AfricaMike

Very lekker day out yesterday. 18th medal in the bag. Always have to remind myself to take a chill-pill on the highway out to Woodmead. Pays dividends in the second half. I ride a 40 year old bike with downtube shifters - I lost count of the number of superbikes I passed (and I was gong real slow!)......Sometimes I get the idea that people think if they drop huge cash on equipment they'll have a good ride......anyway - well done to the organisers, marshalls, traffic officials and the Joburg motorists for giving us a real special day. Awesome! (PS - if the organisers read this please create a category for vintage bikes - there are quite a few of them still on the roads today 🙂 )

Not fun to be chased by that luminous green dot.....got that t-shirt in the heat and headwinds in 2019.... that's pressure no-one needs......

Looks like most of the field is off-course already.......

Just over 2hrs to the start and my nerves are shot......and all I'm doing is dot-watching........

Wishing all the entrants well in their final preparations for Munga 2022. This final week is a bundle of nerves. Maybe one day I'll be back..... Those dots = serious FOMO......

Would love to do the RASA one day when my lotto numbers hit jackpot. Dot-watching Alex and Mike - wow! Those conditions make for great stories!

Disappointing that the tracking seems to have failed right at the finish. Danie Hofmann's tracker hasnt updated for an hour - hope he made it. he was the last official finisher in 2019 and looked like he was going to repeat that performance today......not sure who the last official finisher was - but big applause even for those who didnt make it!

You've got 120 hours to complete approximately 1200km, so the dreaded green dot moves at approximately 10kph from the time the race starts. So the strategy is you have to plan your pace and your stops and your sleep and maintain more than 10kph for the entire 120 hours. That's the theory.....sounds easy....in practice its a completely different state of affairs, or is that state of mind?

Yup, and Chantal is in the company of Danie Hoffmann who was the last official finisher in the 2019 event.

Seems the backmarkers are doing much better this time around. Maybe the conditions have been more favourable than previous years or the quality of the field is simply getting better. Really nice to see so few riders behind the dreaded green dot....

Another warm day to start proceedings.....

Wishing all the competitors a wonderful adventure and enjoy every moment - even the tough ones. The night sky in the Karoo is breathtaking - stop for a moment and enjoy. Serious FOMO - need to go buy a lotto ticket.....

Well done to each and every participant. Just by entering you reveal something of the person inside. A special 'well-done' to the finishers but to those that didn't make it you also get a 'well-done' for taking the challenge on and whatever the reason for not making the finish line may it be an opportunity to grow and get stronger. Phil 4:13.

2h30 in and the leaders have already passed the 50k mark. Considering they still have 450k's to go they're certainly not hanging around.....

All the best for those that have just started their Grit journey. It might be suspect weather but at least the rain has stopped - lets hope for a dry race from here on. Wishing you all safe travels over the next 50 hours.....