GaryvdM

No, these guys certainly race. Just that it's an unofficial race. Officially it's not a race. Sure - but if you were to compare it to RAAM, you would certainly say it's unsupported. Yes, you don't have to worry about where you are going to sleep and where you are going to find food, and I know first hand this is no small deal. But you are not being babied, by having someone full your bottles, decide for you what you are going to eat, tell you when an where you are going to sleep and for how long, making sure you wake up. (I've failed to correctly set my alarm clock on an ultra unsupported. It's amazing how difficult it is to do this when you have just ridden for 18hrs.) The other thing for me that makes Munga tend more towards unsupported that supported, is it's not a competition to see who can spend the most to get the best support crew. And I think this is a reason why Mike talking about the rules is very important. I don't think we want this race to go down this path, where a competitor who can afford to have someone else follow them in a car has an advantage over someone who can't. Nice!

I did not think Mike was talking about the winners, but rather midpack riders.

http://mikewoolnough.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-munga-2018-race-thats-almost-great.html It's sad to hear about these issues. Hopefully they are sorted out in future editions.

Race that crosses Europe. It's arguably the race that popularised unsupported ultra distance racing. I know that Tour Divide predated TCR, but that's not technically a race, and didn't generate the amount of buzz that TCR did.

Hi Rob. I'm interested to hear why you think Munga is tougher than TCR.

Can I suggest that we all move over to https://community.bikehub.co.za/topic/179549-munga-2018-race-news/ Mod's didn't want to merge the threads - why don't keep this as the pre-race thread - and we can use that one as the during-race thread. (Following 2 threads is a pain.)

Sarah Van Heerden - You know first hand what she is capable of.

Only a single data point. It's most likely just an inaccurate gps reading.

Nice. Where does the water pipe go to? Do you have a bladder in the frame bag?

You are probably gaining muscle and losing fat. Replace the scale with a tape measure.

Mike giving away more secrets: http://mikewoolnough.blogspot.com/2018/11/munga-2018-art-of-power-napping.html

http://mikewoolnough.blogspot.com/2018/11/munga-2018-develop-good-race-habits.html Don't tell Mike you will see how you feel. ????

I tend to start of to fast, and then pay for it later on. Like this: https://www.strava.com/activities/961593642 So what I have started doing since then is to set an alarm on my Garmin for when my HR gets to high. For me that's 145. I only do this for the first 6 hrs of riding. After that, no alarm, and no HR data field displayed.

From https://www.cyclingsa.com/news-and-press/2018/10/11/race-sanctioning-keeping-cycling-clean-and-fair

I'll put money on Sarah Van Heerden wining the ladies.

What is the start date & time? Is the tracking page up?

To be fair - it was *almost* full road closure. There was on coming traffic on 1st Ave and the R511, and in the CBD, police allowing traffic to cross when there were gaps. It's so nice to not have cars overtaking you with just 25cm between you.

So on the whole number of entries crap. Lets look at the number of timed finishers: 98 90km - 2645 60km - 876 20km - 59 Total: 3580 I know there will have been a large number of DNF, DNS, and no timing chip riders. If the organisers are reading this: You guys have a great event. Great route + mostly closed roads = I really enjoyed the day. 3580 timed finishers in your second year is excellent. But there is really no need to exaggerate the entry numbers. It just makes you look bad.

I loved the route! Was able to get in to a great group on the highway. And I was so thankful that I had a 32-11 cassette on going up Tom Jenkins and the other step climb at the end.

I don't care about goody bags. A lot of it just ends up in the bin. Such a waist. What I do care about is: a safe pot hole free route (bonus for road closure).

Same for me. So if you compare the old event penalties that they use, 947 uses a much smaller penalty for previous 947 results. The green is the seeding used for Tshwane, the blue is for 947. You can see the smaller penalty means a much better index for 947. Go to http://results.pedalpower.org.za/findme.aspx?ss=3 for Tshwane and http://seeding.cyclechallenge.co.za/findme.aspx?ss=5 for 947.

It took me a while to link to this thread. For those miss it too: they have tagged Kevin Evans.

I just got mine by email now. I'm in HL - That's what you get for not racing seriously for 3 years.

Good job Frosty and team! I had a tough but lekker ride. One observation: At the intersection of the R550 & R23, the cars travelling east on the R550 were not given indiction of that they needed to stay in straight lane and not use the left turn lane, even if they were going to turn left onto the R23. So cars were going in to the left turn lane, which was causing the marshal to get very upset with the cars. Maybe some signage or some cones will give an indication to the cars they need to stay in the centre lane, and will help to keep things calm there.