Moorosi Tsiane
THE 51st edition of the annual Motul Roof of Africa race scheduled for 5 to 8 December will this year unveil new courses for both the round the houses and the main event.
According to the Lesotho Off-Road Association (LORA) president, Tubatsi Kuoe, this year’s round the houses challenge will take place at the Maseru Mall campus.
“The race has been taking place for a long time now and we are trying to come up with measures that will continue to make it challenging and more enjoyable to the riders,” Kuoe said.
“So, this year Maseru Mall management approached us and proposed that we host the round the houses event at their premises and we have been given the space for use for the next five years.”
Kuoe said the new development will also help them avoid congestion in Maseru as they will no longer have to close roads for at least half a day as has been the case in previous years.
“The race will be moved to a new spectator and traffic friendly venue which will not interfere with the traffic to avoid the jam that has always been experienced whenever we held the race.”
He further said they also have new routes for the main event which would however, only be announced later to ensure that all participants get the route at the same time to avoid giving others an unfair competitive advantage.
“This race is all about extremes and that is what we are always aiming to give to our riders every year. In that regard, this year is not going to be different as we have already identified a new route for the racers but we will not announce the routes to ensure locals do not get an unfair advantage,” he said.
Kuoe said so far, they have at least 250 riders who have confirmed their participation. He however, said most of the European regulars of the race would not participate this year.
“We have over 250 riders who have so far confirmed and I believe more are still going to register. The only challenge is that top riders from Europe will not be competing in this race this year. This is because most of the riders were sponsored by KTN and Hursqavana who manufacture bikes and this year the two companies have their own race in Europe which was launched this year.”
“But we still have top riders from South Africa who include Wade Young who won the race in 2012 setting the record as the youngest winner of the three-day race at 16,” Kuoe said.
