If the Trans Baviaans 24-hour Mountain Bike Marathon is the toughest single stage mountain bike event in the world, as the race website claims, then the Mcleans must surely be one of the toughest families in Grahamstown.
If the Trans Baviaans 24-hour Mountain Bike Marathon is the toughest single stage mountain bike event in the world, as the race website claims, then the Mcleans must surely be one of the toughest families in Grahamstown.
The Mclean Cycling Team (brothers Andre and Pierre Mclean) and Just4Kicks (Brian Colloty, Mattheus Louw and Trevor Amos), also from Grahamstown, joined 398 other teams taking part in the extreme event last weekend.
Saturday 17 August saw the start of the race in Willowmore. Taking cyclists along a farm road through Poortjies to link up with the Baviaanskloof turn-off, the route then ascends over a distance of about 26km to the top of the spectacular Nuwekloofpas.
For the next 80km the route drops down into the Baviaanskloof, passing through a number of farms including Rietrivier and the Baviaanskloof Police Station at Studtis, after which it enters the Baviaanskloof wilderness area under the control of Eastern Cape Parks Board.
This long descent ends at Geelhoutbos a distance of about 110km from Willowmore. From here the route becomes more difficult to negotiate, reaching a high point at Bergplaas, 147km from Willowmore, before dropping suddenly into the Cambria Valley past some citrus farms and the Komdomo campsite on the banks of the Groot River at the 175km mark.
From Komdomo the route follows the road to Patensie, but before reaching it turns off to Humansdorp on an undulating gravel road to cross the Humansdorp-Patensie tar road at the 210km mark.
A farm road to Jeffreys Bay takes cyclists to the finish at the Fountains Mall in Jeffreys Bay, 230km from Willowmore. The total accumulated climbing for this route is 2 540m.
Just4Kicks finished in 15 hours 52 minutes 56 seconds, while Team MCT, sponsored by Pick n Pay, finished in 18:27:48.
