That's a wrap for the 2019 Motul Roof of Africa with Wade Young taking the number one spot all three days.
Day 1 Recap :
Coming into the finals for the EnduroX event next to the Lesotho mall was a fully stacked gate with some of the top riders : Graham Jarvis, Wade Young, Scott Bouverie, Will Slater, Matthew Green, Brett Swanepoel, Luke Walker and Chris Brich.
As soon as the gate dropped Wade Young grabbed the lead and never looked back. This giving him a clean win on the first day of the Roof of Africa.
While all of the gold riders where in the city banging bars, the silver and bronze riders went out to Thaba Bosiu for their time trial. Austin Stuart set the fastest time in the Bronze class with 52'36". Dwayne Barnard set the fastest qualifying time with 48'56".
Day 2 Recap :
The first day of hard enduro racing to test the riders true skills and their relationship with their bikes. Young blood Wade Young has his eyes locked on winning day 1 in the mountains and this is exactly what he has done. After a long and hard day with 7h18'23" in the seat for Wade Young took the checkered flag together with a 23 minute lead over Graham Jarvis in fourth and a 21 minute lead over Scott Bouverie in second place.
In the silver class young gun Ryan Pelser fought hard to take the win showing he is capable of taking the victory in the silver class this year. With 6h31'46" in the saddle and only a one second lead over Dwayne Barnard.
The Final day in the mountains :
For the gold class things were no different the the day before. Wade Young raced to the finish to secure his 5th Roof of Africa win and his 3rd Roof win in a row breaking the tie between himself and Graham Jarvis who came into this year's Roof of Africa with both having four wins. Wade Young has now set course to grab the title from legend Alfie Cox with 9 Roof of Africa wins in his title.
Although Wade took the win overall the last day in the mountains did not go to Wade but instead to Graham Jarvis being 3 minutes faster than Wade Young and only 22 seconds faster than Scott Bouverie who took second place on day 2 and overall. Graham Jarvis finished the Roof in fourth with 2 seconds behind Kyle Flanagan who took the number 3 spot overall.
Silver, well now that was racing! Young silver bullet Ryan Pelser going into the last day with only a one second lead kept his head down and gave it his all. As soon as young Pelser broke away from Dwayne he extended his lead with 8 minutes half way into the race. After 5h05'39" in the saddle Ryan Pelser took the win on the last day in the mountains and an overall win for the 2019 Roof Of Africa. Dwayne Barnard in second place and Brucy May rounding off the silver podium for 2019.
Austin Stewart had a clean first ever Roof of Africa winning all three days and grabbing his first ever Roof of Africa bronze victory. Austin ended his Roof with a 35 minute lead.
For 2020 the Roof might be moved a week or two earlier with the hopes to see more of the international riders joining Graham to come and battle the top South African riders and to take the win at next year's Roof of Africa.
Remember the words of Charan Moore, organizer of the Roof, from now on for the vision for the future of the Roof of Africa