River Rat

When the going gets tough the tough get cool!

If it's early morning I'll join in.

Okay, I get that we were all disappointed that the third stage was cancelled and some of us are annoyed at our freedom of choice being denied us. Let's for arguments sake say that Sascoc and the organisers had left us, the rider, with the choice on whether to race or not. Now bearing in mind that freedom of choice comes with a concomitant obligation to use this hard won freedom wisely. The options are clear, race / don't race, but the consequences are not that clear and I'll give my take on what I think they could be... Sascoc - well they depend on Government for the majority of their funding and the same Government had declared a period of national mourning. In fact if you observed what was happening on all the SABC channels is that they had suspended their normal programmes and dedicated their broadcasts to Madiba's legacy. I'm not sure if they, Sascoc, were given a clear directive from Government or whether they simply went with the flow by cancelling all sporting events. It is important to note that all PSL games during the 10 days of mourning were postponed and we still held 2 days of racing during the same period. To expect that Sascoc will go against the will or maybe just the mood of Government and put their funding at risk for the sake of one stage of a race doesn't make sense to me. But what would you have done? Cycling SA - I'm not sure that they had any choice as they have to abide by the rules of Sascoc and seeing that they are trying to elevate the status of Cycling within Sascoc I can see why they made this choice. Of course it could be argued that they should have lobbied for the stage to be held but that sort of discussion takes strong leadership and I'm not sure if I see that in Cycling SA. But if you were leading Cycling in SA what would you have done? Sabie X organisers - they were really left with no choice as the Sascoc directive was clear and to expect the organisers to defy this directive could mean that this race is no longer sanctioned which could mean no sponsors and this race could be lost to us forever. Again what would you have done? The Sponsors Spar - most of the retailers were closed on the day of the funeral and I guess that they were all responding to the feelings of their customers and staff. If our expectations are that they would sacrifice Sunday's income but lose all the goodwill by continuing with the race I think thiese expectations are void of any understanding of how business works. Given that these races can only be held if there are sponsors what would you have done? Government - I think government handled this poorly, as our elected leaders they are expected to lead and reflect the will of the people. Much of what I have said in this post is my assessment of what I think the will and mood of the people were regarding Sunday. For example they did not give any clear directive on what employers were expected to do on the day of the memorial, give the day off or allow people watch on TV. To ask business to make these sorts of calls is problematic in that business have different decision making parameters and the mood of the people is very low on that list. But it could've been a huge issue if it went wrong on the day. Fortunately, thanks to Madiba, we can get the opportunity to make our own decision at the ballot box next year. We have every right to be disappointed about the stage being cancelled and I feel for those that could not do the consolation ride on Monday. But I guess I am more saddened by the loss of an icon than not riding on Sunday.

Mike was not alone in taking a lie down on this section, yours truly had two within 50m of each other. It was like an ice rink for about 1km.

Personally, I do not have an issue with the cancelled stage. This could have happened due to extreme weather conditions and we would have accepted it without expecting a refund. As for the ruling from Cycling SA as per Sascoc's directive I think I would have done the same as this was no ordinary funeral and the emotions were running high. The last thing our sport needs is to be seen as disrespectful towards a South African icon it would take us years to repair that damage. However, it would appear that the Leewenboschfontein event did hold their Sunday stage now that I take issue with, considering that the Cycling SA directive was absolute there was no wriggle room. What's good for the goose....

Did you guys ride on Sunday?

Suhayl showing some style.

Yours truly nailing the Bullrun!

That's what's great about sport there is always next year! You can get your revenge on the stomach bug sooner if you want, by doing the Sabie Classic in Feb, this is one of the tougher races around. In fact I believe that the Sabie Classic marathon is almost on par with Sani Day 2.

