Here’s the first in a series of videos featuring a Strava KOM on an uphill segment I created in the lockdowns in 2020 when we were absurdly allowed to exercise in a 5km radius of home and before 9am. 5 people have ridden it, I’m the fastest. It’s whereabouts used...
I rode my fourth 36one on the trot on residual fitness and did a fair amount of complaining and made many excuses. Still good fun. Despite vows to the contrary I may take on my fifth one next year. I can’t be the only one who doesn’t have that black...
One way of looking at the Munga Grit Tankwa is a 180km ride, then a hike up table mountain pushing your bike, then another 300km ride. But it is much harder than that, and more beautiful. This was my second attempt at the Tankwa Grit, the first ended at RV1,...
The start official chirped Breyton Paulse on the start line that he was going to have to pull D batch the whole way. “Why not?” he said. As it was he didn’t, a little group of riders that I think were seeded higher and had a late start came sprinting...
As I promised myself in the ongoing internal conversation that occupied many hours of difficult riding on the 2024 Munga, I gave myself a celebratory tattoo. I have drunk deep at the desert windmill that pumps the Munga cool-aid and so the artwork inked onto my right forearm by Marc...
Strava recently announced that it was changing the terms of service for the API that third party services like Training Peaks and my favourite Intervals.icu use to fetch training data into their platforms. Although it is not fully clear just how tight the controls and conditions imposed on the use...
The Munga is more than a bike race. To me it seems a container for a spiritual journey. The route is explicitly designed to take a rider on an inner sojourn as well as an outer pilgrimage across the most beautiful, harsh and ancient places of our land. The race...
The Munga is 6 days away. 1130km with a 120 hour cutoff from Bloemfontein to Wellington cross country on farm and dirt roads. The organizer sent a questionnaire looking for general biographical information and included the questions “Why are you doing this?” “Stretching the body to make room for the...
I knew it was going to be a long ride in the dark setting out because my partner, who is usually a stronger rider than I am, was spectacularly undertrained. Predictably we made excellent time to the first climb and then we didn’t anymore. I will say this for my...
Being humbled in the face of the hugeness of life, opens empathy and understanding for others. In the spirit of gonzo reporting here’s an account of an abortive attempt at the Munga Grit Tankwa 2024. I withdrew at race village one – after 17 hours and 219 of the hardest...
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