Koringberg is a small farming town located between Moorreesburg and Piketberg

Accommodation Piketberg 
Accommodation Morreessburg 
Accommodation West Coast

DATE : Saturday, 30 Aug 2008

LOCATION / VENUE: Koringberg Community Hall

CITY / TOWN : Koringberg, Western Cape (±15 km north of Moorreesburg off the N7, 120 km from Cape Town)

More race details will be available shortly.

Entries at Race Day

RULES :

All entrants required to have lots of fun!

75 km & 35 km (2006 Route)

Both routes run together for the first 35 km. An easy, fast jeep track for 7 km prepare you for a hard climb up the mine shaft. After 2 km of granny-ringing, catch your breath at the first water point and then indulge in fabulous single track downhill. The following 16 km will take you through fynbos, wheatfields and klipkoppies. Repeat some 2 km’s of earlier the morning before tackling the face of Swartberg for the 2nd time – on a different uphill though. Recharge your energy at the 30km water point. From here it is 99.99% downhill back to town on brand new hardpack single track. And the end of the 35 km race.

This is almost halfway for the 75 km contenders. Display your bike handling skills to the spectators over a short obstacle course past the venue. Don’t feel intimidated by the obstacle course… the Club Elani water point at the venue will keep you on track. The next 14 km along the railway line is fast and flat but watch out for mud pools! A river crossing or two (depending on weather conditions) will keep things interesting. Pass some spectacular vineyards, as well as the next waterpoint, and point your bike in the direction of Koringberg. One last surprise though…a 4 km monster climb will take you to the top of Koringberg. Don’t despair, 2km of extreme singletrack will reward you for your efforts. Hammer home and enjoy the rest of the festivities and the lucky draw.

20 km

The 20 km ride starts off on the same 6 km as the other two routes. Here you turn left (away from the mountain) for 1.5 km of gravel/tar. Cross the tarred road and head into the wheatfields. Follow 5 kms of rolling hills on jeep track. This will provide you with beautiful scenery. One shallow water crossing before you hit the final gradual climb into Koringberg. No water points on this route, so make sure you provide for yourself and the kids. Once home, enjoy the festivities, lucky draw and lots of food and fun.

Barend's e-mail for help summed up the objective

"We are planning a trail building day for Friday 16 June. Some exiting new options came up. This specific trail we are planning is from the top of Swartberg down into the nekkie, thus almost completely linking Swartberg and Koringberg to each other along the ridge. Promises to be some spectacular singletrack. If you are interested or just want to have a diffrent kind of workout, we leave at 08:00 with spades, axes and every other trail-building tool you can think of. Any help would of course come in handy."

After spending many hours of riding some of the best singletrack around, it was payback time for all the "free" kms of riding. Friday 16 June saw a group of seven head up Swartberg to construct a new singletrack trail down the hill towards the neck.  It was not an easy job marking out a trail in the thick fynbos. But the recent rains had left the soil soft and workable which made the job a lot easier. After just a few meters, an efficient clearing operation had started with the leader mapping out the route and clearing initial large obstacles followed by another "hoe-er" and then a couple of spade bearers doing the final clearing and neatening up. Just like an MTB race we started fast and full of energy, that was followed by a lull around midday. But after some borewors rolls and refreshments from Barend and Louise the team was full of energy. This final stretch was a mix of desperation and a final dash for the finish. The satisfaction of completing the trail in one day was great. It had turned out longer than expected, but everyone worked harder than expected and the job was finished in less than 8 hours.  between Koringberg and Swartberg.