Underachiever

Love them, heritage but the price tag!!!

Agree, we were there in December, and the rebuild was done to a stunning standard. Gasped when I saw the table at the picnic site at Eerste Water halfway covered in sand from the flood. It was a serious amount of water that came down the pass.

These youngsters, probably Pieter Avenant and the gang!!! Mind you, we went quite fast at the recent one too. 200km is the new 100km. The 600km will (should) be slow...

Treat it like you treat an Audax ride. Start slowish, and then go even slower. You'll be fine!!

Don't have the answer, but it makes more sense to have the WP at the bottom of the pass. At the top, is only the 16km downhill back to PA left. Hope your dream doesn't come true :-)

You can get the Maxxis and Kendas from CWC. I'm trialling a set of Flintridge's currently - tubeless. Nice and wide, but a tad heavy. Rolls nicely on the tar.

Not sure if there will be any bad corrugated sections on the GF. Perhaps a bit going down Swartberg.

Throwing more sponsors at a possible problem doesn't guarantee success. Time will tell as Frosty says. Methinks I'll skip the race, to 1st see if the organisers are worth their salt. Which frees up some cash for a lekker dinner with the family.

A route change is not really newsworthy. Lemme guess, no road closure...

Avid BB7's takes you 2 min to set up. Easy peasy.

For normal gravel grinding, no. Mechanical more than ok. Not sure if you need more when descending Swartberg pass at speed for example.

Classy!! Pity about the Shimano!!

You seem very set on the geometry/spec of the bike. R30k wouldn't buy you top class stuff. You will most likely get a decent frame, Shimano 105 or similar. OEM wheels, Unlikely to have hydraulic brakes. There is no reason on why a Cx biased bike would not do what you want to do. The geometry is not that different, but I realise it might be bike dependant. I have a Niner RLT (Cx/gravel mix) with mechanical discs. Frame geometry works well on gravel, and single track too. Mech brakes not the the best, but works very well for gravel grinding. The Giant TCX also needs to be on your list. I suggest to go a test ride a few bikes with different specs before being set on the final spec.

Love it DJR!!

Should be ok, if all the safety measures in place.

Read Vettes' race report, inspirational. Would love for him to share his training program with us. How far do you have to go to make this a reality.

Which group?

So their first cycle race!! Good luck. Seems they have some good cyclists giving them advice.

Hey Charles, I like your decent replies, so don't want to knock you, but I've done both the (long) Berge & Dale and RFS and the Pretoria road section is probably the worst of all the roads I train/race on in the East Rand, especially going South. From Petit Northbound, it's actually great. But if they are intending to fix the road/holes before the race, I'll be over the moon. Lekker roads for us to train on afterwards. :-)

The quality of the road further up Pretoria road is even worse, just before Jerry's there is a horrible stretch. And basically the entire stretch from the Rynfield Terrace intersection to Petit is rife with seriously dangerous potholes. What is actually needed is a 100% resurface Let's hope for the best

Not sure if you are trying to warn or comfort us with that statement. Looking at the general state of the roads and state of policing, perhaps the former? As reference, what other big events did the organiser do before?

What are the interest in this event? I had a more detailed look at the route. The sections south from the N12 looks like the normal roads we use during the Emperors, Carnival and RFS - so all good. As others stated, the route through Benoni (towards Baps) and back via R23/Atlas will be a serious safety issue if not managed very carefully. Can't seem to find anything on the website on full road closure? Not sure if I am willing to enter this one???

A compact crank with a 11 spd 32x12 or 40x12 will do the trick on a road/gravel bike if you want to be competitive. Just to finish, a HT MTB with gravel tyres to drop a bit of weight.

A great cover version of the Metallica original https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QohUdrgbD2k

Was nice meeting you :-) Was a lekker hard race, especially if you try keeping up with the 40+ Vets