All the top guys there say it’s the hardest so that’ll do for me. Idita etc aren’t races as such they’re time trials. And in comparison to something like Cape Epic Ironbike has nearly 3 times the climbing. The remoteness of some of the stages is epic! properly scary stuff! That’s why numbers are so limited so they can go more extreme than anything else
Bike wise , light and strong, 29er carbon Ht, dropper post, so my Scale which was ideal last year unless I come into some money and can build up an Ibis Ripley ! Need to be able to climb and descend well, I fitted a reverb, and a bigger 180 front disc and that was it. I will gear slightlt lower this time though 26/38 will be 24/38 this year with a 11-36