Black Americano is the order, received with the ubiquitous Benky smile. The Bootlegger server is unaware of the cycling royalty eschewing the luxuries of sugar and milk this grey morning. It’s a week after the Karoo-weathered leaders of the 2019 Munga rolled into Wellington, and Kevin Benkenstein is still eyeing up the banana bread with bad intent. 

“I can’t stop eating.” This time, Kevin is recuperating sensibly from what’s billed as the toughest MTB race on the planet. “After Race to the Rock in 2016 (3 000km unsupported across the Aussie outback), I started too soon, and it took me six months to come right. I felt it in the 2017 Munga – lesson learnt. So now, it’s two weeks completely off the bike. Although my wife is wanting to go riding already. Which is lekker, so I will.” 

Time off the bike is not something that happens a lot for Benky. As we chat, I pull up his mid-December Strava stats; 925 hours of riding, and a shade over 20 000km. “I love riding, so the volume is easy,” he says. 

With fledgling bike-importing and cycle-touring businesses and a busy toddler, even for a former road pro this is volume plus VAT. 

“Actually, this year I’ve done less than in the past. I haven’t gone under 1 000 hours for five years.” 

I try to tempt him into smashing a pair of 35-hour weeks to rectify the diary, but no bites. There are bigger fish to fry in 2020. But 10 000m short of 365 000m of climbing for the year is too tempting – he takes the bait. That’s the height of Table Mountain, every day, for a year. 

The Munga isn’t a climber’s race though, with ‘only’ 7 000m ascent in 1 000km; and while adventures such as Benky’s eight-day solo ride through Lesotho – which was “brutal, but so good for my head” – were integral to the all-round fitness required to race 50-pus hours on the trot, it was the specificity of his training that gave him the edge this year.

“I did lots of hours in the heat of the day, with little water or food – training my body to deal with the conditions we would be facing, as best I could in Cape Town. Lots of hard solo rides, two-and-a-half to three hours on the same dead-flat 8km stretch of tar, at 320 watts… planning and plotting and imagining winning. I knew every stone on the route, and had my winning plan trained for and sorted long before we started in Bloemfontein. All I needed to do was implement it.”

MIDDAY SUN

A total of 150 riders lined up in Bloemfontein on 27 November last year. Included in the contenders huddling for shade as the temperature crept into the mid-30s were previous champions Ramses Bekkenk, Marco Martins and John Ntuli, hopefuls Thinus Redelinghuys, Sithembiso Mahlangu and Jean Biermans, and veteran fly-in-the-pro-ointment Mike Woolnough.

 As the start approached, so did the wind. The conditions looked to be replicating those of the inaugural event, with stifling heat and headwinds turning a fast, flat course into a suffer-fest beyond compare. 

Drafting is legal for the first leg of the Munga, to Vanderkloof Dam; and the front pack tends to ride at a healthy pace without doing anything stupid, such as actually racing. 

“I’ve spent years watching others dictate races, sitting back and justifying my decisions as they rode away to the win. This year I wasn’t going to let that happen, and 10km in I attacked with everything I had, to make the race hard. I looked at Ramses, as we turned off the tar onto the first long gravel stretch, and said ’Let’s go’. 

“He was up for it, and Marco tried too, with Myles von Musschenbroek (a road pro attempting his first Munga), but we were going pretty hard. I think I did over 400 watts for 10 minutes, through-and-off with Ramses. We reached the first waterpoint at 60km in the same time as last year, but it was 15 degrees hotter and the headwind was brutal. 

Kevin Benkenstein is still eyeing up the banana bread with bad intent.

“The next 30km I rolled through strategically and we made good time, but by 120km I was starting to feel it; and on a long drag, I realised I was cooked. Ramses came through a little hard as I started to tap it off, and felt he had an advantage, so he pressed on a bit. 

“As he rode off, I thought I’d blown it. My whole body was twitching, I found a tap at 135km and stopped for water – a mini rest – and reassessed. I’d gambled, and it looked like I’d lost. Yet nobody was catching. So I carried on, and nursed myself through to the next water point. 

“I focused on drinking, even though the water in my bottles was boiling, it was 43 degrees by then. Part of me realised Ramses must also have been on the edge, and that he might blow and come back to me, but at this stage it was pure survival.”

Rolling into the second water point, Benky was greeted by a shirtless defending champion. “Well done – you’re leading,” pronounced Ramses, who had pulled the plug after cramping throughout his body. 

