Great event, well organised! Well done Meurant and team! My only complaint is that I have to wait until 2022 to do it again. I had a good ride, but not quite as many laps as I would have liked. I started off with little sleep on Friday after a rough week at work - so my strategy going in was to do one opening lap and then sleep for a few hours and put in the hard laps late afternoon and evening. That strategy went out the window from the first second. PhilipV, Jakkals, CJVan, Hansolo, and myself did 2 opening laps together - the heat was brutal, but the excitement was high, so after a quick stop to refuel I went out for a third lap - that was my first mistake. The heat did a number on me and I was already quite low on hydration. After lap 3 I tried to sleep, but no luck, and after sitting around for a while decided to go out for another 2 laps with CJVan - little bit less heat, but still on the warm side. At this point I was quite sleepy, but it was braai time. I took a quick shower - felt like a new person, and we sat around the fire until about 9:30. We then started getting ready, was waiting around for the guys to get ready when we noticed PhilipV was gone - we thought he had gone for a PRD, but the sneaky bugger pulled a race move and went out for a solo ride - he clearly wanted to win the side bet! Jakkals and myself started pedalling again around 10, went out for 2 laps, our tally now sitting at 7. At this point I felt amazing, I had plans to do at least another 3 laps before going to sleep, but when we were refuelling for lap 3 of the evening the tiredness hit me very hard. On the 3rd lap I bonked HARD - took a tactical chunder at the end of the lap in Fountain of Youth, and decided to call it quits and go to sleep. Got back to camp, and proceeded to throw up a cocktail of energy bars, bananas, and steak - felt pretty terrible, but fell asleep straight away after a quick shower. At this point PhilipV had not yet gotten in from his night ride, and I knew I'd be at least one lap behind him in the morning, possibly 2. I woke up around 6, with 3 hours of sleep. The tally at that point: PhilipV - 9 Jakkals - 8 Myself - 8 CJVan (battery failure and a trail run too much that week) - 7 Hansolo - 7 I knew the chances of catching up at this point was slim to none, so my goal was just to make 12 laps and get that silver medal. Jakkals and myself went out for 2 laps, quick refuel, and then another. Now around 10AM it was starting to get very hot, and I don't do well in the heat. I went back to camp, and Jakkals did another lap. PhilipV was also out on the trail, putting in the hard laps in the heat on his big trail bike. Jakkals and CJVan circled back to camp for me, and we did our final lap, finishing just after 12. That put the final tally at: 14 for PhilipV (On a Giant Trance with slow rolling tyres), 13 for Jakkals (On a Giant Trance with slow rolling tyres and flat pedals), 12 for me, and Hansolo (and that on a rigid bike - kudos!), CJVan on 10 (Try not cancel yourself on a trail run 2 days before the event next time) My money was on CJVan for the win, but it seems Philip's competitive racing side came out for the victory. All said and done, it was an awesome weeked, lekker camping, better company! Hats of to the sharp end of the race, you guys are not human!
