Last Chance To Enter The Karooburn!
Bicycling's Karooburn is almost upon us, and the weather Gods have been remarkably kind (so far) with mild conditions forecast.
Entries for Bicycling’s game-changer event, the Karooburn, close at noon today, Monday 17 February. So, this really is your last chance to submit to the vagaries of the desert, on a 242km journey through the Groot and Tankwa Karoo regions.
Do. Not. Miss. Karooburn.
Weather forecasting is a terribly fickle affair, but according to the Norwegian experts at yr.no, we are in for comparatively mild conditions. Max temps in the low 30s (a good ten degrees cooler than could have been expected in the region’s hottest month), and winds mild, cooling range, rather than the gale-force headwind around which the 240km course was built. (Not really, we aren’t that mean.)
Calvinia Weather 22 Feb
Karooburn starts in Calvinia, and heads south towards Ceres, on the longest unbroken gravel road in South Africa, before turning right and finishing with a gnarly section up to the fabled Kaleo, scene of much mountain bike race drama and joy in recent years. The 242km route offers up a relatively tame 1950m in ascent, but it isn’t the climbing that is the challenge – rough roads, interminable flats, hour upon hour of mind-blowing Karoo vistas and a modicum of heat and wind will make this a proper test of machine and human.
Today (17 February) is your last chance to enter the inaugural Karooburn, and we have a few places left that will let you enjoy the best of the Karoo, with a few hundred other like-minded nutcases. Let’s do it!