[Event] The Munga MTB 2017

[Calculus Bikes]

Glad his back on the "saddle"

 

Had a great ride the Jean this morning, picked his brain about the Munga. Hot as hell apparently! What a lekker oke and his bike <3

Awesome coffee ride

[D4N1E]

Andy Masters from Massive Adventures offers the Karoo Dash (which is essentially a very similar route) or the 1000 miler (Jhb-Cape Town) for a vastly reduced sum, but it's basically unsupported, check out the website (massiveadventures,co.za). 

At R5600 completely unsupported this is barely a bargain. And when you then add in your nights accommodation for 10 days this will rapidly add up as well as all your food and drink expenses as well as any backup support you might require. For me the challenge would be to complete the event in the allocated time and as eddy said in his post this is the challenge. Anyone can go on a cycling "holiday" but you dont have the same time constraints/pressures. 

 

Why enter any races most of them you can go and do your own weekend jaunt with your mates but we enter them to challenge ourselves and push ourselves outside of our comfort zones.

[eddy]

 

 

Why enter any races most of them you can go and do your own weekend jaunt with your mates but we enter them to challenge ourselves and push ourselves outside of our comfort zones.

 

 

This ^^^^^^^

[Moriarty]

At R5600 completely unsupported this is barely a bargain. And when you then add in your nights accommodation for 10 days this will rapidly add up as well as all your food and drink expenses as well as any backup support you might require. For me the challenge would be to complete the event in the allocated time and as eddy said in his post this is the challenge. Anyone can go on a cycling "holiday" but you dont have the same time constraints/pressures. 

 

Why enter any races most of them you can go and do your own weekend jaunt with your mates but we enter them to challenge ourselves and push ourselves outside of our comfort zones.

It's not completely unsupported, Andy tracks everyone on the race 24/7 and is always in contact, you also have a very experienced sports doctor (Liz) on call as medical support, also 24/7. Your daily costs are unlikely to go above R400 so you are looking at 10 days for under R10000, and that's if you are going at a fairly relaxed pace. Granted it's a COMPLETELY different event and not really a race but if you aren't a contender for places but still want the karoo experience.................... 

[Sepia]

"Holiday" or Race all have places.

[mrcg]

So just been looking up prices here. For that price you can fly to Ireland compete in the 7 day wild Atlantic way 2100km event for €325. Not every year though... Next one in 900 days

 

http://www.wawaudax.com/faqs.html

Yes....but then you're not riding the awesome Karoo...in your own country...supporting your own people.....etc.

Nothing wrong with doing those overseas races - they are interesting and "worthy".

However, the whole cost discussion is a "moot conversation" for me - as a matter of perspective, the Munga organisers make no profit (according to them). So the costs for the organisation is massive. Ultimately if you want to do something, you gotto swallow the pill of paying for it....e.g. Epic.

Question is do you want it bad enough? An event is always also about camaraderie with a lot of support and safety put in place for you, as well as other conveniences (massages, mechanics, accommo etc.).

And yes, you can just go ride it with a few mates and organise and arrange all the necessary yourself. That's not a small admin exercise - I think many underestimate this aspect.

 

Anyway, each to their own and again, respect to all that attempted and a little more to those that finished.

[Stretch]

 

 

as a matter of perspective, the Munga organisers make no profit (according to them). .

I think you are being naive if your believe this. Of course he's making a profit... No matter how noble you are.. If you are organising an event.. You do it to make a profit.. You would...I would.. And he does.

 

I'm not being argumentative or dissing the event..I love the event... But it is expensive ... And my point was to give an example of a similar type event elsewhere in the world. Long distance... Short timeframe.. Grueling conditions.. And how it compares

[Moriarty]

Yes....but then you're not riding the awesome Karoo...in your own country...supporting your own people.....etc.

Nothing wrong with doing those overseas races - they are interesting and "worthy".

However, the whole cost discussion is a "moot conversation" for me - as a matter of perspective, the Munga organisers make no profit (according to them). So the costs for the organisation is massive. Ultimately if you want to do something, you gotto swallow the pill of paying for it....e.g. Epic.

Question is do you want it bad enough? An event is always also about camaraderie with a lot of support and safety put in place for you, as well as other conveniences (massages, mechanics, accommo etc.).

And yes, you can just go ride it with a few mates and organise and arrange all the necessary yourself. That's not a small admin exercise - I think many underestimate this aspect.

 

Anyway, each to their own and again, respect to all that attempted and a little more to those that finished.

Please don't misunderstand me here, I am a big fan of the Munga and hats off to Alex for a fantastic idea and event, but I don't believe that it doesn't generate a fairly substantial profit.

[gogo@]

This event is going to grow, no doubt about that, whether we think it's expensive or not.

For some (like me) the entry fee is too much right now, but it's hitting a spot.

I was looking at LEL a few years ago which sounds like a total blast, so does PBP.  But much prefer the idea of the Munga.  Solitude, space, heat, craziness, and everything else.

