Jbr

Absolutely not blaming DD. It's the gravel monster Org in my opinion. They were moaning about numbers last year, and this year they decide to pick the same weekend as an OG event (not to mention very well rewarded in terms of seeding) that everyone racing bikes will attend, wether it's on the road, gravel or MTB. Right now I'm seriously considering skipping Gravel Monster, it's a tough enough race for a weekend already. I'll decide closer to the time if I'm skipping DD rather, but don't see myself doing both

not to mention Gravel monster being the day after durbie dash...

yet every local MTB event there's podiums with only 1 or 2 guys on them

They got their asses kicked last year, of course they are

Sucks to be a small team when you see 4 UAE in the top 10... They drill all day for their man, drop almost all the leaders and still don't lose time. It's crazy. Imagine the tour we could have if Almeida, Yates and Ayuso were riding for Decathlon, EF, Lidl Trek ! Today we're only focused on 1-2, the battle would be fierce for top 5 !

Yup, my favourite to date. Although bonette was probably nicer to climb and descend, but the views on Galibier... wow

Good on you, every single time I ride down to Chappies I get so many close calls that for the next few weeks I just stay on my local roads/gravel roads between tableview/melkbos/durbanville/Malmesbury..

Kmc chain lasts about 2-3000km till it reached .25wear, for me that’s a couple months

I hope you service your suspensions yourself, because that’s the budget for two full suspension services 😅 ( which is 1 year if you ride your bike)

I guess if you didn't have it serviced in a long time it makes sense that they changed all at once. For motorbikes or cars "servicing" usually means "oil change", and then look at what else could be worn but for bicyles, I don't understand the concept of "servicing" bicycles, I prefer the term "maintainance" = change whatever needs replacing when needed. When a bike shop wants to charge me for a "service" I just tell them to do what I want, because they will end up charging for the parts and labour anyways (on top of the service fee). For example I do : - chain clean every "dirty/wet" ride + relube - chain lube every few rides if dry - full ultrasonic clean + rewax before every race - new chain at .25 wear (so quite often considering I run KMC chains and do most my miles on the gravel bike, maybe 5 chains per year ?) - cassette, only on the MTB I've finished cassettes (= 10T cog slips), I've never finished a road cassette or a chainring, but I also change sizes quite often - wheel bearings about once or twice a year for each of my bikes - headset bearings every year for each of my bikes - freehub bearings i'd say I do one every year or maybe couple of years between all my bikes (that would be about every 3 years for each one of them) - BB, I must have done one since I started cycling - Jockey wheels I've done 2, one on the MTB, one on the gravel bike, never on a road bike - Brake hoses ??? The only ones I replaced was because they got too short overtime (integrated bars), or when I upgraded brakesets Either way, 7k for who knows how many years of racing is not a lot of money if every bearing on your bike was done, plus some of your drivetrain freshen up and all. You should probably consider staying on top of your maintenance more regularly, it will feel much cheaper (probably won't be 😅)

They can be thankful to be Dutch and not from Uganda, they probably would've been shot dead

that crash was ***... saw the one guy slide on his bum like he was on snow. That's a dozen km away from my mom's house. Hope the weather will be better next week when I'm there 🤣

could actually work out, I did a 3hr ride after RvR... So we could go to hermanus friday evening, I drive saturday morning to the start and then the next day I go get the car back, and then bring the family home later in the morning... but we'd need a nice late checkout though, because cycling to FH on a recovery ride and drive back before 10 will be a bit tight

keen to hear when anyone has info about the cars transfers. I'm most likely going to be on my own on this one so will need a car transfer from franschhoek to hermanus on race day. Last I checked it wasn't yet available.

Yes, at Race to the sun this year, half the guys including me got their board swapped in the chute. Mine was 4 years old, and only used once 😅