“There used to be this really awesome place that my girlfriend and I used to ride, that no one knew about…” That was the suggestion I got when I asked my girlfriend Jo for a nice idea on how to start this article. But seriously, I would like to tell you about The Klipberg Enduro and why I think you should do it.
McGregor is a quaint old village at the end of a Worcester-Robertson Karoo road to nowhere. It nestles against the northern slopes of the Riviersonderend Mountains, which feed it, in wetter times, with a steady stream of clear water for farming, drinking, gardening and swimming.
Jo and I like it so much we just bought a house there, like, this week. The same week that I bought my ticket to ride Klipberg Enduro, from my good friends the organisers. So, I am fully invested in this thing.
We were sold on McGregor during many quiet morning coffees on a stoep after my “in-laws” moved there a few years back. The stoep overlooks a rose garden, a little dorp and layer upon layer of blue Cape fold mountains. After coffee, we usually jump on our bikes and explore endless unmarked tracks together.
Ramping our bikes over cobras (true story), exploring Die Galgeberg in the snow, checking out “Stephan’s trails” over in the neighbouring valley, racing the footpaths around the village, we have found many treats, but there is this one place.
It is a small uninhabited valley, blocked by a large dam on one end and just barely prised open on the upstream end by a narrow poort. It really felt like our riding secret. A fun, rutted jeep track runs through the valley, but a veritable playground of narrow, technical paths runs off into the Karoo scrub.
The paths are perforated by gigantic aardvark holes. Loose rocks. Firmer slabs. Razor sharp shapes. Ledges. Drops. And then, in one place, the scariest, most difficult thing I have ever “ridden”.
Jo and I were timidly piecing all of this together over the months, eyeing out that … thing, until one day some friends had a bachelor’s at a nearby guesthouse. They took their bikes, of course, and found and rode pretty much all “our” trails. They came back with a photographer and 63 Instagram accounts and they managed to successfully ride the … that thing, which they named “Dingleberrys”. Then they named all the other tracks and dubbed the whole lot “Klipberg”, after the dam at the bottom of the valley.
Two weeks back, I went out there for a preview of their planned enduro route, and my cynicism (at “our secret” being exposed) evaporated. Let’s roll through it.
Get there early if you can
If you can, take Friday off and stop in McGregor for a bite and a beer. Grape De-Vine on McGregor’s pretty main road catches the afternoon sun and serves craft beer and wine. For the bogans and cuzzies, there’s a bottle store a block down and a curb stone to sit on outside.
Otherwise, the oasis-like gardens of Temenos, a meditation retreat, are remarkable. Get yourself grounded before the race.
Or, get your lunch at the donkey sanctuary on the way into town where you can pet or look at rescued donkeys. And eat cake. It’s a thing in McGregor. And it’s just one more reason why The Klipberg Enduro can be compared to EzelEnduro, Ezel being derived from the Afrikaans word “esel”, which… ja, ja you get it. The other thing being rocks, but we’ll get to that.
The Klipberg campsite is about ten minutes after McGregor, in the mountain’s foothills. But as you drive out of town, note the two dams to your left and right. The one on the right has a “no swimming” sign. Even the mayor swims there. It really is lovely.
Stages 1 and 2: Setting the tone
On Saturday, we start our ride by squeezing through the poort, from our campsite, to enter the valley on the upstream end. The poort run isn’t formally a stage, but I encourage you to get loose. It is bumpy and fun and sets an appropriate tone for the day.
It is an easy ride and a short little hike to the top of Stages 1 and 2, “Happy Endings” and “Flow Trail”. The former includes a couple of ledges and enough rockery for you to poop yourself if you go fast, which I am sure you will. The latter is long, loose, and while it is euphemistically named, there is not much to it – it’s a gas; have fun.
Stages 3 and 4: Pack your Dingleberrys (and bike spares)
Next we take a ride and hike a steeper, longer – but not very long – hill near to the dam.
This brings us to Stage 3, “Twin Peaks”, which is one of my favourites. Be sure you have strong arms, strong wheels, good tyres, good air pressure and possibly some Foamos – or, better, bring some skill if possible (doesn’t stop me). Hang on tight, and perhaps don’t go as fast as you think you can.
