Sani Pass Transfrontier Mountain Bike Epic

[Borriz]

you'll be surprised how little any green stuff appears in Lesotho. It is brown - as in rock brown in Lesotho. Its not called mountain country for nothing. :-)

 

Oh - other word of warning. The locals ride horses and wear blankets. They virtually melt into the scenery. The next thing you'll see is someone next to you on horse back, appearing from absolutely nowhere. And they don't understand a word of english or afrikaans.

 

Man! Whoever is doing this enjoy. It is an awesome magnificent brilliant experience!

[Thug]

Wow, what a thoroughly awesome event and one which I recommend.

 

 

 

Organised by the Drak Mountain Bike club, there are no sponsors, so if goodie bags and medals are what interests you, stay away.

 

 

 

This is one tough ride even in dry conditions, but the rain of the previous 2 days turned a lot of the first 7/8k's of the district road into a mudbath. A number of entrants decided that the mud was too much and turned around early on. The guy whose job it was to record those successful riders who made it to the top of the pass even got stuck in his Land Rover and had to be towed out.

 

 

 

Eventually after all the chain-suck and grinding gears we made it past the SA Border post and the conditions eased quite a bit and the higher one climbed the steeper the gradient became. The last couple of kilometres to the Lesotho border post are extremely rocky and unless you pick your line very carefully, you'd come to a grinding halt (that's if you weren't walking already).

 

 

 

We started out in overcast conditions, climbed through the clouds and by the time we reached the Lesotho Border, the sun was baking down and turning those exposed pieces of flesh, red.

 

 

 

Fortunately, the sun managed to bake a lot of the mud, so by the time we got to those last 7/8k's, the riding was a lot easier.

 

 

 

Well done to Jules and JMaccelari for taking 3rd & 5th respectively.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dibles]

 Congrats on your 7th place Thug. Not bad for an ou toppie

[Thug]

Thanks Mandibles.

 

 

 

I made the mistake of running a rigid fork thinking that I'd save a fortune of time on the climb. In retrospect it was a mistake because I lost around 10/12 minutes on the descent.

[Zaskar]

Does anyone have any idea if this race is happening this year? I cant find any details on the website or the ROAG site for a 2010 event?

[zappa]

Hey Guys.Sani Pass Transfrontier Challenge is on the 4th December this year. ROAG will be doing the entries. Information will shortly be available on www.sanispoors.co. I will let you know when the Transfrontier page has been linked to my website. Jimlit (fellow hubber) is race organiser and I'll be helping as well. So, any queries let me know.