When Siemon Joubert recorded a 2:39 ride from Prince Albert to the Hell in August, he set himself the goal of doing a sub-six hour To Hell and Back race in November.

This was not going to be easy: in stead of 52km he would now have to deal with 57km on the first day going into the Hell from De Hoek, then return along the same route across Swartberg Pass on the second.  The climbing would increase from 1800m to almost 4000m.  November is notoriously a lot warmer than August and finally, there was the little matter of writing his final matric exams at Albert College.

Undaunted, Siemon set about his preparation. The pass became his playground. Up and down, up and over, repeats of the steeper sections were combined to develop such incredible power that soon Strava records began to fall and even the magical 3-hour barrier for the ride to Kobus and back was cracked.  Confidence grew. 

With the help of dad Anton, Siemon now carefully assembled a support team for the attempt.  Freedom Challenge winner and Tour d’Afrique veteran Marten van Dalsen  was on the list, as were medical specialist riding doctor Axel Poser and granddad Johan Nicol, himself a veteran of 13 Hells.  The support team was completed with the inclusion of sister Klara as vegan nutrition specialist.

Cool weather, high levels of adrenaline and testosterone and the knowledge of technical sections approaching resulted in a fast start and an early selection: it was soon apparent that the real race would be decided between five riders.

There were Bobby Behan originally from Ireland, Wynand Baard from Mauritius, Liam Somers from Zimbabwe, Francois Bosman from Knysna — and a junior Siemon Joubert (17) from Prince Albert!

After some excitement with a gate that Siemon had to open and a chain dropping at a critical time, no-one knew who would emerge from the fog on the long climb up Swartberg, but sure enough, it was Siemon who went on to crest first, earning the right to wear the polka-dot jersey on day 2.

Soon after the water point the escapees regrouped and race dynamics became apparent. With a comfortable lead over their pursuers, four of the guys were prepared to tap off a little, ride comfortably and then sort things out on Heartbreak Hill, the notorious climb 10km from the line.  This idea did not fit in with Siemon’s goal mentioned above: in order to do a sub-six the pace needed to be kept high. Result? Siemon took up his position at the head of the train and just stayed there for almost 30km, providing welcome protection to the riders desperately hanging on as Siemon reached the Heartbreak climb first. Liam Somers at 57 began to feel the pace; he was at the other end of the age spectrum.

It was just past the water point on Heartbreak that Siemon’s power finally ran out with 2km to go to the top. His four passengers immediately spotted their opportunity and flew to the top and then down to open a couple of minutes on Siemon who crossed the line in 2:52, eight minutes down on stage winner Behan, but more importantly, now with a substantial investment banked towards the sub-six plan.

Opinions on tactics for day two were as varied as was the group of supporters. “Go from the gun, take perhaps four minutes in four k’s to the top, stay away” was one of the bolder suggestions. “Make sure you can reach the other side before you cast your stone” was more conservative. The consensus emerged that winning stage two would not be possible as the summit was just too far from the line; fast descenders would always be able to chase down even the strongest climber given 20km in which to do so. Moving up from 5 to 4 could be a realistic ideal: perhaps get rid of old guy Somers?

But the best laid plans of mice and men: Having listened to everyone, Siemon developed his own strategy. A steady pace up Heartbreak soon saw a selection similar to day one, but it was Baard who blew spectacularly before the top, unable to remain in the slip as he had done for so many miles on day one.

Immediately race dynamics changed: leader Behan now wanted a hard pace to ensure Baard (second in 2017) would not come back, Somers with similar motives was prepared to share the work and move from 4 to 3 while Bosman knew his only chance of victory was to tire out Behan and then attack in the hope of pulling back enough time.  This suited Siemon perfectly as they all worked together at a hard but steady pace.

By the time the group reached the T-junction with 22km to go, Behan could see himself prevailing in the sprint for a second stage win, Bosman knew that he would soon have to make a desperate, possibly suicidal move, Somers was going through hell hoping he would not blow before reaching the long downhill. And then, BAM! Siemon reached Ou Tol, went up two gears, stood up and just rode away. Panic among the survivors did not help; by the time Siemon crested, he could look down and establish he had a full hairpin as a lead. A fast but safe descent, a quick opening of the once again closed farm gate and then a power ride to the finish saw Siemon win the stage by more than two minutes, moving up into 4^th place overall. But even more important was his time: with a 3:01 his total time came to 5 hours and 54 minutes: the goal set in August achieved!