River Rat

Condolences Reinet, we have lost a hero you have lost so much more. Be strong and celebrate his life.

The only hope is to contact Cedric Thenge of Nature Conservation 072 479 5553 I suggest that you offer to have someone man the gate for the duration of your ride.

I guess it's only appropriate that when the riding ends the drinking starts😋

I must say I quite like the idea that there's an element of discretion written into the race rules in terms of letter of the law versus spirit of the competition. My guess is that if it was a rules only approach there would be a whole lot of disqualified finishers who actually gained no real advantage from their breaking of the rules. All though rooting for one her close competitors I had no issue with the sanction dished out to MJ it just seemed right. However, I do recognise that a precedent has been set and this could come back to bite race admin. I don't think I would ever want to be in the position where I have to break the news to a physically depleted but mentally elated finisher that their last 119 hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds of effort was all for nought thanks to an indiscretion that happen 2 days ago.

Come on how difficult is it open the page of a rider in TL and simply refresh the position on the fly? A simple race strategy would be to open the pages of your closest rivals and refresh this when you have signal. I know some riders do this to check their own position and whether they might have veered off course or not. The information is available to all riders it's up to them to use it their choice. If this is indeed deemed a transgression there would be a back marker from last year that would have unfairly benefited from my WhatsApp message telling him to backtrack when he went off course.

I believe that the context is that it would be unfair if that support is not available to all riders, I suspect that all riders had access to WhatsApp and Facebook. I also have no doubt that all the top riders were given information on the their rivals, heck you could read it right here if you had the time and energy.

It's a difficult one and I actually overheard what I believe was the commissaire on the Munga Facebook video say to MJ at her finish that they will work out the time but she shouldn't be worried. I think in the substance over form debate it's difficult to bring the storm into the mix, however what we now have is a precedent that cutting out 45 minutes of riding equals 90 minutes of penalty. This might just be an unwanted factor used in future races.

I think we are seeing the spirit element being applied here. I was supporting the 3rd placed lady providing her with information on her competitors and I can honestly say that in pure numbers MJ could have backtracked and rejoined in half of the 90 minutes. However what could have made a difference is that turning back might have exposed her to the storm that stopped the other two top contenders in their tracks, they were both holed up for 7 hours. For LS it was exactly at a time when she wanted to make a move on FV with a realistic chance of catching her, as it turned out FV could start riding earlier as the storm subsided earlier where she was holed up. MJ stayed ahead of the worst part of the storm riding while her two contenders were sheltered in place, it is very difficult to say if turning back as opposed to continuing would have had the same effect on her. My personal opinion is that the race might have been a bit closer between MJ and FV but the outcome would have been the same. I am extremely chuffed for LS and her third place in her first Munga.

I wonder what the censure will be a DQ or just excluded from the medals?

First of all my apologies to admin for this post, I respect your decision to not allow NCR discussions on your platform. As is our right, those of us that wish to have these discussions have moved elsewhere this does not mean we have a vendetta or any ill feelings towards BH. In fact other than a recent reflection on the posts from people on this thread looking to start NCR there has been very little conversation regarding Bikehub on the Discord platform. My view of these particular posts on this thread was that these were attempts to get some sort of fight going the very thing that Admin don't want, my view of the posters has always been that they were never interested in a real debate but to rather stir things up to the pont point where rational debate is not possible and I suspect it's the root cause of Admin closing these down. I see these type of posts as trolling and I have called out these posters directly on numerous occasions on the BH for doing this, my view on this is no secret. The Discord platform has been rather civilised and most of us are trying to keep the conversation at a mature level to avoid the need for moderation. This clearly doesn't suit Delarey who has been trying to bait me in particular into the very type of debate that closed the NCR discussions here, I told him to take a hike and he is now trying to stir things up here resorting to immature school boy tattle tale tactics to get Swissvan riled up. This is not what BH wants but it is not of my making.

Deleted, not worth it.

I love it when a plan comes together ????

Francois, you have taught me a thing or two about fighting spirit, be proud of yourself and thank you for showing us all how to face up to a challenge.

Is there BikeHub fantasy tour this year?

I hope he managed to avoid the squirrels on the way to the hospital!