2008 The roof of Africa is known as one of the hardest Enduro's and probably the hardest 3 day event in the world, even harder is the training needed to be able to stand a chance of finishing. Training for this event requires dedication, perseverance and a whole lot of money. the roof of Africa attracts only hardcore riders who love the sport and live to ride, for those that do not have any form of sponsorship just finishing the roof is the goal for most, racing for top positions is for the super talented riders who get given brand new bikes and kitted out for the event with all the best gear, even a large percentage of these guys fail.

2009 Top riders who train all year long for this event ended up dehydrated and out of the race, some injured and out of the race. and some with broken bikes and out of the race. Those that did finish day 2 were so tired when they finished they could hardly speak. Seeing Chris Birch totally knackered and blowing steam on some of the video clips shows just how crazy this event has become, the organizers have made that impossible for privateers, it’s no longer aimed at your hardcore weekend warrior, above average rider or talented but instead they have opted to redesign this event for elite riders. As a South African you will have to be in the top 15% to even stand a chance of finishing if you are not in this category you have to RACE from the start to the finish. it is still possible but Trust me this is easier imagined than done, there is not one section of the new roof where you get time to get your breath back, you will be working every muscle, organ, vein, tendon, sweat gland and nerve endings for over 12 hours a day, you will get big blisters in horrible places and loose skin in others, you will hurt everywhere and then you will need to get up at 4:00 and do it all over again.

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In my intro for 2008 I wrote “racing to win is for the riders who get given a brand new bike and kitted out for the event with all the best gear ” this has now changed to
“Racing to FINISH is for the riders who get given a brand new bike and kitted out for the event with all the best gear and have a factory team backing them at the event”

Last year 2008 was my first attempt which ended prematurely on the second day 35 Km before days end. I failed to make the time bar at the top of Baboons pass, Naturally I was very disappointed and at the time pretty angry with the organizers for setting the time bar so early, A time bar 35 km before the end and at 12:00. I know that i could have finished the day with plenty of light to spare, what made this even more aggravating, I had stopped to help someone who had hi-sided over a steep bank and needed assistance firstly to get his bike off him and then I made the mistake to taking the time to help him drag his bike back up the rocks, I lost more than 20 minutes here, the second reason was being a first timer I had started right at the back of the field, somewhere around 260th place, I had to fight my way up the field and kept on loosing time with the numerous bottlenecks formed by riders unable to negotiate some of the obstacles, one of these bottlenecks cost me 45 minutes and ended the race for me right there. You need to be in front of these guys that battle on the really technical stuff. This being the 200 odd riders that don’t finish the event bar a few who had the wrong game plan or just plain bad luck. lesson learned.............the time trial is of utmost importance.

Looking a bit worse for wear.

1) Some advice for anyone racing and wanting to finish, remember less than a third of the riders that start this race finish it, Round the houses is one of the keys, you don’t want to crash out here but you need to race and get the best position that you can, taking it easy here or "Playing it Safe" is making the rest of the ride that much harder, once out there nothing is more frustrating than racing for 2 hours getting into a nice rhythm then coming to a bottleneck and losing all that time you have made, The only solution here is to get in front of these guys early in the event i.e. the time trial, it’s all very well conserving energy so you can keep a good pace for 3 days but I would rather be dead tired and still in the race than have all my reserve energy but not in the race. GIVE IT ALL YOU GOT.

2) Make sure your bike is well prepared and it’s so important to have everything properly tested, I had all the protection you can buy fitted to my bike and fitted an exhaust guard shortly before the event, during the event my exhaust guard took a heavy knock and one of the mounts cracked and lodged itself between the casing and my gear leaver, later I established it was design error, I had to bash it out with a rock. I had a small gap between my bash plate and my clutch casing, needless to say a metal pipe lying on the track found this gap and put a hole in my clutch casing. Fixing stuff like this breaks your rhythm and costs you time and energy.

My experience for 2009 after months of preparation, training and organizing

Re-jetting my bike and doing final check in Lesotho

 

Round the Houses

All started out well I finished round the houses in 10th position with smoking hot tyres (no kidding they were so hot you could hardly touch them), I started on the second row from the back but managed a great start and on the first long straight was already in about 15th position, a Honda was on my left, when we hit top speed engines singing the poor guy seized his bike, I heard an audible “klack” when something in his engine broke. This made me back off a little not wanting the same to happen to me. I can’t imagine how he must have felt his race over before it even started.

