WHAT THE PROS RIDE

…OKAY, THE PROS AND THE OTHER RIDERS WE LOOK UP TO: THE ONES WINNING RACES ON GRAVEL AND ON TAR, UP AND DOWN MOUNTAINS, AND IN THEIR AGE CATEGORIES. THESE ARE THE BIKES THEY’RE RIDING, AND THIS IS THE KIT THEY WOULD NEVER SHOW UP ON THE START LINE WITHOUT

- JON MINSTER

ENDURANCE LEGEND
KEVIN BENKENSTEIN

BENKY IS ONE OF THE BEST ULTRA-ENDURANCE riders in the world – and one of the nicest guys you’ll meet. Hailing from the KZN Midlands, where he occasionally rides up Sani Pass in the snow, he’s won the Munga and finished second on the Rhino Run, an unsupported 2750km odyssey from Plettenberg Bay to Windhoek in Namibia.

Recently he took on the Atlas Mountain Race in Morocco, which offered a different kind of challenge – fewer long, straight desert roads, more brutal climbs and bitterly cold nights. He came in tied for fourth place with two other riders – an impressive comeback after a rough start.

“I was this close to stopping,” he says. “The cold had shut me down, and I’d lost trust in my body; but a four-hour sleep and some food got me going again. From 36 hours onwards, I felt like myself again.”

Benky is an ambassador for the Australian bike brand Curve. He rode the same bike for the Atlas as he did for the Rhino Run: a prototype titanium monster called the Karoo. The only real difference was that he ran a 100mm suspension fork for the Atlas, and a rigid fork for the Rhino.

“If I do Atlas again, I’ll definitely go with a smaller chainring – probably a 32t,” he says. “The climbs were so steep – I underestimated that. I might go with a 120mm fork, too, because the descents were really rocky. But I’d need a smaller frame in that case, to keep my bike fit right…