life.cycle: Dirtopia Enduro

Hanco and I teamed up today for the Dirtopia Enduro held at Delvera, just outside Stellenbosch.
We checked out the trails a few weeks ago, so we sort of knew what to expect. The Enduro consisted out of 6 special stages with two shuttle opportunities between the stages.

Enduro is still very new in South Africa, and there was only about 70 riders, out of which three were female.

Riders waiting to drop into Special stage 1

Some of these riders were however a bit confused by this new concept. I was passed on the jeep track on the first liaison stage by someone asking me if I was unaware of it being a race!

A quick smile before starting the next stage

The first two stages were very short and rocky with a bunch of switchbacks, followed by a third stage that was a bit longer. Hanco missed the tagpoint after the first stage and had to reverse very quickly after he realized it. This cost him about 30 seconds of his time.

After stage three everyone regrouped at the water point and we started with the next halve of the Enduro.

Stage was four was a short, but fun section that ended in the Poplar forest. As there was opportunity to do so, some riders chose to do this stage more than once.

Hanco comes charging for the tagpoint after stage 4

Stages five and six were considerably longer than the rest and pedaling was something we ended up doing a lot. Stage six felt the longest and the most challenging after a long day's riding.

Going down stage five

We finished racing just after 13:00 and rested out a bit before prizegiving. I came in third for the ladies. Hanco was also lucky and won a prize in the lucky draw.