is incredible and the volunteers are the best I have ever seen. We are very much into a rhythm by now, after strapping my feet at 6 hours in. You can test gear all you want over 2 hours, but at hour 6, things rub through. I have blisters on both heels, both undersides of my feet and at the base of both feet’s toes. Strapping helps where possible and we continue on. It’s a part of the experience, so I am not too worried and pain is relative when out doing something as amazing as this.

We are running loads of single track in the middle of the race. Beautiful, natural single track over rocks and through dense forests. My partner is tracking me, about 10m back at most, gaining speed all the time. I merely keep him motivated by showing the route and dictating a steady pace. I feel incredibly fortunate to be a part of the experience and really have no regrets if we were off pace, this race has no prize for me at the end, the prize was in every second I was out there.

8 hours in and we hit the longest run, 17.5km split by a water stop at 10.5km. At about 6km we are laughing because both our shoes are a little red, from the blood seeping from our toes. We haven’t seen another team in about an hour and have made our way int o 17th by now, slowly but surely speeding up. Pete has his best run on Orno, about 30sec per km faster than when we started. He says he is ****** but his legs are telling a different story so I keep pushing him where possible.

The long run has 2km of incredible forest orienteering towards the end, fantastic for me, hell for Pete. We have a few short swim/run combinations left, but I reckon its an hour to cover the last 7km, which was spot on. No roads, few markings, very rough entries and exits on the last few islands, I am told.

The photo at the top is from the last exit. On the last 2 exits, I would swim onto the rocks, hold on for dear life, throw my paddles into the bushes and roll back down the rock to catch my partner, who by now was hanging onto the thinnest of threads of energy. He had washed onto the rocks, opening both elbows on the swim before, so we took no chances on the last 2.

We have a team about 30 seconds behind us but we know we can outrun them, so we cruise into the finish. We walk, laugh, high five and hobble our way to the finish where we have a grand, old fashioned sit, smack talk and recollection session. It’s all over.

Really?

All over. Just like that. So simple, so beautiful.

To Pete – who turned himself inside out and personified what endurance is about, I salute you.

To the organizers – thank you for the most professional event I have been to.

To Guy and the rest of our support crew – thanks for keeping us motivated and for making Pure Planet Racing a family experience.

To my sponsors – who make it all possible – humble thanks – Fairbairn Private Bank, BoE Private Clients, Garmin, Velocity Sports Lab, Axis House, Rehidrat, Puma… all part of Pure Planet Racing – wait till you see what you are a part of when the coverage comes out. We are making a difference.

For now, I will continue to internalize the experience. It’ll be with me for years. That quiet, that pause I love so much, I found it out there.

Team Pure Planet arrived in Sweden a week ago, and during that time we have experienced both the developed city vibe of Stockholm and the awesome isolation of Orro in the Swedish archipelago.

As the big race, O till O, is on Monday and there will be plenty of sport-related posts and updates coming up, this post is more about our impressions of Sweden, and why we are totally convinced that it is an ideal place for any sporting event related to Pure Planet.

We started our visit to Sweden off with a too-short 3-day visit to Stockholm. The city is famed for its style, design and probably most significantly how it embraces green living. Within hours of getting to our hotel in the vibey centre of Stureplan, we had thrown on the Puma Faas’s for a quick trot through the city streets and onto the amazing island of Djurgarten. Djurgarten is a relatively large park-like island in the middle of Stockholm, and enables you to run for kilometers in near solitude with water on the one side and forest the other, albeit in a bustling city. Apparently the water surrounding the city is so clean you can swim in it! The whole city exudes a cool, yet clean and green, atmosphere, with trendy sports shops and bars in old buildings bordering huge green parks. The ever-trendy Raoul was in his element! The bicycle culture is overwhelming, and part of the reason the city remains so clean and uncrowded is that most people are on bikes – whether you are in your shorts or suit and tie. The prevalence of healthy, good-looking people doesn’t do the city image any harm either!

Pete the Swede, the other half of the racing team gave us some local insights, although the tips from our Cape Town Swedes, Simon and Helena, were invaluable as well.

From Stockholm, we caught a short ferry ride across to Pete’s family summer home on Orro, one of the 1000′s of islands that make up the Swedish archipelago. We spent a few days between this island and the neighboring Namdo getting used to swimming and running conditions, and most importantly trying out the new Orca S3 wetsuits (thanks Bernard). As the race involves running 56kms of trail in your wetsuits, Raoul and Pete had to adapt them by cutting the sleeves and legs shorter (a stressful experience for both of them). After a few tweaks to the suits and hydration systems, the Team started to get very comfortable running and swimming in their kit. The light Puma running shoes drained well after the swims and seem ideal for the type of forested terrain. The water temperature was also great for wetsuit swimming (around 17 degrees), although the air temperature of 20 degrees was a bit on the hot side but is luckily expected to drop a few degrees for race-day.

The Swedish archipelago was awe-inspiring, and the below photos can only go some way to giving an insight into this beauty. It is quite incredible to think that this unspoiled environment exists so close to a major European city. Many of the islands are uninhabited to maintain environmental standards, and even those that do have houses follow strict anti-density and green guidelines – awesome! After 5 minutes of being in this environment, we were convinced that there a few places in the world that embrace the ethos of Pure Planet like this. More photos and feedback are available at Raoul’s blog and http://urbanninja.posterous.com/. You can also follow the Team on race-day via his Twitter account @raouldejongh and live at http://www.multisportlive.se/Competitions.aspx?timestamp=634496063533114487 – the team number is 46.

A full race report will follow next week.

