Red Zone

There are loads of dirt roads in the area, but nothing technical, there is a nice walking trail along the coast from St Francis Bay heading east, It is pretty fun, it connects to some dirt roads heading further east, check it out on google earth, you should see it pretty easily, I last rode there about 6 years ago so can remember if there were any land access issues, dont be tempted to ride the (short cut) dirt road from St Francis to Jefferies, it is horrible and busy

Yip, but you don't know what time your mates rode

Be patient and wait for the updated results to surface, bear in mind that Racetec will be fielding loads of queries in the next few days, and may not appear to be too cooperative at first.

Man there was some bad riding in the B group, I have never seen aggression like that in the Argus. Guys switching each other, surging into gaps, pushing others around and shouting at each other the whole way to Boyes Drive, where it seemed to calm down, probably because we dropped the idiots who need to ride like morons to keep in the Group, It is a miracle that we never saw more crashes in B, I only saw one on Smits, looked soft, but I thought the guys involved where going to whip out the handbags.

Agreed there needs to be a plan made to sort this out. There have been attempts to start the ladies in their own group in the past, all the ladies did was sit up and wait for the next group on the road to catch up so they could get a bit of a slip to the end. But joining subvets and vets in the same group as the ladies was a bad idea.

look on the racetec website you can then view the times of the riders in the various groups, remember conditions were perfect last year and this year will be windy and a bit slower. Re dropping back, start with your seeded group, if you get dropped you probably wont be dropped alone, just ride with whoever is with you or wait for the next group to catch you up

Just went past the road works on Steenberg Road, it looks like they are busy closing up the hole and laying the tar, it may be clear for Sunday.

The way the wind has been pumping the last few days and based on the forecast, pack a set of low profiles

Go ahead and change the tyres, at least you will have something new (if not shiny) to make you feel faster. Although you will probably be a bit slower due to the weight of the extra tread that you will have on the new tyres. Just take them for a spin before the race to bed them in and make sure you have fitted them correctly.

I am afraid my boet has bailed out, now all I have to look forward to is catching crashtestdummy on Chappies. Another reason for going lean and mean

This is my 11th Argus, I already have a bagful of sub threes, all gained with carrying spare tubes, levers, bombs and other paraphernalia. I am sick of feeling like a Sherpa. This year I am going lean and mean, if I flat and need to wait for some good Samaritan to toss me a tube and a bomb so be it, if I need to run to the finish I can do that too. I am just taking two bottles with PVM Octane XTR, one Cappuchino love Gu and a Powerbar, no tubes, no levers, no pump, no bombs, no multitool. Its going to be nice riding without feeling like a camel.

Just a warning, watch out for the road works on Steenberg Road, before the right hand turn onto the Main Road, this is a fast stretch and the bunches are still pretty big. The road narrows down to a single lane about 100 m before the corner and then opens up again.

My steak consignment from Spain just arrived. That's pretty much all I need. Seriously though, I did a moderate 70 km ride on Sunday, rest today, 1 hr tempo ride tomorrow, rest wed, 1 hour moderate ride on thursday with 5 x 2 minute lactate threshold intervals with 5 mins recovery in between, 30 min easy spin on saterday to shake out the legs and check the bike is running smoothly. That should get me ready for Wheelsuck Sunday

Split times are pretty useful for those further back in the field, who are trying to get a PB which is extending well past four hours and where you are riding pretty much your own race - no group. If you are riding in the first 15 seeded groups or so your time is pretty much dictated by the pace of the bunch and you cant do a whole. For those shooting for a sub three, which is realistically only doable for most guys up to group D / E, the only thing the split calculator will tell you is if you are on target, it only becomes meaningful past Simons Town anyway.

Eddy, the southeaster is the worst, generally it is a fairly strong wind, and will normally get stronger throughout the day and as you get closer to the Point. The southeaster gusts around the mountain on the atlantic side and you get head, tail and crosswinds but in general the southeaster will be a tailwind. Northwester brings rain and can be pretty bad, but it looks like there is little chance of a northwester - this is pretty easy to predict as there are no cold fronts on the way. The southeaster can kill you between Ocean View and the four way stop in Sunvalley, you expect the wind to behind you all the way to the end from the point and you need to to a nasty stretch right back into it here.

Hutchinson Fusion Kevlar 2, best tyres I ever won, they felt so much nicer than my current gators.

Capricorn - I didn't touch the FD, I assumed that I wouldn't need to for a new chain. Tini K - nope, no sloppy shifting or funny chain lines Patches - Length exactly the same, I did clean and lube the chain as well. I will adjust the limit screws which should solve the problem.

So I changed my 10 speed chain on my road bike from Dura Ace to a Sram chain, on my first ride this am with the Sram chain it kept falling off on the inside and outside of the front chainrings, what gives, is the Sram chain slimmer? more laterally flexible? or is my bike upset that I am diluting my shimano groupset?

Why bother with all that hassle only for a better seeding, rather get her on the road 10 mins in front of the Elite group and go for the overall win.

They wont let your mate into the start chute, he would have to join later on the route. I would tell him to bugger off if I saw him slip into the group. There are plenty of entries up for grabs check the classifieds

I think the day pass is too expensive, considering the state of the trails and the ease of the illegal entry. Fortunately I have a wild card so it doesn't make any difference to me, but it does irk me a bit when I have to drop a fair bit of cash for my rider permit and there is so little that Sanparks does for us On the point of the trail condition I think that the trails are in such poor condition due to poor riding more so than a lack of maintainance. So many riders run into corners with the rear wheel locked up, it seriously gets up my nose. Most sections of Singletrack should also be closed in wet weather, that's were it really gets trashed. I dont ride most of the ST in winter to try and save the trails.

I see they have a 15 km trail run for R90, which is good value considering the 2Oceans 22 km trail run was R450

This is not a PPA ride, it is organised by Lourensford wine estate to coincide with the end of the Cape Epic. Sure it is a bit of a money maker, but then it is part of the whole Epic finale thing, so there are all sorts of bells and whistles. No one is forcing you to do it if you dont want to cough up 200 bucks dont.

I put the BBB ones in about a year ago, they are the plasticy / nylon ones they seem to run on ok bearings, been happy with them, they were about R100 if I recall correctly, also came with loads of little washers and spacers and things to make sure fitment was perfect.

Is is permissible to purchase a 29'er without Board (wife) approval on 29th Feb? Seems to make sense to me