The Ouzo

this is what I use. The one I have is rather thick to be used neat.

I've worked the terrain of my daily route into interval training. There are a few inclines, although not perfectly and evenly spaced apart, that I use for my short intervals. A couple of them can also be used for slightly longer intervals too. vs doing similar efforts on the IDT I've found the time goes by much quicker outdoors.

Last ride for a while. My bike leaves tomorrow for it’s trip to Cape Town via PE.

companies generally have more commercial use gennies. Built to last longer and do heavier lifting, but there comes a time when parts become hard or impossible to find. We have been without a gennie at work for abotu 6 weeks now because we are waiting for certain parts where the gennie tech has not been able to mcgyver the thing

Also I have my doubts that the 30k generator will still be running and serviceable in 10 year should the continued loadshedding continue

I would think it would be frustrating. IF you're 100% clean and have worked your butt off to get to the level you are on and random keyboard warriors assume you took the "easy" route. I have no skin in this game. I perhaps naively like to think that athletes are clean, but I've been proved wrong many times (hello Lance).

if I'm reading correct the battery is rechargeable. So, realistically, how long before that battery is toast ? If you're not running it dead all the time then it should be a number of years correct ? By that time there will most likely be something newer, "better", etc. around.

47, so I've still got 40 years. Which is awesome. My dad is 76 next week and still riding his bike.

re: the stop riding blasphemy that has been spoken about in this thread. Health (and finances) permitting, I want to be well into my 80s and still riding bikes.

I guess part of the reason I work so hard in races is because I no longer like to sit sheltered in the middle of a bunch. Having gone down a number of years back due to someone doing something stupid further up, I now stay on the outer edges or out front. Trying never to get boxed in.

you make its sound easy. I bled through my ears doing a 3:40 (my best time) 2 years back. I've set a goal of 3:20 for this year and am wondering if I'm even capable of that. Sub3 is a distant wet dream

when in doubt, go flat out

someone posted a nice graph a good few pages back indicating the median times per start group, my guess would be that those groups with more finishers in the sub 3 would have less aggression mid pack. Or, if you're really strong, starting in a group where the front outliers did sub 3 would put you in a smaller bunch with hopefully less aggression

its a bit late to be worrying about that. you should already have a seeding group that you should be starting in

hahaha, no i'm talking about the alley way between the spez shop and motherland

2 weeks to go and the tail wind to the finish is still predicted

just an "alley way" that separate them.

Maybe its just me. But there have been a few threads where, to me, you've come across as being new to the sport. But like I said, probably just me. I'm not on any witch hunts so wont be going to find those posts. I'll make peace with the fact that I'm getting old and cranky.

Something I never knew was a thing is fracture rib cartlidge. I only discovered this 30 years ago, showing off my water skiing skills to a bunch of girls on the boat. A manouvre that I had pulled plenty of times before, except this time I went down. And somehow the water was hard. Since then I've managed to crack that same cartlidge twice more. Its not fun. But as others have said, as you get older you stop bouncing and start crumbling. As a roadie I like to think that what I lack in confidence, I make up for with experience.

OP it might just be me misreading or something, but your various posts confuse me. One moment you come across as a complete newbie into the sport, and then in another thread you are dishing our advise like you've been doing this sport for many years. Sorry, this is off topic and it aimed more at me trying to understand you

Which route are you taking from the Ton to Bedford ? I did no riding today. Was hoping to get a long one in as it’s my last chance before my bike heads to Cape Town, but a stomach bug yesterday sapped me of energy so I slept in. I did however cut the grass and give the bike a thorough cleaning.

this is one of those threads that i didnt even need to open to know what the comments would be.

My uneducated guess is that you had one weak one, when it went the extra force took the others out.

100% I thoroughly enjoyed starting further back last year and pulling the group along. Had one of my most enjoyable CTCTs ever.

this weather report is only accurate as of right now, in an hours time it will no longer be accurate.