MDJ

Awesome event, the sticker system with roaming ladies seemed to work very well! I started in C-E, which is becoming less intimidating each time I line up. The starting pace was quite moderate with the only thing exploding seeming to be people's bikes! I saw three bikes self destruct in the first few km's, one poor lady's drive train literally exploded at about 3kms - I got hit by one of the flying bits, followed by the obligatory cursing you'd expect, luckily no injuries. The Simonsvlei sportif route is definitely one of my favorites, especially the section through Stellenbosch over Helshoogte through Pniel and into Franschoek, I could ride that road every weekend . My race was great overall, I went in with tired legs from the previous day's riding so was merely looking to enjoy the event and have a 'fun ride'. Thanks to PPA and everyone for organizing. The bike marshal for our group did a really great job - keeping cyclist safe and also waving cars to pass, thus avoiding frustration. Looking forward to the next one .

Broke my right clavicle about two years back - went OTB going down a MTB trail with a cyclo-cross bike in the rain. I still remember the loud crack during the wipe-out thinking that I'd probably broken something on the bike and cursing ... only to get up and find I was unable to lift up my right hand - at least the bike was fine Headed to the ER, X-Ray showed the bone fractured in three, but luckily the ligament was still holding on. It was too fractured for a plate so they opted to wait and see vs. putting a hook contraption into the shoulder joint. It worked out ok in the end - I was careful for two weeks, even sleeping with the sling. Then bought myself an indoor exercise bike, had to get a friend to come over and assemble it for me. Anyways getting to your questions. Yes my left hand/arm took strain for the first week, but it got better/stronger over the two months - I still use it way more today than I used to before. My left-hand writing improved to the point where other people can almost read it . I was on the indoor bike after about 2 weeks, but taking it easy. Other than getting on the bike before the 'advised' time - I did all the exercises. My physio was really awesome - she inflicted pain during our sessions, but it made sure I did the exercises. I was back on a road bike after 8 weeks. The shoulder healed quite well in the end - I have still have a slight bump on the shoulder, but its fine in terms of mobility strength etc. So yeah hang in there, invest in an IDT just to get your legs moving again and avoid a huge fitness drop off, it will also help you fight the urge to go out to soon. I'm sure your doc told that the main thing to avoid is another fall while its still healing in those first 6 weeks. It feels like ages, but its worth following the advice imho

So you might want to open and check your race number at the collection point - else you might just be called "Valentino" for the day ... true story . Seems at least for me in 1C they got the envelope vs the contents off by one! Damn I should know better than this by now . Possibly a sign that I should rather be on a motorbike given the current forecast!

Thanks for the reality check . I change my mind every 2 minutes on if I should ride or not - I'm going to at least go to the start and ride the first bit from town, if its howling in Fishhoek I'm turning back, would rather head out to Franshoek. That is the sane voice speaking before race adrenaline kicks in ... hopefully conditions or sanity prevail I've done most of the CPT races/rides this season and enjoyed them, so this wasn't my 'only event'. Tough for the out of town guys, but that's why we arranged a 5am ride tomorrow morning for the guys flying in today ... tomorrows conditions look picture perfect . If its definitely too hectic we'll probably drive out to Stellenbosch or Franschhoek on Sunday, flights and accommodation justified imho.

Cool, yes! That was the issue - seems the browser was caching the redirect to 2018. If I enter the full URL: http://seeding.cycletour.co.za/findme.aspx?ss=2&eid=2019 ... it shows the latest events and new seeding on the laptop. The latest two events aren't yet included, should be about the same seeding for me on those though.

Woooha, I can see the new seeding showing for my 2019 CTCT event on Racetec . I can also see the update if I use my phone to check (http://seeding.cycletour.co.za/riderseeding.aspx) - but using my laptop still shows the outdated 2018 seeding - weird. The update seems to exclude Tour De PPA and Cyclosportif #2 If the new Racetec seeding is correct I've moved up to 1C Time to start investigating drastic actions on how to stick with the bunch up the hills ... chopped seat-post, drilled crank arms, get my daughter to man the feedzone with the second water bottle. Going to be interesting 10 days

Thanks for sharing, very interesting to see all the numbers. You were so close! Possibly still some fatigue from the FTP session.

