Active Hobo

Every rider who's done a stage race has seen it: the school kids handing

out water, the local guy who's swept the same piece of singletrack all

year so it's ready for you. James Beers joins The Breakaway to unpack

what actually happens to the money you pay to enter a race — and why it

matters more than most riders realise.

This is a big one. James breaks down the real, direct link between event

entry fees and rural community income in South Africa — school fees paid,

local trail builders employed, families supported through a single race

weekend. It's not corporate box-ticking. It's tangible, and it compounds

year on year.

We also get into the Giro d'Italia GC battle — Jonas Vingegaard's

gearing, Tadej Pogačar's dominance, and what's coming in the next two

weeks. Plus two big pieces of South African cycling news: performance

coach Reece McDonald's move into the WorldTour pipeline with Q36.5 Pro

Cycling, and Daryl Impey's new role as a Sport Director at Ineos

Grenadiers for 2026.

# === CHAPTERS ===================================

0:00 — Intro: Do Races Actually Help Communities?

2:05 — James Beers' Toyota Commercial Stunt Double Story

6:35 — The Philosophy of Riding When the Stoke Is High

15:10 — Cape Epic's UNCO Valley & the Beaded Bracelets

23:14 — Craig Wapnick, go2berg & Community-Powered Events

28:46 — Whose Job Is It to Fix the Trails?

43:48 — The Trail Pass: An Easy Lever Riders Ignore

49:14 — Giro d'Italia: Vingegaard's Gearing Under the Microscope

52:47 — Could Different Gearing Have Changed the Giro?

1:07:28 — Pinarello-Q36.5 & Reece McDonald's Move to the WorldTour Pipeline

1:08:06 — Daryl Impey Joins Ineos Grenadiers as Sport Director

1:14:18 — Wrap-Up & Thanks to James Beers

# === LISTEN ON THE GO ===========================

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5GselFmeym7YgYXtcyPUXU

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/active-hobo/id1846864699

# === FOLLOW ACTIVE HOBO =========================

Subscribe: https://youtube.com/@activehobo?sub_confirmation=1

Website: https://activehobo.com/

Instagram: @theactivehobo

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# === THE CREW ===================================

Dave @davlewjenkins

# === MORE FROM ACTIVE HOBO ======================

Latest episode: https://youtu.be/VRIeP2JYf5U

Full podcast playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc2XIoaiAXafwoZykJM-jg6HnrLkWlJXH

Related episode: https://youtu.be/lGfvanjllXY

🔗 Scicon Sports SA — Premium eyewear and luggage for cyclists who take their kit seriously. https://theactivehobo.short.gy/sciconsports-discount

# === WORK WITH US ===============================

Sponsorships & collabs: david@activehobo.com

Send a question for the show: noah@activehobo.com

#ActiveHobo #CyclingPodcast #SouthAfricanCycling

Tristan Nortje and Matt Beers made history in 2026 by becoming the first all South African team to win the worlds biggest mountain bike race - The Cape Epic.

This film tells Tristan's story and how the result was his destiny foretold long before the day arrived.

SPECIAL THANKS to TOYOTA SA, Specialized South Africa, Cape Epic, RideLife George, Matt Beers, Anika Boshoff, Linda Nortje & of course Tristan Nortje for letting us tell this story 🇿🇦

#storiesmatter #capeepic #southafrica

# === LISTEN ON THE GO ===========================

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5GselFmeym7YgYXtcyPUXU

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/active-hobo/id1846864699

# === FOLLOW ACTIVE HOBO =========================

Subscribe: https://youtube.com/@activehobo?sub_confirmation=1

Website: https://activehobo.com/

Instagram: @theactivehobo

Strava: https://strava.app.link/ciVbx92FJ2b

THIRSTI is hosting its inaugural Half Marathon and 10km on the 29th of August 2026. Active Hobo has assembled a super crew to help you get there in tip top shape whether you want to race the event and set PB's or simple achieve something you never thought you could! Weekly runs with Terence Petterson (the influencer) Paige and Lindi (The brains and BIO's) and Alec (the storyteller) will ensure peak vibes and form!

