Organisers have gone to great lengths to ensure that every kilometre of challenging trail at the Bestmed Paarl MTB Classic is equally balanced with great reward.
Race director Darren Herbst said both the 60km and 30km courses, which had been “completely revamped”, would be a memorable experience for competitors.
“We’re fortunate to have the mountain and so many great trails,” said Herbst, who added that a number of new trails had been created specifically for the 30km route.
“The long route is hard so to make the shorter race more manageable for less experienced riders we’ve excluded many of the climbs that featured in the 60km.”
Organisers ASG Events, in conjunction with the City of Drakenstein, have gone to great lengths to ensure the third Bestmed Paarl MTB Classic ticks all the boxes. Photo: Warren Elsom/Capcha Photography
The level of climbing included in the longer race was not suited to the more social riders and Herbst said organisers had introduced some changes to accommodate everyone.
To this end, he said, they had included a number of “attractive features” to ensure a memorable experience in the third Bestmed Paarl MTB Classic, presented by the City of Drakenskein in partnership with ASG Events.
“We had to chop and change the routes that we’ve got and created a number of new trails.
“We also had extensive discussions with landowners to gain access to properties that are normally never ridden.”
Herbst said he felt they had achieved a good balance on the short route, but cautioned it was anything but easy.
“However, for every bit of suffering we put them through, we’ve made sure to balance it out with rewards.”
He said they had gone to great lengths to make every aspect of the event at Rhebokskloof Wine Estate spectacular come race day on May 20.
Another notable change that would elevate the riders’ experience was a higher proportion of waterpoints on both routes compared to other races, he said.
“We’ve decided to place additional stations along the routes – the 60km will have five and the 30km three.”
This decision was made, he said, due to the challenging nature of the courses and unseasonably high temperatures in the Boland region.
Herbst added that participants would for the first time access the property on which Blacksmith’s Kitchen was situated.
“This is a popular restaurant here and I’m very excited about that as it’s a piece of land riders won’t have experienced before.”
