All routes start and finish at the beautiful Avianto Clubhouse on the opposite side of the river from the famed Avianto wedding venue. This is a fantastic venue for the event and is becoming a mecca for mountain biking and trail running. The wildlife that calls the area home is simply remarkable, considering we are still in Joburg. Look out for jackals, buck and some incredible bird life.
There are only small improvements to the route for 2019, so for those of you that did the 2018 course, you can expect virtually the same fantastic course, with a few adjustments to make it just a little bit better.
The first 10 kilometers are contained in the Avianto Estate land, starting with wide roads and jeep track, meandering around horse paddocks and crossing over some of the dams. Overtaking in the first 5km will be a breeze sorting out the racing snakes from the fun riders. It gets slightly more challenging after that with a short koppie thrown in, which leads the riders back into the clubhouse area where spectators can get a quick view of the race. Riders then tackle “the wall” a short climb that is rewarded with a flowing single-track decent. The 10km riders are then treated to a great section of track next to the crocodile river which follows the river line and provides a rewarding scenic route back into the start/finish area
The 45km and 25km riders head of towards the N14 highway to tackle some fast district roads and some fun single-tracks. A slight reprieve awaits the riders in the Driefontein Waterworks with some fast dirt roads, a fast dirt road descent takes the riders back towards the Syringa Motocross Track. After a refreshing Biogen waterpoint the 45km and 25km riders head up Clinic road, towards Beyers Naude, some great footpaths, complete the journey to Beyers Naude and after crossing back over Clinic road about 2km of fast swopping single-track awaits the riders adjacent to the N14 highway. After a quick tour around the fence line of the Le Jardin estate, riders then head back along the river towards the clubhouse, 25km riders head towards the finish, while 45km riders cross over the river at Avianto and through some new single-track towards the chapel Calvert. After crossing under Driefontein road, riders must settle in for a 2km climb, with a mix of jeep track and single-track sections, once at the top a quick u-turn send the riders back down a fast single-track descent, the route then flows along the top of the koppie treating riders to great views of the Cradle area, another descent towards Driefontein sees riders head towards Phambili. Another Biogen waterpoint tops the riders up with the necessary to get to the finish.
Phambili is just short of an MTB paradise, with great single-track and jeep track sections, and some challenging climbs are thrown in for good measure. We have added an extra 4km section in Phambili, which will test the skills of our 45km riders. After exiting Phambili, riders must cross underneath Driefontein road again and into the Syringa Spa ruins, some cool urban sections await, along with some great single-track. Riders will cross back over the Avianto bridge where they will be able to smell the finish-line, as they are almost home free.
The route is a good mix of open jeep track, district road and lots of great single-track, the climbs are tough but the descents make it worth it.