Moorosi Tsiane
RIDER Wade Young of Sherco Racing from Port Shepstone in South Africa recorded a time of 14h47’28 to defend his championship and be crowned the overall winner of the annual Roof of Africa race on Saturday.
The win saw the youngster winning the race for the fourth time having first won the race in 2011 at the age of 16 making him the youngest rider to win the race.
The three-day race started with round the house formats on Thursday last week at the Maseru Mall.
A time trial was also held at Ha Raboloetsi in the Maseru district on the same day.
On Thursday, the rider who made the fastest time on the time trial was the one to kick off the race at Raboloetsi doing a loop. The race also took place at the same venue on Saturday.
Travis Teasdale (Beta) finished second with Kyle Flanagan coming third.
Young described the 2018 Motul Roof of Africa to Motul South Africa as “gruelling and super-tough” and a “really physical event”.
2018 Motul Roof Of Africa – Race Day 2 – Captured by Daniel Coetzee for www.zcmc.co.za
In Silver class, another emerging talent, Kayde Mante (RBS Yamaha) came first with veteran rider Warren Barwell (KTM) finishing second while his teammate Paul Grobler (KTM) came third.
First to cross the line in the bronze category was a debutant Matt Burger (Leader Tread Husqvarna) after Vincent Labuschagne (Enduro-Tech) was disqualified for accidentally missing a large loop of the route.
Hannes Saaijman was just under 13 minutes behind in second with Nuno Pereira (Portugal) who was the highest-placed international Bronze rider, finishing in third place.
Lesotho-Off Road Association (LORA) public relations officer Keketso Malebo said the race was success.
“I think it was successful because we had around 270 riders who participated. Also, the change of routes brought in some new elements into the race while we also had to move the round houses race from Maseru Club to Maseru Mall to try and avoid congestion in town during this race,” Malebo told the Lesotho Times.
He however lamented the poor number of Basotho riders in the race.
“We had four Basotho riders in the competition and none of them managed to make it to the podium. I think the small number of Basotho participating in the sport is attributed to the fact that the sport is expensive although we still have a notable number of riders in motor racing and quad biking,” Malebo said.