Free entry spot prises, THIRSTI Sports drinks and other cool giveaways weekly!

Join us by simply DM'ing your whatsapp number and we'll add you to the group!

#yourstorymatters #storiesmatter #springmarathon #thirsti

For the first time outside of COVID, Dryland Event Management had to cancel a race ten

days before the start. Here's the man who made that call — and built a 20-year career

on the events that came before it.

Henco Rademeyer is the co-founder and director of Dryland Event Management, the team

behind some of South Africa's toughest and most loved mountain bike stage races: the

Attakwas Extreme, the Cape Pioneer Trek, the Tankwa Trek, and the brand-new Garden Route

Giro. In this conversation he tells the story from the very beginning — running a bike

shop in Oudtshoorn before online retail existed, realising that events drove more bike

sales than anything else, and starting Dryland almost by accident with his co-founder

Carel Herholdt.

He walks through the flooding that forced the cancellation of the 2026 edition of The

36ONE MTB Challenge — a 361-kilometre race through the Klein Karoo that had never been

called off outside of the pandemic — and the decision-making process behind making that

call ten days out, with refunds rather than partial routes. He also gets into the business

side most riders never see: how commercial partnerships made the events financially

viable, why the average rider age has settled around 44, and why South Africa might have

the best standard of mountain bike and gravel events in the world.

This one is for anyone who's ever finished one of these races and wondered who actually

builds them — and what it costs, physically and financially, to pull it off year after

year.

# === CHAPTERS ===================================

0:00 — The 36ONE cancellation and 20 years of Dryland events

0:27 — Inside the Garden Route Giro

1:02 — From bike shop owner to accidental events founder

4:41 — Attakwas: the race that started it all

6:03 — The Cape Pioneer Trek and the move toward technical single track

7:10 — Bernard le Roux joins, and Dryland starts to scale

26:15 — A mountain biker's-eye view of Dryland's events

31:03 — COVID, gravel's rise, and shifting rider demographics

38:39 — The funniest and most dramatic moments in 20 years of events

41:53 — Why Tankwa Trek is Henco's own personal favourite

45:02 — Equipment trends: dual suspension, gravel, and changing customer expectations

52:21 — The real cost of getting young riders into endurance sport

72:24 — New recovery partnerships and what's coming for finishers

76:45 — What Henco does when he's not running events

78:05 — Why Drive to Survive changed sports storytelling forever

80:37 — Cricket, rugby, and the cultural weight of schoolboy sport in South Africa

# === LISTEN ON THE GO ===========================

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5GselFmeym7YgYXtcyPUXU

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/active-hobo/id1846864699

# === FOLLOW ACTIVE HOBO =========================

Subscribe: https://youtube.com/@activehobo?sub_confirmation=1

Website: https://activehobo.com/

Instagram: @theactivehobo

Strava: https://strava.app.link/ciVbx92FJ2b

# === THE CREW ===================================

Dave @davlewjenkins

Alec @alec.gates

Regardt @regardt.stander

# === MORE FROM ACTIVE HOBO ======================

Latest episode: https://youtu.be/VRIeP2JYf5U

Full podcast playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc2XIoaiAXafwoZykJM-jg6HnrLkWlJXH

Related episode: https://youtu.be/lGfvanjllXY

🔗 Scicon Sports SA — Premium eyewear and luggage for cyclists who take their kit seriously. https://theactivehobo.short.gy/sciconsports-discount

# === WORK WITH US ===============================

Sponsorships & collabs: david@activehobo.com

Send a question for the show: noah@activehobo.com

#ActiveHobo #CyclingPodcast #originstory #podcast #revive #capeepic #enduranceathletes #mtb

Premier Wednesday 15 July 2026