SSCC

Evil CH gravel bike. I did. Horrible.

This will surprise you. It actually climbed well but was a complete dog on the downs. Opposite of you would expect. Except on super smooth single track Then it was ok.

There is lots of data that shows that for off road riding that lower pressure is faster and obviously more comfortable. Basically as low as possible without pinch flatting or damaging a rim.

There are road rides that you can add a few really nice dirt bits to. But for actual gravel roads you need to go to the farmlands in the northern suburbs. The dirt along Rhodes drive, down to the Green Belt trails, through to Peddlers on the Bend then onto dirt all the way to Bootleggers in Tokai. You can actually ride on dirt all the way from the city bowl to Toaki but some of it is pretty chunky for a gravel bike. Doable for a challenge but it gets old if it's your regular ride.

I really would not waste money on the Rene Herse Fleecer Ridges. I have a few thousand Km's on a pair and they are ok but not worth the price. Overall the Mezcal is a better tyre. Just as fast, better grip, last way longer and they are about half the price if you get them on sale.

Totally agree with the less moaning comment. Events are hard to organize and run and **** goes wrong. BTW there are very few places in the world where riders are spoilt for off road race choices like they are in the Western Cape. For comparison a gravel event like this would cost R3k to R4k to enter in the States based on exchange rate. If you calculate it on actual cost of living in both countries it's more like R1,600 so R590 is pretty cheap. So forget about trying to get a free entry because you had to wait on the start line and support the people that put on these events.

You’re right. The 2nd hand market has certainly slowed. A lot. That’s not my opinion but comes from the largest used bike reseller worldwide - The Pros Closet.

Are you talking about the Look MTb for sale? That’s a discontinued Lauf MTB fork not their gravel fork. Worth? Probs R7 to R8k. They ride really well on gravel but are absolutely terrible forks for actual mountain biking.

Good article Stan. Dave is such a great guy and skilled craftsman. Dave built me a gravel frame designed for a 50mm suspension fork about 4 or 5 years ago. I've built up a lot of rigid and suspension gravel frames over the last 8 years and both can be great.

I'm not a big fan of Dryland as they seem to lack imagination and stick to their predictable formula. But they are an excellent logistics company and run events very well. This race has 6 water points and is really good value IMO. They have to staff an event like this for 24hrs on race day. Let alone the lead up to the event.

That seems to be the feeling of some regulars. Why do think that is? Some of the regulars riders were missing, the introduction of teams, drafting, less vibe…?

You can fly to Scotland and back and pay for 6 nights accommodation for R12,500??

Tour Divide is just one example. Free entry but the average rider will spend R35k just for food, drink and the some nights in cheap hotels on the route. Rest of the nights are in your tent or bivy.

Ambulance, food, beds are all essential services paid for by the race organizers from the entry fees. They are not sponsored. Prize money was sponsored. Some people that don't do these events don't seem to understand that almost no one is doing it for the prize money. Dot watchers and forum members seem fixated on the money but it's pretty much irrelevant. None of the big self supported or supported ultras have prize money. Silk road, Atlas, FC, Tour Divide, RAAM, RAA, PBP, CTR....zero prize money. And yes some of the "free" events will cost you more to do than the Munga. So if you link prize money to prestige you really don't understand these types of races or the people that do them.

Good point about incentives. They really should offer free / discounted entry to the podium finishers for the next year. We already know that internationals like Lachlan Morton, Lael Wilcox, Sofiane, Abdullah, Marco etc will race for no prize money. They don't need a carrot so why would a race organizer offer one?

Prize money always came from a title sponsor which they lost. It does not really make sense for the organizers to dip into their cash reserves to come up with prize money. My guess is they lose less than a handful of entires with no prize purse. It really has almost zero effect on the numbers.

