The Roof of Africa off-road motorbike enduro – billed as “the Mother of Hard Enduro” – came to a thrilling conclusion outside Maseru, Lesotho, this weekend, as British enduro superstar Graham Jarvis toppled defending champion, South African Wade Young, in a race through the rough and rugged Maluti mountains.
After three days of riding in the extreme conditions that make the Roof of Africa one of the world’s toughest races – heat, dust and mud; challenging rocky and sandy terrain; and long, physically draining stages – in the end it was a long, technical climb and just over 20 minutes that separated Jarvis on his Factory Team Husqvarna from the rest. The British rider’s solid technical skills saw him peeling away from the pack on the final climb to become uncatchable and win in a time of 6:00:21 to Young’s 6:21:06 on the final day (Saturday, 5 December 2015).
Riding for Brother LeaderTread KTM, Young had led for a large part of the three-day race, and fought off his teammate Travis Teasdale and Proudly Bidvest Yamaha’s Brett Swanepoel for second place. Motul-backed rider Swanepoel and Teasdale meanwhile fought an epic battle of their own on the final day’s racing, racing neck-and-neck most of the day with Swanepoel finally coming in just 22 seconds ahead of Teasdale to claim third.
“He (Teasdale) was on my tail the whole time. He didn’t give me a chance to make any mistakes, but I finally saw a tiny gap and just took it,” an exhausted Swanepoel said after the finish. Both riders said the final climb had left zero margin for line errors, pushing them to balance caution and speed against sheer exhaustion in the final section of the day.
“There were a lot of hard rocks out there,” said winner Jarvis. “I stayed with the group initially, let them navigate, because I knew from last year’s experience that I had to relax and save some energy for those last hill climbs.”
Steven Lurie of the race’s official lubricant partner Motul said this year’s shorter but much more technical route, with steep ascents and descents requiring skillful close control handling of the bikes, had been the main reason for Jarvis’s win by such a wide margin. “The course added a lot of value to the race. The Roof is counted as an extreme enduro so the guys want to get out there and tackle lots of technical stuff and finish fast, not just rack up a huge amount of hours in the saddle,” Lurie said.
Lurie applauded the outsanding performance by Motul-backed riders – in addition to Swanepoel’s podium finish, the other highlight was a fifth-place comeback by 10-time South African National Champion Jade Gutzeit, 2003 winner of the Roof, in a final day’s time of 7:03:24. Gutzeit’s Proudly Bidvest Yamaha teammate Kenny Gilbert, also backed by Motul, was close behind him in 7:04:55 for sixth place.
Riding his first-ever Roof, Kyle Dohne tackled the Gold Class to raise money for his friend Matthew MacDonald, recently diagnosed with leukemia, managed a respectable 10:41:54 on the final day for 45th place and a finisher’s medal.
A “standout showing”, Lurie said was 17-year-old Motul rider Natasha Rugani, who took the leap up to Silver class, after a good showing in Bronze last year. After missing the time bar by 30 minutes on day 2, she was back out on the final day and determined to finish. “She showed tremendous guts and courage and is a talented young female rider to watch, who will no doubt be back next year for her medal,” Lurie said.
On Motul’s partnership with the Roof of Africa, Lurie said: “This type of event not only tests riders to the extreme, but also their machinery. Our high quality technical products support maximum performance in extreme conditions beyond the normal and it is great to see the benefit to the riders here.”
Running since 1969, the Roof of Africa is one of the oldest motorbike races in the world. The race’s legendary toughness – with its steep and twisting gravel mountain passes, deep river crossings, and narrow, rocky donkey trails – was in evidence yet again with more than 100 of the 400 competitors not making it to the final day’s racing.
Author: Salome Clack from Maven Connection.
More Info link: http://www.roofofafrica.info/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/roofofafrica
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/roofofafrica
Images: For high res version/s of One image/s please contact Maven Connection.
Celebrating after a tough three-day battle in the Roof of Africa in Lesotho, Graham Jarvis of the UK, centre, with Wade Young (2nd) and Brett Swanepoel (3rd). Photo: The Green Room
YouTube:
www.redbull.com/za/en/motorsports/offroad/…/hard-enduro-videos
CLICK HERE to submit your press release to MyPR.co.za.
Have a look at the online visibility from 12/07/2015 to today for TOP RIDERS FIGHT IT OUT IN TIGHT FINISH TO 2015 ROOF OF AFRICA:
- Google Search Results
- Bing Search Results
- Yahoo Search Results
- DuckDuckGo Search Results
- Twitter Mentions
Track Your Press Release HERE:
Check Online Visibility
Verify where this release is currently indexed: