Jbr

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 😅

Basically, if you are less than 40, and are registered to a club (Tygerberg MTB club works), you can apply for a CSA Membership and racing licence, for that last one you select the Elite cat and there you are, you are elite. Don't even need to be fast ! You probably won't be seeded as elite at any of the races though, for that you must actually race and be fast

Goosebumps, that 2men sprint finish 🤩

such a waste of hard earned TSS !! 🤣

There wasn't a lot of rolling through.... Maybe I did a little bit too much work. Yep, explains the outcome better than the "high volume" week, which actually sounds massive for us, but seemed common for him in one of the interviews he gave recently on someone's podcast (pre-epic prep if I remember correctly)

what drivetrain you okes are using ? I've never had a dropped chain on the gravel bike ?

Incredible result from Morton. Can't help but think the same about MB and Keegan. Both of them out of the top 10, how often does this happen. But also agree with Jewbacca, what do we know. I'd be interested to hear how the race went, I would assume Keegan and Beers being the animals that they are, took it upon themselves to do most of the chasing, and that may have bit them in the end ? Very keen to hear from DJ how it all unfolded, the next episode of Bonk bros will be very special, can't wait !

I wished i stayed in bed this morning 30km in when my blader was bouncing around…

I booked a bike on the 17th of july at the top of Alpe d'Huez in 2021, so it's possible, it's just that if you want to rent for a while, it gets very expensive. I ended up bringing my road bike there and left it at my parents, bought another one here as Spez is cheaper here than in Europe it was a win-win. Going to look at selling my road bike there this year before it gets too old, the next few years I'll probably travel with my gravel bike there rather than leaving a bike there to collect dust 11 months/year. If anyone here wants to buy a Van Rysel, now is the time, have David collect, ride it in and ship it back to SA for you !

or just own a shitty camelbak that nobody is going to steal 🤣

Hydration is not so much of a problem when it's 5°. As long as you can get in the carbs/h. But yeah, on gravel and MTB, the hydration pack really makes sense in the fact that you can take sips easily without taking your hands off the bars, when sometimes the courses don't allow you to do it. But for the shorter races with many fast rolling sections like Old Hermon, no hydration pack is fine!

When in doubt, pathfinders 42s are always a good option. It's all I have left anyways, and I can't think of a better option for tomorrow, maybe 47s considering how corrugated it's looking on the video, but tbh the 42s on my wide rims look about the same as the challenge 45s I had previously, I should be good. Ja, more worried about cold, went out this morning it was freezing this side already. I'm almost considering the two bottles / no hydration pack strategy 🤣 But hydration pack + 1 bottle is probably safer

Nooo man sorry