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SA's most technical MTB race?


Rock Guy

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Put away all genitalia and stop measuring to compare. Anyone can dump a pile of rocks and call it the most technical mtb race around. Yawn it would also be a crap race. If You want a real challenge, create a route with the right balance of technical downhills whilst keeping the flow and views and making an incredibly enjoyable ride and most memorable route. A route that you say man that was just perfect, not man that was the most technical. 

 

Waste of time- Ya it is the most tech race, we walked half and enjoyed none of it but it was the most technical. 

 

Did you even read the original post ???

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The thing with the Magalies Monster is that its all rideable but...there are no free miles and max concentration if you want to get home in one piece. At the end know you have ridden a one day MTB race. At the front or back of the race.

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The thing with the Magalies Monster is that its all rideable but...there are no free miles and max concentration if you want to get home in one piece. At the end know you have ridden a one day MTB race. At the front or back of the race.

 

The one thing that always got me on Magalies Monster was the sandpits. the huge amount of loose sand where there was just nowhere to hide or ride to avoid it. I never crashed but saw a couple of people caught out and OTB. Then the rocks... endless rocks, rocks on the climbs, Rocks on the downhills...

 

Many of the local races are really technical - depends how fast you are going...

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Another one is the Gansbaai 1 or 2 day event. 50km on one day that had people gasping for breath and walking the most fun tech bits.

High up on my list is a small race at Flowervallei farm up in the Gansbaai's hills with an innocent hippy name. Modest 50km. A mix of natural rough mountain tracks and rocky abandoned jeep tracks and some connecting dirt roads. Halfway in the race a flock of wild horses burst out of the Fynbos and demolished the track in front of me at full tilt. I shat my pants. The last 3km to the finish dropped you from the top of the hills down to the farm on a steep overgrown jeep track strewn with large loose rocks and deep ruts hidden by the high grass. I LOVE bombing down steep **** at the edge of control but this was scary at speed. Halfway down I stopped to collect myself, straighten my brains, look at my pounding arms and screaming what the hell was happening...It was flippin' awesome

 

This event had all what I love about mountain biking. It was out in nature, beautiful, rough and natural, challenging and technical yet simplistic. 

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High up on my list is a small race at Flowervallei farm up in the Gansbaai's hills with an innocent hippy name. Modest 50km. A mix of natural rough mountain tracks and rocky abandoned jeep tracks and some connecting dirt roads. Halfway in the race a flock of wild horses burst out of the Fynbos and demolished the track in front of me at full tilt. I shat my pants. The last 3km to the finish dropped you from the top of the hills down to the farm on a steep overgrown jeep track strewn with large loose rocks and deep ruts hidden by the high grass. I LOVE bombing down steep **** at the edge of control but this was scary at speed. Halfway down I stopped to collect myself, straighten my brains, look at my pounding arms and screaming what the hell was happening...It was flippin' awesome

 

This event had all what I love about mountain biking. It was out in nature, beautiful, rough and natural, challenging and technical yet simplistic. 

some details of that Hippy ride please. Website?

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some details of that Hippy ride please. Website?

It was called 'Funky Fynbos Festival'. Haven't seen any announcement for this year's event yet. When I rode it was a 1 day affair. Last year it was a 2 day event. Not sure if it was successful. I hope it was. The trails would deserve it.

There are a number of other events in Gansbaai, like the Great White MTB this weekend. Not sure if the use the same routes though.

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It was called 'Funky Fynbos Festival'. Haven't seen any announcement for this year's event yet. When I rode it was a 1 day affair. Last year it was a 2 day event. Not sure if it was successful. I hope it was. The trails would deserve it.

There are a number of other events in Gansbaai, like the Great White MTB this weekend. Not sure if the use the same routes though.

In 2018 it was fairly successful and started and finished at Lomond Estate. The turnout is never massive and the work involved is huge so I think they are weighing up whether to run it again this year.

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Look, as has been mentioned and we all know "technical" means different things to different people. And I sometimes even find myself wishing for some fast open stretches in races as I'm fatigued from concentrating and just want to get on with it. Okay, there I said it.

 

For context, I've done XCO, Epic and plenty more. If by technical one means rocky it always surprises me that the X-Terra ( not a "MTB" race but that's my point) is so technical. I find it more technical than the MTB races (admittedly it was a fraction tamer this year & better thought out). I feel for those poor pure swimmers taking on the whole event. But then I think they don't really worry while pushing my head under water and swimming over me, so I just bomb down in front of them with a clear conscience. 

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Most technical stage race for me would be the route around my wife if I tell her I want to do the Epic.

Lots of uphill and rock gardens, and I might just end up on a single track after that.

I remember the correct term for jeep track as per the Land Rover technical terrain videos is 'dual single track......' 

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