Evo bikes should be able to get one, I see bike addict has it listed: https://bike-addict.co.za/products/wahoo-kickr-snap-12-x-142-thru-axle-adapter Let me know what thread size you need though, it comes in a set of three and I only needed the medium - so your welcome to have the fine or coarse thread adapter if that's what you need.

You might need a training specific thru-axle (see picture attached). I had to get one for my disc bike. Its longer than the original axle so the trainer mechanism can lock properly. They come in sets of three for different threads i.e fine, medium and coarse. I only needed the medium one so if your bike has a different thread your welcome to one of the others.

Congrats on the purchase I've had a Stages power meter for while, its only one sided though - still bugs me not knowing what the other leg is REALLY doing If you are a numbers person a PM takes so much guessing out of training and I prefer riding in the outdoors vs the IDT anyday! Its also nice to see real power on Strava after a ride vs. guessing which is messed up by bunch riding. I also find it pretty cool to look down in a race and know when I should probably pull back on a climb or if I'm probably going to get dropped because I'm pushing 300W for too long. In terms of FTP tracking and analysis I really love David Tinker's tool: https://intervals.icu Its super simple just point it at your Strava profile and voila. What I like is that its more than just an FTP test number - you get a full power profile over multiple metrics, TSS etc, much better than a Garmin magic number. It may not be as accurate as finding a isolated road with no traffic/interruptions to do a proper tests - but to me improvement is what I'm looking at and that is more relative v.s an absolute number. In terms of a theoretical test I find an IDT is the best. Some reading I found useful: https://www.bikehub.co.za/features/_/articles/training-nutrition/monitoring-your-training-load-r7477

Yeah, I'm not stressed - just poking the bear . The weather and luck is probably going to have a bigger impact overall than moving up a group or two - at least for me that is!

Looking at my seeding results for cyclosportive #1 and #2 they were given a 5 point penalty. Is this like a take-a lot 'special' where they increase list price before the time .... also wondering, so if PPA members get re-seeded do the groups just get bigger?

Why not start in C and have more options after Vissershok . I made the mistake of dropping from A to B for the 99er and then landed up with a mechanical wishing I hadn't. Its all good fun though - see everyone at the start line

Thanks for sharing. Awesome weather, really enjoyed the ride overall. I nearly came unstuck at the start on the R44/R45 4-way stop. I was in C-E group and we were quite bunched up at that point - as luck would have it my line was directly over the heavily rubbled tar section. We were lucky with the roadworks after the Bothmeskloofpas climb, not sure if they actually stopped any cyclists at the stop n go?

There is always three sides to every story, but I personally appreciate shops that respond on the forum. The Cyclelab response sounds reasonable to me. I can imagine all the back and forth would result in a 6 day process. We are all human and emotions are big a big part of being human. I dropped my bike off at my LBS one Wednesday morning and they promised it would be ready on Friday, but the part they needed didn't arrive - so it wasn't ready. I wasn't very happy but took a breather before freaking out. The reality is that sh*t happens, yes its often because people have screwed up - but a cool head/time-out and accepting apologies - makes for a much happier life .

Loved my Gatorskins for ages after trying a number of different tires, I had very few punctures with them and they would last for months even being used on road and wheel on trainer. I moved to GP5000 Tubeless at the start of December and its been 2.5 months and over 2000 kms so far. The GP5000 TL is a noticeable improvement on Gatorskins, they have much better grip i.e noticeably shorter braking distance, better cornering in the dry and more so in the wet. Since they are tubeless I run lower pressures and you notice that its a much smoother ride on bumpy roads. The GP5000 does wear faster and I've got around 7 noticeable cuts in the tread after around 12 weeks, but I haven't had a flat thus far. I've pulled out a few bits of glass embedded, but unable to get through the vectran layer, a staple from last weekends' 99er and two pieces of fine wire today. Its the first tubeless setup I've tried that I'm getting to the point where I would recommend them to friends over Gatorskins. I'd like to give them at least 6 months though to confirm even though I know punctures are highly luck too . The one other negative is you need to top up the air pressure around every 4 days and the revo sealant seems to be clogging up my front value a bit. My rims (Giant SLR carbon) are designed for tubeless though and have the hooks. I know you aren't asking about tubeless, but purely from the rubber side I'd say GP5000 is a noticeably faster rolling, better gripping - all round better tire, but higher wearing slightly more puncture prone. I would expect the normal version will probably get more surface cuts than a Gatorskin and probably only do around 5000kms. I didn't ever try GP4000's to compare. The tubeless version though if it continues to hold up is going to be my go to tire. I use them for commuting, training, racing and wheel on trainer (they don't do well on the trainer, might need to a get a proper trainer tire). Overall just on ride feel and puncture protection thus far I'm loving the GP5000 TL, excellent tire!

