Dirt and Trail July 2018 issue 2

The SA contingent. Shane
Nel, ryan Bland, Kenny G,
and Stuart Gregory.
“I kinda kept my head down and tried to
focus on the race and not the distinguished
company. My goal was to achieve a result
as a run up to one of the worlds most
prestigious events – and also to see how I
stacked up in this company.”
“It was one hell of an experience. I’d heard
that following a road book was a challenge,
so I signed up for a course with Portugals
WIM Academy earlier in the year for some
training. Let me tell you – I thought that I
had it waxed, until I found myself in a race
situation. Try cruising along at speed with
loads of terrain changes while trying to read
and navigate the road book bolted to the
tower. It’s hectic!
“The race started with a 5km time
trial pure sand dunes 100 percent sand,
everything looks the same – no markers and
you collect way points to get through. If you
skip a point, its a 15 minute penalty, so you
have to concentrate to stay on track – and
keep it safe. 20m off the line and there could
be a massive hole waiting for you. And you
are trying to go as fast as you can at the
same time. It was a real challenge and I
qualified 30th out of 140 bikes…”
“From there - it was race on. Day 1 was all
fast roads with fairly rocky terrain and quite a
few sand dunes thrown into the mix. A really
cool mixup – I was in my happy place. Things
started great and I was soon catching and
overtaking. Dust is a challenge, but you work
around that – all following way points. I made
a mistake following riders and not following
the road book… 3 times. Damn, that cost
a lot of time. I ended up 25th for the day –
probably 270km’s of racing. I reckon that this
was purely due to inexperience, watch this
space.”
“Day 2, more of the same, I really
struggled with the way points. Racing and
following is totally different to riding socially. I
ended up getting quite mad at myself. Ended
the day in 22nd position. Still not totally
happy with all of the mistakes – but that what
I entered for.”
36 DIRT & TRAIL MAGAZINE JULY 2018
Stuart Gregory, Shane Nel and
Kenny heading out on day 1.