What a great ride today, Mamba was its usual belligerent self. Man that climb sure can test you. The descent from Rocky Horror was just awesome some new single tracks added from last year. Made all sorts of new friends thanks for the ride Erik, Juri, Iris, Maynard, Shoaib , Suhayl and a special mention to Riaan for giving the last stage a go despite being laid low by a stomach bug. Boet when the body can't it just can't big up for trying though.

ACM you're going to miss an awesome days riding. If they keep the stage 4 course as planned you will have the iconic Mamba switchbacks which is a challenge for any rider. But my favourite is the decent including Rocky Horror followed by some of the sweetest single track around as you traverse the eastern face of the escarpment heading back to the start. I am guessing but the streams will all be flowing with crystal clear water clean enough to drink if you so wish. Well worth delaying the trip back home.

Yip that was a tough day for less than 50k, I'm almost happy that tomorrow's stage has been cancelled.

Day 1 done, venue was fine, the course was really muddy in parts. It has just started to rain again so tomorrow should be a tester.

Just collected the goodie bag. They have built a brand new venue or shall I say that they are still building it. What worries me is that they will not be able to handle the traffic through the entrance they used for registration on race day. Hopefully they have another plan otherwise expect hours to get into the parking.

One member of the family that is not happy about the fact that we're leaving for Sabie. He started sulking as soon as he saw that his food was not packed in.

Shrunken balls and a wet Mamba is an image that I now have to get out of my head, sies man!

Interesting question. I have taken my bike on a plane on a number of occasions without deflating the shocks without any problems that I know of.

Looking forward to this wet or dry. The Mamba is waiting for us!

Get a Spez, you'll have a better bike and make Vetseun jealous.

Agreed that we could have easily won the case was never a doubt but the effect of not taking action caught us totally off guard. The appeal case revolved around whether we were derelict in not resolving the issue. It is some time ago but if I recall the judgement found that our rationale of not taking action was reasonable and the onus was on the consumer to do his own diligence with the familiar term of caveat emptor mentioned more than once.

Whilst I feel for the little guy in this scenario I can identify with the problem that Spez is facing from personal experience. Sometime back I worked for one of the major construction companies and a small contractor used a name very similar to the company I worked for. At the time we decided that the guy was so small that we wouldn't bother taking any action regarding the brand as clearly the consumer could not be confused between the two, a sort Goliath and midget comparison. Boy, were we wrong. This small contractor undertook the construction of a private residence and went bankrupt before finishing the house. The owner decided to seek redress by suing us based on the fact that he was led to believe that he was contracting with a large company such as ours. Of course our defence was quite simple we were not the contractor and there was no legal nexus. We were quite surprised that the case even went to court and even more surprised at the outcome where the court found that the owner had to carry 80% of the liability for not checking whether he was indeed contracting with us. They also found that we were liable for 20% of the damages because we knew of the company's existence and nothing to address the potential brand confusion. This little problem for us had suddenly become a huge one because this little guy had left a plethora of bad debts and had defaulted on several contracts and the ruling had opened us up for all sorts of claims. We went ballistic in terms of legal action and won on appeal from a higher court after spending close 100 times of initial claim in legal fees. You can imagine what my approach will be if I see any potential confusion with any brand that I manage and it would not be that different from Spez!

First two days are easy, day 3 looks a bit easier than last year but still a toughie certainly tougher than Route 66. Day 4 with the Mamba switchbacks is one bitch of day. I'm doing it on about 7hours per week training wise and expect day 3 & 4 to take me around 5 hours apiece. That should beat about 40% of the field but the key to this race is your ability to climb if you haven't done enough hills you're in for a tough four days.

Great, we might bump into each other when I ride in Vtown which I do every once in a while. I guess I'll just look for a bike with a crossmark tyre that used to have a bubble!

Thanks for the advice, it would seem that the principle is to take the seat out of the equation thus allowing more opportunity to play with the center of gravity, correct?

I have bought a bike that has a dropper post. Can you guys give me some tips on when, where and how to use it? I get that it allows you to lower your center of gravity but surely there is more to it than just that.