Traditionally, when one pictures a race village, it’s an image of shaved legs, fancy sunglasses, premium bikes and adults who have been training hard and working even harder to take time off to enjoy a premium race experience. Well, from 04 to 06 of July, replace the grown-up legs with spindly pins, and increase the laughter and noise factor by 100%, with the inaugural edition of the Karkloof Youth Festival.
Paid partnership with Sappi
In an innovative move, the Absa Karkloof Country Club has taken a large step to focus on the development of young riders. The three-day festival, which doubles up as the 2025 SA Youth Champs, sees an exciting array of mountain bike disciplines on offer, as well as skills development opportunities throughout the weekend. It is absolutely jam-packed with activities, enough to use up the sugar supplies of the 150+ expected riders.
Gavin Scholtz, the director of the Sappi Karkloof Trail Festival and now the Karkloof Youth Festival explains “The essence of the youth festival is to expose the youth to the different disciplines of mountain biking within a pristine environment. What we have in the Karkloof are absolutely spectacular trails that are located in the Sappi forests, and mountain biking is still a predominant sport in the area. What we want to do is encourage youth to keep going in mountain biking, and provide a bit of incentive, and provide some challenges to them in respect of doing multiple disciplines of mountain biking”.
The festival kicks off on Friday 04 July with 2km Fun Time Trial in the late morning, moving into an afternoon of timed lapped XCC racing (short course). The Nippers and Sprogs will race ten-minute races, while the Sub-Juniors and Youth will race 15-minute races, and as anyone who has watched international XCC will know, this is lung busting fast paced racing! For an average person the day would be done, but for young’uns – an evening of Enduro skills training is on offer by Ride On, for those who haven’t had a chance to try out that format of racing. The practical part is backed up by the XCC prizegiving and an Enduro talk in the evening from local Youth racing legend, Omar Wilson, a two-time Junior South African Enduro Champion, who moved into the Under-23/Elite category this year.
Saturday 05 of July will see the Enduro Lite take place, using the legendary trails of Fawlty Towers (a rocky extravaganza which will no doubt test technical skills), the amazing swoops and flow of Richert’s Realm, and Prodigal Son which offers a mixture of rock features, roller coaster berms and small jumps. The youngest racers will be chaperoned to make sure they take B line options, while the older racers will have the option to take A or B lines. The Enduro Lite doubles up as the EDR SA Champs for Nippers and Sprogs, which adds an extra level of excitement into the mix.
Saturday afternoon has optional XCM skills training in preparation for the final day of the festival, with some really fun activities like a competition for fastest pump track lap, as well as the ‘slowest’ race, where riders must take as long as possible to get from one point to another to develop skills like track standing. At dinner time, a marathon talk will be offered after the EDR prizegiving by top KwaZulu-Natal racers, Omar Wilson and Dan van der Watt.
Sunday 06 of June offers two timed loops for the XCM marathon discipline. A 15km loop for the Nippers and Sprogs, and a 35km loop for the Sub-Junior and Youth age categories. The 15km route is mainly jeep track and dirt road, while the 35km included as much of the local trail offerings as possible to up the ante. Prize giving for the XCM and overall will take place at lunch time when the festival closes out, and hopefully the jam-packed weekend will have tired the youngsters out enough that they would like a rest day on Monday.
The trails team, supported through the Sappi Adventure Tourism Incubator, have been hard at work preparing for the Karkloof Youth Festival. “On the 10th of June the area experienced extreme winds of up to 100km an hour that ripped through the plantations. To clear up the trail debris across the whole trail network took a huge amount of time and energy, but we’re pleased to say we’re able to offer some beautifully primed trails for the Karkloof Youth Festival. We’re excited for this first iteration and to set the benchmark for 2026, and our team believe in uplifting youth, so they’re happy their work is supporting skills development in the youngest of riders” said Francois Brooks, Karkloof Trails Manager.
“Mountain biking provides a healthy pastime for kids that are overwhelmed with screens, school work and rising pressure of responsibility as they get older. We want to make sure that they become invested in cycling both for their own benefit and to make sure that there is no gap in the market in three to four years’ time in terms of our customer base. When these kids are adults, we want them to still be supporting the trail network by riding here recreationally and when the events roll around they’re the first to enter. In this way we protect the legacy that we are building in Karkloof, with the help of Sappi and others, and we can keep doing the important work of Education Karkloof, Improve Karkloof and the Karkloof Conservation Centre” added Scholtz.
The Karkloof Youth Festival is designed to be a full race village experience, and as such offers camping in tents for the kids with a bike pound to lock up bikes in the evenings (think Kap sani2c style), while parents can self-camp with their own tents. It’s bound to be an exceptional weekend and entries are still open until midnight on the 2nd of July. To enter, click this link.
Introduction image credit: Gauteng Cycling MTB/Dominic Barnardt
Paid partnership with Sappi
About Sappi
Sappi is a leading global provider of powerful everyday materials made from woodfibre-based renewable resources. As a diversified, innovative and trusted leader focused on sustainable processes and products, Sappi seeks to support a more circular economy. Sappi Forests owns and manages vast landholdings in excess of 394 000 hectares and is committed to promoting the responsible management of natural resources and approximately one third of our landholdings (136,000 ha) is unplanted.
Read more about the Sappi Trails Programme at : Sappi Trails Programme | Sappi Global
