It was a truly enjoyable race. I also experienced holdups when reaching the 40km & 20km riders, but they moved over or held their lines whenever I requested (a please and a thank you go a long way). Admittadly, some considerable time would have been saved had they not been there. I started in Batch H, and managed to catch Batch C riders, so obviously I had a lot of people to pass. This caused some mega holdups on the singletrack sections, but every rider out there made an effort to move over for me. Thanks to everyone that did that, it makes the riding a dam sight more enjoyable when I don't have to get off and push because someone else can ride a technical section Where the hell was all this game everyone is talking about. I think I might have seen an ant at the 56km mark, but that's about it. Giraffes, Wildebeest, Lions.......dam I was maybe a little too focused! It is very difficult to cater for every rider possible in a race of this magnitude. I personally would have preferred a much more technical track, steeper rockier descents, more churned up jeep track, tight switchback single track....we are after all mountain bikers and not roadies. XCM is extremely popular in SA due to the fact that not a massive amount of technical ability is required, I feel however, that we cannot progress if we are not challenged. We can also definately not produce the world class cyclists that we do if we didn't have races that challenged us. (ok, that long rocky climb was a bit much for the fun riders, but they did keep left for those that could climb it). I too suffered with the extra 4.5kms, but I have not yet entered a race where the advertised distance is exact. How often in life is every challenge as hard as expected. Admittadly a heads up would have been nice, but would not really have reduced the suffering at the end (for me anyway, mega cramp sesh last 29kms). I didn't hang about at the end (cramps were excrutiating), but the finish line festivites and setup was quite spectacular! Well done to the organisers. Thats me signing out, I gotta go get this crap smell out of my shoes from that swamp pit crossing........ or maybe I should leave it there for the fond memories......
