Endurance cyclist’s 4-day, statewide ride to end at Orange County Great Park

A 700-mile bike ride that tours California’s beauty, with a total climb of 63,000 feet. Those numbers alone don’t tire out Grant Lottering of South Africa. Still, he is prepared for a grind, to say the least.

The endurance cyclist has done these extreme rides before, mostly in the French Alps, but his “Im’Possible Tour” comes to the United States for the first time next week.

Lottering will begin his ride at Shaver Lake in the Sierra National Forest on Wednesday morning. The goal is to get to Orange County Great Park in Irvine by Saturday night, just before the Orange County Soccer Club’s match against New Mexico United kicks off.

The ride will go through the Sequoia National Forest, down to Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Los Angeles counties, then to Mt. Baldy and the San Bernardino County mountain resort areas before heading south to Irvine.

Lottering is completing the ride as an ambassador for Unite Health Share Ministries, a faith-based healthcare nonprofit founded on Christian values. He is also a Laureus Sport for Good ambassador, and is riding to raise awareness for that charity.

“There’s a nice little golden thread through the whole thing, with faith playing a big part in the story of my life and the values of UHSM as well,” said Lottering, 53. “Each mountain range has got its own characteristics ... it’s just absolutely beautiful. It’s great to be able to incorporate that into one ride. We’ll be going over Big Bear Lake as well, past Arrowhead.

“I spent two weeks doing the reconnaissance. The first thing is to try and find a route that will incorporate as many of the mountains as possible. The second thing was to see if it would actually work, in terms of riding a bike and having [support team] cars follow me.”

Grant Lottering of South Africa will begin his ride at Shaver Lake on Tuesday morning.

(Kevin Chang / Staff Photographer)

Lottering suffered a horrendous accident racing in the Italian Alps in 2013 and was declared medically dead at the scene, but he ended up surviving 22 fractured bones and extensive internal injuries and bleeding.

He has undergone 12 surgeries since then, plus emergency cancer surgery, but his remarkable story and life journey have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for underprivileged children around the world.

He said there are sections of next week’s ride where he will have to get into the car for short stints, due to safety. He will also stop to take short naps along the way, change clothes or eat solid food.

But it’s one continuous ride.

“There are no stages,” he said. “It’s not split up. I’ve got a sweet spot of about seven hours. I can be awake for seven hours, then nap for 20 minutes, and repeat that. If I sleep more than 40 minutes, it’s really hard for me to get going.”

He said the hardest part of the ride will likely be during the first 85 miles Wednesday morning. He will leave Shaver Lake and ride through rough gravel through Kaiser Pass to reach the summit at 9,200 feet. That’s the highest point of the ride.

Andy Downer of UHSM said that he was asked to build an ambassador network “not of do-gooders but of people that are doing good.” Lottering seemed like an obvious choice.

“I felt like everybody would be good to listen and actually understand his story,” Downer said. “There’s a lot of people out there that are doing good, that people don’t know about. Grant and UHSM share that common goal of making a difference in the world.”

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