ENDURO: Check out what went down at the recent Hogsback Enduro

shredding at hogsback enduro

AFTER A TERRIBLE LOCKED-UP YEAR, ENDURO RACERS FINALLY GATHERED AT THE RECENT HOGSBACK ENDURO TO TEST THEIR METTLE AGAINST SOME TECHY EASTERN CAPE TRAILS.

WORDS BY Harry Millar / IMAGES BY Dominic Barnardt

Lockdown has had very little benefits to the sporting world, but take a spoon of passion (Doc Chris Fick), a spoon of experience (Rene Damseaux), one raw forest with a “steepish” gradient, a few traveling souls caught by the surprise of lockdown (Wayne and Theuns) and this creates the perfect storm called The Hogsback Enduro and an amazing network of trails for all to enjoy.

Situated almost equidistantly from the three biggest riding centres in South Africa is the small mystical town of Hogsback where the air is thin and the mist is thick. It sits at around 1100m above sea level and the views and riding take your breath away. Some say the area inspired Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings but we definitely know it was home to “Lord of the Chain Rings”, a three day Marathon MTB event of years gone by. It shall now be known as “The hardest damn race I have ever attempted” or “The best adventure to come out of 2020”.

We arrived in some light rain and the wet, rooty trails kept our egos in check. Let’s just say, the first day often had me asking myself “How long have you actually being riding? It feels like 10 days, rather than 10 years!” The rocks were covered in moss, the roots were fresh and perfectly hidden under 2mm of fresh black loam that had turned to snot. Have I mentioned the gradient? The hashtag “#Steepish” was bandied about on all the social media platforms. Perhaps some kind of sick inside joke? When you saw trail signage with the word “Steep-ish”, it meant steep. Really steep! But, as always, we adapted, we learned to let the bikes do their job, we relaxed our mind-set and as the trails dried out, our fear turned to absolute joy. To ride in these spectacular indigenous forests on raw trails was a mountain bikers dream! I have been very fortunate over the years, to have been able to pack my bike and travel to Europe to ride some real natural trails (at great expense). Little did I know this was here, right under my nose. It just took some committed individuals with a vision, skills and passion to make it a reality.

Practice day saw a mixed bag of “pros” and “middle of the pack plonkers” arrive. By now I could even go as far as saying I only had to “walk” a few sections (Obviously I was just track walking and scouting for creative lines!). The stoke was high in the field of 48 entrants, all feeling good with life resembling back to normal! Event shirts were donned, branded neck scarfs (aka COVID protection) in place, race boards were mounted and riders were smashing laps, with easy shuttles running all day allowing all the entrants to ride all six stages.

Trail names and features were embedded into our memories .Military Way, Lockdown 21, Snakes and Ladders, Love Drop, Home Alone, Like a Virgin (believe me once you have ridden this trail you are no longer a virgin in the enduro scene) . Life

Slippery when wet in Hogsback.

Concetration was crucial if you wanted to remain on the bike.

Full face helmets and loads of travel – living the enduro life.

was great – and then an ominous rumble was heard, the sound of thunder in the background and out of nowhere rain began to fall. Everything changed, bikes needed attention and the medics had their bags out patching scratches and bruises. The E-Bike class was decimated, the ballies spirits were broken. Silence and nervous tension mounted at race briefing as more rain was predicted overnight.

Race day arrived with light rain and the field down to 40 die-hard, rain jacket cladded gladiators. You can smell the fear. Were we going to race down those trails or were we

just going to see who can survive? These were the questions that ran through a middle of the pack racer. The young guns fresh from racing the international circuit and Dan Dobinson, our very own Cape Town Veteran Racer second place veteran of one of the hardest enduro races in the world (Trans Provence) who refuses to let the young ones get one over him, were amped to race … And race they did.

For those that do not know how the discipline “enduro” works. Enduro has a set course that consists of “liaisons”, which are non-timed sections from one race section to another, and then “special race stages”, which are timed from start to finish, much like a downhill race, but instead of only one track you race down multiple downhill trails. The boys from iTime Africa provide a super accurate, robust timing system made for this type of racing but more on that later. In some races, like this one, they even provide shuttle uplift, because as in this case, you would have had to pedal about 4000m of climbing. I can see the eyes roll back in the marathon guys heads. Let’s put this into

“WHEN YOU SAW TRAIL SIGNAGE WITH THE WORD “STEEP-ISH”, IT MEANT STEEP. REALLY STEEP!”

perspective, an average South African enduro will have 1500m to 2000m of climbing and a total distance of 30 – 40 km in distance and when all Special Race Stages are combined, the winning race time will be around 15 – 20 minutes. At Hogsback Enduro, each stage was 10-15 minutes long! The winning time for the total six stages combined was just over 53 minutes. Mister average here completed it in 1 hour 19 minutes and the last finisher 2 hours 38 minutes of racing time … Time out on the bike was about 6 - 7 hours. A very tough day!

My race tactics were based on survival and tenacity, thinking that if I can just get to the end I must surely beat somebody!? At the front, the racing was intense with Keira Duncan and Sharjah Jonsson fighting it out with only seconds separating the two young guns between stages. Dan Dobinson, Rob Frost and Matt Wilkinson were hanging in to round out the top five. The field was thinning fast, Stage Six welcomed only 21 riders into the arena and that was how the day ended … the spirit was amazing at the finish with the finishers staying to cheer the last rider home. Chris and Rene made a memory that will stay with me, and I am sure all the entrants of this adventure, forever. As they say, at the end of the day, we are only a combination of our memories.

In the end the results were tight! When I say tight I mean only 0.423 of a second separated Keira and Sharjah with Sharjah taking the win. I salute you guys. Dan Dobinson took third overall and First in Vets, and wait for it - 14 year old Jenna Byrenes won the Ladies, and came a very respectable 18th overall.

Why do I do this I hear you ask from under your mask? Well it’s just really a great excuse to go to some different destinations, and hang out with a bunch of riders that no matter how old or young, it is the fact that you showed up that counts. It matters not, how much body fat you carry, just that you want to ride your bike as fast as you can down a trail that challenges your mental strength and riding ability. It makes you feel alive and in my case, just for one second, young and invincible!

Some tricky wet stairs to navigate on your way to grab a beer!