DieselnDust

That’s the first 100 teams entered. Even though the absolute demand might be lower than 10 years ago there is still sufficient demand to cover operating costs for the next year. boom

Well early bird entries have opened so let’s see how fast they sell out at R113,750-00 or $8190-00 oh well I needn’t have bothered, sold out already

funny but I missed the context . I do love the term snowflake. Reminds me of Lewis Hamilton

Burry’s comments reflected the views of his sponsors at the time. Those statements came at a time when mtb was at a popularity peak and there seemed unlimited desire for mountain bikers to participate in. Mtb stage racing became the new golf course for Selling banking and asset management products to other corporations and well healed individuals including farmers and land owners through whose land the epic now navigated. It was all very deliberate

I reckon just drop the race office the feedback and see what happens for next year.

Yeah for the racing perspective the full stages are available on YouTube for your to watch at your leisure. It’s the amateur field that needs some coverage.

The first 5 years of the epic had a half hour highlights package of the main race aired at 10pm every night. In that segment there would be 5mins of interviews with the back of the field , getting their views and feelings. That sold a lot of people into the event and grew its demand. In addition there was a 60min film on super sport of the whole event. Participants would purchase a dvd that contained their race photos , the highlights of each stage pro race and the weekend warrior movie. That came to an end with the shift to higher entry fees and the clover leaf format. Point is the backmarkers sold the event . The pro field wasn’t big enough to sell the event but they set the benchmark for regular Jill’s and Joe’s to measure themselves against. And that’s the ego sell that works a treat. This formula brings people back year after year so why change a winning formula? it would still be great to have a view form the sharp end of the amateur field, mid pack and those running from the hyenas. Doesn’t cost extra and gives more exposure to the event.

The relative positioning of team mates isn’t a dead cert in hierarchy. One day you’re the hammer the next day you’re the nail. From what I can tell, Matt likes to ride on the front. There could be several reasons for this; sighting the trail , just a better feeling of comfort could be another. You’d need to be able to hear the dialogue between them to get a better sense of what is going on. Howard seems more comfortable across a broader speed range on the climbs whereas Matt likes a constant tempo. So let Matt sit on the front to set his tempo and Howard follows. You don’t want a faster climber starting to stretch you out when you’re having trouble on the climb. Matt can’t hide behind Howard anyway, he’s a hike head and shoulder taller. what is apparent is that Bikehub needs to do a podcast with Matt where these questions can be asked. Maybe John can arrange a S2S seminar with some of their top athletes and the audience can ask the milllion and one questions. just based on the highly variable and sometimes downright weird training and preparation for the epic amongst the back markers there is very clearly still a huge gap in the market for this information

Recovery pancakes and coffee at Knead seriously though, drop Matt the message on his insta page. I’m sure he’ll reply sometime. John won’t share his athletes routines.

Ghost bikes about to break into the SA market?

This finale stage is a massive win. This has got to be the biggest spectator crowd there’s ever been along the finale route. I hope they keep the concept

Ah thanks for that qualification. I missed that

Its always lekker to just shoot the breeze and share opinions but informed views should always carry more weight or put the debate to bed. miller Grotts gate was a case in point. but if we only spoke about facts then we wouldn’t have 35 pages of promotional banter which is what the bikehub office wants and we aim to please

Did Gerald just say that Grotts becomes the 2nd American to win the cape epic? pretty sure he was the first to win it in 2018 with Chris Blevins the 2nd in 2023.

Both sound like they ate a box of chalk

People in the know missed the obvious flaw in the T91S pairing….. They need to up their sock game

Rob might struggle to wax lyrical for 4 to 5 hrs though. I’ve missed Anika’s inputs this year. Sabine has been great and often having to correct her colleagues when it comes to identifying riders and also providing a lot of pro rider perspectives wrt training , bike set up choices but Anika seemed to always be a little more in touch with the riders or maybe it’s just that her voice was a little more animated. Either way having Bart and Sabine doing the rider interviews and adding to the commentary has added some much needed diversity to the commentary

who is this Grotts? Is it a new specialized back pack?

I offered my services but they thought I was joking…! maybe talking *** on bikehub isn’t a transferable skill!!? 😂

Yes Nino and Fini being pragmatic. World cups start in 4 weeks. They need to be ready . The marathon guys don’t have as busy a schedule so they can afford to go deeper. matt and Howard rode a very very well measured race. Grotts riding a bit more conservative in stage 1 and 2 proved to be the best pathway for their team. So good strategy. Not sure how much of a hand Mr Wakefield had in that but I’m sure it was more than a pinky. the revelation of the race was Buff Megamo. They surprised. Didn’t see them coming . They had a bad day but bounced back. At first i though they extended their one shot wonder to two shots but it’s been 5 shots so maybe they’ve made a preparation breakthrough. georg eggar’s interview sounds like Lucas is suffering from exhaustion , the heat would have played a big role in that. Probably not heat acclimated enough. That little feature in the Garmin bike computer is quite useful. Laura Stark is suffering from similar symptoms and did not start this morning. Some saying stomach bug but there’s no gastric flu bug doing the rounds. There is a covid bug going around. every year the race does Tulbagh it’s stupidly hot and people suffer heat exhaustion but other things get blamed. preparing for the heat cannot be over emphasised

We can tell😂 But please don’t change. That would be boring

Gerald at least adds facts … Neil is like a parrot trying to repeat but in reverse. Then he repeats again but with different words

You should know busy now to not attack fans hope on day0.1. Call in the pre event predictions and then the I-told-you-so will be a softer delivery 😂

I had to deliver a pep talk last night. There is a lot of conflict at the back of the field. BR’s wanting their IF’s to stay with them and hold their hand to the finish. Eish Pity about Lucas. He didn’t look his normal self since the prologue already. They need to regroup and account for their new paradigm

Just not with Speed Company. They’re way off the back and out for a training ride with Justin and Kai