nuge

Epic Bike Shop on Main rd, Plumstead (above Suzuki South). www.epicbikeshop.co.za

bit out of line there, sir. I can't agree to the comparison of professional riders of similar abilities riding an event with full road closure to a weekend morning fundride with large groups of varying abilities riding narrow roads that are open to public traffic. solutions: 1) Re-instate age-cat racing for the racing groups. Simplest would be elites (20-30 + anyone on a sponsored team) get their own start and then lump subvets, vets and masters together. (I for one would appreciate not having to race against semi-pro 20-year olds who can ride 30 hours a week and can get in 8-10 hours sleep a night without having to get up at 4am to train) 2) racing groups to be capped at 60 riders Simple

Well then you are one lucky bugger! Are you telling me you had no injuries apart from what I can only assume must be road rash from hell?

did you hit the deck along the R312? I saw someone go down just next to me while we were all at full tilt scrambling for wheels in the crosswinds. looked like maybe the rider was trying to avoid something in the road and lost control of the bike after a big swerve. looked really nasty. hope you or whoever it was is ok!

full team entry still available, guys. drop me a pm if interested.

Apologies - full team entry. Original post edited.

Our club has a spare full team entry available. PM me if interested. (edit: apologies for any confusion)

truly sorry to hear about your unfortunate incident. I started with the aforementioned rider in d group. my situation (presumably his as well, one can only speculate) was that I had acquired a late substitution entry and wasn't permitted to be reseeded at registration. In my opinion this situation has the following shortcomings: a) it means stronger riders end up starting way back and forcing themselves through the pack out of frustration (with very unfortunate consequences, yours being the case in point) and b) slower riders could end up in a faster group that they can't hang on to and causing "blockages" (of course, at least in the latter scenario they can drop back a group, but who's really going to do that, in all seriousness?) anyway, back to the ride: the rider mentioned above and I broke away from d group from the gun, but he had more balls than I did going through the traffic up the wa pad. he disappeared up the track while I carefully picked my way through trying to be polite as possible and get through without incident or getting in anyone's way (not easy considering the colourful abuse I endured - all fair comment I'm sure). after getting over myself I eventually succumbed to the walking (by the time we were halfway up there really was no point in forcing the issue). Was a bit disappointed to miss out on the whole sub-4 thing by a few minutes, but am more satisfied that at least no-one's ride was compromised. my only hope is that the event organisers will permit reseeding in future at registration (not exactly out of the ordinary at most events) to avoid these kinds of incidents. in my opinion the arguments against reseeding ("sorry sir, the group sizes are already set" - seriously, how many riders are we talking about here?) far outweigh the argument for (as per the incident you endured) other than that it's a great event and I'll be back next year (I'll try to remember to enter on time, though)

Ok, I'm in: 1) Tony Martin 2) Fabian Cancellara 3) Mark Cavendish 4) Peter Sagan 5) Chris Froome 6) Alejandro Valverde 7) Alberto Contador 8) Joaquim Rodriguez 9) Vincenzo Nibali Thanks Gerald!

think you had a rough day? Try riding away with 3 others with 30km to go only to be caught at the 3km to go sign. I was already preparing my speech for the podium when I heard the whir of wheels behind me. Finished nowhere. Oh well, next time I'll make it count!

Fantastic response, thank you sir! Great to see a race organiser take it on the chin and promise to make good! (clicks strava "kudos" button). Btw 06h00 is fine (most of the northern suburbs races start this early, so no bias there).

