Bad weather affects Amohela race
Heavy rain had fallen for most of Friday which made for very muddy and sticky conditions
A GROUP of mambas from Amanzimtoti Cycling Club entered the two-day mountain bike stage race ‘Amohela Classic’ which took place this past weekend and discovered exactly why the event has this name.
Not all survived what must have been one of the toughest MTB stage races to date. Amohela is the Sesotho word for ‘welcome’ which is exactly what the Mighty Maluti Mountain does, but maybe not in a way one expects to be welcomed.
Participants had a choice of three races as Clarens wanted to cater for all levels of riders so that everybody could come and experience something special. The majority of the mambas chose to ride Thaba E Kholo (Big Mountain Challenge) and only a couple chose Thaba E Nyenyane (Little Mountain Adventure).
Unfortunately, heavy rain had fallen for most of Friday which made for very muddy and sticky conditions and the 70km route along the well-established beautiful trails across private land and game farms was reduced to 50kms. The route may have been cut short, but the times certainly weren’t. The weather, although chilly in the early morning for the Durbanites, was lovely and sunny on the day, but the mud just stuck to the tyres, chain and cleats and made the trail very slippery. Rienie Beneke fell on three separate occasions on the slippery track and Ron Waldburger was plagued by punctured tubes and tyres. Carl Freyer, Wessel van Dyk, Rienie Beneke and Rene Tupper were not feeling well enough to complete the second stage. With the altitude also playing a part, it was a hard day in the saddle, but all mambas finished with great attitude.
Because of the slippery and muddy conditions, a number of entered riders did not compete on Sunday’s stage which was a pity, because after the hard work put into day one, day two proved to be a rewarding day on the bike. Mambas were taken along a good mix of district road and single trail which lead to the banks of Ash River before steering off into the hills behind Clarens to ride the sky trail. The views were unrivaled and incredible, as was the whole weekend.
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