That’s my rule of thumb for the day: If you want to get your fastest possible time – and if you would like to remain unscathed – best to moderate yourself. There are plenty of dangerous surprises if you come in too hot.
Then we ride and hike back up the same climb we just did to get to Dingleberrys. It starts out technical. The usual: rocks, rocks, drops, ledges, rocks, hairpin one, rocks, hairpin two. And then – this is where that meditation comes in – the bottom falls out from under you as the trail shoots (chutes?) through what feels like a vertical gulley. Need I say there are rocks and drops everywhere.
Some advice: If the organisers let you check this out on Friday before the race, do it. Get that reality check. On race day, give yourself a big gap after the rider in front of you. He or she will probably have a whoopsie (I’d give the enduro field a 1 in 7 chance, on average). If you enter the chute and there are riders on the floor, yell at them, grit your teeth and go, go GO (but not too fast). You won’t be able to tell the difference between them, their bikes and the substrate as you pass over. If you come off your bike in the chute, please get out of the way of the brave, skilled souls still on their bikes. And don’t be ashamed to just hike it because: a. better not to hurt yourself, and b. I know for certain that I, at least, would be faster on my feet than “riding” (but I still intend to try; I’m shooting for that 1 in 7).
By way of comparison, for those who have ridden Stage 5 of EzelEnduro, you may recall one or two extra steep and difficult places. This is sort of like those, but much longer and it feels much steeper and might be.
I scuffled and bumped my way down, ingloriously, but came out of it grinning, but with scratched stanchions. I am told mine is bike number four to have its stanchions eaten there.
Then the track eases off and we whizz down to the finish, where I am told we’ll tag in with iRideAfrica’s timing system.
High fives, bush mechanics and maybe a little first-aid will follow.
Stage 5 and 6: Smiles and miles
Did any of you readers ride the Absa Cape Epic this year? Anyway, you may have seen a
featuring a Stage 1 “dual single track technical terrain”. It’s more commonly known as a “road”, and at Klipberg, we’ll be riding up it twice (and, yes, here you can refer back to my quaint, unfounded notion that this playground was “our secret”).
On our way up, we might see glimpses of Stage 5 to our right: the signature stage “Klipberg”. This is one of my favourites. Did I say that before? Again: rocks, drop-offs etc, but I reckon you can blow off a little steam here and go for it. Get sideways in the rock chutes. Beware the tiny stream crossing at the bottom of the main descent (stay right). I know I am not the only person to tragically fly over my bars there. Not ten seconds later, beware one of those big aardvark craters in the middle of the track. Then flow, pump, jump, whip your way to the end – but be sure to find your granny gear for the final little kicker.
And, back up the same road you rode up a few minutes earlier, and then a bit further for the last bomb. Stage 6, the aptly named “Pile on”. It’s actually an old farmer’s jeep track: free-flowing, steep, fast, a little drainage bump rampage action, off-camber turns. It’s not technically challenging, but I suspect there may be a rider or two lying in the euphorbia.
And into the orchards down below where we hope someone will serve us an ice-cold beer before we pedal back through the farmlands and back to our campsite.
- Distance: 30km
- Climbing: 980m
- Time: 3 hours slow riding; 5 hours including stops, like trying to fix a friend’s broken thru-axle (the struggle is real out there; he had to walk out) and plenty of picnic stops (pack nice sarmies)
- Normalised power: …Watt?!?
I am not the most experienced enduro guy, but I would compare the route with the toughness and technicality of EzelEnduro, for those that know it. This is probably easier. None of the stages is monster-long like stages 4 and 5 at Ezels. But they are mostly technical enough that you don’t want them to be longer. Also, six stages plus climbs plus hikes (much shorter hikes than Ezel) make it a very hard day out.
Dingleberrys is something of an outlier and considerably ups the game.
So, I’m not saying you need to buy a whole house out there, but if you dig riding rocks and racing friends like you did when you were a hyped up 12-year-old, and if you are #training4ezels you should definitely buy a Klipberg ticket.
