Jbr

it looks ******* grated

Race to the sun was 33+ for me, was still *** compared to Gallows 🤣

Sureley a warranty claim should work for this ?

So sad to see this once I crossed the N7 this morning. (Photo taken from the other side of the new fence, between intervals, after going along the n7 then contermanskloof back down to vissers… the closest 20mins-ish climb around) we lost our only safe direct access to durbanville.. now we must either go around the world (malmesbury or platekloof) or through DuNoon and ride through puddles of who knows what, getting chased by dodgy dogs if not worse 😭 I also wonder how all the workers I used to encounter walking up that section of vissershok will now get to their jobs in the farms or mines

Yet it wasn't very muddy, there were lots of puddles and the bikes were miserable in the end, but we didn't have to ride through long sections of thick mud, struggling to get traction (at least not at the front of the race)

I have entered, not sure I'm excited to go if there's a lot of rain. But having raced more or less that side (Old Hermon/Gravel monster) it takes A LOT of rain for it to become really muddy

not enough plastic in the world to finish printing it

I bought a MTB box from Bikeboxcompany. I flew my road bike, MTB and gravel bike in it, so far very happy with it for the price

Saturday somewhere in McGregor (by https://www.instagram.com/slam_clark/) Thursday down the road from my house

of all the marginal gains, weight is the least important one. One should never sacrifice aero, rolling resistance, puncture protection (although that one isn't a "marginal" gain, as a puncture will lose you way more time than the 5 secs up a 10mins climb that a 100g weight gain will save you) to try to chase weight gains. So yeah, stop obsessing about weight, although not completely irrelevant, it isn't of capital importance (of course speaking comparables, if you're going to race a 14kg alloy bike instead of a 10.5kg carbon bike, the weight difference is relevant). For example I have given up trying to remove my dropper post for hilly races because it's about 600g heavier than the stock lightweight carbon seatpost, or try to save a few dozen grams on sealant. In the end my bike is probably close to a kg heavier than what it could be, but it brings me peace of mind, also I don't prioritize MTB because I'm really average at it, I'd rather save the lightweight stuff for my other bikes (rotors, pedals, cassettes, etc..).

I’m so impressed to see how many finished ! I would have expected a lot more DNFs!

1st time I loaded the route it was drunk, it was telling me to take all sorts of turns where there were closed gates... it eventually caused me to make a terrible call on the 5mins climb mid race. When a gap opened in front of me following an acceleration from Dan. I didn't surge to close it as my wahoo was still showing me some "yellow" grade (probs 8-10% ?) for still a good few hundred meters so I thought not to panic and just close it calmly.... next thing I know we're cresting and we're going 60kph and I'm spinning out on my 42T chainring 😥 The next hour was a mix of a metabolic effort to try to get back in the chasing group (that apparently ended up being the front group ?), restarting the route on my Wahoo to hopefully not get lost on my own and a bit of fun navigating the graveyard section without anyone in front of me.... And this helped me not miss the turn everyone else missed. I was completely shocked as I got out the gate to see the guys I was chasing behind me 🤣 But the damage was done, I was smoked, I had to let Dan and Reece go for my own good. Did a 3mins stop at the WP, filled my pockets with potatoes, threw my hydration pack away and cruised up the climb, trying to keep an easy enough pace that I can sustain without cramping or vomiting 🤣. I still picked up a couple Trek riders. Not sure I would've done much better without that silly mistake I did, so no regrets. What a day again. These gravel races are so fk-ing epic and eventful every time, with luck turning around completely, hopefully it stays that way, some other guys luck seem to never turn around unfortunately

Flew to joburg twice this year already so will probably give this one a miss, let's see where the next ones are. Yes, nice to see some money thrown at racing, if it can help seeing a pro scene emerge. As an age grouper, would also be nice if we got prizes that at least cover the cost of entry, R2TS R1500 prize for a R1650 entry was a bit of a joke imo, but it's obviously not a deciding factor, since for those joburg races the costs are way higher than just the entry (flights, day off work, sleep over..)

