enduro news
© Bob Mullins   

News

From the moment I arrived in South Africa to do "THE ROOF" people kept asking the same thing "Are you good at riding rocks ?".

The saying around those parts is that Lesotho is the rock factory of the world ! After 3 days riding around there I now know what they mean. They have every sort of rocks Huge white eroded slabs, sharp black crystaline outcrops , jagged loose rocks covered with grit and worst of all smooth round rocks from tennis ball to beach ball size all lay on top of each other like giant, hard, unfriendly, bottomless, ball pit just waiting to spit you in any direction but the right one.

Typically it's this sort that line the steep passes that wind precariously up and down the Drakensberg. one or two of these normally provide the challenge in a day at the ROOF but this year, possibly to prove that they are the biggest and baddest of the new extreme enduro series, a 220km day with many of the toughest ones was planed for the riders on the first proper day of the race.

After a 4am breakfast and a 6am start the top riders were expected to finish in about 7 hours. The fact that nobody had pre-ridden the course the difficulty had been underestimated and after 10 hard hours only 5 top riders made it to the DSP at Ramabanta ,where the race was stopped for the day, about 2/3 of the way around the planed route.

The field of riders had been decimated. Some trickled in through the night to the fuel stop prior to Ramabanta to be sent back on the road. Many gave up way befor then or their bikes gave up for them. Worn out riders and bikes were strewn out along the course being time barred for safety at different fuel points. Some bikes were lost down steep embankments. One was said to have fallen 30 meters to the river below leaving the rider clinging desperately to a bush ! Many ran out of daylight or out of fuel and spent the night out in the bush. Not much fun if you don't get taken in by the local people as the temperature soon drops from above 30 Celsius to below 0 on the high mountains.

This is where my race finished time barred one fuel stop short of the amended final check piont. I could be bitter ,about the time I wasted stuck on the passes amongst slower riders after stopping to mend the clutch case I damaged earlier in the day, but I wasn't. After 11 1/2 hours riding I was so finished I was glad to stop, lucky to still have my bike and happy to go back to the hotel to shower, eat and sleep.

The restaurant was quiet that night. many riders not in, many not knowing if they had made it far enough to be up again at 4am to start the last day. A decision was finally made late at night to change the course for Saturday and to let in a few more than the five finishers. 40ish bikes started the last day and after another punishing day only 25 were classed as finishers.

Many stories of adversity floated around the pits but the best of all came from the guy who returned on Saturday on a donkey after a 5 hour ride out of the mountains. Apparently the donkey had been traded with locals for his boots and helmet. A fair trade!

Now I wonder how much he wants for that donkey and will a GPS fit between the ears, it may well be a better option for next year !

Many thanks to everybody who made this trip possible.

Docklands Riders, Kriega, Pro Carbon, Jim Aim motorcycles, Paul Green Tyres, Acerbis, Dr Shox, James cargo.
Thanks to my daughter Jemima for the lucky pictures she made me.
Thanks for all the help in South Africa from Ant and his family, Paul, Dom and the rest of their friends . Without them it would have been impossible.
Thanks to Tamsin for all her support. Good luck in Dakar. Chris Salt.