Endurance specialist Kevin Benkenstein cycled powerfully for a gruelling 361km to end up on the podium in the 36ONE MTB Challenge, which he described as “the hardest single-day race of my life”.
Benkenstein finished the nightlong race second behind Dutchman Ramses Bekkenk, who last year broke the race record and this year finished another one hour faster.
Ramses Bekkenk (middle) won the 36ONE MTB Challenge, with Kevin Benkenstein (right) and Willem Pretorius finishing third. Photo: 36ONE MTB Challenge
Having said before the race that he aimed to finish it in under 15 hours, Benkenstein managed to clock 14 hours 29 minutes and 39 seconds.
“It was definitely the hardest single-day event I have ever done in my life,” Benkenstein told In the Bunch. “I have never done anything harder that lasts less than 24 hours.
“Obviously multi-day events can become hard in a different way, but compared to any other road or mountain-bike event – in one day – it was definitely the most exhausting.
“To race at an average of 25km/h over that distance for more than 14 hours was a completely different experience and level of effort.
“I did not even know I was capable of doing that. It was insanely difficult in that respect.”
Benkenstein said he, Bekkenk and Dusty Day broke clear from the rest of the field about 30km in, which was when they decided to work together.
“We were all happy to roll and agreed to work together, because you would not want to exactly be on your own for 330km.
“We got a nice tempo going before I burst my tyre about at a bridge crossing the 50km mark. They even waited for me at the first checkpoint so that I was able to pump my tyre.
“We worked together really well, spoke a lot and enjoyed the race, while making sure none of the other riders caught up.”
With just 30km to go, Ramses broke away and managed to drop Benkenstein.
“Ramses said to me he would like to go a bit harder, but I did not have anything left to go harder myself. I was not able to lift the pace, so I gave him thanks for the ride and off he went.
“I just kept up my own tempo to try to make sure he did not get too much of a lead – you never knew when he might have run out of legs or had a mechanical for me to take advantage of.
“At the same time I knew there were guys behind me, so I also wanted to make sure I had a secure advantage over them.
“I just kept pushing it super hard. Then with about 14km to go I knew I had to ride at 30km/h until the end in order to break 14 and a half hours. That was a good goal for me and I managed to pull it off.”
Ramses beat Benkenstein by just over 24 minutes, with Willem Pretorius finishing third a further more than an hour behind.
