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Kevin Benkenstein has won the first battle of the new South African ultra-endurance race, the Rhino Run, taking out the 726km first leg of the challenging bikepacking event but it looks like he’ll have a battle on his hands to maintain that lead through the remaining 2000km.
Benkenstein – who won the 700km self supported South African Freedom Circuit race in 2021, 1000km mountain bike race The Munga in 2019 and was runner up in Australia’s Race to the Rock in 2017 – took just over 38 hours to finish the first section of his home nation race.
“I was staggered at how fast it was, it was just ridiculous. There was such a huge tailwind,” said Benkenstein on a live feed on the race Instagram (opens in new tab) after completing the first section.
He was around 50km ahead of Melbourne-based rider Abdullah Zeinab when he finished the entree, a modified version of the Cross Cape cycle route. Coming third was South…
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