Rough Ride

We went to Rouxville this weekend for me to clerk the Rouxville 200 off road race, stayed with the Heyn's family who were "hosting" the main part of the event activities on their farm. It is a small world when I found out that their son was a friend of my kids. Sadly he had passed away last year in September. Even in their sorrow they found place to remember what their son loved most and the organisers also dedicated the race to him. I hope that somehow the event helped them in the healing process after the loss. We will miss you Phillip but you will never be forgotten.

Inspecting the route... KLR style! We had great fun doing the shorter route, albeit at a lesser pace than the competitors.
The day before...
Race Day at 07h30... the first competitors set up pit facilities.
Documentation, the ladies sorting out the entrants.
Riders briefing... pointing out the things to remember.

First pair off...
Even the local Constabulary lent an enthuisiastic hand.
All seems to be in place, the Route Marshal and COC sharing a joke.
Race Control... before the radio fried.
Hold still for your tick! Tick marshal at work at Race Control.
Even the rain gave us a break, sunset after a pretty good day.
Trophies and the COC's drink waiting for the results to become final.
"Next year we will do it this way" doing some retrospection about the day's race. Andre, Carel myself and Francois discussing the event and some of the inccidents and feedback from the riders. As usual we could never please them all but one thing was clear... they all said it had been well marked and organised. Unfortunately we had two injuries and we wish both riders with speedy recovery.

Our hosts were amazing and we have new friends for life...

"Traveling there was really boring so I headed for the ditch. It was a rough ride but I met more interesting people there." Neil Young