Rough ride for Meli the Cyclist

SOUTH Africa-based cyclist Meli Ndlovu says his recent journey from Midrand South Africa to Bulawayo has been his most difficult ride to date.

Ndlovu has embarked on several of these gruelling missions from South Africa for various reasons but this time around the journey was not as smooth. He left South Africa last Wednesday intending to arrive in Bulawayo on that Friday afternoon but failed to meet the target owing to a malfunction on his bicycle pedal, which made his journey tough.

“I am glad to have arrived safely in Zimbabwe, but this time around the journey had so many challenges for me. It was difficult largely due to a problem with one of the two pedals which derailed me. The pedal broke when I reached Louis Trichardt (Makhado), which is about 400km from Midrand. I managed to make a compromise and cycled into Zimbabwe though it was now difficult.

I got to Esigodini after 6 pm on Saturday and had to ask for a lift from someone as it was getting dark and I was running out of steam a bit. In terms of wildlife, the road was clear but unfortunately the bike had a problem. “There were people who had planned to welcome me on Saturday but the communication was also bad due to network challenges further making my journey tough.

I am yet to get the reading from the Strava application to get the exact number of hours I spent cycling. This is my second ride in the fight against drug abuse having cycled for the same cause last year,”said Ndlovu. Last year, he embarked on a similar journey and took three days to reach Bulawayo.

“The whole idea is to educate everyone in our communities around the country on the deadly effects of drug and substance abuse. Our children are throwing away their future as a result of taking drugs, so l hope more campaigns like this one will help eradicate the drug problem,” said Ndlovu.

Ndlovu became famous when he made claims to have cycled from Midrand, South Africa to Bulawayo in less than two days in 2021. The claims sparked debate about whether it is possible to cycle such a distance in those hours. The feat became a subject of debate on social media platforms, with some disputing Ndlovu’s claim that he left Midrand on Saturday at around 3am and reached Bulawayo on Monday at around 1pm.

Ndlovu, at that time, said he was cycling at an average speed of 40km to 45km per hour on the South African side and 21km to 25km/hour on the Zimbabwe side because of the poor , which meant he had to constantly give way to trucks and avoid potholes.

This time around Ndlovu’s travel can be traced on Strava application which calculates distance, time taken, route and heart rate. Strava is an American internet service for tracking physical exercise, which incorporates social network features. It started out tracking mostly outdoor cycling and running activities using Global Positioning System data, but now incorporates several dozen other exercise types, including indoor activities. — @innocentskizoe