Lachlan and Alison are all fired up for Gravel Burn, a new seven-day, 800-kilometer stage race through the Great Karoo, a vast, arid plateau that billows across the South African interior. Starting in Knysna, a peaceful garden town on the shore of the Western Cape, they’ll traverse lush forest and harsh desert, crossing mountain passes on their way to the Shamwari Private Game Reserve. Camping out in the bush, under a huge sky of stars marked by the Southern Cross, they’ll gather around the bonfire at night to swap tales about their exploits with hundreds of other racers from all around the world. Lachlan and Alison’s best stories are as likely to be about summit finishes and late-race attacks as sightings of lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo, and rhinoceros. That’s the appeal of Gravel Burn. It will bring a field of world-class gravel racers out of their comfort zone and into the wilderness. That’s where Lachlan and Alison thrive.

Lachlan brings his Cape Epic mountain bike experience, as well as lessons learnt from backcountry adventures, such as his record-setting ride on the Tour Divide, to Gravel Burn. He loves racing in Africa. Kenya’s Migration Gravel Race is a mainstay on his Far Beyond calendar. He has won stages there in the past and triumphed at the Evolution Gravel Race in Tanzania. Trips to Africa are less about getting results as they are about collecting memories for Lachlan, though.

“Africa is a beautiful place to visit,” Lachlan said. “The energy, the people, the landscapes–there are just a lot of really nice things that make it a cool place to ride a bike and a cool place to spend time. I've been to South Africa a whole lot of times, but I have never been to this part of the country. It is going to be all new roads for me and all new experiences.”

Alison is just excited to get out into the South African wilderness. Her childhood home on a ranch in the north of Alberta is far away from the bushveld, but the rolling, dusty plains look familiar. Since helping Magdeleine Vallieres win the Kigali world championships, Alison has been travelling around Africa, riding bikes, dancing, surfing, visiting local schools, and planting trees with locals in Rwanda, Ethiopia, and South Africa. It’s just her second visit to the continent after a brief trip to Uganda for a cross-country running meet before she got into bike racing. This time, she has had much more time to explore and has been struck by all of the different ways of life she has encountered.

“Africa is so diverse,” Alison said. “It has been good to experience so many different African cultures and communities in all of these different ways. It has opened my eyes. I think that is why travel is so important. Every day has been different for the past weeks. Life hasn’t revolved around performance. It’s been more about giving back and getting involved and being open to whatever happens in the day. People here are really proud of where they're from, whether it's Rwanda, Ethiopia, or South Africa. And they're so excited that a foreigner, a Canadian girl from small town Canada, would want to come and ride bikes with them. Some days, I've had no plans and just gone with the flow. The community is great. Everyone is so hospitable and so willing to ride with me and show me their country. That’s been really good for the heart and soul.”

Alison’s travels might not have been the ideal prep for Gravel Burn, but she is still a competitor, looking forward to trying to win a stage in South Africa.

“My fitness isn't great, but my freshness is high,” Alison said. “I don't quite think it's the race for me to win overall, but I am still going to attack every day because I am a racer. I’ll use the habits I have from road racing, with good nutrition, hydration, and sleep, and see where that gets me. When I got to South Africa, I was surfing two times a day, and then we slowly turned down the surfing, moving to one time a day instead of two with a little bit of a longer bike ride. We’ve since gone to just bike riding. I’m going to race with what I’ve got. I think I’ll just get better and better throughout the week.”

Lachlan is sure that the racing at Gravel Burn is going to be scorching. The old competitive fire is burning in his belly and he wants to try to light up the race.

“There are seven stages, so seven opportunities,” Lachlan said. “Each of the stages look challenging for sure, but I think the fact that they are going to be raced at a very high speed is probably going to be the biggest challenge. I don’t know where I am fitness-wise. I’ve been riding my bike a lot. I think we’re going to have to be realistic after the first few stages to see where we’re at, whether we’re fighting for a GC position or should target a certain stage. That’s a decision you can only make once you start racing and see where you are at. There’s a lot of potential for bad luck to hit you over the course of a week, so working out how you manage that and where you put your energy for sure will be important. I’ll make that decision as the race unfolds. I’d love to perform well on the bike. That would be the icing on the cake.”

The real cake for both Lachlan and Alison is going to be sharing their Gravel Burn adventure with all of the cyclists who’ve travelled to South Africa for the new race. Their fellow riders’ perspectives will enrich the experience and help our pros break out of their high-performance bubble, encouraging them to look around and appreciate the beauty of South Africa and soak in all of the joy of racing their bikes.

“Racing is fun, and winning is a special type of fun, so if we could do that, that would be cool,” Alison said. “But honestly, the community that we’re going to build doing something like this will be the coolest. It’s going to be like summer camp. I'm really looking forward to tent life. There are going to be campfires. Elites mix with amateurs or age groupers, so it will be a really full experience. We're all riding the same kilometers and will bust through the same struggles. When you do something new with people, it’s a really strong way to build memories and bonds.”

Lachlan agrees. What he is looking forward to most is spending time with all of the other racers.

“The stages are not going to be all day affairs, which means that we are going to have plenty of time to soak in the surroundings and the company after the racing,” he said. “Once we’re in that camp environment, I am looking forward to interacting with the people there, hanging out after stages and hopefully sitting around the campfire and telling a few stories. That is what I'm looking forward to. It is important to try to stay conscious of the fact that you are racing somewhere totally new and that's also part of it. That can be a challenge when you're in a highly competitive field, but it is something that I think I've managed to do pretty well this year. The fact that people are using their holidays and spending their hard-earned money to come and experience these events helps you put in perspective how much of a privilege it is to be able to come and race something like this. After the races you always get to swap stories. You're competing on the same courses and you have had those shared experiences, which is honestly what makes these events so enjoyable.”

Alison and Lachlan both have a few side quests for the race in South Africa, too.

“I want to jump in the ocean before the start,” Lachlan said. “And I would also love to get up on top of Table Mountain before I leave and maybe get in a sneaky day of mountain biking.”

Alison is excited to race amidst all the South African wildlife.

“I want to see a zebra!” she said.

Alison and Lachlan’s Gravel Burn safari starts this Sunday. Follow their journey this week on EF Pro Cycling’s social channels.