§1.1 You will ride across fragile ecosystems, protected areas and working farmland. Leave nature unchanged.

§1.2 All bottles, gels, bars and wrappers must be marked with your race number. This applies to what you carry from the start and to what you take in a feed zone.

§1.3 Waste is discarded only in the marked waste zones at feed zones. Litter identified as yours anywhere else on the route carries a time penalty. A second offence is disqualification.

§1.4 Stay on the official route. Do not cut corners, create new lines, or ride around obstacles onto unridden ground.

§1.5 Farmers, farm workers, livestock and landowners always have right of way. Slow down or stop for animals. Close every gate you open.

§1.6 No fires. No glass containers on or near the route. Use appropriate spots for physiological needs, well away from water sources, homesteads and the route itself.

§1.7 Disrespect toward the land, the wildlife or the people who live on it is disqualification. There is no warning for this one.

§2.1 The route uses roads open to traffic. You must know, observe and comply with the National Road Traffic Act 93 of 1996 and its regulations at all times. Keep left. Never ride two abreast on a blind rise or blind corner.

§2.2 A helmet meeting ANSI or European standards is mandatory and must be correctly fastened whenever you are on the bike. Riding with an unfastened or absent helmet is immediate disqualification.

§2.3 Headphones, earbuds, speakers, music players and any device that restricts your hearing are forbidden for the whole race. Two-way radios, earpieces and any device used to receive instructions are also forbidden.

§2.4 Cameras may be mounted on the bike only. No helmet or chest mounts. The start commissaire may refuse any rider whose device or mounting looks unsafe.

§2.5 Karoo mornings are cold and Karoo afternoons are not. Prepare for both. The Organisation strongly recommends arm and leg warmers, gloves, sunscreen and eye protection.

§3.1 Your bicycle must be powered by human power alone. E-bikes of any kind are not permitted for the 130KM race. 

§3.2 Gravel bikes use drop handlebars. Mountain bikes, cyclocross bikes and hybrids are permitted, but a bike with straight handlebars is not classified as a gravel bike and is not eligible for the Elite podium at national championship level.

§3.3 Aerobar extensions, clip-on extensions and tri-bars are not permitted on any bike. Traditional bar ends are permitted on straight handlebars only.

§3.4 Your bike must have two brakes in good working order. No metal screws or spikes in tyres. Handlebar ends must be plugged.

§3.5 Being pushed, pulled or towed by another rider, a vehicle or anything else is forbidden. So is holding onto a vehicle.

§3.6 Drafting between riders of opposite gender is not permitted.

§3.7 The Chief Commissaire may refuse a start to any bicycle that does not comply. Check your bike before you travel, not at registration.

§4.1 This is a semi-supported race. There are 3 feed zones on the route, at kilometre 37,5, 79 and 104. Between them you are on your own. Carry enough water for at least 4 hours of riding in Karoo heat.

§4.2 Bring to accreditation: your ID document or passport, your valid CSA licence or foreign federation licence, and your proof of medical information submission.

§4.3 Mandatory gear, checked at registration and at any point on the route:

• Helmet
• Race number board, fitted to the seatpost
• GPS device with the official track loaded RTD (130 only)
• Tools and spares, including at least one tube and a means of inflation
• Nutrition and hydration, all of it marked with your race number
• Survival blanket
• A charged mobile phone, carried switched on and reachable

§4.4 Strongly recommended: a small first aid kit, food for at least six hours of riding, sunscreen, arm and leg warmers, gloves and eye protection.

§4.5 Your race number board is fitted to the seatpost, facing rearward, visible and unobstructed at all times. Do not cut, fold or alter it. You must finish with the same board you started with.

This is the rule that decides the race. Read it twice and brief your crew.

§5.1 Zones only. Food, drink, clothing, spares and mechanical help from anyone who is not a rider in this race may only be received inside an official feed zone. Support received anywhere else on the route is outside assistance and will be penalised.

§5.2 What counts as outside assistance. Taking anything at all from a support crew, family member, friend, spectator, team vehicle or any other third party outside a feed zone. Pre-placing food, bottles or equipment along the route is also outside assistance, whoever put it there.

