After 4 years without so much as a spin around the block, Ballito attorney Ralph Schröder hopped back on his bike to raise more than R30 000 for the Ballito Neighbourhood Watch (BNW).

Ralph’s brother, Deon, organised ‘The Big Day Out’, an event for 18 cyclists where they could train in the midlands while formal cycling events were still not happening.

On April 17, the cyclists were scheduled to take off from Dalton, through Shalom, Blinkwater and back to Dalton on a 111km roundtrip.

Though most were regular cyclists, Deon challenged Ralph to join, promising a donation of R10 per km that he finished, for a charity of his choice.

“I told him to make it R50 per km, thinking he would then let it be. But alas, he agreed to the pledge and I nominated the BNW,” said Ralph.

Ralph saw that the BNW were raising funds for their SNIPR cameras and wanted to help.

Although they raised their target before the race, he decided to stick with his original choice so that the BNW would not have to raise funds in 2022.

“I had quite a bad prang in the Drak descent in 2016 so my bike needed replacing. When I bought a new one, I only managed about 9km of training before the big day!”

In that time however, Ralph took to social media and the pledges started rolling in, nearing almost R600 per km before the event.

“All of a sudden, every km I completed had more meaning, more purpose and I was accountable to that purpose because it was public.”

With a revised target of around 25km, Ralph set off but 16km in, one of the pedals fell off and it became a recurring issue for the rest of the ride.

The pedal ended up falling off 7 times, but Ralph persevered, finishing a gruelling 40km.

“All of the credit goes to those who helped by donating, it kept me going for so long because I knew every km meant a direct donation to the BNW,” he said.

BNW chairman, Morne Steffens said he was grateful to Ralph for choosing the BNW and for his incredible achievement.