Bikers Race Against Time For Championship

Kabelo Boranabi | Monday October 28, 2019 10:06

The duo are set to make their debut at the 52nd edition of the Roof of Africa race to be held in Lesotho from December 4 to 7, 2019. The race dubbed the ‘Mother of Hard Enduro’ is one of the toughest technical races on the continent. It attracts over 500 riders from around the world to ride 180km in three days.

However, with just six weeks to the race, Stephens and Rantao are struggling to raise P250, 000 that would enable them to take part in the competition. The duo has only managed to meet the registration fees.

“We do not have a sponsor. We still have a long way to go with regards to sourcing the much-needed funds for the event.

 We have tried all we could and we still battling to source some support. The only thing we have managed to cover now is our entry fee of about P5, 000 each.”

“At the moment accommodation, sourcing of extra spares and other needed accessories. We also have the issue of bikes. Initially we intended to purchase new bikes so we could have possibly low chances of mechanical failures along the race.

Obviously that increases the budget all the to P215, 000. But now that we haven’t reached that mission only we only left with a short time, we have resorted to renting new bikes from one service provider in South Africa.

This takes the budget of bikes to P65, 000 for the entire duration of the race in exclusion of other logistics,” Stephens told Monitor Sport.  He also said they face a weather challenges at Lesotho but could fail to source funds for the appropriate gear for the event.

Stephens also said there is fear that they may not make it to the prestigious event.  “We also need to carry more racing kit because the weather in Lesotho is so unpredictable.

It could rain or form a massive snow out of nowhere. You need to be prepared as a rider for this with various riding apparel for such eventualities.

All these come at a cost. Unfortunately unless we find the much needed support our qualification into this race might be not of nor effect. We struggled to qualify into this race we don’t want to lose this chance of proving our names. We will keep fighting,” he said.