Way to much fun!

The 2009 Imvelo MTB Classic was a fantastic event and as some have said, there's no stopping Imvelo now!

The success of the event is certainly founded upon a brilliant route, actually, make that 3 awesome routes.

The 65km Classic is a wonderful example of free flowing cross country terrain with lung busting climbs being rewarded by wicked downhills. The single track features heavily in all the distances, but the maturing single track on the longest distance is what differentiates this race from others.

65kms will have you climbing over 1600m with the last 44kms providing 1307m - so it's a short distance compared to the ultra marathons out there now, but certainly no pushover.

the event itself attracted a capacity field of 500 with brilliant goodie bags up for grabs to each riders...the coup de grace was the tasty MTB cycling shirt given to the classic riders. Free! The usual trappings were there for the rest, T-Shirts, water bottles and for the first time, double tickets to the official House on Fire aft

er party - which was massive.

The times this year were quicker than last year, Andre Cordes clocked in at 3:18, several minutes quicker than last year.

Results are available here: http://www.biggameparks.org/newsfacts_events.html while photographs are also available on that page.

I have the route profile now:

Riding on Mlilwane certainly rewards those keen on exploring...gnarly singletrack is often optimised by random game sightings - adventure is to be had under the watchful gaze of Execution Rock, alongside the abandoned railway, in and out of tunnels...the fun goes on.

Mliwane Wildlife Sanctuary is famous for being an attractive destination for family fun seekers and while Conservation is the cornerstone to the Parks, interactive adventuring is fast becoming a reason to travel there. The most popular pastimes have always been the overnight horse trails but these excursions have now been joined by the overnight mountain bike trails which are proving to be extremely popular.

Single track is alive and kicking and rumour has it, there are more MTB events on the horizon in Swaziland...watch this space.