The Roof is without a shadow of a doubt one of our very favourite events on the Southern African race calendar. Every year, we grab bikes and head on down to the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho to catch some of the toughest people in the history of motorcycle racing take on the elements.
And it’s not only rocks, mountains, rivers and harsh terrain, but it’s the other bits that get thrown into the mix. Extreme heat – or Floods, it all depends on what mood Mother Nature is in.
This years scorching three day spectacular certainly did not disappoint – and some of the tales that riders have to tell will go down in the annals of Roof history. We will share them with you as we receive them.
Pics by: Foley Foto’s and Black Rock Studio
Spectators were treated to a veritable smorgasbord of action through all the classes, with people lining the mountains and riverbeds cheering their riders along.
Some of the old guard were caught out and some young faces put their stamp on the event. We saw Gold riders out for as much as 11 hours! That’s unheard of! And the attrition rate reconfirmed that you don’t come to the Roof for a haircut.
Here’s a run through of the weeks action. Please watch out for more as we go along…
Day 1:
Round The Houses and Time Trial:
Damn! It was great. Round the Houses is one of those “Unique To Roof” things that brings people from all walks of life to watch the action. Riders in all classes put on a show through the streets of Maseru tearing up the tar to huge cheers from the crowd who all secretly hope to see a wipeout or two. Even the Prime Minister of Lesotho Mr Sam Matakane got involved, tearing along out front in a monster side by Side.
This year saw two new classes – one for the Lesotho Promise brigade. Young kids from Lesotho opened the Roof event on bikes of all shapes and sizes and slogged it out.
That was awesome, young blood being primed for the big league.
The adventure riders on the weeknd also had a go. Some raced, others just went along to enjoy the whole vibe. Some crazy fool on a KTM1190 literally smoked the field. We thought that it was maybe a certain GP star… but it wasn’t. That guy followed later.
Wade Young smoked the gold class, despite some serious competition from guys like Travis Teasdale, Cody Webb and Brett Swanepoel. Don’t be fooled, they might be rock hoppers, but these boys can sure peddle on the road.
Silver was a repeat with a couple of more enthusiastic racers taking a slide on the tar. Even Santa Claus was spotted with a very express delivery… We are pretty sure that the goods were delivered.
The bronze class this year was Massive! They raced in three or four sections and there was some race royalty right in there. KTM’s moto GP Star Brad Binder came along to tick a box on his bucket list. After his flight from Europe after testing, he drove through the night to get to Lesotho at 6am. He crossed the border, grabbed his bike, lined up… and showed everyone a clean set of wheels as he took the chequered flag.
Not impressed yet? Well, there’s more a bit later.
Also at the Bronze start was Riempies on the South African designed and manufactured PZ490 – and he sailed merrily through the pack with an impressive finish.
Read that again. A SA designed and manufactured 490cc Two-Stroke. More on that too.
Flippen historic stuff!
While the Iron riders slogged it out, the other classes were escorted to Time Trial at the Maseru Mall, where a loop was designed and laid out, from the parking lot, up into the mountain and back down, finishing off with some cool (well for us anyway), man-made obstacles, monster pipes, logs, tyres and a huge pile of rocks. It was epic!
Some riders stared wide eyed at the obstacles… “They want me to ride over that”
And then they did and it was great to see them do it!
All through the day, riders came through, the goldies displaying skills that show why they are some of the worlds elite athletes.
Bronze riders gazed wild eyed at the pipe step-up and took to it with much advice from Blankie Man and our team.
Some of the wide-eyed Iron Riders just held on for dear life to get a starting position. It was FANTASTIC!
Did our GP star get up and across? Well, he seems to be one of those annoying people who can ride anything – and he flippen aced it.
The PZ490? Yup. That bike did not skip a beat! Just like the voortrekkers of old, it lugged up and across everything. Just a little bit faster!
The gold were given two runs, One in the morning and the second, optional in thhe afternoon. This is where the shifting started. Some riders were happy with their morning time. Others decided to give it another run and look for improvements for the next days start. Sherco’s Brett Swanepoel is the guy who benefited the most by putting in the fastest lap for the day in the afternoon session.
He went on to open day 1 of racing…
More Roof News later this week… Please scroll down for more pics from the first day.
