SSCC

The Evil CH is the worst riding gravel bike I have ridden. Absolutely horrible. That’s saying a lot because I’ve owned 11 gravel and monster cross bikes and ridden even more 😉

Congrats on another finish! What were the route changes and RV changes?

It's amazing how varied the weather can be for fast vs slower riders. Based on the finish times over all editions this year was the easiest (fastest) year for the faster riders. On average across all years to go sub 3 days you needed to be in the top 10. This year there were about 25 riders under that mark.

It's a new GPS event not the Freedom Challenge. It's a bikepacking race that is similar in concept to something like Atlas or Silk Road. Even though I think this new race is a fantastic addition I don't think this type of race appeals to the vast majority of Munga riders. The typical Munga rider wants the water points and race villages and not the uncertainty of looking for a service station at 2am to refuel.

My bad. I had the calculations wrong.

The leaders are at 966km. It’s 10am. What numbers are you seeing?

Must be slow going this year. Wind? If Trackleaders is correct this could be the first year that no one breaks the 3 day 72hr benchmark.

Agree with this. Its worth every cent in my opinion. On the prize money - if the Munga team had half the marketing savvy of the Gravel Burn team they could make this a million Rand (not dollars) prize purse race. The problem is their marketing looks like it’s done by the people that do the Game or Makro Black Friday sales catalogs. It’s a complete mess and has zero sponsorship appeal.

Yikes. That’s a good setup if you don’t mind a sore arse or saddle sores 🤣

Agree with this. Or a gravel bike with suspension and MTb tyres. It’s odd that if you call something a gravel race people automatically think a rigid gravel bike with 45’s is a good choice. All you had to do was look at the route and ask people to know how rough it is out there.

No one’s comparing them.

I think he saw the potential in this format but saying he copied those events is a bit much. I’ve done most of the races on your list and gravel burn is nothing like them. The OG gravel race in the western Cape (drop bar) is the Tour of Ara followed up Karoobaix. All of the events you listed took inspiration from what Stan started and added their own flavor to it. I think we should rather celebrate the fact that we have another race rather than criticize. I’m probably never going to do gravel burn but I’m happy it exists.

The first year of many events often attracts the dreamers. The inexperienced. Like you I suspect many don’t know what they are in for 😫

It did hit a sharp edge. A dog knocked it over and the guys bike hit a low planters box edge. Cracked just like in the image. By definition, a rejected or denied warranty claim is no longer a warranty claim, but rather a denied claim. Your inability to understand this concept is perhaps why you have writers block.

I’ve seen lightweight mountain bike frames break at that exact point from falling over. It’s a vulnerable point. If you buy a light weight frame that’s the risk.