Intense humidity, leeches, baking sun, torrential rain, mud, sand, rock…
Wait. Leeches?
Named for the legendary boxing match (in Zaire) between George Foreman and Mohammad Ali, this month’s Rumble in the Jungle will see riders beating themselves up for their share of $20,000 (£12,600) of prize money.
Promoted by the same people who put on the Kathmandu’s Yak Attack (“The highest mountain bike race on earth”), Rumble in the Jungle begins next week (19th November) and crosses 300km of hot, humid jungle, Sri Lanka’s highest plateau, and mountainous tea-growing regions before finishing four days later at the beach resort of Negombo.
It’s probably too late to consider now, but the $1,900 (£1,200) entry fee isn’t too bad given that a domestic air transfer, all accommodations and day/evening meals, and feed stations are included. Of course, getting to Sri Lanka with a bike and four days’ worth of gear could add substantially to the tab. As could alcohol, which is not included.
Follow the race beginning November 17th at theyakattack.com/srilanka/home/. If this looks or sounds at all appealing, it’s probably time to start planning, training, and saving for next year…
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I don’t think you’d really need a domestic air transfer unless you’re going all the way to the North of Sri Lanka.
Getting to Sri Lanka with your bike might be alright. The national carrier (Sri Lankan Airlines) are pretty good at taking oversize bags, and you have a healthy baggage allowance of 30kg per person. It’s a direct flight that takes around 10 hours so not too bad as long haul flights go.
There’s a lot of amazing looking singletrack there, but MTB is not an established sport. There’s no real scene to speak of so it’ll be interesting to see what sort of tracks they lay on. Dollars to doughnuts it’ll be doubletrack, fire roads and unpaved road.