Video: The K2N Stage Race Aims to Help Local Tanzanian Communities

What if we told you there’s a way to address issues like food security by simply riding your bike? Hear us out. Sometimes there are opportunities that exist at the intersection between our passions and problems worth addressing. As mountain bikers we love riding our bikes. The joy we get from riding is what connects us as a community. But sometimes we need to ask how we can use that passion for a greater good. In this case it’s addressing food security. That intersection comes in the form of a race.

Yes, a mountain bike stage race that was created for the sole purpose of funding community development work in Tanzania. Enter the K2N Stage Race.


The K2N stage race generates funds for Red Knot Development to proliferate local training on conservation agriculture to make the soil more resilient, more fertile, and more productive for future generations. This promotes localized food security via sustainable methodologies, which is of the utmost importance when considering that agricultural land is shrinking while population densities are increasing. Think of it as finding ways to work together to increase yields without losing culture, tradition, and community. Yeah, not your typical bike race.



The race offers four stages of varied terrain, amazing scenery, and wildlife viewing. K2N is Tanzania in its purest form; undiluted; unaltered; fully and resolutely in your face. The trails are not groomed, but natural. There’s thorns in sizes small, medium, and large. There are hike-a-bike sections, potentially more than you are accustomed to. To ride K2N is to experience northern Tanzania as it is, not as some cyclists wish it were.


The race takes place on double track safari roads, fast single track, and technical single track. Racers encounter stones, rock, sand, thorns, wildlife and more thorns. The single track is not designed for bicycles; rather, it was constructed by wild animals and pack donkeys, for wild animals and pack donkeys. The northern Tanzania geography, flora and fauna — while spectacular to witness — are also obstacles with which to contend, especially on stage one at 3800 meters (12500 ft). You might fall, you likely will bleed, and you absolutely are going to carry your bike.



Red Knot Development

Subsistence farmers face a lot of challenges in rural Tanzania. The past few years, drought has taken much of their livestock; the unpredictable rains make it extremely hard to grow crops and increasing population density means less land to farm on. The result is a lot of families left without enough food to last the year.

What now? Well, because these farmers can't keep much livestock anymore, they are starting to farm with crops such as maize and beans. The problem is, they don't know how. They were used to keeping cows and chickens up until recently. They are in serious need of training and this is where Red Knot Development comes in. They train the farmers to implement conservation agriculture methods.

Conservation agriculture, simply explained, is a way of farming that puts nitrogen back into the topsoil, enabling farmers to use the land multiple times a year without a loss of crop yield. Conservation agriculture uses less water and the materials required are readily available to the farmers. The result is an increase in their yields, crops that can grow even in dry areas and healthy soils that can be farmed on for many generations to come.



Support the work without doing the race

For those who are keen to get involved, but can't do the race, there is another option to support the good work. Red Knot and Specialized Soil Searching are raffling off a Specialized Turbo Levo SL. The proceeds will go towards the community development work and building trails in the West Kilimanjaro area.

Can mountain biking change the world? Ja, we reckon it can. And if you reckon as well, click here to pitch in.