Race review.
The Amohela Mountain Bike Challenge is an annual two-day or one-day MTB event held in the beautiful Clarence, a small town situated in the foothills of the Maluti Mountains in the Free State province of South Africa, nicknamed the “Jewel of the Eastern Free State”.
Clarence is a +/- 3.5 hours’ drive from the Woesrand, which makes it ideal for a quick weekend away. All the participants stay in guest houses and B&B’s around the area. We were 3 couples and 4 riders and we stayed at The Stoke House which was +/- 2 km from the start at the Golf Course and 700m from the town centre.
The Stoke house is a self-catering, pet friendly accommodation. The complete Stoke House comprises of The Main House, Tippie & Tomac which together has 4 bedrooms; 2 on suite with showers (Tippie & Tomac) and 2 bedrooms sharing a full bathroom with a bath and shower (the Main House) … a great place to stay for the race.
The Amohela MTB Challenge is usually held towards the end of May which is already quite cold and fresh in Clarence. Normally riders will experience starting temperatures of well below zero, cracking the frozen grass as they leave the golf course … but we were lucky this year with starting temperatures of around 4 to 5ºC and heating up quickly during the morning which made for great weather and great riding.
DAY 1
The route was 51km and 1055m of climbing (there is a shorter option as well on both days).
Don’t let the elevation numbers fool you. From the start of this route we started climbing up and down over rocky terrain, a lot of single-track with steep technical climbs and fast descents. Proper mountain biking and quite technical but nothing too crazy. Luckily everything was dry. In the case of icy or wet weather, those rocks will get a lot harder to ride.
The water points were all very well stocked so we didn’t need to ride with a lot of food. As long as you can work with bananas, boerewors, banana bread, potato’s, date balls etc …. Oh, and you can’t leave unless you had a compulsory quick sip of craft beer at the Clarence Brewery stall.
Here are some photos of Day 1 …..
There were two water points every day and it was clear that the organisers went out of their way to make sure the riders were happy and having fun sweating it out in the mountains.
DAY 2
This route was fairly flat for the majority, rolling hills, 57km and 786m climbing. Gradual up and down on district and gravel roads, admiring the dry dusty beauty of the area until water point 2 at +/- 39 to 40km.
We all saw the little spike after the 40km mark but didn’t take much notice of it, until we saw it, my genade …. from the 40km water point, after a compulsory sip of the Clarence Brewery Craft Beer, the climbing / walking started.
The whole climb from the waterpoint was probably around 3 or 4km to the top. The zig-zag snake of riders went up and over the first steep bump and then on to the next one, and the next one. The climb is mainly loose gravel jeep-track with some cement strips in-between.
A lot of walking was done as the incline was just so steep. Even E-bikers were pushing their bikes. From the top of the climb we had a lot of amazing singletrack through the bush, dropping back down the side of the mountain, around the back of Clarence, past and over the dam, down the side of town back to the golf course for the finish.
A very nice finish to a great ride.
We would definitely recommend the AMOHELA MTB CHALLENGE to anyone who loves mountain biking.
Here are some photos of day 2 …
WELCOME TO WOESRAND MTB 
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