MDJ

$ starting 6:00 # starting 6:05 % is starting 6:10

I wish I was fast/skilled? enough to push my tyres to those kind of limits . In my experience the grip is awesome on the GP5000s - much better than Gatorskins and on par with the best grip I've had on a road bike tyre. I've used both 25c and 28c - you get even more grip on 28c vs 25c. Just make sure you use proper sealant - Stans does not work, Revoseal has been good for me. Andreas swears by Orange Seal.

I've ridden those lanes about twice per week over the last 3 years on my road bike. Haven't had a puncture yet from devil thorns. What tyres are you running?

Two riders converged at higher speed as we hit the start of the hill and went straight into each other from the side - then came down taking a lot of us with them. It was surreal and silly (as most crashes normally are ). I was right behind them. I tried to hop over but came down, going to need a new helmet and front wheel rebuild - lucky to escape quite lightly . Ironically I'd been in front working in the pace line for quite a while, then thought, I'd move back into the bunch and save some matches for the final run in. Next up 99er, weather's looking good

Awesome race, flat and fast! Well organised to get a full event to run quite smoothly! Unfortunately I went down in the crash in B bunch about 11kms out, luckily no major damage done, TT to the finish. Looking forward to 99er next weekend ????

Haven't tried them, but I'm interested to hear your feedback, I like trying new things. GP5000TLs have been my best tubeless by far, CWC has a special on them atm 899.

Ditto, also still waiting for some kind of communications. I'm collecting entries for others and planning on driving through with other ppl if the times make sense.

Nope - nothing showing on Racetec either

I love going up Constantia neck from the Hout bay side. There is a parallel road past world of birds where you can ride the first half and miss the taxis etc. I normally ride up Constantia neck two or three times a week, generally around 6.30 am to be back in Claremont by 7. The sweepers over Rhodes drive make the climb worth it. Rhodes drive traffic before 7 is pretty quite and on the descent your doing close to the speed the cars do. Stick left, be sensible - great route imho ????

Well one of the cool things with tubeless is you can run lower pressures for more comfort, better cornering grip - especially on crap roads (increasingly common in SA ). The minute you have a tube in, you risk pinch flats at lower pressures - sealant in a tube won't solve that. Its not a huge issue at higher pressures, but I normally ride 80psi - I've been as low as 60 psi on 28mm tyres and I've hit potholes in a bunch that would have been a guaranteed pinch flat when I rode tubes. I think the other reason would be maintenance, how do you know how much sealant is left in the tube, how do you top it up? ... you also can't just plug a bigger hole. So yeah those would be practical reasons why I'd think they aren't hugely popular ...

I checked out the dart plug, looks pretty interesting. I'm wondering however what happens if you need to put a tube in i.e if you've got one or two darts in and then have a big slash and need to put in a tube in - won't the tip of the darts puncture the tube . I know this probably won't happen often - having to plug a hole in the first place is quite rare in my 2 years of tubeless experience.

Looking forward to it, my first race for 2020 ????. Weather is looking good so far. Seems it might thankfully be quite a bit cooler in the morning, may need a warm-up for hels ????

Awesome, thanks for the info, will definitely try some WP Cycling events this year ????

The PPA website isn't great, but at least its kind of logical. The WP Cycling one however .... maybe I'm just silly, but I can't seem to find a simple list of the road events for this year. It seems to all lead to an empty calendar with only WP Champs this weekend?

Sad news, it went from 5 to 6 then 8 - now zero. It was really cool to have so many additional 'safe' road event options - I managed to do most of them, but the numbers last year at a few sportives were very low, so I can understand that it was not sustainable to have 8. In my opinion it would be great if there was series of 5 sportive events spread over August to December. There are quite a few guys I ride with who are just getting into cycling and these were great events to get used to 'larger' bunches, have a good race workout and get into the seeding system. Guess I'm gonna have to try some of the WP Cycling events now

Cool, ditto. My plug is still holding up great after about 800kms. Stan's doesn't work well on road tubeless in my experience. Continental revoseal has been pretty good. I have yet to try the mystical orange seal, wish a local online/lbs would stock it.

I bought a pair from Cyclelab on a Black Friday deal. They seem to be made of a new slightly thinner material than the S7's I bought a while back - apparently weight savings . The feel is very similar to the S7, no big seams, super smooth - with floating padding. I prefer the straps on the S7 though. Its been about 1 month using them once/twice a week and so far they've been great. I'm hoping they last as long as the S7s I have which are one of my favorite bibs.

Three more rides planned, should make 12,000km - big year for me

Normally resting under 50, high from the last sportif ... if only it correlated with 50 watts more power ????. Can't say I wasn't trying though!

Heart rate is very individual as per comments above. I wouldn't worry too much about the numbers you posted if that has been your 'normal' for a while. I'm over 40 and mine will go up to 210 on some rides if its a hot a day and I'm pushing up long climbs (chest strap). If I'm doing a road race it may average 180 for the ride. Its been like that for nearly 3 years and I haven't had any issues.

Previously yes - same sealant, I did around 8000kms over 11 months without any issues (luck?). This one was however a new tyre 28mm bought about 1 month ago for my new bike, running continental RevoSealant. I think the LBS put in a bit too little sealant and it was still bedding down - gonna try top it up next week. Looked like glass cuts, I pulled out a few pretty big shards from both tyres, we've had rain in CT the last few mornings.

I didn't have any joy with super glue when I tried that. After 1 year without issues I noticed my front GP5000TLs tubeless tyre was flat yesterday, found a hole when I tried to pump it - seems the sealant has mostly dried. I plugged it with a slug plug yesteday and cut it flush with side cutters. I did a 60km ride today and it felt really good. I'm gonna try get one of the ryder kits - so much easier if you could plug vs having to take everything apart.

The new bike really looks awesome, congrats again . I love your write ups - thank you! I still get dropped, just have a slightly higher average speed most of the time . The A-B group was hectic as mentioned, nice to see the breaks and chase downs up-front in person. Not so nice to have to pick between going over the line or suffering in the wind. Its a race I guess so guys push hard and don't want to give anything away, if they kept left there would have been so much more space. At least when the bunch split at around 70kms our little group of 6 worked well in the wind, rode a better formation - much more sensible for a 'funride'. I feel sorry for the bike marshalls - they did an awesome job as always and really tried to keep everyone safe . Cars passing on left, oncoming traffic - some serious thinking about why it has to be like that, guess I'm not cut our for the racing group ...

Checkout https://brakkies.photofrog.co.za some really awesome shots from the event.

Sportive 7 was originally supposed to happen in October, but they rescheduled it to December due to lack of entries on the original date. The date for 8 was already set and I think this was the only weekend that made sense. Logistically the routes and venue's differ etc. See you at the start line ????