About

Elrika,

She comes from an active and sporty school background, she was not the most talented netbal player, but she would also work way harder than most of her peers to achieve her goals. 

After completing a PhD in chemistry and polymer science and looking for a sport to juggle between work and in own time, she decided to take on mountain biking. At the age of 28, with no mountain biking background (and also not really any cycling background) she accidentally got put in contact with a group in Stellenbosch. In her own words “shame, i have no idea how that group did not throw me off their chat/organising group. I literally fell ever single ride (no jokes) from the November till the end of February. These guys were training for Cape Epic and here I was, trying to 1) keep up and 2) not crash, not to even mention them actually trying to get fitter”. But Elrika, being Elrika, she absolutely loved the feeling and sense of freedom that came with the sport and soon started to push herself and entering events.

Today, we have a long way to go, but I have already shown (hopefully) through dedication and the right people in your corner, that you can be a late starter and come from a complete amateur and compete on the biggest MTB stage (Cape Epic). Next up is a year of hard work and qualifying for world champs 2023.

After her first stage race, the Barrier Breakers Project was born and with the support of Barry Austin that is well known in the industry it was started. She realised the misconnect in the sport being there are so little women in the sport and even less women racing. “I have no idea why, but I want to be part of growing the sport in SA and looking at the various teams out there I saw there is almost no support for women/women specific teams. If we can get more women into the sport, hopefully over time that will change” The idea of the project is to inspire women to 1) start the sport or 2) get more involved or 3) realise they too can be competitive through the different journeys the riders  are on. Not only would the project include inspiration, but also empowering and creating a community for women. 

Renata,

Once upon a time… she was studying to be a lawyer.

Then she drew some comics in a competition to win an adventure bicycle, which she ended up cycling through Spain during a uni holiday, telling the story of her adventure through a comic blog.

This kind of adventure storytelling felt too wonderful to not wildly pursue, so she spent the next few years finding ways to go on more adventures (including an 11,000km bike trip through Africa with her family, and a 10 Iron Man triathlon around New Zealand), while figuring out how to turn it all into an actual grown-up job.

Today, she works full-time as a cartoonist, speaker and endurance cyclist with team Wintergreen Barrier Breakers. She is currently working on a book, setting up a comic merchandise shop in South Africa and training to set the women’s record of the fastest cycle from Cairo to Cape Town in Oct 2022.