Surely, after four consecutive victories in this toughest of adventure competitions open to teams from around the world, the title of the BMW GS Trophy should be changed to South Africa’s BMW GS Trophy!
To make South Africa’s week even better, the South African Ladies Team also took top honours in their class, narrowly beating Germany into second place by just one point.
The South African men’s team (one of fifteen teams in the men’s class) of Gerrit Du Toit, Dalton de Bruin and Warren Venter consistently ran in the top four on days one to four, before levelling with Team UK on day five to share the lead. Day six saw Team South Africa move into the lead, with Team UK in second place, a situation that continued to the end of day seven, the final day.
The ladies’ team consisted of Hanneli Zondagh and Christelle van Der Meulen and, just like the men, were never out of the top three (out of six lady teams) before coming out on top on day seven.
Both teams performed brilliantly and their rides were, by any measure, as polished and skilful as you are ever likely to witness.
This, the eighth edition of the competition was held in Albania. Seven days and 1230km of some of the toughest, most challenging adventure riding lay ahead of the teams as they congregated at Kavaje, on the Adriatic coast.
While the total mileage was shorter than on previous events, that was merely an indication of how technical the riding was going to be, taking in, as it did, everything from the sandy beaches at the coast to high mountains inland, via every conceivable obstacle and terrain.
As event director, Ralf Rodepeter, said, “Varied landscapes with high mountains, plateaus, deep forests, beaches along the Adriatic coast, fantastic riverbeds to cross and deep mountain lakes provide the ideal backdrop for what we believe to be one of the most exciting GS Trophies ever staged.” Previous editions of the event have taken place in Tunisia, South Africa, Patagonia, Canada, Thailand, Mongolia and New Zealand.
Right from Day One, the teams were awed by the countryside through which they were riding.
Warren Ventner of Team South Africa said, “It’s been brilliant, more than we expected, and it’s our type of riding, with hard rock sections and challenges along the trails that have been awesome – a nice little warm-up! There was a great hill climb in the middle of the day. When we got there it looked like a war scene, but we helped clean it up and then got through ourselves. A great start.”
“The country is amazing, around every corner is a new view, stunning landscapes, and little gems of restaurants or hotels in the middle of nowhere – we wonder how they even exist. The farming is, how do we describe it, ‘manual’ perhaps: men with picks, shovels, wheelbarrows, horse carts. Wives herding cows. We’ve not seen farming like that, it’s a whole different pace of life here. Their culture is very different.”
Not that there was much time for sightseeing, as the teams all had their work cut out to avoid gaining penalty points during the long, long days of riding. The GS Trophy is a team event and the members of each team must work together closely to get to the end of each day.
Even when the day’s riding was over, the competition did not stop, for there were special ‘tests’ for team members, such as a Water Showdown in the Adriatic Sea at the end of day five, which involved the teams (not ungratefully) running across the beach and into the water to swim out to a buoy and back with a BMW tank bag aboard a paddle board. It was the perfect end to a very hot day.
Another day saw the teams competing in a slow race and also a navigation test – on foot into the woods! Teams even had to submit their best photo from the event, along with a minute-long video describing their experiences, both of which gained points for the teams.
But at the end of the day, it was impossible to separate the team personnel from the incredible R 1250 GS motorcycles they were riding to acknowledge which was the more important element in their success. Some might even say that it was Albania itself that was the vital ingredient and there would be few competitors who would argue with that.
So it was that Team South Africa, men and women, came away with the spoils of victory and it must have been difficult to shake off the sadness that the event was over for another year, despite the joy and satisfaction of winning. There will be firm friendships that will have been formed amongst the various countries’ team members, united through overcoming adversity.
On their victory, Warren Venter, Team South Africa, had this to say: “This is amazing, we didn’t expect this, last night (end of day six) we were doing the numbers and we knew it wasn’t a certain thing. It came down to the last challenge. So we are really stoked. And to take the fourth win is great, there was that pressure not to be ‘that’ team – the ones who didn’t win – but we said to ourselves we’ll do the best we can and whatever comes up, comes up. Also, we want to thank everyone who’s supported us back at home, they really help make this happen.”
Hanneli Zondagh, Female Team South Africa was equally happy: “It’s unbelievable. We were only leading Germany by one point yesterday and we didn’t have the best last stage so until the result was announced we didn’t know which way it had gone, but somehow we still kept that one-point advantage, I feel truly blessed. It just shows what teamwork can do if you just don’t give up. It’s been a great competition, we’ve really enjoyed our times with the other female teams, they’ve been incredible, and so much fun. And what a great thing to do; once women have been exposed to this great sport and pastime of adventure motorcycling they see how fantastic it is, how liberating, that you ride, you see the world, you meet new people, see different places, even in your own country. It’s a wonderful thing.”
Four wins out of eight! It would be a foolish person who would bet against it being five out of nine when the event returns next year.