WP road cycling is held with live timing that gives wrong results every race and is rarely « live » anyways, so I actually prefer it done manually 😅

This is why they give the gpx files, impossible to make sure every arrow stays in place all day long, there’s always going to be some kid thinking it’s funny to mess up with the marking (or rider(s) missing an arrow 🤷‍♂️ That specific turn there was no arrow when I went there, but people afterwards said it was marked properly, the marking must have been removed before the front group arrived and when they saw everyone going the wrong way they fixed it. As for the timing, when a race ends with an hour long climb at 12%, it’s not really necessary 🤣🤣

Howzit, nothing official yet, and you can’t even use the Strava segment as most of the front runners took a wrong turn and went off route 🤷‍♂️ we’re pretty much all making asumptions of our position based on the position the guy in front of us told us they were 🤣

Someone must have explained to the UCI that Pogi and UAE don’t make the distinctive jerseys/skinsuits, so they are not responsible if Castelli/The Giro ****** it up and if anyone should get a sanction, it’s the organisers

no-one in history ever needed to replace a front chainring on a SRAM road groupset, just like no-one ever managed to change chainrings without a chaindrop, but apparently that's about to change, I've heard multiple reviewers say this new front derailleur now works ! I'd be pooping my pants if I was shimano, because now Sram is doing everything better than them... The only thing that was still making me like Shimano more is gone out the window, because these idiots won't let you have a EOM chainring bigger than 52T on ultegra, so you have to buy aftermarket chainrings that don't work as great as the OEMs, now SRAM has a 2x that works probably just as good as Shimano with aftermarket chainring. The rest is mostly just far superior with SRAM, the derailleur batteries and the app are such an upgrade... My next road bike will most likely be SRAM. Only thing i'd like them to change is the brake bleed kit... I'd like to be able to bleed my brakes without having to buy a dedicated kit, that isn't the same for each groupset of the brand.

Must remember to practice my dismount/remount skills tomorrow morning, I completely screwed it up at Race to the Sun 🤣 reducing the pressure won't help much with punctures if you don't put inserts in. I'm actually planning on running higher pressures after spending the day feeling rocks hit my rims at Race to the sun, despite the inserts I still had a flat on the first rocky bit, luckily no snake bites so I still had just enough air left in to finish. I would now highly recommend anyone gravel racing to use inserts as they really were race savers the last two races I did.

are you going to be on the same tyres ?

you should've received an email with a link to the GPX

I saw a weird one here too I have no plans of being off the front at any time in this race 🤣 at least not on my own. I'm expecting some of the pros to join Dan, I'll race with the dads 😂

Looks like there are a few more twists and turns ?

Thanks man ! So the story is that we thought we were racing 10years cats both for R2tS and for SA's, so I was treating everyone in my batch as rivals. Did everything right (I think), broke away after the portage and put on a good gap quite easily, but somehow got caught again by two guys in the two sharp turns before the road, then I managed to go in the front before the last turns into the finish line sprint (by that time we were only two left), but got surprised by a couple more turns that I didn't expect and took a bit hot, once I was able to get on the gas the other guy was too far for me to outsprint him. I then thought I'd lost the jersey, but learnt two hours later that SA's were 5 years cats and that the other guy was 30-34 ! So yeah in the end I'm SA champ in my cat, and 2nd of my batch by 1sec, sub 5 hour and something like 24th overall on time. Unfortunately the 3hour wait for the podium mean't I had to leave straight after CSA podium and I missed the R2tS podium. After motoring back to Hartbies to pack the bike, shower quick we went straight to OR Tambo and just managed to catch our flight. What a day !

I went 2kph slower on the 2nd half than on the 1st half, but the profile (2nd half has all the +gradient when the 1st half was mostly -gradient) + the headwind that we started to feel after the mid race WP makes me really question the fact that a MTB would be faster anywhere (except maybe on the portage) Also the fact that we picked up a few elites on MTB there that tried to stay with us but ultimately dropped is a good indication 😅 although in some of the sections I was looking at their bikes with envy