1 Ac Swanepoel 2 Adriaan van Wyk 3 Alain Broglia 4 Alan Hardaker Hardaker 5 Andrew Gowans 6 Andrew Mobsby 7 Annatjie Van Wyk 8 Armin Botha 9 Aryna Edwards 10 Bertie Lourens 11 Bertie Beukes 12 Bianca Cooper 13 Billy Zwiegers 14 Bonny Swanepoel 15 Brand Pretorius 16 Carien Visser 17 Carlos Soares 18 Charles Viljoen 19 Cherise Odendaal 20 Chris Van Zyl 21 Cindy van Wyk 22 Clinton Halsey 23 Danie Hoffman 24 Darrell Breetzke 25 Dawid Malan 26 Dylan Pohlman 27 Elmien Beyers 28 Erika Kleijnhans 29 Fanie Venter 30 Fanie Van Zyl 31 Firoz Limalia 32 Flavio Scarpa 33 Francois Stapelberg 34 Francois Koekemoer 35 Francois Janse Van Rensburg 36 Franso Steyn 37 Fred Louw 38 Freddie Pienaar 39 Gerald Meyer 40 Gert Pienaar 41 Gert Fouche 42 Gert Pelser 43 Graham Brooks 44 Grant Van Der Wal 45 Gustav Smook 46 Guy Jennings 47 Hannes Basson 48 Hannes Dreeckmeier 49 Hansie Joubert 50 Harko De Boer 51 Harold Myburgh 52 Heinrich Olivier 53 Hendrik Kemp 54 Henk Gouws 55 Hennie Olivier 56 Henning Van Wyk 57 Yutani Doncaster 58 Jaap Beyers 59 Jaco Coetzee 60 Jaco Ferreira 61 Jaco Kamfer 62 Jaco Kruger 63 Jacques Swart 64 James Trubshaw 65 Jan Van Blerk 66 Jan Viljoen 67 Jeane Nel 68 Jeffery Struecker 69 Johan Fourie 70 Johan Potgieter 71 Johan Venter 72 Johan Van Niekerk 73 Johannes Smit 74 Joseph Richter 75 Jovan Jacobs 76 Jurjen Draaijer 77 Karina Britz 78 Keith Stacey 79 Kevin Benkenstein 80 Kevin Van Huyssteen 81 Kim Brearley 82 Leon Du Plessis 83 Leonard Martin 84 Lionel Nel 85 Lizette Brits 86 Lukas Marthinus Maree 87 Marco Martins 88 Marco Ferdinandi 89 Mario Santana 90 Marlise Roodt 91 Maroshell Odendaal 92 Martie Joubert 93 Martin Hansson 94 Martin Freyer 95 Mashabela Esau Tlhone 96 Massimo Mancini 97 Mc Dreyer 98 Miah Niecke Dreeckmeier 99 Michael Whitehouse 100 Micheal Mol 101 Michael Wilson 102 Michael Mortimer 103 Mickael Da Matha Sant'anna 104 Mike Woolnough 105 Mike Mike Roller 106 Mireille Koster 107 Mitch Jantjies 108 Neil Zietsman 109 Olebogeng Kgengwe 110 Oren Azmanov 111 Otto Van der Dussen 112 Paul Coetzee 113 Paul Rowe 114 Paul Andre Rossouw 115 Phillip Mulder 116 Piet Laubscher 117 Pieter Du Preez 118 Pieter Van Der Westhuizen 119 Ray Farrenkothen 120 Rebecca Van Huyssteen 121 Regardt Ferreira 122 Riaan Groenewald 123 Ricardo Stermin 124 Richard Joubert 125 Robert Lehmacher 126 Robert Barnard 127 Roelof Bonnet 128 Rohan Rossouw 129 Sam Marx Marx 130 Schalk Burger 131 Simon H Wentzel 132 Stephan Meyer 133 Stephan Grobler 134 Strehle Philippe 135 Terence Stewart 136 Theuns Koch 137 Thinus Redelinghuys 138 Timothy Calitz 139 Tobie Oosthuizen 140 Veli Mthethwa Mthethwa 141 Vera Reynolds 142 Vincent French 143 Wessel Van Der Merwe 144 Wessel Nel 145 Willem Brits

I love the Munga but you are right their media coverage is really terrible. The Munga social media pages are a mess. They look like their content was created by the same people that do media for Game, Makro or the Fish and Chips co.... Rhino Run, The Ceder, The Gallows all show what is possible without huge media budgets.

Benky just finished the 1st section of the race. He smashed the 726km Cross Cape route from Plett to Stellenbosch in 38hrs!! Insane.

Get aerobars that have stackable risers so you can raise the pads and extensions. Look at Profile Designs rather than the Farr products. For long distance off road riding you want the aerobars high, wide and as far back towards you as they will go. Think comfort and control not aero. Get the position right and it will become your most comfortable cycling position. Get it wrong and you won't end up using the aerobars very much at all.

Anyone know if Bainskloof Pass is now open?

Done both. So what..... It's all meaningless really.

Are they? What multi day full service overseas races are you comparing to?

Maybe. I think you would have to have done both to really have an informed opinion. On average over all 7 years you would have to be in the top 10 to go sub 3 in the Munga. The Munga has a deeper stronger field than the RTR so it's hard to know. We are just speculating. Mike W would know as he is maybe the only person to go sub 3 in both.

Agreed. The worlds toughest race tag line is complete bullocks. I would however say it's possibly, maybe, the toughest 3 day mountain bike event in the world. But that's not a good tag line.