SA Enduro Champ Keira Duncan to ride KAP sani2c with his 84-year-old grandfather!
Howick, South Africa – Many KAP sani2c riders know the name Arthur Duncan from the 2018 event. Arthur, then aged 83, completed the tough 265 kilometres over three days at last year’s sani2c Adventure edition, riding from Underberg to Scottburgh with his son-in-law Stuart Watson.
Arthur will be back for more in 2019; this time teamed up with his 18-year-old grandson, who happens to be the Men’s 2018 SA Enduro Champ Keira Duncan.
We asked the two about their riding careers and how they plan on tackling sani2c together while getting some insights into riding sani2c as a team from the event’s official coach, Johann Wykerd from Absolute Motion in Hilton, Kwa-Zulu Natal.
The pair, entered as team PYGA Infiniti, live on an organic vegetable farm in the Karkloof just a stone’s throw from the outstanding Karkloof MTB trails, and while Arthur is 84 years’ old, he is an accomplished road and MTB cyclist, after he took up the sport in his sixties.
“Earlier this year I competed in the KZN Provincial Road and TT Championships winning both titles. In February I participated in the SA Road Championships winning a silver medal,” he says.
Modest about his achievements, this extraordinary “granddad” says of riding sani2c again: “At my age, I understand it is a hugely challenging event and an achievement for anyone to finish, so I know it is going to be a very tough three days. I am thrilled that my son-in-law Stuart will also be riding again, this year with his son, David so that we will have three generations on the bike at sani2c.
I was lucky enough to ride the first six sani2c events, and coming back last year, it was wonderful to see how Farmer Glen has grown and improved the overall experience for the riders. The comfort and service offered at the race villages, how he has retained the same basic route to get us from the Drakensberg mountains to the sea, yet he has improved the course to make it an exciting and memorable event that should be on every mountain biker’s bucket list.”
Keira Duncan has since 2015 racked up an impressive 36 age category wins, 30 top five overall podium results, and an astounding 13 overall wins! He won last year’s Kingdom Enduro in Lesotho and will be heading to Europe in June to take part in the 2019 Enduro World Series.
As you might expect, although knowing that three days of challenging MTB riding is very different to his usual short sharp downhills, Keira is amped to get out on the sani2c trails.
“I will be getting myself onto a Stage bike from PYGA to pace myself on, and although it’s almost the opposite of what I’m used to riding, being a short, snappy, steep angled bike compared to my long travel, slack Enduro bike, I’ll definitely still be able to do some skids and wheelies, having as much fun as I can. I look forward to pushing my ‘distance limits’ at the sani2c. It’s going to be tough but a great challenge.”
Keira looks forward to making special memories with his grandfather.
“Extremely excited for the event. Definitely going to be an experience of a lifetime riding with my legendary grandfather!”
The Trail version of the KAP sani2c is from 14-16 May, the Adventure is 15-17 May (all entries sold out), and the Race is 16-18 May.
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