Route

The gun goes at 17:00 outside Railways Café. You roll out of the historic diamond town of Cullinan into fast district roads while there's still light, then the sun drops and the real race begins.

Fast gravel, rolling farmland, big open skies. Get your pacing wrong here and you'll pay for it later, in the dark, alone.

Drop into the Loskop Dam bushveld, then start the long climb back out through the cold Mpumalanga night. The altitude creeps up. The temperature drops. The road gets harder.

This is where the race reveals itself - somewhere between Stoffberg and Korfnek, when the Steenkampsberg is still ahead and your legs have already given more than they thought they had.

The sting in the tail: Korfnek Pass at ~233km, then a grind up onto the highland plateau above 2,000m. A tough 20km climb to the line on already-spent legs.

Finish in Dullstroom at Dunkeld Country & Equestrian Estate as the sun comes up. Most riders roll in between early morning and midday Saturday.