Auckland‘s Chris Birch has done it again and this time he had another Kiwi, Wellington’s Rory Mead, for company on the podium.

Birch (KTM) backed up his successful win of the annual Roof of Africa extreme enduro in Le Sotho last year by also winning the gruelling race this time around, while Yamaha’s Mead joined him on the podium, in the No.2 spot, in just his first crack at the event.

Creating an historic New Zealand 1-2 finish, they were the top two of only 23 riders to finish the marathon race. There were 102 starters.

“This is by far the toughest race I have ever done,” said New Zealand enduro champion Mead (Yamaha YZ250) afterwards.

Former New Zealand enduro champion Birch, riding a 300cc KTM, had drama at the start of the final day. He was the first rider on the track but, at a T-junction, he went the wrong way.

Once he realised his mistake, he rode out of the stage and rectified the problem by returning to the start at Roma and re-starting the race after first discussing the problem with the organisers.

He then took off like a man possessed, and managed to outride the entire field on corrected time, making it a New Zealand 1-2 for the 2009 Baboons Lesotho Sun Roof of Africa.

Birch eventually finished a massive 2 hours and 14 minutes ahead of first-timer Mead.

The official winners of the 2009 Roof of Africa are:

1. Chris Birch (New Zealand) on a KTM

2. Rory Mead (New Zealand) on a Yamaha

3. Jade Gutzeit (South Africa) on a BMW

Words and photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com