Back from the toughest Roof ever!

[edgy]

Myself,Bigdom,Throttle Jockey and Bower left at sparrows on Tuesday for Lesotho to watch the carnage once again.We decided to break the trip up into 2 days this time and overnighted at Rhodes village,which has to be one of my favorite spots! LanceSa,Snapper and 777 had a very early start from Underberg and East Londen respectively(04:30) to meet us Greyhounds at 08:30 and head for the hills!
We had a brilliant day bypassing Tiffendale,Lundeans Nek,Tele Bridge and a stunning route SGB sent me on route to Ramabanta We finally left Rhodes at 09:00 and arrived just as the sun was setting in Ramabanta!
The following few days were made up of fantastic riding,early mornings,incredible displays of ridind and many laughs! Due to my stupidity with all things electronic,LanceSa will post pics of our fun and games! :biggrin:
Was brilliant seeing familier faces and putting names to new dogs!

 

[SGB]

Nice Edgy, let those pics come.

 

[LanceSA]

Wow, what a trip. Thanks to Edgy and all the Greyhamstown Greyhounds for kindly allowing me join in.
I have always wanted to go and watch the 'roof' and just did it even though the timing was terrible for me.

I will attempt to post a pictorial record of our trip.

Rhodes accomodation

On the way up to Tiffendell

here comes the cavalry

Top of Lundean's Nek

snotty little river crossing that caught Edgy out

Road between Ramabantla and Roma - on the way to round the houses

ummm not sure what caption to put here

more in the morning. Much more

 

[edgy]

We met up with KSSST Glenink in Elliot and he joined us all the way to Rhodes for a couple of cold ones and dinner,good to meet you dude and well done for the effort on the `84 IT200! :thumleft:

 

[GlenInk (R.I.P)]

Hey Edgy

Thanks for the oppertunity to ride with you guys  :thumleft: It was great meeting all of you and I look forward to riding with you again one day!

Hopefully I`ll have something that can keep up next time!

Thanks again!

Glen

 

[LanceSA]

Round the houses

saw all these bikes fall over like a deck of cards

Local Ktm Dealer, Simon Warne, looking far more chipper than later in the day

I just love this pic - Edgy on the edge

The brains trust plotting our route for the next day, I know, I know, we should have known better....

Bushman's nek, toward the start of day 1 and these are all top regional and national riders

Washed away bridge

and then we sat at Ramabantu expecting the first riders to come through at about 11 or 12. So by 15:30 we were a bit bored.....

Chris Birch finally came in looking as cool as a cucumber

and muuuuuuuuch later Simon Warne - definitely not looking as cool.....

 

[LanceSA]

On another thread someone spoke about the little hill leading to the finish at Ramabantla and how hard it was, well here's the proof.

On day 2 we took a ride to the base of Baboons and then watched the guys come through. It was amazing to see how many non racers were determined to ride as much as the course as they could. These muppets would get in the way of the racers with regular monotony. Why this is allowed is a mystery to me.

Dom on the way up. Just for the record, we left very early and made sure we were parked far off the racing line.

Andreas Lettenbichler came through first and was styling.

 

[jw1]

nice pics  :thumleft: i'll try make a plan for next year. looked great!

 

[LanceSA]

They say that Baboons is ridden so often that it is now looking like a highway but to me this was still a very difficult climb. and remember that it goes on for miles and miles.

It was over 30 degrees so on the way back to Ramabantla we stopped and had a swim in the river.

Dassies on the rock?

Snapper doing his thing

Back at the dsp.
The Yamaha pit crew hard at work

Rory Mead at the dsp. When you consider what these guys have gone through they are amazingly focused in the pits.

CB

AL came through the dsp at Ramabantla first on the road. There was a big mess with the organisation (what's new it seems) but I can't find any mention of him in the results and don't know what happened in the last 50 km. Unfortunately it has to be said that, to me, the event was handled appallingly. There was no communication between the organisers and the many spectators so everything was rumours and speculation. There was no comms between the different marshal points so they didn't know what was going on either.
The dsp at Ramabantla ran out of food and beer  :eek7: midday on day 2. And the list just goes on and on. For an international event I thought it was very poorly run.

The brains trust at the end of day 2......

our accommodation

The view from the lawns in front of our unit

 

[LanceSA]

Some other random pics from the ride

 

[LanceSA]

All in all we had a fantastic time. It was a real 'boys weekend' with a huge amount of laughs and some great riding. I spent my longest day in the saddle ever on the way up - left home at 5 am and pulled into the hotel at 7 pm with 10 hr 41 min riding time. For those that have seen my cut down seat, that was tough. But what riding and mostly gravel.

On the way home we just slabbed it.

 

[edgy]

Have to agree regarding the organisation! After this long one would think they can at least cater for the crowds!!
Ramabanta need someone with a bit of go in them to sort out the Roof weekend! Rose is a real honey and does a brilliant job,but cannot be expected to deal with this "crazy" weekend on her own!

 

[Jman]

Very nice, looks like a real tough track that!

 

[bradleys]

Nice one guys :thumleft:

 

[SandMan]

Nice one.......just my kinda ride!

A few buds and lotsa laughs!

 

[DRAZIL]

Awesome ride out you all did. 8)
looked like some of those roads you took were part of the roof comp 
any more pic's. :thumleft:

 

[Frog]

Thanks for the report. Gives one a bit of an insight into how difficult the terrain is that has to be covered

 

[BiG DoM]

Yeah great ride guys! I really enjoyed it despite the frustrating Third World organisation. If they want an international in 2011 they must shine up the marshalling etc.

I must agree that the time has come to keep day tripper wannabee wankers on their plastics off the course on race day ... I mean where else in the world would this be allowed? Not only is it confusing for spectators to have bikes coming along with numbers on but they get in the way of the actual roof riders ... this is just plain arrogant and disrespectful. If someone eants to ride the route then go do it afterwards.

 

[LanceSA]

Awesome ride out you all did. 8)
looked like some of those roads you took were part of the roof comp 
any more pic's. :thumleft:

you asked for it....

 

[Succi]

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