JohanDiv

Ricardo Stermin now up into 4th and Jenny in 5th(with 5 guys riding with her now)!! He is also a pretty strong rider.. Rode with him most of Boland Gravel Monster and then he suddenly flipped a switch and dropped me like a sack of potatoes around 130km up Bainskloof

Jip, but he was definitely taking an hour nap there. Started moving now.. 10km behind Thinus. Updated at the same time.

Willie's tracker is standing still at RV3 on my PC for more than an hour now? It shows Thinus is 10km up the road.

First time he made me properly take note was when he won the 2022 36One in a new record time. His time was even 1 second faster than the first four-man RELAY team of David Garret, Johann Trotzky, Theuns van Bank & Andreas Studer. That was mindblowing!

Almost an hour since Willie Smit moved. Maybe also taking a nap at RV3

He looked lekker tired on his last Insta update video! I bet he is just taking a middagslapie to get out of the sun.

She was riding with two guys late yesterday on the event photos.

Really impressed with Jenny's ride so far.. The gap is now at least two hours to second place lady, and she's sitting comfortably in 7th overall!

Only 6 scratched riders so far.. I think that is testament to the nice weather conditions they are enjoying at the moment

In the ladies race Jenny Close also extending her lead to +-1,5hrs over Carien Visser. She is already past RV2. Will be interesting to see if Carien takes a bit of a break at RV2 or carry on to try and minimize the damage.

Still looks like a lekker tailwind..

Drikus is now almost 2 hours ahead of Ramses record pace 😳. He said at the one waterpoint on the video they had a slight tailwind during the night.

RV1: https://fb.watch/oDOyg3VtmE/?mibextid=4p3i6U WP3: https://fb.watch/oDPrgIdoyv/?mibextid=ZbWKwL https://fb.watch/oDOpnBfAtf/?mibextid=4p3i6U https://fb.watch/oDPoah2xrt/?mibextid=ZbWKwL

If he can keep this up we have a new record! I might actually be able to go watch him cross the finishline over lunchtime tomorrow haha.

https://fb.watch/oDgrJhGQ3y/?mibextid=4p3i6U

Thinus has Top10ed in the last 5 or so Mungas if I'm not mistaken.. he knows what he is doing..

And @gemmerbal just hit 100km! 💪

Sho Drikus now ahead of Ramses record pace!

Drikus is not waiting for anyone! Already 10km up the road from Thinus, Hansie and Willie in 2nd, 3rd and 4th. Looks like they are more or less sticking together for now.

Martin Fryer won last year, Hansie third. Hansie won 2020. Thinus Redelighuys "won" with Benky in that kumbaja year. Willie Smit is new but has solid racing pedigree and started the Smurfy500 events..so he loves these long distances. Drikus is also new, but an endurance gravel specialist from Nam and has basically won everything over 300km he has entered in the last couple of years, including 36One in record time. Chris van Zyl was third in the year Ramses set the 50hr record.

https://fb.watch/oCPZ-TWJzk/

And they're off!!

I agree, I'd place my money on Drikus and Jenny. Hoping we get a podium battle between Drikus, Willie, Hansie and Thinus.

Willie Smit's bike looking streamline. He is obviously not planning on sleeping or sitting much more than 50 hours on that.