This feedback is really sad - living in the cape peninsula I've missed the simple luxury of getting up a bit later and actually riding to the start of a race in lieu of getting up at witching hour for a bleary-eyed hour's drive to a race. This morning I witnessed first-hand an accident involving a pair of riders who came a-cropper at the intersection of boyes and the road that runs past the westlake golf course. Confused about whether to continue straight or left, the marshall (standing on the island at the intersection, well out of earshot of descending riders) waved his flag to the point of ambiguity where they both lost control of their bikes and went cartwheeling into the island at the intersection. What was more disturbing was that the marshall saw this happen and just carried on waving his flag in some sort of erratic semaphore as if leaving his post would, ironically, cause further catastrophe. I ran up to find the one fellow had landed fairly squarely on his shoulder and managed to raise the ambulance for assistance. I saw him again at the finish bandaged up, I trust he'll be ok. My two cents is that these flag-waving fellows should be just before an intersection and not on it. There is simply not enough time for riders to change direction once we are within hearing range. Post edit: If you guys are all going to send hate mail to the PPA this race is going to go the way of the dodo. I appeal to anyone interfacing with the PPA to please be responsible and send constructive criticism (Peter, I know you've raised some good points already) so that this event can be safe and fun again like it once was. We need these southern rides, guys!

what he said - great advice there

I've found rubbing an ice pack on the quads and calves after a hard session or race limits the pain and seems to speed up recovery.

odd to hear about these being installed on a public road - the only ones I'm aware of down here are in the waterfront which is private property. Typically civils contractors go for the asphalt bumps on public roads.

lots of riders training on tri bikes down here in slaapstad at the mo - plenty of triathlons coming up and the sport appears to be gaining traction generally.

I've ridden up the maritime climb a few times in the past and never noticed the boom that other cyclists have told me about. One thing though - I have been warned by some fellow cyclists that it's not a great idea to ride up there alone due to possible "affirmative shopping". It seems a bit odd for this activity to occur on military property, but then I guess the military have a history of "affirmative shopping", albeit under more formal conditions. I dunno...

judging by your avatar, I presume your mate was the fellow in table mountain bikers kit. If so he actually finished 2nd in our breakaway group from B - he was very strong - did a lot of work to ensure we stayed away. Like Luke said, it was the marshalls letting the groups over the timing mats prematurely / holding up groups another marshall had let through at the start that made the error (no communication between the two) - we tried to explain the situation to the guy releasing the groups, but to no avail. Pity for racetec, now they have to painstakingly fix someone else's error. Bummer.

maybe I'm not putting it out there clearly. I started with the real B group - we were instructed to roll over the mats with the A group and then instructed to wait the 1-2 minutes after A was released at the start line - ppa marshalls evidently not communicating. I was with the breakaway in B group - 4 of us broke away on smits (I finished 4th behind Nic Lamond who took the sprint) The guys listed as B were in fact C-D group. Don't know how racetec is going to clear it all up - I've dropped them a mail in the meantime. Some poor bugger is going to have to go through the first 50 odd riders one by one - happy monday!

Luke, you're a machine - solid TTing there, man. results are up and it appears there are some discrepancies with the grouping of the bunches from the start - A & B started separately, but have been grouped together on the results sheets. Looks like C & D have been listed as B, etc....

glad to hear you're ok. observations from personal experience that seem to apply to this case: a lot of motorists don't see bicycles as equal road users a lot of motorists severely underestimate the speed of an oncoming bicycle although it's hard to swallow (and many will disagree, for valid reasons), weighing up the course of potential outcomes, i think you did the right thing in the end.

While I appreciate and support everyone's constitutional right to freedom of speech I find the op's statement divisive and frankly unnecessary. This simply stimulates an unnecessary debate of which the only outcome is to further polarise our sport. I propose we operate on the principle that if you have something negative to say which doesn't stimulate a constructive debate, rather just keep it to yourself. Can someone please do the honest thing and save some space on the interweb by deleting this thread? (flame suit on; walking out the door being careful it doesn't whack me in the arse; switching to another operating system which filters out this senseless waste of binary, yadda, yadda fishpaste)

She did, actually, but came back pretty quickly in that wind.

Not sure what the op's real question/issue is here... but it's thehub so here's my 2c anyway. If it's not adversely affecting your health/well-being/quality of life then enjoy.

you've not been to a local fun ride? apparently it's not about the bike. really, it's not.