How do endurance cycling events compare to other sport disciplines?

[YetiDJ]

As 2017 cyclists, we now have:

 

The "Tamed" Epic (it was hot)

The "Sanitised" Sani (it rained and was cold)

The "Cancelled" CT Cycle Tour (the wind blasted)

The "Lost" LeTape (there were pot holes, so was cancelled)

 

And yet:

 

The Dusi Canoe Marathon had no water coming out of Inanda dam, on day 3, resulting in paddlers portaging their 20kg canoes over 20km's, in near 40 degree temps and high humidity,

 

The Tailrunners ran the Mboweni marathon, on the same weekend as Sani over 38kms with 1800m climbing upto 3000m to crest the Drakensberg, in metre deep snow, so one could not even see the narrow foot path, with no signage, poor visibilty at times, and little realistic chance of medical evacuation, with a cut off time of 12 hours

 

And looking further into out most popluar event, the Sani2c, with an impressive world record breaking stats of 4500 riders, there was not only the natural filter of 3 "different levels of riders in the 3 events" eliminating the two thirds of "social riders" from risk and only having SA's best mtb'ers who chose to enter the "Race" having the ability to be challenged in technical situations (mud), there was also the safety of rerouting day 2 (hence creating the shorter, but "safe" route) which could have been raced (?), but was "sanitised" to a neutral stage...

 

It's gotta be tough to the make the call...(safety first!)