Auckland To Paris

Initially billed as #LettiesRide, Ron Rutland, aka #FatKidOnABike, left his home in Cape Town in June 2013, and spent the next 27 months attempting a  'world-first' single continuous journey, by bicycle, through every country on mainland Africa.

43,000km and a lifetime of stories and adventures later, Ron arrived in Brighton, UK, to watch, in what turned out to be the biggest upset in international rugby history, his beloved Springboks lose their opening game of the 2015 Rugby World Cup to Japan!

This was not only an historical end to an historic journey, but the the whole journey forever changed Ron's life, and it ended up setting in motion a series of events that lead to him committing to a full time life of adventure, and ultimately taking on RaceToRWC 2019, 2021, and 2023.

On a cold winter's morning in February 2019, Ron Rutland, this time with riding partner James Owens in tow, departed Twickenham Stadium, London for the start of RaceToRWC 2019 - a 20,000km, 230 day, 23 country journey to Tokyo for the start of Asia's first ever Rugby World Cup, in Japan.

Unlike the solo and mostly self-funded expedition to the 2015 RWC in England, this journey, linking that event to the 2019 tournament, was done in with collaboration with World Rugby and Japan 2019, DHL, one of the 6 World Wide Partner's of the tournament, as well as ChildFund Pass It Back, the official tournament charity.

Ron and James were tasked with the delivering the match whistle for the opening game of the tournament (which they successfully did!), and even more importantly they raised about $150,000 for the ChildFund Pass It Back. They could not have dreamt of a more rewarding year of their lives. The story was documented in the film Everything In Between..

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It’s amazing what you experience during a 14 day cycling adventure.

We needed to test our gear and our ability as a team to deliver the official match whistle for the kickoff of the Rugby World Cup 2021, where the Springboks take on the French.

We chose extremely harsh conditions and a tight deadline to do it. The Northern Cape and Southern Namibia in Summer is hot (very hot), it challenged us, and no matter what obstacles lay ahead, we took them on with a smile and would gladly do it all over again.

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Rugby is in DHL’s DNA which is clearly shown through their longstanding partnership with The Rugby World Cup. This year they will also be backing the Women’s tournament in New Zealand to help show rugby is a game for all.

As an organization with a long history of supporting rugby, DHLExpress values the same attributes which rugby embodies, such as passion, respect, discipline, integrity and solidarity. 

Elliott Santon, Head of Global Sponsorships at DHL Express, commented on the partnership: “We are proud to partner once again with Ron and Adam for their inspiring journey. DHL has a long standing association with rugby across the globe and are an official partner to both ChildFund Rugby and Rugby World Cup 2021. We are passionate about our partnership with ChildFund which leverages rugby as a platform to improve the lives of many thousands of children and wish Ron and Adam the very best and a safe journey ahead.”