Entries stream in for Darling Brew Extreme 2016

saifulmulia via Pixabay

According to Kevin and Philippa Wood, the owners of Darling Brew, which is the main sponsor for the Darling Brew Extreme, the first year that the event took place they had hoped for 250 entries but the numbers exceeded this by nearly 200%. The second year of the event saw 1,400 entries and now for 2016 the event has been capped at 1,500 entrants.

This year’s event sees a few developments taking place – amongst these are the introduction of some cash prizes, the involvement of several pro-riders and the venue for both the start and finish of the event has been moved to the newly opened, custom-built Darling Brew Tasteroom & Brewery, situated at 48 Caledon Street in Darling.

The routes

As per previous years DBX 2016 offers three different routes. These are the 68km Bone Crusher which departs at 7am and costs R275 per entry; the 45km Long Claw which departs at 8am and cost R250 per entry; and the 25km Slow Beer route which departs at 9am and costs R150 per entry.

“Every year the exact routes differ slightly depending on the rotation of the crops currently under cultivation on the farmlands through which DBX traverses,” explains Wood. “The routes also follow the natural paths made the resident wildlife and lucky cyclists may be fortunate enough to have a close encounter with one of the areas indigenous fauna.”

Drawing visitors to Darling

In addition to the well-designed DBX routes which suite all fitness levels and the beautiful scenery that the routes wind their way through, other drawcards to the event is that Darling is within an hours drive of Cape Town and the town is well equipped for an influx of visitors with ample accommodation and entertainment on offer.

The Woods explained that in addition to showcasing Darling Brew itself, one of the primary reasons that they conceptualised and launched the Darling Brew Extreme event in 2014 was to bring visitors to the town of Darling so that the community could showcase everything that this wonderful town has to offer. “Events such as DBX effectively promote tourism and bring much needed revenue into small outlying towns.”

“The success of Darling Brew Extreme would not be possible without the buy-in and support of the community in which we operate, the farmers whose land the event traverses, the participants who enter and take part, all the people behind the scenes involved in the logistics and the tourism organisation that support us, such as the local Darling Tourism and West Coast Way – and we wish to thank them all for their support,” concludes the Woods.

Click here for more information on Darling Brew Extreme 2016 or to book a visit.