“I was shocked. I’d hoped he would pop a little, but I never expected him to scratch. I grabbed some food, refilled my bottles and bolted as Marco and Sthembiso arrived, going from calm to race again.”

What followed is mind-numbing to the reader. “I could see Marco was also buggered from the earlier attacks, and I got to the first race village (Vanderkloof Dam at 170km) with a 10-minute lead; so I stopped for [only] five and then bolted, knowing how hard that would be for him mentally. 

“After that, it was just about being consistent. I kept my pace up, and drank religiously, even though the water was so hot it made me feel ill. I ate mostly at night – it was just too hot in the day. 

“Day two was terrible. Three hours at 43 degrees – it felt like I was cooking. I felt strong until Loxton, at 520km, where the wheels fell off a little; so I stopped for a half-hour sleep, and carried on, feeling a bit better”. 

NOTHING BUT THE TRUCE

“Thinus finally caught me at 750km – I’d had another half-hour kip, at 680km – and then it was back into race mode. From Sutherland, I started feeling strong again, it may have been all the vetkoek! I rode Ouberg hard; but every time I got a gap, he would come back. He dropped me down the other side – I was bursting for a pee – but I got back, and we to-and-fro’d to Tankwa Padstal.

“I finally got away on the long flats after Tankwa – the gravel gearing was an advantage, and we diced like that for a few hours. From 950km to 1020km was flat-box. Sounds crazy when I say it! But then his mountain-bike gearing got him back on the last pass before Ceres, and we both decided that this was where it should end.

“Nobody wants to win a mountain-bike race on the road. We had both thrown everything we had at trying to win it outright. Bainskloof became our Champs-Élysées, and we crossed the line together (I did make sure I hit the final singletrack first, just in case…), becoming the first joint-winners of the Munga.” 

In his fourth start, Benky had finally done it. 

“People ask me now if it was the right decision [to share the win] and I reckon if I have no regrets after a week to think about it, we’re good. I rode my best race, and I don’t think there’s any justification needed. At 56 and a half hours, we were only nine hours slower than Ramses’ record, in wild conditions. 

“Thinus and I were the only ones there when we made the decision, so we understand. And that is all that matters.”

So, what’s next for the happiest face in ultra-endurance cycling?

“Long term? Racing the Divide is the dream, and I will get there soon. Obviously, I want to win it. That sounds cocky, but I want to be the best in the world, not just in South Africa. I’m 33 now, maybe in my 40s will be the best time. We’ll see. 

“Short term? To go for some rides with my wife, get back into the swing.” 

Two weeks after our coffee date, Benky tweeted that he was preparing for Dirty Kanza XL – the biggest, baddest 350-mile (560km) gravel race in the world – at the end of May 2020. 560km of fast-paced, self-supported nonsense. 

Just right for our Mad Dog.

The Karoo Equipment List 

In Benky’s words, “stupidly uncomplicated”: his bike has a smooth titanium frame, with drop bars like a gravel bike, but fat tekkies like a mountain bike.

• Curve GMX titanium frame
• Curve carbon 29er fork
• Easton ec70 AX bars
• Specialized Power 155 saddle (wider, because tribars shift you forward)
• SRAM AXS mullet gearing: 42 x10-50, 12-speed
• Curve carbon dirt hoops, DT Swiss 350 hubs
• Maxxis Aspen 2.25 tyres (1.3, 1.4bar)
• Apidura frame and top tube bag
• 4 x 1l water bottles

Toolkit: multi-tool, tube, bomb, adaptors, nutcracker and Slugplug, chain link (one), derailleur hanger, tyre lever (one). Pump. Piece of tube as gaiter

Electronica: Exposure 6pack MK 10 lights (didn’t need a charge), Phone (off), Garmin 1030 (charged 1.5 times), 10 000mAh battery.

Nutrition: Started with 16 Farbars, one electrolyte tablet a day, one multivitamin a day. Scavenged on the route: at least 20 litres of Coke, and heaps of Powerbars and real food.

 

What is the Munga?

The brainchild of adventurer and Everest conqueror Alex Harris, the Munga MTB is a crazy single-stage race across some of the toughest terrain south of the equator. It follows a 1 160km off-road route from Bloemfontein to Doolhof Wine Estate in Wellington, South Africa. The race is non-stop, with a 120-hour cut-off time, There are 10 water points and five race villages along the course, through the desolate Karoo and the Tankwa Valley.

 

READ MORE ON: benky endurance racing kevin benkenstein long reads munga the munga