§5.3 No seconding, no leapfrogging, no following. Support vehicles may not follow the race, drive any part of the route, or move from point to point to meet a rider. Crews travel to a feed zone by the designated public access road and park in the designated parking area. Only vehicles of the Organisation, medical services and accredited media are permitted on the route. Leapfrogging is disqualification.

§5.4 Rider to rider is always allowed. You may share water, food, tubes, tools and basic spares with any other rider in this race. Neither rider is credited or penalised time for it. You may not give or receive a complete wheel, a frame or a complete bicycle, and you may not abandon the race in order to hand essential parts to another rider.

§5.5 Same bicycle. You must finish on the bicycle you started on. The frame and the seatpost number board must be the same at the finish as at the start. Wheels, tyres, chains and components may be replaced inside a feed zone.

§5.6 No back-tracking. Ride the route in the correct direction at all times. Once you have passed a feed zone you may not turn back to reach it. Continue to the next one. Turning back on the route to reach a zone is disqualification. Inside the zone itself you may turn around, provided you do not obstruct anyone.

§5.7 Conduct inside the zone. Everything must be handed to you. Your crew may not fit bottles to your bike, may not put food in your pockets, may not run alongside you, and may not spray water on you or the bike. High pressure washers are forbidden. Use one feed point per zone.

§5.8 Access and accreditation. Each rider may accredit up to two support people. They must wear their accreditation visibly and follow every instruction from the zone marshals. No tents, gazebos, flags, banners or branded structures in the zones. Zones are for supporting riders, not for activations.

§5.9 Every feed zone is a checkpoint. You must pass through every feed zone and checkpoint on the route. Missing one is a time penalty or disqualification.

§5.10 Your crew is your responsibility. Any penalty earned by your support crew is applied to you. Brief them on this rule before race day.

§6.1 You must follow and complete the full official route. Taking a shortcut, omitting a section or gaining any similar advantage is disqualification.

§6.2 You may temporarily leave the route to find food, shelter or rest, but you must rejoin it at exactly the point where you left it.

§6.3 The route is not fully marked. Navigation is your responsibility and a GPS device with the official track loaded is mandatory.

§6.4 Checkpoints are set along the route and at every feed zone to confirm that riders complete the whole course. Missing a checkpoint is a time penalty or disqualification.

§6.5 Race vehicles and motorbikes are not navigation references. Do not follow them and do not draft them.

§6.6 The Organisation will send you the race handbook and the GPX files at least 14 days before the start. Study them. Ignorance of the route or of these rules is not an excuse.

§6.7 The Organisation may shorten or re-route the course at any time for fire, flooding, road conditions or any other safety reason. Changes are announced at the briefing or on the start line.

§7.1 Be punctual at accreditation, at the briefing and at the start. Accreditation closes at 6pm on 25th September 2026. No exceptions.

§7.2 Attendance at the rider briefing is mandatory. Any rule changes are announced there.

§7.3 You must be in your allocated start batch at least ten minutes before your start time. Riders start from a stationary position.

§7.4 The official cut-off is 16:15 at the finish, with intermediate cut-offs at [feed zone 3 / 104km]. Miss a cut-off and you are withdrawn from the race.

§7.5 After the cut-off the race is over. Medical cover, marshals, road permissions, event insurance and timing all end. Riders who continue past a cut-off are no longer in the event, must remove or cover the number board, and ride on as private individuals entirely at their own risk and under normal traffic law.

§7.6 Your ride can still go on after that. Just understand that it is your ride, not our race.

§8.1 You must hold valid personal insurance for the duration of the event, covering medical treatment, emergency evacuation from remote terrain, and personal liability. No rider starts without it.

§8.2 It is your responsibility to know what your policy and your CSA licence actually cover. If your cover is private, you must attend a facility within your own network. The Organisation does not carry the cost of treatment at a facility your insurer does not recognise.

§8.3 You take part voluntarily and at your own risk. You accept that this is a long-distance race in remote terrain with limited access and limited mobile coverage, that medical help may take a long time to reach you, and that you are responsible for your own decisions on the route.

