I FLY

The wording in their rules says:- "Bicycles permitted only in travel bags" If you are concerned go onto their website and printout the list of rules and carry that with you.

I split up each day's stage by waterpoint so I was only focussed on getting to the next watering point.. That worked for me.

Lots of cattle and foot paths when I last did this race

And it gets very cold at the overnight stop. One year I left my polar watch on my bike. In the morning the temperature reading was -6C

This is a doeable race if you can manage an MTN marathon. There is not a lot of climbing ( soft sand makes up for it). The organisers put up a great overnight stop and the waterpoints are on par the best the JHB2C and Sani2C have to offer. One year we made up about 50 places by not stopping at a waterpoint that had various brandies on offer. Be prepared for plenty of thorn trees. We normally wear our oldest kit and long sleeves. I have also seen riders wearing long socks to prevent being scratched.

Terry has been living in Hermanus for a few years now. Owns an art gallery and makes a living painting. He still goes to the Epic every year as one of their media liason staff.

My Larsen TT's were the best singers that I have even ridden

Riding along overgrown footpaths with chest high wet grass is not as much fun as it sounds

We had a SANDF helicopter do that at our baseball field in Durban during the 80s so we could start a provincial tournament

I took the cheapskate option. I decided not to ride either day as I have destroyed more than 4 drivetrains in the Sabie mud over the years. Instead we did a ride to White River and back on Saturday afternoon.

I still think that merging all the distances onto the same singletrack at the end is a bad idea

You may have reason to curse Uncle Dennis on the climbs but he will not let you down when it comes to the water points

It will feel just like a MTN/Nissan race - no water at the waterpoints

We stopped doing the MTN/Nissan races a couple years ago as we disliked the overcrowded courses. But as we now live in Mpumulanga we try to support the local races. Agree with the smaller races being a much nicer option.

My bike had a complete new drivetrain fitted last week so I was wishing the mud away. I still cannot believe that Fritz and his team continue to get the same things wrong with all their experience that they have had. I have entered both days at Sabie and must put my trust in the local organising team to get it right

On Tuesday I had a near miss. I was riding along a very overgrown footpath when I sensed some movement just in front of my wheel and thought snake. I hit the brakes and performed an unintentional nose wheelie. While I was hovering on the brink of an endo the movement turned out to be brood of tiny guinea fowl chicks. Luckily I managed to avoid hurting any of them. Now I have a new skill - nose wheelie

I had a quick look at a sizing chart. According to that I should be between 27 and 27.5

1.73

My work buddy says that I am too short for a 29" draw length.

My brother crashed a few weeks ago. Pelvis broken in 8 places. Two weeks in hospital Three months at home Twelve months of rehab I have not had the courage to ask if his new Tallboy LT is okay.It was his 1st ride on it.

Hello Wayne,Can you send me details of the two lefties via PM?

Hello Tim, I have sent you a PM as i can't get into the system to enter.

My wife saw the trench. She had lots of time to kill on the climb as she was waiting for me. Unfortunately she was not wearing her glasses so could not make out too much detail.

We last did this race in 2005. Today's 75km route was much harder than the previous ones we did. Lots of climbing and steep descents. Even the tail end of the 45km race was hard. And my LBS caught me with an early April Fools joke. When they replaced my drivetrain last week they fitted a smaller cassette. I only noticed last night. I missed those extra teeth today.