The Roof Of Africa, referred to as The Mother Of Hard Enduro, is one of the oldest hard enduro races in the world and the final round of the 2025 Hard Enduro World Championship. We had 3 key riders participating in this years event. Matt Green, recently crowned Italian Hard Enduro Champion. James Moore, recently crowned FIM Junior Hard Enduro World Champion. A rider who almost didn’t make it to the final round of the championship was Radford Chugg. Through a collective effort and support from the community, Radford was able to make the trip to Lesotho for this epic race and round of the championship.
Day 1
Racing started on day 1 with time trial where riders had 2 opportunities to set their fastest lap on a 9km track. This day took place in Maseru City. Looking at the results it was interesting to note that for all top 10 riders, the first lap was used more as a sighter with the second being considerably faster.
James Moore had a solid start to his race weekend starting with time trial where he ended up in 3rd position behind Mani and Billy. Matt Green was sitting in 9th position after his time trial, a good position to be in the top 10 heading into race day 2. Radford had some tough local, South African competition but managed to secure 22nd position.
Day 2
Day 2 consisted of 3 stages. Riders were looking at around a 6am start time and about 132km’s for the day. With this kind of distance it was expected for racing to last approximately 6 hours. Being the first big race day, riders ended up tackling 2 or 3 passes for the day with some fast racing.
Day 2 was a whopper of a day for James! From the get go it was clear he was charging to improve on his 3rd position and push to catch up to the top 2 whom he caught up to within the first 5 km’s. The leading group of riders all ended up riding together until around “middle pass” where James broke away. His experience on these mountains helped a lot and allowed for him to put his head down and pull a gap. Navigation was really challenging, so it was important to navigate well and make as little mistakes a possible. James finished in 1st position.
Matt was part of the leading group on day 2 with Billy and Mani all pushing hard. There were multiple leader changes over the day and Matt had some great riding. By the end of day 2 Matt had moved up into 6th position and was running hot with the South African boys.
Radford was pushing hard and absolutely flying down the Lesotho mountains. Another challenging day but with consistant riding, Radford moved up into 20th overall and 10th in the championship class.
Day 3
The final day of racing was to be a slower and more technical one with around 106km’s of riding and another early start time around 6:30. On this day riders were to tackle around 6 or 7 passes and it truly embodied the saying “the year the roof went back to the big mountains”.
James Moore did not head into this final day with biggest gap so there was no time to waste. James kept his riding smooth and consistant but unfortunately had a really bad first half of the day where his GPS kept switching off which resulted in him getting lost on the way to the DSP and losing the leading group. It was clear he really needed to put his head down and push. James noted that he “time trialed it” to the next hill and was able to catch the leading group on the following downhill, making up 3min 15sec! James Finished the day in 6th position.
Matthew Green had his best day yet. He said that this was one of the toughest races he’s had and never had to fight and push as hard as he did. Matt crossed the line in 4th position.
Radford Chugg really enjoyed the final day and it was his best result of the race. He crossed the line in 15th position even with some GPS difficulties. It appears that he was looking around at the view too much and not enough at the GPS itself.
Overall Results
Sharing these results is the absolute best part about this race report!
James Moore Wins the Roof Of Africa!
Over three days of racing in the Maluti mountains, James takes the win ahead of Manuel Lettenbichler and Billy Bolt. An incredible achievement and without a doubt a well deserved result. Not only did he appear to be in a state of flow for most of this race but James gave the fans exactly what they came for with impressive displays of technique throughout the event. The people’s champion!
Matt Green finishes in 6th
Not only will Matt be leaving with a positive result but also an incredible achievement after riding so conistently over the duration of the events. He mentioned that this was the hardest he’s had to fight and push for a P6. This will have some great affect on his overall championship results.
Radford Chugg finishes in 18th
Radford leaves Lesotho accomplishing an iconic race and the mother of hard enduros. While he spent most of the event with his jaw on the floor and a mouth full of dust, he also leaves with a 9th championship class result and a strong finish to the 2025 season.