§8.4 By entering you release the Organisation, its volunteers, sponsors, landowners and other riders from liability for loss or injury, to the fullest extent permitted by South African law.

§9.1 This race exists because of volunteers who give up their weekend to stand in the sun or rain for you. Be kind to them.

§9.2 Follow every instruction from marshals, commissaires and medical staff. They are there for your safety and for the running of the race. Ignoring an instruction is a penalty offence.

§9.3 If a rider, a member of the public or an animal is in danger, you must stop and help. Time lost helping is assessed by the Race Director and may be credited back to you.

§9.4 Where a rider is injured, at least one rider must stay with them until help arrives. Failing to help at an accident, or failing to report a serious accident, is immediate disqualification.

§9.5 Report any incident to the emergency number printed on your number board, or to the nearest checkpoint.

§9.6 If you withdraw, you must tell the Organisation. Sweep vehicles operate from the feed zones and will carry you to the finish. If you stop between feed zones, call in and we will arrange transport to the nearest collection point. No vehicle will be sent to carry a rider directly to the finish.

§9.7 The Race Director and the medical team may remove any rider from the route on safety or medical grounds. A rider who fails a concussion assessment is out of the race and may not return without written clearance from a doctor.

§9.8 Abuse or violence toward a rider, official, volunteer, landowner or member of the public is disqualification and will be reported to CSA.

§10.1 Penalties are imposed by the Commissaire Panel, not by the Organisation. The panel may issue a verbal warning, a fine, a time penalty, relegation, disqualification, or a recommendation for suspension.

§10.2 Penalties may be applied during the race or after the finish. Repeat offences escalate.

§10.3 If you believe you have been prejudiced by something during the race, you may protest. The protest must be in writing, signed, and handed to the Chief Commissaire within 15 minutes of the end of your race, with the prescribed fee of R200.

§10.4 An appeal against a penalty must be lodged within 15 minutes of the penalty being communicated to you, with the same fee.

§10.5 Where a protest involves a top-five finisher, prize giving is delayed until it is resolved.

§10.6 The decision of the Commissaire Panel is final.

§10.7 Annex A lists the standard penalties. The panel may vary them according to the severity of the offence and the advantage gained.

None of this should be necessary. Ride safe, ride kind, let this be a fair race.

§11.1 ROAD TO DESOLATION is a CSA-sanctioned race, sanction number 2026-GR-260926.

§11.2 South African riders must produce a valid Cycling South Africa membership and racing licence at accreditation. Riders without an annual licence must buy a day licence at accreditation at the fee levied by CSA.

§11.3 International riders must produce a valid licence from their own national federation, or pay the applicable CSA fee.

§11.4 Licensed riders may not compete in non-sanctioned events.

§11.5 Minimum age is 19 on 31 December 2026 for the 130km route. Riders aged 15 to 18 may enter the Taste of Desolation route.

§11.6 Categories scored: Elite (19+), Sub Veteran (30–39), Veteran (40–49), Master (50–59), Grand Master (60+), men and women.

§11.7 The anti-doping rules of the UCI, the World Anti-Doping Agency and Drug-Free Sport South Africa apply. Testing may take place before, during or after the race, and no rider may refuse a test.

§11.8 A rider currently serving a doping sanction may not start. A positive test means disqualification, forfeiture of any prize or title, and referral to the competent authorities.

§11.9 Attendance at prize giving is required to receive a prize, trophy or medal.

§12.1 Personal information you give us is processed under the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013, for the purpose of running this race: entries, timing, results, safety, medical response and race communications.

§12.2 Your information is shared only with the service providers who need it to run the race, such as timing, medical services, insurers and Cycling South Africa. It is not sold or passed to anyone else without your consent.

§12.3 You may ask to access, correct or delete your information by writing to race@roadtodesolation.cc

§12.4 By entering you consent to photographs and video taken of your participation being used by the Organisation for reporting, promotion and the race archive, without payment.

§12.5 Entries are personal and non-transferable. Selling or passing on an entry, or riding under another rider’s number, means both riders are penalised.