360 kilometers is six days – what sounds like a quite modest mileage turned out to be rather painful: The route of the Lesotho Sky Race consisted mainly of demanding singletrails and offered 9,857 vertical meters at at least 1,500 meters above sea level.

At first it did not look like Team Bonsai Bikes could win. Paschke and Ziemann gained the lead in the prologue, but lost 26 minutes on the new leaders after some punctures. „We had the first flat back tire already after 8 kilometers. We quickly changed the tube, but I did not notice that the tire was cut, so we had another puncture after only ten meters“, recalls Frank Ziemann.

Endurance Test for Marathon Fully "Jura Carbon"
As the first stage consisted mainly of singletrails, too, – „of the all in all 360 kilometers, only about 25 kilometers were ridden on asphalt“, says Ziemann –, overtaking was hardly possible. The first stage was also the toughest one for the two of them in terms of stamina: „The altitude of at least 1.500 meters above sea level and switching to race mode sapped a lot of our energy“, says Ziemann.

Andre Paschke rode on his STEVENS Sonora SL, Frank Ziemann turned the race into an endurance test: his STEVENS marathon fully with the working title „Jura Carbon“ and a suspension of 120 mm convinced completely in technical terms and was the right choice for this event. The bike will be available at retailers in spring.

In the following days they did not suffer any more punctures and Andre Paschke and Frank Ziemann always scored a podium position and won the fourth stage.

Breathtaking Landscape and Routing
„Stages three and four probably were the most beautiful ones“, says Ziemann. Not only because of their strong positions, but also due to the breathtaking landscape with the route leading them alongside a steep cliff on day three. „The high plain in Lesotho is extremely diversified. Not only the views constantly change, but also the ground. It changed from read soil which is typical for Africa to sand and gravel tracks. There were rivers we had to cross – and never ever was the route like a forest motorway.“

Thanks to top positions they were able to gain about five minutes on the leaders, but they still were 21 minutes behind them.

Wait – and Celebrate
Andre Paschke and Frank Ziemann sped up already at the beginning of the last stage on a rough mountain road. They had to be in front of the field downhill in order to minimize the risk of falling. In the course of the stage they managed to distance the up to now leading team further and further. Apparently, they had to pay tribute to the high speed. Concentration remained a must: „On the asphalted downhill passage some teams reached top speeds of 115 kilometers per hour“, says Andre Paschke.

After a last test of their riding skills Team Bonsai Bikes reached the finishline first – and was left to wait – and celebrate. The up to now leading team finished 23 minutes behind them, also because they took a wrong turn somewhere on the stage which meant a three minute lead for Paschke and Ziemann. They finished the race in 2:07:59 hours. In the pro category the South-African Team Biogen won in 16 hours and 3 minutes.

Andre Paschke says he remembers most the enthusiastic spectators, especially the children. The contrasts were difficult to grasp: „The openess and happiness of the population on the one hand, the scarcity of drinking water, the unignorable heaps of plastic waste on the other or the mutual helpfulness among all participants will make this race an unforgettable experience.“