The Munga Postponed – World’s toughest race faces a tough challenge

...........

The question is how do the industry go about interrogating the event orginiser to ensure that his public statements were accurate?

Easy.....get the man a login for the hub and you'll have answers by close of business today

What a monumental f-up!!!

 

was really excited to watch this one from the sidelines. NOW I would really love to know: how they going to deal with this? what happened to all the claims 'this is definitely going to happen' ? the lawyers letter sent out saying the prize money was already in trust ? 

 

That was a piss poor attempt at a press release imo... who pulled out? Name and shame. I actually feel really sorry for Mr. Harris... can't be nice situation to be in with all the hype. Hope he has a serious PR team in place for this one...

um ja, exactly. but Alex has pushed the boundaries on what he does as his 'job' before and how he funds it. He's unique and successful at it, so this made some sort of sense in a weird way. He made his bed with all the hype and now needs to face up to the music or lose credibility.

I'm pretty sure one of my first queries was about the actual route. Only releasing it the day before got me suspicious, all they really had was some swish powerpoints.

Entry change to R60/70k (people will pay this for braggin rights), and adjust the prize money accordingly - would still be off the charts big $$$ as far as Mtb goes!

 

In it's current guise they will never get rider confidence back imho

Remember officially the entry charges weren't supposed to cover the prize money.

So I think the entry fee can be as low as R40K - R50K per team to cover costs and a little profit.

Get a headline sponsor for the prize money.

And drop that stupid lucky draw idea, the race&route should be drawcard enough on its own, this is not a stokvel with a race attached to it.

And once you got the numbers you can hike the entry fee & prize money accordingly, seems Harris were trying to do it the other way around.

Cool, now I can try and find a benefactor to sponsor my entry for when it happens, and I have some time to train

Makes two of us...

This reminds me of when one of my mates tried to produce his own reality show called "The Model Millions" on SABC3.  They got 2 episodes in and sponsor pulled out, show collapsed.  Never got it back up again.

um ja, exactly. but Alex has pushed the boundaries on what he does as his 'job' before and how he funds it. He's unique and successful at it, so this made some sort of sense in a weird way. He made his bed with all the hype and now needs to face up to the music or lose credibility.

 

I'm pretty sure one of my first queries was about the actual route. Only releasing it the day before got me suspicious, all they really had was some swish powerpoints.

The event never really subscribed to the laws of your basic mtb model as it had a billionaire backer, and that sort of money can quite frankly turn any dream into a reality. The problem now of course is that backer is no longer there for whatever reason/s

Alex Harris is a man with big ideas and he has accomplished more on and off the bike than many of us could ever even dream too - I hope he can get this baby back off the ground   

PS: The the "I told you so" brigade - the noddy badges are in the post 

The event never really subscribed to the laws of your basic mtb model as it had a billionaire backer, and that sort of money can quite frankly turn any dream into a reality. The problem now of course is that backer is no longer there for whatever reason/s

 

Alex Harris is a man with big ideas and he has accomplished more on and off the bike than many of us could ever even dream too - I hope he can get this baby back off the ground   

 

PS: The the "I told you so" brigade - the noddy badges are in the post 

Maybe go more Freedom Challenge & less Hollywood?

The event never really subscribed to the laws of your basic mtb model as it had a billionaire backer, and that sort of money can quite frankly turn any dream into a reality. The problem now of course is that backer is no longer there for whatever reason/s

 

Alex Harris is a man with big ideas and he has accomplished more on and off the bike than many of us could ever even dream too - I hope he can get this baby back off the ground   

 

PS: The the "I told you so" brigade - the noddy badges are in the post 

Why pull the backing at this late stage, when you have put so much in? there has to be quite a serious reason for it...would love to have been a fly on the wall. 

Makes two of us...

We go for the win .

The question is how do the industry go about interrogating the event orginiser to ensure that his public statements were accurate?

Wyatt can interview Alex on his radio show.... #justsaying...

I am sure Alex will be absolutely gutted by this - but he is not a man who gives up at the first hint of trouble...

Bring on next year...

Wyatt can interview Alex on his radio show.... #justsaying...

 

I am sure Alex will be absolutely gutted by this - but he is not a man who gives up at the first hint of trouble...

 

Bring on next year...

Sounds like a plan, anyone know how I can get hold of him ?

