Riding with the lead pack through the Sahara of northern Sudan. Below, right: Matt poses with Joan Louwrens, who was the first woman to cross the finish line at the Tour d’Afrique.

Tires whoosh endlessly on pavement as knees pump up and down like pistons as the miles slip by—mile after mile, after mile.

It was summer 2005 when Matthew Caretti ’98M decided he was going to enter the Tour d’Afrique—billed as the most grueling bike race in the world—that traverses the African continent between Cape Town, South Africa and Cairo, Egypt.

To prepare for the race, Matt spent the last four months of his Peace Corps assignment using his mountain bike to travel between villages with longer excursions on the weekends. Beginning in October, he cycled across the United States as a warm up, and spent most of December on “indoor cycle rollers, taking in nearly every Bowl game on TV.” He returned to Africa and readied himself for the more than 7,400-mile race.

“My experience as a Peace Corps volunteer whetted my curiosity to see more of the continent and its peoples, cultures, and landscapes. And rather than follow the well-beaten ‘Mizungo Trail’ of overland travelers, the Tour d’Afrique seemed a great way to experience Africa and challenge myself physically, mentally, and spiritually.”

And see the continent he did. The trip was also a study in extremes: weather, geography, and colors, to name a few.

It turns out, the race was a good way to travel from Cape Town to Cairo. The race is run in stages (96 over 120 days), much like its more popular cousin, the Tour de France. After biking for about five hours in each stage, Matt had the rest of the day to see the sites and explore. Then it was time to eat, rest, and prepare for another day.

Far fewer people tackle the Tour d’Afrique which is an amateur endeavor. And almost all the competitors are biking as individuals, not members of a well-funded team. Some bikers do have endorsements and some are racing on funds collected by friends and family for charities. As they bike, they forge friendships and motivate one another during the race.

In sections of the race, thorns are so prevalent they cause repeated punctures throughout the day. Matt doesn’t concentrate on the perils. His memories are wrapped in his senses:

• The grandeur of the pyramids at Gaza (where the race started)
• The kindness of the Sudanese people
• The cultural pride of the Ethiopians and the mountains climbed there
• Lava rock jackhammering of Kenya’s Didagalgalu Desert
• Lake Malawi’s blue expanse
• Positive “buzz” and bustle of Zambia
• Empty beauty of Namibia
• Using Sotho (a language) to converse with locals in Botswana
• Winning the Snows of Kilimanjaro section in Tanzania by four minutes with a 40 km sprint up the highland escarpment after countless punctures had set him back
• The warm South African welcome at the Cape Town finish line.

“I never expected to be one of the top guys. I like biking as a hobby or as part of triathlons. I had hoped I would finish in the top ten, but never expected to be one of the top three riders, let alone the winner.”

If crossing two continents in less than a year wasn’t enough, Matt returned to Tanzania to take on another personal challenge – climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain.

“Kili is a lovely mountain, despite the degradation of the glaciers caused by global warming. From the plains to rain forest to montane forest to alpine desert to a snow-capped summit, the trek is indeed awesome. And the slow pace of the climb owing to hasty altitude gain is quite meditative.”

He wrote of the experience, “At 6:25 am on Monday, 12 June, I arrived at Uhuru Peak, the summit of Kilimanjaro. As Walter Bonatti, a renowned Italian mountaineer once noted: ‘Mountains are the means and man is the end. The goal is not to reach the top of mountains but to improve the man.’ I descended today just as I completed the Tour d’Afrique, victorious but a humbled man.”

Matt has done more mountain climbing than bike racing, having climbed mountains on five continents. While the Eiger is on his short list, he has major climbs in Switzerland, France, Italy, Bolivia, and Kalla Pattar in Nepal—“the mountain where all the good views of Everest are to be had,” he noted.

So how did Matt, a Berks County resident, get from southcentral Pennsylvania to exotic lands far from our shores?

Cyclists battle the searing heat of the Sahara Desert which reached over 120º Fahrenheit some days. With “Old Glory” in hand, Matt poses at the finish line of the Tour d’Afrique as the first American winner.

Matt came to Shippensburg because of Rocky Rees, SU’s head football coach. “I played under Rocky at Susquehanna. When I decided to go back to school for my master’s I thought of my mentor, Rocky, and decided to check into it. I liked what I saw, applied, and received a graduate assistantship as an assistant football coach. Although it’s been almost ten years, Rocky and I are still in touch.”

“I’ve always had an adventurous streak, which may have come from my father’s experience as a young man in the Navy,” Matt said. “I learn things by doing, so my adventures are a natural extension of that. I love reading travel literature because it inspires me to experience it for myself.

“I’ve been fortunate that many of my jobs included housing, so I was able to save. I’m thrifty anyway. I prefer to invest in experiences rather than things. I have a different priority than many people so instead of acquiring extravagant things, I do extravagant things.”

But it is more than that. Matt lets himself experience the moment and take advantage of the unexpected. One such encounter led to a life change. As Matt tells it, he was in South Korea as a Princeton-in-Asia-Fellow and was teaching. On a holiday, he was vacationing and stopped at a monastery. He bowed and greeted a monk in Korean, to which the monk replied in English, “Hello. Would you like a cup of tea?” Matt accepted and after the tea ritual, the two talked for hours. As a result the study of Zen is a major focus of Matt’s life.

In September, Matt returned to South Korea where he is teaching English at Yeungnam University. Besides excitement at being back in the classroom with his own students, Matt is eagerly preparing to test for his third degree black belt in tae kwon do and furthering his studies of Zen.

Despite living abroad and having adventures many of us can only read about, Matt keeps his accomplishments in perspective. He said, “No matter where I go or what I do, small town Pennsylvania is still the best place for a homecoming!”

Riders in the main peleton, including Matt in the middle (plate number 103), get an early morning start to beat the day’s heat. Above: After the day’s finish, Matt enters an Ethiopian village.