River Rat

I think you're going to "pop" a number of times on this race. I think the simplest strategy is that you must ride while you can, if you can't ride then sleep.

Netjies Vetseun, that was an awesome ride!

I can't see Karina Britz or Louis Fourie making the cut off, well theoretically LF can but it means he can't stop at all. Which means that our last finsihers are from the 4 currently holed up in or just leaving Sutherland. Guiseppe, Max, Ryno and Pieter are in for dash to the finish . As Sir Alex Ferguson used to say it's squeaky bum time!

Karina is definitly speeding up, she has finished 590kms but at her average moving speed she can't take more than 4 hours rest for the last 480kms.

Monday midday.

Today Ranger passed puppy school and graduated, Batman the cat reckoned he cribbed off the Border Collies

Meet Ranger the Ridgeback.

A quick review of Karina's stats would suggest that based on her averrages she can't finish in the allocated 120 hours. However, her average moving speed has improved from 9kph to almost 11, this would suggest that she had a problem early on and this had been resolved. She's less than 40km away from the RV at Loxton and if she gets there before 12:00 it would confirm my hypothesis and she is definitely still in this for a finish. Go girl go!

So the finishers so far MM,DG,KB,SM,FVT and JD. The gap between KB and FVT was 7 minutes KB must have been desperately holding on to his 3rd place, incredible! At the back the field Karina is still in the game at 532km and is behind the cut off by about 70km. Next finishers expected are Ricardo Stermin and Mike Woolnough.

I had a chat to my mate Pieter earlier and this comment of his perhaps sums up the ethos of The Munga "This is hard,I like this"

Me never????

I wonder how tempting it is to just have quick hour nap when you more than two hours in hand?

eish....I'm not going down this pit latrine!

That's like saying we shoud all be happy with floppy disks, pit latrines and 26ers . This world is about progress man progress.

Pieter is fine he's sleeping over in Fraserburg until 2am and then he's setting off for Sutherland for a short rest before his assault on the finish. He says his butt is on fire and he had plasters on which pulled the skin off. Eish , he's lying 21st I hope he can keep up his riding pace which is circa 20kph.

I've just pinged Pieter to beware but his tracker hasn't updated for over an hour.

Colin Anderson has just taken a worng turn at roughly 689k, turn around Colin turn around! I hope my man Pieter Strobos dosen't follow him

Meanwhile at the back Karina Britz is still on the course although the cut off Icon has passed her, I wonder if she's just riding to see how far she can get or will they pull her off at the next WP. Jaco Cromhout and Max Menzies are the next riders underthreat.

I think the race is coming towards Jeanie and Mike Woolnough if last year is anything to go by.

Looking at the back of the field I'm concerned with the progress of Karina Britz. Her riding pace is really slow and it is not that she has been taking in a lot of kip (5hrs). She is just an hour or so ahead of the cut off icon. Let's hope she finds something soon.

Why do I get the feeling that Mike Woolnough is the stalking horse in this race

I was wondering what happened to him it looks like it's between him and KB in terms of the lanterne rouge. I hope he recovers and uses RV1 to his best advantage.

I see JD arrived at WP4 just ahead of JS but rested up for about an hour while JS rode on. I see that JS has a 17k gap, this women's race is going to get interesting soon. If recall from last year's race JD only started featuring in the second half of the race so I'm not discounting her chances in terms of line honours but that mechanical seems to have upset her rhythm a bit. In the meantime my man Pieter Strobos is going great he had at least 6 hours kip at RV1 and for a father of one year old twins he must be thinking he's on holiday!

Some names from last year that I'll be rooting for, Rafeeq needs to stay on course and he'll be a contender. Then I have a number of non finishers Neville Higgs who if I recall correctly got to about 700km. While Geroge van Maanen and Dirk Griesel appeared to have finsihed but were DQed for going off course. If the first two years are anything to go by there'll be all sorts of heartbreak stories all starting 12h00 on the 29th November. Good luck to all and I think Jeanne will win!

Might be Mike Woolnough he often trains out there.