Garden Route Events remove the sting from the 2016 GR300

[News bot]

The traditionally tough Garden Route 300 will be significantly easier on the legs in 2016, as race director Pax Mostert has taken the decision to shorten the daily distances and cut down on the meters of climbing. The GR Lite follows a similar trend, with the emphasis on packing the Lite route with as much great riding as possible – without the sting in the tail.

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[Oufy MTB (Roadie)]

Ok, was going to do this but no thank you, its an expensive trip and must be worth it, iow, I wanna suffer. I thought the lite is their for those that just want to take it easy

[Jocklaw]

I don't think the distance or climbing needed attention, but it may be sensible for those doing Epic.  The senseless portage and copious dirt road riding is what spoiled last year's event for me. The bike park on day 2 is a welcome addition. I think the changes will be good!

[Slowbee]

seems to me you can only do this ride if you have an entry to the epic.

 

so now we have rides that "prep" you for the "epic"

[Clinton H]

Done it last year once last year and it was awesome , I'm sure the new format will make it even better .

[tunariaan]

catering for the dirt roadie market!

[Jaco-fiets]

Jeez if it still has that much climbing how much did it actually have? Still looks like a proper 3 days of hard riding to me!!

[PeterF]

seems to me you can only do this ride if you have an entry to the epic.

 

so now we have rides that "prep" you for the "epic"

It does not mention anything about the Epic on the entry.  They just mentioned in the article that it was "traditionally seen as a warm up event for the Epic".

[T-Bob]

Red route in reverse... Jeez I wouldn't be super pumped for all the stair work which is fun on the normal way around. Doesn't it also take the fun DH (as in it goes down hill not is a DH section) single track section and then make it a climb and all the descending parts are now pretty average, wide jeep track?

[sometime]

I've done this event a few times and always regarded it as one of the better stage races on the calendar and a real challenge. The Lite version was introduced to cater for those not up to the challenge of 3 days of good, hard marathon racing so why they are now 'dumbing down' the real race is a mystery to me. I'll give it a miss this year.

[janneman72]

50 odd riders lined up at the GR300 this morning, some got lost on the way out in the neutral zone and the rest had this to say. How do you run out of water if theres 50 riders?