Roof of Africa is upon us

Some time ago I started a thread on the Roof Of Africa Extreme enduro.
The race is on next weekend.
It is high summer here in South Africa but we are experiencing a totally of of season cold snap. To the extend that there was snowfalls in the Lesotho mountains this week.
The weather report does say that it will warm up from Sunday but that means that all the rivers are going to be flooded.

This is going to be one interesting race, 3 days of mud, sweat and tears.

Hi Bud---Looks like this years Roof Of Africa is going to have all the seasons in one day

Going to watch Chris Birch and Riaan van Niekerk training on Sunday up here in the Transvaal--They are also going to be giving a few pointers to some riders----Just hope this unseasonal rain will go away.

BABOONS LESOTHO SUN ROOF OF AFRICA - 26 to 28 November 2009

Release 10

Nerves, excitement and making sure everything is in place, pretty much describes what the main contenders are going through with only four days remaining before the start of the 2009 Baboons Lesotho Sun Roof of Africa. The gloom seems to have lifted slightly and the rains and wet conditions of the past week moved off. At the moment Maseru Airport forecasts scattered clouds with a maximum temperature of 26 degrees for Thursday, whilst Friday and Saturday are clear with a high of 27 degrees Celsius; making for excellent racing conditions.

Andreas Lettenbichler from Germany and the Austrian Rudi Poschl competing on G 450 X BMW’s arrived in South Africa yesterday, together with the European riders brought with by Baboons. In order to familiarize themselves with the conditions and terrain, they headed off to Roma for a riding session in the area. They will join up with their local teammate Jade Gutzeit who will be able to give some excellent advice based on many years of experience and the fact that he finished second in last year’s event. Sadly the big man, Gray Dick, had to withdraw from the BMW team due to a long needed back operation.

Adrian Bac, Yamaha Public Relations Officer, says they are really excited about this year’s Roof. “Both Rory Mead from New Zealand, who finished sixth in this year’s Ertzberg Rodeo, two places ahead of Chris Birch, and Kyle Redmond from the USA, who finished 10th at the same event, will be riding under the banner of Shimwells Yamaha this year”.

He continued explaining: “Mead will be on a Yamaha YZ 250 (2T) whilst Redmond will be on a YZ 250 F. Both have got vehicle sponsorship from Midrand Land Rover. They are joined by former Roof winner, Louwrens Mahoney and his local Yamaha teammate Kenny Gilbert (better known as Kenny G in the fraternity) both racing on the same machines as Mead”.

Bac’s excitement does however not stop there, he continues: “Yamaha will also be offering free support to all Yamaha riders from their pits based at Maseru Sun. This support will include bike cleaning, lube and air filter service, repairs, adjustments and suspension assistance via Hilton Hayward of Hayward Suspension”.

“We at Yamaha are certainly looking forward to this year’s event and, with a bit of luck, will pepper a traditionally orange top 20 positions with some good doses of blue!” he concluded.

The media coverage for this year’s event takes a step forward with a live race ticker report running on the www.roof-of-africa.com website. The hosts and promoters of the race, Baboons (GmbH) incorporated the Roof in their www.baboons.de off road portal. At the same time at least one checkpoint will be monitored on Thursday and two on Friday and Saturday, reporting the times that competitors pass through. Daily news reports will be distributed to the international electronic and print media. The Roof will have the best television coverage in many years with daily updates on M-Net Supersport, whilst Christo Meyer, specialist off-road, and enduro photographer will be out on the route collecting the impressive images he became well known for.

Every aspect of the Roof of Africa is building up and preparing itself for the start of the WXEC (World Extreme Enduro Championship) race season in 2011.

Hi there Blazes, apparently it was a great training day hosted by two of the best riders out there.
As far as the weather is concerned..................who knows............for now it seems to have cleared. the rest of the week doesnt look to bad either. (www.weathersa.co.za)
Lets hope its not like 2 years ago when the heavens opened.

Hi Bud,
Was a awesome training day--what some of those guys have forgotten about riding---i still need to learn.

Saw a Danish rider at a friend of mines KTM shop this morning. Was just putting on tyres to his spare wheels.
Looks like it is going to be one of the Toughest and best Roofs ever.

Most of the spectators are off tomorrow already.

Just watched the video of the Kiwi (Birch) win,,, that is really an epic "Enduro"!!! Great stuff,, keep us posted!!

Racing starts today.
Traditional "round the houses" to sort out where you start and then the time trial.

The race ticker is now active with updates from each day's racing as it happens (... sort of)

Check out the Roof Home Page:
Go look at http://www.roof-of-africa.com/

There was and still is huge uproar about how tough the race was. some competitors ended sleeping in the mountains as darkness left them "high" and dry. (pardon the pun) Lights on enduro bikes is not a must have and it adds to the weight so it gets removed.
The results where.
Birch saves the best for last!

Baboons Lesotho Sun ROOF OF AFRICA - 26 to 28 November 2009

Race Release 3 – Saturday 2 November 2009

After yesterday’s soul destroying 10-hour session of extreme enduro riding, today followed suit seeing the front running competitors having another almost ten-hour day on a shortened route starting at 06:00 this morning, with the first man home at 15:40. “This is by far the toughest race I have ever done,” commented New Zealand’s Rory Mead, who finished second overall in his maiden race on a 250cc Yamaha, behind his countrymen and defending champion Chris Birch.

