New Zealand’s Chris Birch returned to the mountains of Lesotho in style by winning the Roof of Africa enduro again before setting off on a safari holiday in neighbouring South Africa. We interrupted his packing.
The Roof of Africa is also called the "Mother of hard enduro", does it deserve the name?
Oh yes. It's really tough going. The hardest part is that it never really lets up. It was about 34 degrees, on a hot bike and with hardly any wind. Once you get up in the mountains, there's hardly any tree cover.
We were up in the highlands the whole time, it was rocks and rocks and rocks and nowhere really to get the speed up and get the air going to cool yourself down. You were in first, second or third gear for hours at a time and crawling along little goat paths. It was really hard work.
But it did go pretty well. A few hiccups along the way but I can't really complain.
They adjusted the course during the race. Did that help you at all?
They had to. I think what they wanted to do originally was unachievable. On the first day they cut about the last 50km from the race but even then only seven of us made it back! If we'd done the whole race none of us would have made it back in the light.
They cut us down on the last day but it was still nine hours. They were really long days [only four riders reached the finish line].
But it has to take you to some pretty amazing places? What were the mountains like?
The places we go on the race are completely unbelievable. On one part there was this really steep mountain that took about three-quarters of an hour just to get down and at the bottom was a waterfall and a river. The water was absolutely crystal clear so I just set the bike on its side and dove in to try and cool myself down. That would be a stunning place to go back and explore when you've got a bit of time, but even during a race you've got to stop and enjoy it.
Did being the defending champion give you an edge?
It did but it was a bit of two-edged sword: I kind of knew what I was up against but there was more pressure on me. Last year it was pretty nice because no one had a clue who I was or where I was coming from whereas this year everyone knew me. Besides, there was only really one or two passes that were the same so it wasn't as if I knew where I was going.
You trained extra hard for this one. Why was that?
I was really disappointed by how I did in Erzberg. I wasn't anywhere as prepared as I needed to be and I blew the chance of a really good finish. But it gave me the kick up the arse I needed to go out and get a lot fitter. So I've been working a hell of a lot harder than I have in the past. My training focused on trying to get my intermediate recovery time down.
I've always had high levels of endurance but it always takes me a long time to come right again. So I've been trying to work on that so that when I get to the top of a hill I can keep pushing, rather than getting to the top of a hill and wheezing for the next kilometre or so!
What did your training involve?
A lot interval training and weird stuff like carrying boxing bags up and down stairs! And I've been working with a really good trainer so it's been really handy having someone push way harder than you would push yourself. So when you reach the point of exhaustion you've got someone there screaming at you to do more.
It really paid off, though. Was it worth it?
Definitely. This win was a real high for me, and so was Red Bull Romaniacs: I was pretty stoked with second place in Romaniacs. These two results are on a par really.
So you tuned yourself up, what did you need to do to your KTM?
Because the average speed of the race is so slow the set up of the suspension is really really soft so it'll go over the little rocks and stones rather than sort out the really big hits like you would on a motocross bike. We run a lot of engine protection so when you're smashing through the rocks you don't knock too many bits off the bike. Just lots of little things like that that gets the bike through.
As well as a rider, you're a mechanical engineer. Does that come in handy?
It gives you a bit of understanding of what's going on but we had a really good pit crew and support this year so I hardly needed to touch the bike at all.
But most of the time when you're up in the mountains, you're nowhere near your pit crew, so you have to be pretty resourceful. If something goes wrong you have to sort it out for yourself. This year, though, the bike didn't miss a beat and I was lucky I didn't smash it up too bad.
So you've ended 2009 on a high. What are you up to next?
Racing wise it's pretty quiet until January where we've got The Tough One in Wales and Hell's Gate in Italy. They're two really tough rides and they're within two weeks of each other.
But next for me right now is Kruger Park. I didn't get a chance to see any of it last year so his time I'm really looking forward to it and spending some time with my wife Monica. I've got a bit of a thing for giraffes for some reason so I'd really like to see some in the wild.
See the Roof of Africa gallery or visit Chris Birch's official website.
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