Latest installment from my brother Igor's South African National Off-road campaign:
Did a little off-road race in the ice capped peaks of Lesotho this past weekend...awesome ride. We were told that the pits were blanketed in snow on Tuesday, and well conditions had hardly changed by time we did the time trial on Fri, no snow but I did see an eskimo.
Come Sat morn, and it was bitter to say the least, some said -6. Anyway, we donned double layers and an enduro jacket and headed into the mountains and things went rather well in the beginning. Early on the sun was at a very acute angle into our faces which made for real difficultly in reading of markers, but I fortunately had a G.P.S. to refer to which helped ALOT!. (couldn't get it to work the day before so had a bit of luck there) Could see a lot of riders wrong-slotting and overshooting early on, and left a lot of them behind purely because I could navigate better.
Then I hit the first big climb...crap!! 30 degree angle, in shadow, loose rocks slick with frost on top of black ice. Manage to work the 450 up to a point, lost momentum on the frozen cobble stone surface, come to a halt and slide back down and fall. Shit ! Neva fallen like this in an off- road race. Pick the bike up, all to the amusement of the half dozen or so locals that were watching the action and try to pull off again, make about 30cm of ground, slid back and fall ova again...crap! Up again, push bike up to a point with more traction and on we go...
Shit very tired now. get to within a stones throw away from the second DSP and have to come down over big rocks, turn and go over a frozen stream....aaaahh crap!, down again, this is NOT off-road !!
Get to Nic at DSP gasping for air...cracked on and made it to half way. Got more fuel and food and was desperately trying to cope with the fear of the ice climb coming up, thought that if I battled so much on the first lap( and I was probably only the 8th or 10th rider to go through there on the first lap) it was going to be utter bedlam by the time I got there again, but knew I could rely on my second wind to get me through.
But alas, most made it up ok, I was just making a meal of it for some reason (probably giving the big 4 stroke to much gas). Rolled straight into it for the second time and hung up half way, fortunately had cash ( in the form of coins duct-taped to the back of my front fork) which I invested in some of the local man power who pushed me up to the same traction rich point as before and on I went, knackered, but knew my second wind was imminent.
All the dozen or so frozen streams we crossed in the morning were still solid by the time we got there later in the day but you learn how to cope with them pretty quickly so no more trouble there. took the rest of the lap slow and steady waiting for that second wind, got to the finish exhausted but relieved and satisfied....aaaah the second wind arrived, pity it came out my arse!
Get to Nic at DSP gasping for air...cracked on and made it to half way. Got more fuel and food and was desperately trying to cope with the fear of the ice climb coming up, thought that if I battled so much on the first lap( and I was probably only the 8th or 10th rider to go through there on the first lap) it was going to be utter bedlam by the time I got there again, but knew I could rely on my second wind to get me through.
But alas, most made it up ok, I was just making a meal of it for some reason (probably giving the big 4 stroke to much gas). Rolled straight into it for the second time and hung up half way, fortunately had cash ( in the form of coins duct-taped to the back of my front fork) which I invested in some of the local man power who pushed me up to the same traction rich point as before and on I went, knackered, but knew my second wind was imminent.
All the dozen or so frozen streams we crossed in the morning were still solid by the time we got there later in the day but you learn how to cope with them pretty quickly so no more trouble there. took the rest of the lap slow and steady waiting for that second wind, got to the finish exhausted but relieved and satisfied....aaaah the second wind arrived, pity it came out my arse!
Definitely one of the more technical off-road races in the calendar, more like an enduro with an average speed of around 30 kph whereas normally we would be doing around 65 kph, but a wicked ride nonetheless, result 10th in senior class.Thanks to Nic for all the support and banter...
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