 

 

 

(Andrew - sorry if it appears that I pick on your posts, nothing personal - I will wear my noddy badge with pride   )

 

It would be interesting to know what happened with the whole billionaire backer thing, what was in it for the guy in the first place? If it was a vanity project why did we barely heard of him (if it was the porche guy), if he was hoping to get some return on his investment what went wrong (not enough entries? numbers not adding up?)

 

Would like to hear "Mr Tread's" take on this, he was always enthusiastically punting this race on Twitter, and first with breaking news regarding The Munga until yesterday.

 

Michael and Alex are friends (well hopefully still are) - it was Alex's dream, and he wanted people to recognise some of the less flashier names out there, who are just as tough (if not tougher) than the Sauser's and Platt's of this world. The money would pull in everyone, would give credence to the title of the Toughest race on earth. While a physical race, it would also push the mental boundaries of riders beyond anything they had ever imagined.

I mean come one, I'd give my left nut (excuse the pun) to watch Sauser, Platt, Armstrong, English, Juarez, Dreyer etc killing each other on their bikes after 800km's of racing   

It's still an awesome idea in my view, the sums just need to be ammended 

Michael and Alex are friends (well hopefully still are) - it was Alex's dream, and he wanted people to recognise some of the less flashier names out there, who are just as tough (if not tougher) than the Sauser's and Platt's of this world. The money would pull in everyone, would give credence to the title of the Toughest race on earth. While a physical race, it would also push the mental boundaries of riders beyond anything they had ever imagined.

 

I mean come one, I'd give my left nut (excuse the pun) to watch Sauser, Platt, Armstrong, English, Juarez, Dreyer etc killing each other on their bikes after 800km's of racing   

 

It's still an awesome idea in my view, the sums just need to be ammended 

I doubt Sauser and Platt will still be giving Juarez a hard time after 800 k's.

Would also be interested to know how / if there were any hyping 'incentives' to the press /  journalists / industry players etc

Was the game to hype the event to the point where punters (oops almost said suckers) would part with their R110k+ for fear of being left out of something great and really important?

That's how most PR/Advertising works, the IT industry being a prime example.

Obviously enough people didn't take the bait to pay for the  million $ prize.

(Andrew - sorry if it appears that I pick on your posts, nothing personal - I will wear my noddy badge with pride )

 

It would be interesting to know what happened with the whole billionaire backer thing, what was in it for the guy in the first place? If it was a vanity project why did we barely heard of him (if it was the porche guy), if he was hoping to get some return on his investment what went wrong (not enough entries? numbers not adding up?)

 

Would like to hear "Mr Tread's" take on this, he was always enthusiastically punting this race on Twitter, and first with breaking news regarding The Munga until yesterday.

Pity this has gone down the tube, I was looking forward to following this race. .

Perhaps too big a promise with not enough backup and the mistake of relying solely on one big sponsor.

Sounds like a plan, anyone know how I can get hold of him ?

alex@xplorethisworld.com 

Maybe go more Freedom Challenge & less Hollywood?

He wanted to give those guys the recognition they deserve (FC, Great Divide etc), force the pro's into their domain, drag in the 24hr racers etc - the money was the bait, and if it worked, the winner would be the worthy, for the "Toughest Race on Earth"

Sounds like a plan, anyone know how I can get hold of him ?

Sent you his number...

Sounds like a severe case of Ducks-not-Lined-up to me.

Michael and Alex are friends (well hopefully still are) - it was Alex's dream, and he wanted people to recognise some of the less flashier names out there, who are just as tough (if not tougher) than the Sauser's and Platt's of this world. The money would pull in everyone, would give credence to the title of the Toughest race on earth. While a physical race, it would also push the mental boundaries of riders beyond anything they had ever imagined.

 

I mean come one, I'd give my left nut (excuse the pun) to watch Sauser, Platt, Armstrong, English, Juarez, Dreyer etc killing each other on their bikes after 800km's of racing   

 

It's still an awesome idea in my view, the sums just need to be ammended 

Geepers you did not mention the forbidden outcast did you ...

Now that would bring in the $$$$ methinks

I doubt Sauser and Platt will still be giving Juarez a hard time after 800 k's.

Well that's what I wanted to know 

Sounds like a plan, anyone know how I can get hold of him ?

Sorry to hear that. Hope they keep trying to get it off the ground.