At the start in Kenya

Waldviertel seniors cycled with the Maasai

Krivetz (left) and Lackner left the younger competitors behind them in the Kenyan national park "Hell's Gate".(Bild: Crataegutt Seniors)

At 83, Herbert Lackner was one of the oldest athletes on the starting grid of a very special cycling race. Together with "up-and-coming athlete" Hannes Krivetz (65), the pensioner won prizes in a Kenyan national park.

The landscape and the people are, as all visitors to Kenya know, more than heavenly: and yet here lies the national park "Hell's Gate" - a reference to the extreme weather conditions that sometimes prevail here. Nevertheless, the Safari Gravel Race takes place here on gravel roads and cross-country tracks. The route covers 60 kilometers and around 1000 meters of altitude and was characterized by numerous gravel passages, but above all by deep sand.

Oldest participant is 83 years old
 "This was actually only manageable on foot," says Herbert Lackner from Bärnkopf. Anyone who thinks that the sporty Waldviertler is a hot-headed youngster because he is putting himself through such an ordeal is mistaken: the enthusiastic cyclist is a proud 83 years old! Together with his younger colleague from Team Crataegutt - 65-year-old Hannes Krivetz from Ottenschlag - Lackner mastered the distance this year. What's more, the Waldviertel team left many of the 120 or so participants from 20 nations far behind and qualified for the World Championships in Belgium with their victories.