Dirt Tracker

Wonder if Philpsen will get pinged for his sprint? Watching the replay he goes from far side of the white line across Cav, causes him to swerve and then ends up against the barriers while Cav goes past on his right. Not that it makes much difference was it was a pretty wild finish.

Such a great sprint. When you look at the overhead you see he actually had to stop peddling as he swerved around the breakaway guy then put the power back on. He had that way of surfing through the gaps like he used to. Found spaces after getting closed out twice in the last 300m. A brilliant day. Patrick must be over the moon and Sam Bennett might be feeling a bit more 'fragile' after that. Would love to know what Patrick and Cav' agreed. Got to be signing of the year (on a minimum wage) purely for headlines, feel good and now results... even if 4 were Tour of Turkey. ???? Wonder if Cav' will get a text from Dougie Ryder tonight...

And Cav in Green! Beautiful.

And all the cav' haters can just sit down for a little bit. GOAT sprinter.

If it's not marked as SANParks as a trail then it's illegal. Just like Strava and you can plot a route on numerous apps / sites but that doesn't make it a legal route. Just makes you stupid for advertising what you're doing and causing issues for all those people who work endlessly with the SANParks beast tom secure new routes and more access. Remember, it's a national park and national park land with national park rules and (unfortunately) access is not guaranteed. TOW and Step Mom are not marked on those maps I posted, neither is the run out over Plum. TOW runs down from the contour path along what is partly a hiking only trail. The contour path on that section is clearly marked 'No Cycling' and there is no legal trail marked at the bottom of Plumb. There are a lot of great riding options on all sides of the mountain and areas that are supposed to be ridden so let's all try not to spit on the efforts of those who give up alot of time to get us access so we can play around on bikes and moan about how unfair it is that we can ride here or there or cut a new trail at will.

Which bit? The Mem stuff certainly is for just riding it while cutting and digging is also a no no. Maybe the skills tutorials and guiding has dried up leaving enough time for those guys to swing a mattock. Not alone really as you often see guys scoot off the main path up at the Nek and head down to the bottom hear the cork trail even though there are big signs there saying 'no riding' and that bit onto the tar we're talking about was always going to get used as people would find the ride back far too inconvenient. We don't do our selves any favours as a group but it's always going to happen. SAN Parks should have the latest maps on their site and Table Mountain Bikers also have a pretty good set here, not sure when they were last up dated though - DOWNLOAD http://www.tablemountainbikers.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Screen-Shot-2017-11-23-at-7.48.55-AM.png

There are a lot of illegal trails around the front of TM and there have been some guys doing work up above Rhodes Memorial near The Other Woman and The Wicked Stepmother (both of which featured in Ride Rate Review / BKXC youtube episodes when he was over here). There are also several tracks across the granite slab as well as and under the cable car and on Signal Hill. Pats Track is fun and rough and there are some tracks at the bottom of plumb pudding (you keep going straight at the bottom of PP and don't turn left or right - up and over and down).

Problem is people have been asking us not to rouge ride Table Mountain on the city side and through Rhodes Mem' but there are alot of people who see themselves as 'pioneers', that the rules are stupid and believe that is the way you get trails discovered and approved out there.

So no actual money, they have just been appointed as sponsor brokers basically to save Doug shopping the story from corp office to corp office. Just looking at the report that 45K is simply a sponsorship target that they hope to secure for the 3 years they will be representing the team's interests. Wonder if that is a target pre or post the agencys % cut?

If anyone is interested or knows someone who knows someone! https://bikehub.co.za/classifieds/item/complete-groupsets/445816/sram-mixed-groupset-1x-gravel-11sp-hydro-disc https://bikehub.co.za/classifieds/item/gravel-and-cyclocross-bike-frames/445819/norco-threshold-immaculate-carbon-gravel-weapon

Took it for it's first ride and it's pretty fun! Now all I have to do is list the Frame and Groupset I bought the week before to start my gravel build and that got killed off when I bought this complete ride. So if anyone is looking for a weapon of a Norco that can mix it up equally as well on the single track as the tarmac then keep an eye on the classifieds.

New addition thanks to the stable. Bought right here in Hubland and shipped from the eastern cape and into my eager hands. Just need some pedals and we're off! - Niner MCR frame - Reynolds 853 - Apex 1x groupset with carbon crank & hydro brakes - Kate Compton Carbon bars - Niner carbon fork - WTB KOM i23 on Hope Pro's - Gravel King rubber in hipster beige - Fizik saddle - Chris K headset I just want to give a shout out to the seller who went above and beyond on this. The build is great, the condition of everything is stellar but the effort he went to to get a massive bike box (as There was a spare set of wheels on the deal as well) and the extent of the packing was exemplary. It took well over 25 minutes to get the parts out from their protective babble wrapped cocoon before I could build. The oke definitely firmed up the cliche that Eastern Cape people are just flat out honest, nice people. Thanks MJVR. #SteelisReal

100%! Shame yogi has been pushed into early retirement with the (alleged) focus on the classics. Can't see Pidcock hanging around if there isn't a program.

