I presume you know that Chris Birch won the "Roof".
By a margin of about 50 minutes or so......

Happy new year

kim

Two things come to mind... First, does this finally answer any doubts as to the durability of the BMW in the rocks? second, Those guys are tough as nails!

To all the guys in the US who don't know it, there is a SUPER INTENSE sporting rivalry between South Africa and Australia/New Zealand. This rivalry extends to all competitive sports known to the human race. Good fun most of the time!
Chris Birch, who is apparently a New Zealand trials champion, came to the Roof of Africa this year and whipped all the local heroes butts!! Plain and simple, and what makes his achievement even more incredible is that this year's race was deemed to have been the toughest one ever (and thats 45 years!)
Part of his preparation in SA consisted of 2 weeks in my playground around Benoni, SA where we have everything from fast flowing river crossings, lots of disused quarries for Erzberg-style riding, huge mine dumps with all sorts of different sand types, etc.
It was really amazing to walk into the pub where we normally all park for our riding and to meet the man himself. What a down to earth, humble riding god he is.
Just a pity he was on a KTM (a "satelite" team, Roost Racing not the official Pro Action team)

I met Chris in Romania and can echo what Eugene said. Chris has amazing talent, yet is still very humble. He raced the ISDE in Greece (finishing with a gold medal, I believe), then a week later he finished 3rd at the Romaniacs while battling a nasty flu, then finished off the year by thoroughly whipping everyone at the Roof.

Now if only we could get him on a GasGas...