walkerr

The banter on here and FB has been awesome last couple of years - especially cheering the last few riders bravely chasing the cut. Of all the events with a higher price tag, Munga is the one for me. I never doubted the value after seeing how much they provided to riders across 1,000km of the Karoo. All those helpers at WPs and RVs truly make the event special.

Damn - it looks from the trackleaders page that the guys now chasing the cut down from Gouda/Hermon are riding into a headwind. That is harsh.

Def a close call to the cutoff - tail riders have done an amazing job hauling back overnight. Will be some tired bodies out there - hope they can catch that dreaded green dot!

Great shame - heal up well!

For sure - barring any issues, he's done it

That CUT line is started to get some bite - few riders now getting caught up in it's deadly embrace. Hope they can pull something back.

Watch for the 3 blue markers - still active by the looks. You can use Riders by Category on TL to filter just them

Is that right - did Jean Biermans scratch?

Just wait until they're battling into a gale along the gravel road after WP10 and you're stressing whether they'll make RV5 ahead of cut off ...

Pie .... did someone mention pie ....

Agreed. I think it was Chantal Wooding last year hovering around the green cut line, and she seems to be going well this year.

Yep - Nico Coetzee and Chris van Zyl. Both tracking well now on the race itself too. The TL website wasn't up and running fully, so their track logs don't show the first part from CT.

Amazing progress - course record could be under threat at this rate. You have to look at last Track point time to judge. HJ is showing further ahead, but KBs last track point is 2 mins older than HJ, so the gap can be narrower than it appears.

Watching dots - but also keeping a hand on my day job, so less time to post. Looks like a fast pace out front this year. Middle of the pack has a lot of riders in it too.

According to the article - they do each have a spare battery, but still said they needed to ride cautiously to avoid running out. Different topic, does anyone know if Steunmekaar Spaza is still there? Doesn't look to be anyone stopping at that spot based on the tracks.

Wow - considering they had a 3 hour headstart, those e-bikes really aren't far ahead of the lead riders now.

Ouch - hurts even thinking about it. Pilling into a gale around Loxton lugging a ton of dead battery weight! The article has some interesting comments about needing to stay in Eco mode and not cane the battery too much. Interesting if different take on the usual Munga endurance story of keeping the body from draining itself.

Unless their batteries die, I'd doubt that will come into play. My bet is that reliability could become a factor, That Karoo dust & terrain has killed off many a suspension linkage or fork - who knows what havoc it might play with all those extra parts in play.

I wondered what those markers already at WP1 were all about - thanks for the explanation

Looks quite chilly by Munga standards - where are the 45C+ temps to make it properly hard ... No doubt they have some extra heat planned for the days beyond.

Easiest way to see what they have is to enter and ride to one ... the home made snacks and boeries are delicious. (although personally, I don't use chamois cream - small jar/tube of Sudocrem is enough for a couple of weeks riding for me)

Dunno if this link will work - but couple of the Nica boys are on their way to BFN: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10159467130821352&set=a.10154420336001352&type=3&comment_id=10159467968206352&notif_id=1637912465297838&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic&ref=notif There's two of them now. Nico has been joined by another Munga legend - Chris van Zyl. Edit: If you scroll down on the main page, there are tracker links at the bottom for anyone wanting a dot watching warmup before the main event. https://bicyclecouriers.co.za/cause-of-the-month-nikamunga2021 Just checked though, and not seeing updates as yet - possibly they're not fully active yet. Great they got TrackLeaders to put them up early though, even if the logistics aren't up and running.

Very True.

Oh yes, definitely true for the EF site - just a mistake by an over eager copy writter. What bugs me on the journalism front was how many cycling news sites have just cut and pasted the text without any fact checking. Those guys shouldn't just be lifting PR copy without checking it.

Definitely great to have such a legend taking part. But what's with this article citing a 100 hour time limit (plus a few others that probably copied from it). Is it just shoddy journalism, or are they making it tougher for the monk?