Ozzie NL

100% correct!!!!

Is Rogi scheduled to ride the Tour? ... would be a rare double

More than 50% of the filed is still South African so that challenges your statement I would think. Whether you like it or not. Epic is by far the best known and most referred MTB stage race (talk to an overseas MTB-er and Epic will come up).... and thus people want to have the medal

"Toughest " is such a multi facetted thing rather than a one dimensional measure; No doubt Freedom Challenge is very tough but in a very different way to Epic. Epic is more about technical, single track riding, absolutely no self navigation and a chance to recover each day. RASA and to some extent Munga are more about the mental toughness to just keeping going on the correct route. My summary is that RASA is about being able to die slowly whereas Epic is trying to make sure you do not die here and now. What's toughest is very much a function of what you're better at

Marloth Park?

Bets have a chat with the Lenick team then as they have cut it out of the route

See the actual monster is no longer part of the Magalies Monster ... apparently the Breedts road is nie so lekker nie

The two of us should start a think tank as we permanently have opposing views on matters ... imagine how right we could be if we debate these and develop a common view

Think the issue is rather that Epic decided to only accept card payments this year whereas previously EFTs were also an option ... suspect many peeps did not bump up their card limits to complete the transaction.

Sure but that is something you know before you start the race and will have to reconcile yourself with as the faster rider (that you will be riding well below your own pace) ... it should not cause any hold ups for other riders as in this scenario you will be riding O batch pace

Given people are seeded in batches based on their race results, there are not many "being held up" issues at Epic... Exception can be Prologue depending on how accurate your estimated time was. There will always be the issue of some people climbing faster whilst others descend faster ... I cannot see a way around that

I rode amongst the back markers and did not encounter a water shortage

I do not NEED to do anything🤪 All can use their own definition but to me this is a team event and if the team did not make it, you're out. Finish and klaar!

Agreed ... if they would have stuck to the all who made it to WP3 rule the drop out rate would have spiked

Yes, team drop out rate According to me the main difference from 2022 onwards is the percentage of single track as opposed to gravel road riding ... that also gels with less distance but more elevation OK fire up the flame throwers as to why I an wrong

For what it's worth I use drop out rate (defined as 1 - (No of teams finishing stage 7/teams starting prologue) as proxy for how hard the edition is, see graph below

Skok en ry daai fiets mater

Echo Pieter's comments. There are several group rides over the weekend catering for different levels as well as two weekday rides which are typically a bit faster. Weekend rides start from Virgin Active Honeydew and weekday rides from Honeydew Shell garage (aka HQ)

Basically all smart trainers cater for your described needs. I have a Kickr v4 and it integrates really nicely with Zwift as well ... which makes that 50 min at a said power output a lot more bearable.... but am sure other trainers have similarly smooth interfaces

That's a 7% annual price increase. Does not seem absurd?

You'll love Girona ... I thought it was awesome as a town and I did not even ride but did have coffee at La Fabrica

Think Dexter is referring to the route during the race... i.e. cannot really choose to start earlier ... have to earn that ride through better seeding

Stans for me. Note on their race sealant .. it works so well that you have to break the bead to get in the tire. Through the valve core it simply blocks the hole

No idea whether these are any good. I also use the Spez inners which come in three colour coded models, shallow medium and high

If you're up for a longer ride, you can park at Van Gaalen