As mentioned in our previous posts, Pure Planet Racing will be taking on arguably one of the toughest one-day races in the world in just under a month, the famed Ö till Ö. This extreme sporting event involves swimming 11kms and running 54kms (with full kit) across 28 islands near Stockholm in Sweden. Raoul de Jongh and Pete Lavett will be proudly wearing the colours of PPR as they attempt to take on some of the best extreme athletes in the world, including the likes of Team Red Bull and teams from the Swedish Army.

We caught up with Raoul and Pete recently to find out how their training was progressing for this incredible race.
Raoul: “O till O is a tough race to prepare for. Training in the dark in winter and staying healthy has been tougher than I imagined and currently I am a little sick, but will be healthy and fit for race day. I have done some cold water swims and lots of trail running, as well as some run/swim/run sessions where I run to the gym, swim and run back home. I imagine the secret to the race is to start moderately and just keep moving in all the gear, as there is no other race like it in the world, so actual preparation is tough to get right. I believe our strengths will be from my Ironman experience and Pete’s multiple 2 Oceans Marathons – there are lessons in both those races in simply maintaining movement, not particularly fast, but steady movement. In the next few weeks I will be doing more specific preparation, in full gear to get used to swimming in shoes and with a bladder on my back. As a gear head, this is a very exciting time and I am looking forward to it very much“.

Although Raoul is a more experienced multisport athlete and this type of event is relatively new to Pete, ”Pete the Swede” does benefit from an incredibly strong swimming background and local knowledge. He has been seriously focused on his preparation, which includes “about 12km swimming per week, 70-80km running, Pilates and resistance gym sessions, and a game of waterpolo every week”.

A team in the 2010 O till O

The next few weeks will see our athlete’s peak and taper, and we’re sure they’re going to smash the event. The Team leaves at the end of August for the race, which takes place on 5th September. Raoul will even be following it up by competing in Xterra Switzerland 5 days later!  As we get closer to the event, and especially once we are in Sweden, there will be regular updates, including vidoe clips, tweets and blogs.  We’ll also be sure to post links to media coverage of the Team.  You can read more about the event at www.otillo.se.

A beautiful setting, an incredible day and another world class event in South Africa. A special thank you first off to the sponsors who make the day possible for me on an equipment level:

The Morewood for performing flawlessly, the Garmin for providing reliable information in order for me to push the limits, Rehidrat Sport for fueling my day, Puma for providing the best racing flats. They carried me on the journey for the day, which went as follows…

To say that the field was stacked is true. Stoltz, Hugo, White, Boonstra to name but 4 guys out of a top 10 which looked fierce on paper and even more scary on the trails. Then there was the added pressure of having Kevin Evans in the mix, who conquered the race last year. As per usual, I wanted to be in the mix, but was realistic that my training has been limited due to work commitments over the last 12 weeks.

The start line was great and it was fantastic so say hi and a few short words with Conrad, who I have known since 1998 as well as having the luck of bumping into Dan on my warm-up and having an easy pedal with him, sharing his experience in the US over the last 9 weeks. So really, I was set at the start line for a tough day. To be anywhere, I would need to bring my A game.

We set off just after 12:30 and as was expected, after 1km I was around 12th or 15th. The guys hammer out the blocks and it was beyond my abilities (I was running 3min per km and losing time) but I knew that I would be better once it settled and we were going uphill where my training for African-X would benefit me.

I got to the top of the single track hill in 10th or so and moved my way up to 6th or 7th by the end of the run, taking confidence from the fact that I was running with Dan for the first time in my life. I knew he was not his best and that I should relish the moment as I would need to be a lot faster when he is on song.

Conrad was about 30seconds up attempting to put some breathing space between himself and Kevin and I had gained some time on White which I knew would count at the end of the day. Lieuwe, however, was gone… he was having a big day and I would never see him all day.

Onto the bike and into the single track and I brushed a tree as Dan came flying by and came off and hugged a tree as Kevin came flying by too, losing my water bottle in the process. I got straight into it on the hills and worked my way back up to Dan and Antonie and just as I got air between myself and them, my chain came off. Breathe RAOUL!

The next time we hit a steep section I gave it 50 hard pedal strokes and I was gone. The body was responding beautifully and I was holding the gap to Tyrone until around 15km, growing the gap on Dan & Antonie. I had to stop at the water stop as I had no Rehidrat Sport and was starting to get goosebumps from dehydration. It was 20-30seconds and Tyrone was gone and I would not see him on the bike again. The mud-covered bike and rider aboard it came into transition 5th male overall, something I was quite stoked about.

I knew I would not catch Lieuwe but in my mind I said I would give it horns until I was out the spooky forest, around 4km and see where Tyrone was. It hurt, I will not lie. I was breathing hard and it took everything I had to run the hills. I fell twice coming around slippery corners, ending up in the bushes with my wind knocked out on one occasion but as I popped out the spooky forest, I could see Tyrone and I knew 4th was mine.

I ran past hard and didn’t even acknowledge him. You don’t let a talent like his get a hint of hope so close to the finish line.

I hit the concrete road with 1km to go, hamstrings crying for mercy and so dehydrated I couldn’t even spit any more. It was a moment when I laughed at myself for what I am able to put myself through. I jogged through the line in 4th, best Xterra performance for me on a day when I least expected it, being in the middle of training for O till O.

Thank you to all who made it possible on the day and the other guys for going as hard as they could. We war it out on the playing field but we are all friends once we hit the finish line. I love being a part of this sport.

A thank you to all the sponsors who make it possible for me to race here. BoE Private Clients, Fairbairn Private Bank, Gamin, Axis House, Velocity Sports Labs, Rehidrat Sport. Altogether, Pure Planet Racing had an excellent day out.