HELL’S GATE – WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!

On Monday, 1^st February, Darryl Curtis and Riaan van Niekerk started their long awaited trip to Europe to the first round of the unofficial 2010 World Xtreme Enduro series which comprises Hell’s Gate (Italy), The Tough One (UK), Erzberg Rodeo (Austria), Romaniacs (Romania) and the “mother of hard enduro” – The Roof of Africa (Lesotho).

So how would you prepare yourself for an extreme enduro race like this? Firstly, watching last year’s Hell’s Gate DVD you immediately learn that the event is going to be difficult, really difficult. Secondly, lots of cycling to keep fit and of course many hours riding your bike in technical terrain. And thirdly, well, there is no thirdly that would help you being more prepared for an event like this, you just need a strong mind and confidence in yourself and your bike and then you just hope to survive “the road to hell”.

Curtis and Van Niekerk arrived at Milan airport in Italy and had to realise that the weather conditions would not suit them. Coming out of the South African summer the two Brother KTM riders went straight into European winter with minus degrees and snowfall. After picking up Chris Birch the trio drove to Bergamo where KTM Italy awaited them and had assembled their brand new KTM 300 EXC’s for Hell’s Gate. After putting in mooses, doing some suspension adjustments and applying graphics the team was “Ready to Race”. “What an honour it was to have them prepare our bikes. We were blown away at the wealth of knowledge at KTM Italy, they really know what enduro is all about and have produced more world champions than anywhere else.”, said Darryl Curtis.

The next day the bikes were loaded and after a four hour drive Curtis, Van Niekerk and Birch arrived at the Il Chiocco resort at Castelvecchio Pascoli in the Northern Tuscany, with a lot of rain and snow on the way. They attempted to walk the special but didn’t get very far: “The water was deep and it was so slippery that we couldn’t even walk, we soon gave it up and prepared our kit for the next day.”, said Riaan van Niekerk.

Curtis and Van Niekerk started in 10^th and 11^th place, Birch in 14^th. Two riders started on a row, so the morning race was held in the same format as a round of the world enduro championships which suited the two South Africans and Kiwi Birch. Four laps of the special with 22 minutes and a regularity of 58 minutes. In total, riding time of 5 hours 20. They all qualified for the night race for which only 30 riders out of 105 entries were allowed to start.

The format of the night race was four laps of approximately one hour each with serious extreme sections. Any rider who lost 40 minutes on the leader in the first lap was pulled off, then 30 minutes on the second lap and so on. Van Niekerk got taken out in the first kilometre, drowned his bike and could not continue, because by the time he had got his bike started, he had lost 25 minutes. Curtis had managed to get away around 20^th off the start and soon got caught in his first bottle neck: an extreme downhill section with jagged rocks and waterfalls. “Next was a ridiculous uphill that was impossible to ride, there I sat in queue, waiting for my turn to be dragged up the hill. I could see a string of tail lights and knew that my race was blown. It was snowing again and we soon got into deeper snow and more ice.”, said Curtis who was pulled off before the end of lap one. He went back to the pits in disbelief as to how insanely difficult the track was.

Only six riders were allowed to start the second lap. Previous year’s winner and favourite Taddy Blazusiak could not continue the race after a high speed crash on the ice. Graham Jarvis was in the lead with Dougie Lampkin right on his tail, followed by Andreas Lettenbichler who was pulled off on the third lap, leaving only Lampkin and Jarvis in the race. Lampkin had caught up to Jarvis as they headed up to the final climb up Hell’s Peak to the finish. Hell’s Gate 2010 only saw two finishers with Dougie Lampkin in first and Graham Jarvis in second.

Most of the riders headed home with mixed feelings, all agreeing that the course was simply not ride-able and asking themselves: “Is this the future of extreme enduro’s and will this sport become inaccessible for all, but ex world champion trials riders?”  Taddy Blazusiak explained to the two South Africans how much harder the 2010 event was compared to 2009 and that the course was at least ride-able last year. Too hard maybe? Organiser Fabio Fasola doesn’t think so: “Otherwise you won’t call it HELL’S GATE!”