I'd like to do both - tour and Munga - for different reasons.

Meantime, it's incredibly inspiring following the Munga stories.

[Shebeen]

 

However, the whole cost discussion is a "moot conversation" for me - as a matter of perspective, the Munga organisers make no profit (according to them). 

I'm not really in for discussing business plans, but since this is pretty open knowledge.

 

Let's just conservatively say the 100 odd people all pay the R15k early bird entry fee.

That's a R1.5m budget before any sort of sponsors.

 

You can give yourself a monthly salary of R100k out of that and it definitely won't make a profit.

A lot of the groundwork was done for the first one and hasn't really changed. Munga trail, probably ran at a loss this year.

 

For me the Munga really needs to get to back to the initial plan of $1m all in for the winner. I'm a little bit disappointed that crazy money wasn't thrown at the winner with the increased entry from this year and last, as there should have been money in the pot for this. R40k is not bad, but come in 2nd and you don't even cover your entry fee! BUT it's not my race, so it's just comment and opinion.

 

entries numbers have been: 

2015 - 42

2016 - 85

2017 - 104

[Andrew Steer]

I'm not really in for discussing business plans, but since this is pretty open knowledge.

 

Let's just conservatively say the 100 odd people all pay the R15k early bird entry fee.

That's a R1.5m budget before any sort of sponsors.

 

You can give yourself a monthly salary of R100k out of that and it definitely won't make a profit.

A lot of the groundwork was done for the first one and hasn't really changed. Munga trail, probably ran at a loss this year.

 

For me the Munga really needs to get to back to the initial plan of $1m all in for the winner. I'm a little bit disappointed that crazy money wasn't thrown at the winner with the increased entry from this year and last, as there should have been money in the pot for this. R40k is not bad, but come in 2nd and you don't even cover your entry fee! BUT it's not my race, so it's just comment and opinion.

 

entries numbers have been: 

2015 - 42

2016 - 85

2017 - 104

I seriously, seriously doubt the Munga is making anything near a decent profit, if anything... When the entries get above 150 I reckon they will be in business and hopefully in a position to elevate the rider experience and coverage a bit more... hopefully that is next year 

[Andrew Steer]

PS: Would still absolutely love to see the big money on the line for this and all the worlds best dicing it out in a place so far from their comfort zones. We're a long way from there though sadly I feel

[Fat Boab]

PS: Would still absolutely love to see the big money on the line for this and all the worlds best dicing it out in a place so far from their comfort zones. We're a long way from there though sadly I feel

 

Imagine....The Anatomic Munga 2018. R1M sponsorship for a winner takes all 1st prize?!

 

Without putting you on the spot, and if I am, feel free to duck it, but hypothetically, do you reckon Anatomic could get greater than R1M advertising benefit from a R1M sponsorship? The answer might help give perspective to the difficulty in getting a R1M sponsor? 

[Andrew Steer]

Imagine....The Anatomic Munga 2018. R1M sponsorship for a winner takes all 1st prize?!

 

Without putting you on the spot, and if I am, feel free to duck it, but hypothetically, do you reckon Anatomic could get greater than R1M advertising benefit from a R1M sponsorship? The answer might help give perspective to the difficulty in getting a R1M sponsor? 

 

You're spot on, there is simply no way we could even dream of doing something like this, we don't have the money and we also certainly couldn't leverage the kind of interest to make it viable for business...  A million rand first prize is also probably a R4million rand sponsorship. Another million for prize money, another million or two for marketing, rider sponsorships, leverage, branding, hospitality etc etc

 

There are plenty companies with that sort of money though, you just need to find the right one, one that feels they want the association, one that's principals maybe tie in with the event and one that can see the true potential available in the format. Imagine this race with 1000 riders, from all over the world, former Tour de france champs, Epic champs, Tour Divide Champs, 24hour champs, Olympians etc... The Toughest race on the Earth, the toughest athletes on earth blazing a trail through the Karoo at it's harshest. Imaging watching it all unfold i HD glory for 5 days straight. Imagine the stories, imagine the images...

 

Jirre that would be so so lekker 

[Shebeen]

PS: Would still absolutely love to see the big money on the line for this and all the worlds best dicing it out in a place so far from their comfort zones. We're a long way from there though sadly I feel

agreed. and the $1m was about R10m when it was announced mid 2014...now it's closer to R14m!

 

I don't know how these sort of deals work out, but you could get some sort of return for a really far out race like if you could entice sauser and lakata rocking up with a big carrot.

[Andrew Steer]

agreed. and the $1m was about R10m when it was announced mid 2014...now it's closer to R14m!

 

I don't know how these sort of deals work out, but you could get some sort of return for a really far out race like if you could entice sauser and lakata rocking up with a big carrot.

Ja of course, it was $1million... That's big big money locally! That would be the only way to get all the big guns across. Proper prep and recovery for something like this is probably at least half a year for a top athlete - the carrot needs to be huge