Makes sense for him to focus on things like LBL and Lombardia but Ineos generally don't give to much love to anything other than the GTs and he must know he'll get pulled into the fray at some point soon and judging by his results in the tours he's going to ride as a super dom. Can't see him doing that much at MSR, Roubaix, Flanders with 58kgs pushing the pedals. He's got more than enough talent to shine in the week long races if he's taking a bit of time off from the big 3... but do Ineos lust after a couple more trophies from UAE Tour, Tirrano and Alps? From what I remember his GC wins were shorter WT races and a couple of 1 dayers. Will be interesting to see what role Dave and Rod have for him and what the development path is.

I'd say out for that possible line up Bernal, Thomas and Carapaz would be leaders and the rest are support. Porte isn't going back to Ineos for leadership opps with that line up, Sivakov, Kwaito, Yates and Martinez will ride for the team this year with longer goals for them. Of the rest the same could be said about Amador and Sosa who are great prospects itching to go. If anything has been proven, Dave B (and now with Ellingworths return), they can manage mutiple leaders / talents in the same race way better than any other WT team. Either way, it's going to be a hell of a year.

Just was listening to a podcast where they were talking about the potential line up for Ineos for TdF next year and it's frankly scary! - Bernal - Yates - Porte - Martinez - Carapaz - Kwito - Thomas - Sivakov Others - Tao back to the Giro - Dennis back to the Giro - Gonna Back to the Giro That leaves - Sosa - Amador - Pidcock - De Plus - Van Baarle - Swift - Rowe - Rivera - Narvaez - Moscon - S Henao - Hayter - Knees - Golas - Doull - Dunbar - Castroviejo - Basso - Puccio - Moscon - Rodriguez Now I know they didn't really perform to their standards this year throughout the season and most of their wins came in the Giro (7) + GC, 2nd at the vuelta (for most teams would be the highlight) while Jumbo seemed to out muscle them at every turn. That said, that is a formidable line up coming into 2021. Of course there is no point having the strongest team if you don't have the strongest rider to round out the GC but if you were another GC rider looking take the top step of the Tour next year that line up might keep you up at night.

Looks like the books are full despite UCI allowing teams more riders this year. ISN are the only ones to currently have gone full 32. This years players for Assos... who do we thinks stands a chance of glory?

"Davide Rebellin set to continue racing in 2021" I must say when I saw this on Cycling News I did wonder if.... but luckily he's signed for a Cambodian team. Turns 50 this year. 29 Seasons in the Peloton and a few dodgy moments to say the least but a few big wins as well. Not that they are connected.

Unfortunately there have been very few riders that have got to NTT and got better. I like Aru and I hope he can come back but I also hope they abandon the GT podium approach. There are alot of teams that are better drilled, have stronger squads and more talented guys for the top 3 steps. Aru isn't the old and has been hampered by the artery issue I'm guessing but then this year was a mess it seems for him. Can Assos / Q be the home to kickstart his career? Will be interesting to watch and hope to see the pain face cross the line 1st on some stages.

I've been looking at the recent signings and there aren't any 'winners' tbh. Not like a Valgeran should have been or a Bossan Hagen. They have a lot got the same kind of guys good, solid riders who can win at times but aren't there at the pointy end knocking on the door. Clarke is the same kind of rider, dependable can win if things are right but not someone who will force it until it happened. Harry Tanfeild on the other hand is a very good prospect to become that winning rider. He's sill got alot to learn and grow and maybe they are getting him a couple of years early but he's a genuine prospect for sure. If Nizzolo can take a step up like he did at the beginning off the year then that's two prospects for 2021 that look good. Sad to say for all the issues of Cav and Cummings when they were there, hindsight show that they were some of the best results by far for the team and garnered the best publicity for sponsors.

everything is a 'maybe' in the zombie apocalypse... except Le Tour. Le tour gets visits from French PMs, discussions in parliament and a mass event / final stage in paris while the rest of the city is the reddest of red zones.

Yup... no cobbles until April 2021

I never liked the older style of Ibis bikes but these new ones are looking amazing. We'll need a full review shortly.

1) Eliminator / Slaughter combo for if you want grippy and good rolling all-rounder 2) Aggressor / Ardent combo for a quicker ride (even an Ardent Race on the back might be a good pick). Would really depend on your trails and what you ride. I don't consider an Assagai a trail tire but some do. I think it's very sticky but at the cost of being a very draggy and slow. Some trails are very flat and an aggressive XC style tyre might work best for you. Width is all dependant on what manufactures you go with as it seems no one in the industry can measure the width of a tyre the same.

You'll need to do one of those shots where the build is all laid out. Bonus points for height and arrangement.