JohanDiv

You won't need a light for the 160km.. The start is at 07:15. At Waterpoint 3 (Malgas Pont @ 100km) you can get your Support Box at the water table.

That's going to be a proper test for our road bike tandem on gravel tyres! Just doing the 60miler though.. Don't think I'll be able to handle the full 100miler on that thing!

It's race week and still zero comments?? Am I the only one looking forward to this event?!

Haha when have you ever paid the listed price at your LBS?

Haha yes, also happy with the initial performance. Just for interest sake I want to put it on my Kickr 4 and do a power reading comparison. I like that you can adjust the power reading % on the app, so will be able to match it to the Kickr's power reading if it is under- or over reading.

Super disappointed with this new MTB power meter spider.. It reads at least 50 watts below what I THOUGHT my power should be! 😝

Listening to Johan Bruyneel's podcast it sounds like he heard a little birdie sing that Wout will be on domestique duty today to protect the Jumbo GC guys.. and apparently MvdP has earmarked today's stage 12 months ago already to go for victory - up until now he has just played lead-out man for his sprinters, and not very well. Pogacar can't just sit in the middle of the bunch today like he did in the previous stages, if he's not up in the top 20 wheels he'll be at risk of dropping time on GC, so I think we can expect some sparks from him/UAE today for the first time this tour.

Doh!! Why didn't I think of this before!? I hate the Wahoo SYSTM/Sufferfest workout videos and it gives you unrealistic kms and zero elevation, but the training programs are quite good... Do you think I'll be able to turn off the controlled portion on Zwift and control the trainer through Wahoo SYSTM? On your first question: Last time I checked the Workouts badge is greyed out during events, so not possible. I've managed to create an event before with a few mates. Everyone join the event early. While waiting for the clock to run down everyone goes to the workout screen and chooses the same workout. Then when the clock strikes zero and the event starts, everyone starts doing the exact same workout at the same time. Obviously works best with the rubberband effect on.. but this is obviously not what you are trying to achieve.

My partner did the entire Epic with just his phone and a HR monitor tracking with the Strava App on his phone. He has one of those toptube bags that holds your spares and snacks, and your phone on top. Connect your HR monitor to the Strava app on your phone that tracks your rides with GPS. While you ride it shows you everything you need. Speed, Average Speed, HR, Average HR, Elevation Gain etc. This would probably be your cheapest option. I wouldn't worry too much about a cadence sensor at this point..

Paarl Mountain Night Ride with the BicycleGarage crew with beers and pizza afterwards at Copper Club...

Malcolm is correct.. Plasir de Merle weren't part of the Epic. We were supposed to do the final descend down Plasir, but the organizers pissed off the land owners, so they gave us that k@k descend down Tietkop. And the only piece of Franschhoek trails that was part of Stage 5 was the little single track section next to the Bergriver Dam.

Frequency more or less the same as Jewy.. https://www.instagram.com/johandiv/

That's nice if you have an extra Garmin device lying around, but I'm definitely not buying an extra device just for Vitality points. Just a bit bummed about the hassle to get the correct points loaded into the app at the moment, but not that big of a deal. My wife was paying R1000/month for her Fit45 classes.. we decided to rather get an additional R2mil+R2mil Discovery life insurance policy to gain access to Vitality and cheap Virgin Active memberships. All in all works out at R1100/month for us both. So we are already getting the benefit that we were after.. but I know myself, I like a bit of a carrot, so I'll definitely try to get max Vitality points as much as possible.

I joined Vitality on Wednesday and it's been quite a steep learning curve to try and figure out how to get points..especially being a Wahoo user. I actually got some nice tips here on the hub on old threads to get around this issue. Already changed to endurance category to get max 1200 pts per week. Record activities on Wahoo Roam. This Syncs to Strava. From Strava I donwload the fit file, then use Fit File Tools to change the device to Garmin. Manually upload new file to Garmin Connect. Garmin Connect syncs to Vitality app. I see Christiaan from Wahoo said in 2019 that they are working with Vitality to get Wahoo as a recognized device, but the communication about this on the hub stopped around the time Covid hit in 2020.. Surely there must be an easier way by now?! I mean Vitality ran a Wahoo Kickr promo earlier this year.. I'm missing something, right??

Those F'ers took me over twenty tries before I got them! My wife on the other hand has more Meilensteins than gloves!!

I took the leap and paid for the membership, then it worked straight away.

I'm getting the same error...

Especially if you have to k@k 30 times in a 40 hrs window!! 🙈

I see we made the reel at 2:54 haha. They interviewed us and many others today. Maybe still editing for a later video.

Blood, sweat and tears..it took all of them for me to get across the line. The last two days was the the hardest days I've ever had to endure on a bike.. probably visited the toilet about 30 times in the last 40 hours with a tummy bug(and probably half of the camp as well). Crawled across the line in tears yesterday with only a few minutes to spare..I almost didn't get out of bed yesterday. Completely depleted and I was only able to hold down a meal now an hour ago since Friday. On the plus side, riding at depletion means my legs couldn't put out any power and are actually feeling pretty fresh at the moment. On top of this my chain snapped 200m after the start this morning.. As if ending up in hospital with accute renal failure after Stage 1 wasn't enough already!

Doing much better! Think I finally sort of recovered from the Stage 1 dramas! Still need more sleep though, the days are short with all you have to do after you get off the bike in preparation for the next day. Came off the bike twice yesterday.. First time showing off for the camera🤦‍♂️, second time the guy in front of me hit a rock that then jammed my front wheel and I went OTB into a pile of rocks. I can feel my right knee, upper leg, elbow and shoulder took some shots, but nothing I can't pedal through at the moment. Today is play day... in the rain. I'll take it anytime over the heat again!

Haha thanks! Yes did exactly that today. Came in with 40mins to spare I think. Finally made it to bed, now to catch up on sleep. Crazy headwind, sleep deprived, 10hrs in the saddle, no cramps.. win in my book, hopefully bake to normal by tomorrow morning!

Second test looks much better.. leaving hospital now. Have to report to medic tent at 6am for final test to clear me. If cleared, yet another tough day waiting with minimal sleep!

Interesting and tough day.. I filled up bottle and camelback at the waterpoint just before the big climb and still managed to run dry halfway up. That left me without fluids for almost an hour and a half to the next waterpoint. Was impossible to ride up that climb with everyone walking up(not that I think I would've been able to ride to the top anyways in this +45 degrees heat!), but that took way longer than expected. Started cramping, not heavy, could spin through most of the cramps, but cramped all the way to the finish no matter how many crampblocks and fluids I took onboard. Partner took two tumbles and we spent quite a bit of tome at the medics to sort him out. So all in all we suffered properly today! Our moving time was less than 7hrs, but took us 8hrs30min to get over the line. My partner went to the medi-clinic tent to check out his wounds. While we were there I just asked them if they have something to help with my cramps.. long story short, I'm currently lying in Mediclinic ER with possible kidney failure and I think their pulling me from the race.. waiting for a second bloodtest to make sure. I'm so pissed at this moment that I asked them for something for the cramps! It wasn't that bad, I've had it way worse in the past and I wouldn't even consider asking if my partner wasn't at the tent at the moment! Definitely other people today that looked way worse than me! Legs actually feel good, it was just a bit of cramps! Even if I can ride, wasting time sitting around at hospital instead of preparing, recovery and sleeping now!