DAY 1

Out on the Time trial it took some time to get the blood flowing and all the muscles loosened up,  I was doing well, every 15 minutes or so I would catch and pass someone, The time trial was a nice flowing course and we were making the distance fast, with 4 km to the end the worst thing that can happen happened, It was the last technical downhill I could see the DSP in the distance and my front tyre skidded over a loose rock and I went over the handle bars, would not have been so much of a big deal if I had not dislocated my thumb and crunched my index finger, I was on the bike in a few seconds and had to drag it back up on to the path using lots of energy, I got going again but my thumb was hurting like hell and 20 meters later I was over the handle bars again, my exhaust cage caught on a rock which slowed my momentum and put me off balance, when my front wheel came down there was a nice rock which stopped the bike it in its tracks, my momentum carried me over the bars and about 10 meters before I landed on a whole bunch of jaggered rocks, later I found bruises and cuts on both legs, my hip, hands, shoulder and arms. I was seriously battered and bruised from that one, I wasted a lot of time getting back on the bike this time and a whole bunch of riders came past me and i lost a lot of time. Getting my bike off the rocks and upright had taken too much out of me and I basically sat there of 10 minutes to recompose myself, all the time knowing I was loosing valuable positions for the following day.

Going over the bars for the first time

20 metres later

 

DAY 2
Up at 4:30 , my wrists and thumb strapped up, one voltaren injection a few anti cramp tabs and I was ready to start at 6:00, my starting position 97 really not so good but then again I was starting one row ahead of Andreas Lettenbichler (not so bad after all). A short time after starting Letti came past me like i was looking for a parking, he glided up a rocky section with such style it was amazing to watch, he very quickly disappeared, Bottle necks are a major issue and extremely frustrating, starting with nearly 100 bike in front of me meant quite a bit of traffic to deal with and all because of one stupid mistake the day before, not being a very fast and aggressive rider but strong on the technical stuff is a big disadvantage here, in lots of sections there is only one or two lines and if you have someone stuck in front of you then you just have to wait wasting valuable time. On some passes you could see a line of more than a kilometer of bikes inching their way up the pass, later after watching some video of how riders were basically carried pushed and pulled up some sections which I rode up unassisted you realize just how much time it had cost. This year it was exceptionally hard and the organizers just can’t seem to get it right, last year there were cutoffs imposed because of fear for riders being caught out and having to sleep the night in the mountains, and they got it right by making the cut off so early my race was over at 12:00 on the second day, the answer was they had sent a rider out to time this section, my suggestion here would be to send someone who knows how to ride a bike.. This year this was not a concern and we were sent out on a never ridden loop so the organizers had no idea how long it would take, obviously the concern of riders having to spend a night out in the mountains was no longer a concern, lots of guys ended up sleeping out there, no one actually finished the roof this year because the course had to be cut short and even the top riders were assisted up some passes and were on their bikes for over 10 hours, when they finished the day they were basically gobsmacked when reporters tried to interview them hardly able to speak. Top riders who train all year long for this event ended up dehydrated and out of the race, some injured and out of the race, and some with broken bikes and out of the race.
On a pretty technical section I stopped to make sure the local rider Shamus was OK he had fallen and hurt his back, he said to me it was around 1:30 when he fell……..it was already 4:30, we talking about a back injury here and he had been lying there for over 3 hours. Not so cool in my books. I already knew I was out of the race, now it was becoming a concern whether I would get out before dark, the rocks never stopped never a chance to relax on the bike. It just went on and on and on, what were the organizers thinking here, I rode into the fuel stop at 6:30 to see the worried faces of my brother and wife light up. That was my roof of Africa over. I was hurting everywhere especially my thumb and in a way happy it was over, later my happiness would chance once everything had set in and I realized how much of a mess-up the organizers had made
I so desperately wanted to make a better go of it this year and had I ridden the pace that I did this year in last year's event I would have easily made the last day. Last year I decided to do the roof and use it as a training and learning experience for this year’s event, this plan fell apart when they decided to make the event more difficult and change a few things and all my preparation based on last year’s event was useless.

Simply put the organization of the roof SUX, from the setting of the course to the information provided to the safety to the attitude and it seems they don’t learn from previous years mistakes, the web site was useless providing incorrect information at times and during the event for those family and friends sitting at home wondering how their loved ones are doing ZERO information. Unless there are some serious changes made that was my last roof.  Speaking to Andreas Lettenbichler after the event he said to me that he would not be back for 3 reasons, the safety and response to an injured rider was a concern, the setting of the course (he ended up going the wrong way which cost him the victory in my books) and the general organization was poor,

Sorry Andreas it is extremely embarrassing for most of us.

So if you have the odd 20 grand lying around and a fully prepared bike with a garage full of spares……………………………. Go for it………….. Till 2010...................I will be seeing you there.