Birch, riding a 300cc KTM, almost had drama this morning. He was the first rider on the route; at a T-junction he went the wrong way. To rectify the problem, once he realised he was in the wrong, he drove out of the stage, returned to the start at Roma and re-started the race after discussing the problem with the organizers. He then took off like a man possessed, and managed to outride the entire field on corrected time, making it a New Zealand one-two for the 2009 Baboons Lesotho Sun Roof of Africa. Having won the race by 45 minutes last year, Birch returned with the knowledge that he was under pressure to defend his title, but was confident that he was well prepared to do so. However, he managed to outride second placed Mead by a massive 2 hours and 14 minutes, placing him way up in a class of his own in the 43 year old history of the Roof of Africa.

Andreas Lettenbichler (Germany) rode exceptionally well and left many people in awe with his astounding skill and the way he mastered mountain passes where others really struggled. He had serious drama and was very disappointed in his maiden event, when he was forced to stop in the last 25 km as a result of technical problem, whilst leading the race on the road, ahead of his team-mate Jade Gutzeit (South Africa), who ended up in third place overall on corrected time with the big G450X BMW only 12 seconds behind Mead. .

Today’s stage was also shortened by the organizers after the finish of yesterday’s stage had to be moved from Roma to Ramabanta, excluding the final 55 km, the organizers issued a notice last night implementing the new arrangement.

Indicating just how exceptionally difficult the race really was, only 23 competitors of the 102 starters, doing the full event, finished the race, with a number of riders spending Friday night out in the mountains, accommodated by the local communities in their villages. “These people are fantastic. They gave us food, place to sleep, and really took care of us, although we really struggled to communicate, but I quite enjoyed it out there,” said one of the competitors when he arrived back at Ramabanta this morning.

Only 4 riders made it to the finish in the Seniors, Masters and Silver Classes of the 117 competitors who entered to race 75% of the route.



Chris Birch commented after the finish: “It was really tough, I am not as tired as yesterday, but I worked hard today. All I could do when I re-started was to focus and ride my absolute best, but I am very happy to take the trophy home this year.”

Comments of the day’s progress:

05:55 - Not a cloud in site, a clear day with a slight breeze blowing in Lesotho. AccuWeather forecasts a maximum 34 degrees Celsius. Many of those lined up to start today's stage, are in agony after yesterday’s marathon stage.

08:44 - Chris Birch returned to the start because he landed on the wrong route, he was just restarted

08:50 - Andreas Lettenbichler (Germany) just left Ramabanta into Baboons Pass ahead of Jade Gutzeit (South Africa), and Rory Mead (New Zealand)

13:05 - Lettenbichler has just left Ramabanta on the final 52 km section to the finish at Roma trading Post, ahead of Jade Gutzeit who rides shotgun on the second BMW. they are followed by Rory Mead, Kenny Gilbert, and Darryl Curtis.

13:57 - 21 competitors have left Ramabanta on the final stage to Roma

14:52 - Jade Gutzeit was the first motorcycle to cross the road at Two-Bridges, followed by Rory Mead

15:44 - Jade Gutzeit on a G450X BMW was the first motorcycle home, ahead of New Zealand rider Rory Mead on 250cc Yamaha

16:20 - On corrected times the official winners of the 2009 Roof of Africa are:
1. Chris Birch (New Zealand) on a KTM
2. Rory Mead (New Zealand) on a Yamaha
3. Jade Gutzeit (South Africa) on a BMW

The boy can ride ............... when I grow up I wanna ride like that.

If my plans fall into place..............I will race this one next year.

The toughest enduro race in the world.

Johnny, I know the Kato & Yami run teams that over seas riders can rent bikes to ride in the Roof, is Husky big enough over there to do that as well?

Bummer about Grey Dick.

Any Huskys finish?

Not a chance.
There is one importer and they have basically killed the Husky brand although they advocate differently.
A lot of people stay away from Husky because of them. Personally I have no issues with them but then I do all the work on my bike myself.

Gray has been battling with his BMW all season and his back was acting up. He has now gone in to hospital to get the back op done in order for him to be ready for next season.

I did not even see any Huskies in the entry list.............I might be wrong but..................hell, I would love to see the results if Husky Factory or another big name Husky team gets involved in the racing scene here in SA.

One thing us Husky supporters can hope for is that wit the Roof forming the 5th leg of the international extreme enduro series next year Husky HQ will get involved to ensure better representation.
I do realize that the South African market is but a 1/2 a drop in the ocean compared to the European and US market but the sport is here and growing so i hope we get some factory backing or at least one factory backed team.

Plus one--Time to get BMW involved------

I wonder how long it is going to take BMW to realize what is happening to their new range on this side of the big pond.
Would love to be able to walk into a dealership in any of the bigger towns/cities and purchase spares off the shelf without feeling that I am being raped.

Well i hope they catch a wake up soon. Fortunately i bought my bike--because of the love for the bike---and not the dealer. Sad when thousands of riders world wide on forums can form a database of the most common problems with certain bikes--and the stealers tell you----NEVER heard of that before