I'm in - just picked up my sticker from PPA Kenilworth office. Conditions looking good, hoping to finish before it gets hot .

1F too - I'll see you at the start line

All of the above I'd say - its a bike a race and you have a group of people who do 70kph on skinny tires down hills, they aren't exactly risk averse. The Marshall's didn't try and stop the crossing over from what I saw. Riders would probably get frustrated if they did, but in some races I've had the bike marshal stop on/just inside the white line to force the group back into line - has its own risks. The Marshalls did try to keep things as safe as possible, by warning the approaching cars, requesting space from the riders when there were cars approaching etc. When the groups are really big and they have to pass slower riders from the shorter distance on a narrow road - its dangerously nearly becoming the norm in the last few 'non-road closure' events . Riding in two different groups due my mechanical, I found B group much better at sticking to the left, because it was a smaller, faster group. In my opinion they need smaller groups spaced further apart, or a lot more climbs - works even better imho. If I compare the sportif series where the numbers are generally below 500, crossing the white line is rare ... never-mind the yellow on the other side of the road! In general I enjoy the sportif's more, smaller groups, less braking, everything flows - much better work-out.

Well done on your result once again! It was an interesting route - that pot-holed section we were flying through as we approached Vissershok was actually quite fun. I kept drawing parallels in my mind with Paris-Roubaix, minus the mud, minus the cold ... ok maybe its nothing like PR - but it was still lots of fun imho and seemed to claim quite a victims in the form of flat tyres. The combined C-D group was a bit crazy when we hit the 57km join. I missed my B group where the pace was a lot more consistent, but hey it beats TT. With the combined C-D group being too big, the bike Marshall did really well by providing 'full rolling road closures' and warning oncoming traffic. Hope we didn't upset too many motorists The only thing that irritated me a bit was the 'support car' constantly passing part of the group and blocking off part of the road, I got blocked off twice, WTF is up with that?

Thanks for sharing! I felt your pain as you lost the group - we've all been there Really nice to see the race from a different perspective, visible suffering in $ group up Visserhok makes me feel better about my ride!

I was able to get them to seat with just a normal floor pump, the main technique that worked for me was to ensure the complete tire is in the middle of the rim with NO SEALANT, then inflate it and get it seated, then deflate leaving it seated, then add sealant via the value with a syringe (purchased from clicks). When I tried with the sealant in - it seemed to "lubricate" the contact area and failed. I was almost about to give up, then tried cleaning it and moving the tire to center of the rim and that worked very well. Lots of variables though i.e rim type, sealant type - so may/may not work for you. Good luck . I'll type up an update later but I'm still loving the GP5000s - 3 races and around 2,000km so far, no punctures (more luck I know, but lets hope it continues ). The rear tyre has about 4 pretty bad cuts and is showing quite a bit of wear. Overall I'm at the point where I won't go back ... might change my tune after that first roadside cursing to get it back on the rim if there is a major fail though! What is super awesome is twice on a horribly rough road, I've stopped and dropped my pressure to around 50/60 PSI and presto - instant shocks, ride is super smooth

Yeah big oopsie having someone else's name and ID Number on the envelope Wonder who has mine! Looks like an Excel sort error or something - maybe that's how I got my seeding too

I agree with your wife, cutting a new shoe sounds like a bad idea. If it were me, I would look at returning them and either buying the XC9 or as per the feedback on the forum, the Lake option looks good to me: https://lakeshoes.co.za/mtb I like the XC shoes for all the reasons you mention i.e MTB, Road, walking around and only having to lug around 1 set of shoes for all. I'm probably going to look at either the XC9 or Lake option based on the feedback. Its surprising and very sad that Shimano got something so wrong with the new model. The XC7 looks damn good imho!

Yes! Lights are huge help, I noticed the difference when I started riding with brighter flashing ones on my commute 2 years ago - especially in the evenings. Some mornings though - the crazies are out in full force, driving on the wrong side of the road, pushing for that extra meter in the gridlock etc. They don't seem to be bothered by lights or HighVis yellow ...