“I TOOK A SCREENSHOT OF
MY $4 BANK ACCOUNT
has been teaching bike skills since 2007.
Combining his passion and talent for riding,
and his background as a mechanical engineer,
allows him to break down the physics of riding
and describe techniques in detail.
ROOF OF AFRICA
There are many illustrious race wins that he
could proudly dwell on, but just what was his
greatest single race ever?
“My stand-out best race ever was the Roof
of Africa (in the kingdom of Lesotho), way
back in 2008,” said Birch.
“It was not so much for the result, although
who doesn’t like a win, but more for the way
that it happened.
“It started with a chance meeting in Austria
at the KTM factory. I was waiting in the
reception area to say goodbye to a friend
before making my way to Erzberg.
“In the waiting room with me was a South
African guy called Mark. We got talking and
I ended up giving him a lift back to Salzburg
in return for a tank of gas (I was super short
on money). The whole way he was going on
about the Roof of Africa and how I must
come race it one day. We exchanged email
addresses and went our separate ways.
“Over the next few months I got several
emails from Mark trying to convince me to
come to South Africa for the ‘Roof’. I kept
telling him I couldn’t afford it, but he kept
telling me to try and find a way. I figured
he thought I was trying to fob him off, so I
took a screenshot of my $4 bank account,
emailed him that and everything went
quiet for a few months.
“Then, one day I got another email and he
told me he had everything sorted if I could
just get myself to South Africa. I won enough
prize money at Red Bull Romaniacs to pay
for the ticket... and off I went.
28 KIWI RIDER