54 AMB
KILIMANJAROAnka, Katie and the men’s team of Grant
Burden and Steve Cunliffe who were to become
colloquially known as ‘the tourists’ stopped to
soak up the environment as we rode on with
the mixed pair of Hungarians Nora Nemeth and
Tamas Polauf. Tamas had entered the race for
his wife and racing partner as a birthday present
and he had announced on day 1 it was Nora who
was the mountain biker, not him. On day 4 their
deft completion of the technical Bomba Traverse
showed they were both very much mountain
bikers.
From here it was hard to know where we should
look - trail markings, avoid the acacia prickles or
other obstacles in front of us or animal spotting.
Never in my life did I expect to be riding amongst
zebra, giraffe or antelope of all shapes and sizes.
Throughout the race the trails we were
following was a disparate collection of
singletrack, double track, roads and uncharted
territory. We were issued with GPS files to use for
navigation but we found that the course markings
were more than enough to get us through. The
event team worked hard to maintain these
markings as it seems the Maasai had taken a
shine to the ribbons they used and regulations
meant the only alternative was dropping white,
lime powder.
The First feed zone of stage 2 won top prize for
K2N (as voted by Nola and I). The guy in charge
had us trying everything from avocado to Pringles
and wins the prize for most enthusiastic of all
the stops. With smiles on our faces we pushed
on enjoying passing more animals and Maasai
villages where the sounds of happy children’s
carefree playing rang out along the flat, solid
road before turning left into a dry riverbed which
had been broken up by safari Landrovers, the
sand making going harder, best solved by finding
motorbike tracks on which to ride.
My insight to racing at the pointy end came
from a mid race photo Trevor took of giraffes. It
seems with them both well off the front during the
stage Tinker called a neutral stop so they could
both enjoy the herd of giraffes they were riding
through. While K2N is a race there is something
about its amazing backdrop that means even the
fastest can’t help but stop in wonder.
Our next camp was hosted by a Maasai village.
In the afternoon, the head of the village invited us
into his village to meet his family and get a small
sense of the life they lead.
RACING WITH YOUR EYES
WIDE OPEN
The 75kms of day 3 started with 1.5km of
sealed road. It was then onto 27km of fairly
rutted road. Jumping off, there were often much
smoother paths running beside the road just so
long as you avoided the acacia prickles. The road
ended in a steady climb to the top of a hill which
was rewarded by the sweetest ever singletrack
descent which we rode like there was a hospital
around the corner. Amazing to think it is a
naturally occuring track in the middle of nowhere
as it rides like a highly groomed, tailored trail.
One of Brett’s favourite comments was the person to
win the race might well be the person with the most
sealant in their tyres. Tanzania grows some seriously
aggressive thorns. They took their toll on Trevor where
the tussle between him and Tinker had been fierce until
a puncture 10kms from the end took him out of the game
and he rolled over the line 10mins later. The standings
from day 1 remained unchanged, as they would through
to the completion of the race.