Marathons remain the foundation of mountain bike racing in South Africa. Since the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the sport’s pioneers were searching for the ideal racing test, the marathon has been an essential discipline in this country. With it’s shorter half-marathon sibling, it’s still by far the most popular mountain bike racing discipline. But is this enough?
By Sean Badenhorst
The Rhodes Classic, Hilton Classic, Lourensford Classic, Sabie Classic and Spring Classic were among the early popular marathon races. But they all ranged between 35 and 45km. Bear in mind that the bikes of that era were mostly steel or aluminium hardtails with rim brakes, tubes and 26-inch wheels, so a rugged 40km route, usually with limited singletrack, was a serious challenge.
Then the Cape Epic was launched in 2004, with stages that included distances well over 100km. A range of three-day stage races were launched to help riders prepare for the Epic, while marathon events began increasing their distances to around 70km. That was soon deemed too short and the ultra-marathon was established.
Perhaps the best-known ultra-marathon is the Attakwas Extreme, established in 2007. At the time, the national marathon series, initially sponsored by MTN and later by Ashburton Investments, added an ultra-marathon distance option for the Elites and those amateurs looking for a greater challenge.
For a few years, we therefore had 100km-plus options at marathon races in places such as Sabie, Dullstroom, Clarens and Grabouw. The ultra-marathon distances in the national series were introduced partly to help the Elite men prepare for the annual Marathon World Championships and partly because many stages in events like the Cape Epic, Cape Pioneer Trek, Joburg2c were in excess of 100km
These ultra-marathon races were brutal. The Elite men would finish completely creased, while very few riders were able to genuinely race them. Most entrants simply survived them. They also tended to steal the media spotlight from the marathon-distance race being held concurrently.
It became clear, too, that riders in their first year out of Juniors could go straight from racing half-marathons to tackling ultra-marathons. That wasn’t necessarily benefiting those riders, or the future of marathon racing. After a few years, the decision was therefore made to do away with the ultra-marathon at the national series events and instead turn some of the rounds into two-day mini stage races, with a marathon on the Saturday and a half-marathon on the Sunday.
In KwaZulu-Natal, Hill2Hill enjoyed a good few years of popularity. Established in 2006, the 105km race from Hilton to Hillcrest was a significant fixture on the ultra-marathon calendar. Hill2Hill’s last edition was in 2017 after it struggled to find a new title sponsor. The National MTB Series also ended in 2018, leaving a significant gap in the endurance mountain bike racing market.
At TREAD, we classify an ultra-marathon as a single-day race ranging from 90 to 180km.
Technically, the Karoo to Coast is an MTB ultra-marathon, but it takes place mostly on gravel roads. With the rise of gravel bikes, it is now arguably more of a gravel race than a mountain bike race, despite most participants still entering on mountain bikes. The Berg 100 is similar. It is 100km in distance but is primarily held on gravel roads.
In the past few years, gravel racing has boosted the local racing calendar, with most events offering a long-distance race of more than 100km, many of them closer to 100 miles, or 160km. But they’re gravel races, so don’t offer any kind of mountain biking technical challenges.
In the meantime, the Absa Cape Epic – and mountain biking in general – has undergone significant changes. The Cape Epic used to include at least three stages longer than 100km in most editions. Now, distances like that are rare, while the route has become considerably more focused on incorporating singletrack, which the Western Cape mountain biking communities have built plenty of.
The hardcore endurance generation of South African mountain bikers who were in their prime during the 2000s and 2010s are now in their 50s, 60s and 70s. The Covid lockdown then brought racing to a halt for a period, and during that time a new generation of young mountain bikers emerged with an interest in shorter, more technically challenging disciplines such as XCO, Downhill and Enduro racing.
Most mountain bikers in their teens and early 20s can wheelie their bikes. But many of them have never had the opportunity – or perhaps the reason – to discover what it is like to ride a mountain bike for six, seven or eight hours in a single day.
The current marathon-distance races on offer generally range from 45 to 75km. Attakwas Extreme remains the only true ultra-marathon on the calendar, and it will be joined in 2027 by The Odyssey, a new 120km race in the Grabouw region.
Truth be told, finishing a marathon isn’t that difficult if you’re a committed mountain biker who rides year-round. Most serious mountain bikers can ride to a local marathon, do the race and then ride home if they want a proper challenge. And most marathons now attract entries from local mountain biking communities. Very few mountain bikers will drive half a day or more to another province to complete a 60-70km marathon race, even if they do offer more of a technical route than the old days.
And not all mountain bikers are interested in gravel racing.
So, is it perhaps time to revive the ultra-marathon mountain bike race?
Photo: Urs Huber and Phil Buys in Sabie in 2016 | Photo: Zoon Cronje
Sean Badenhorst is the co-founder and editor of TREAD Media. Let him know what you think via email: sean@treadmtb.co.za
