rudi-h

What do you want to "read" in this? Not sure what you're asking.

you can also try a little cross training. maybe running one or two of your sessions a week will also benefit. but yes, short rides are a lot better than no rides at all, so get out there as much as your schedule allows

Sweet child of mine - Guns & Roses

No, Coke did not make you bonk. I did the same race and had 2 glasses of coke at the same waterpoint and finished great. You didn't bonk because of food issues. You bonked because you rode too hard in the beginning. Next time take it a little easier and rather push harder in the last hour if you feel like you can give a little more.

wow this was a lot of complaining i just read. It's about the RIDE friends, the RIDE!!! Goodie bags, food at waterpoints, massages and all of the mentioned stuff are "nice to have's" but they're not what you should be raving / complaining about. How was the route? How was the weather? How did you ride? Aren't these the things that make us go back next time?

USN Harvest bars. They don't melt and only cost R5.95 at sportsmans warehouse

just respect the dirt and each other! 1) if you're pushing your bike, get TF out of the way, even slow guys behind you deserve the chance to "ride" the entire route. 2) if you shout "track" or "passing on your right / left" after 5 hours of riding on a long MTB marathon, don't expect okes to fall over their wheels to accommodate you. You had 5 hours to pass them. However, it it happens in the first hour or two, the guys probably had a bad start / puncture and want to make their way up the ladder and there should not be a problem to accommodate them in return.

Most MTB marathons are a lot harder and longer than the road equivalent, so I'd say two laps of SBR is good training for races like the Crater cruise / Clarens MTB / Sabie classic etc.

i just said 3 because GTRacing wanted to do 150km+... I'm going for ONE lap on saturday, but I'll do the short little loop twice

suikerbosrand - 3 loops only safe place to road cycle in Gauteng i reckon

that's great training for during the week, but closer to race day you need to step up the time. As an example, I did strength / power training all winter, and my first race, dome2dome, I blew after about 2:15 hours on the bike. If i did only maybe 3 or 4 3-hour rides before, I would most likely have been able to finish in good form.

HTFU sorry, someone had to say it

How do you manage that? I'm at Virgin too, I've been told I get a discounted rate because I've been there for close on 7 years. So much for loyalty

No dude, that's dirt cheap given the quality of the facilities you have just described. Also, my gym costs R529 per month, so don't know where you are going to find a gym membership for R1500 per year.

This thread is (like most) going south which was not the intention. You "support" events by entering. Withdrawing "support" from events that you believe to be not healthy to the community (litter and traffic problem described) is a way of doing something about the problem, because with decreasing numbers of entries, the organizers have to take these issues seriously. So this wasn't just a rant because I had a k@k day, it's my way to a solution, even if it doesn't seem like that. By writing it on the hub, gives people like organisers some form of feedback, which will hopefully lead to more strict littering policies and a generally improved racing environment I also thought about the road closure thing more: Why don't we more "criterium" type of races, maybe a smaller manageable footprint, but ending in 2 or 3 laps like the world champs. Surely it's nice to ride a "one loop" race without any repetition, but maybe it's something for smaller races to consider, which makes cleaning / sweeping easier too. And no, I'm not selling my road bike, will still enjoy it every now and then and use it for triathlons or hill training etc. So I'm not letting "them" take my pleasure away. I have more than enough ways to enjoy sport!

I take part in any or every sporting event that I am capable of doing and truly enjoy every sport I do. The list is long, but includes MTB, road cycling, trail running, road running, adventure racing, triathlon, swimming, touchies and even (if you can call it a sport) golf. I won't call myself anything specific, like roadie, mtb'er, triathlete etc. therefore I would say that I'm entitled to an unbiased remark and opinion. The past weekend I raced the Dome2Dome, where after I sadly decided it will be my last "smaller" road race ever! My big problem with these races are: 1) Littering: I've seen 3 guys on D2D deliberately dropping gel sachets wherever they consume it. After commenting on that, I got snotty remarks from all three individuals (says something about the roadie culture I believe). In triathlon and some MTB events that I've done, the race rules are clear that littering gets you disqualified. In IM it's so strict that you can be disqualified for a few years if I'm not mistaking. Talk about this, I remember one litterer's race number being 1104 I think, if the organizers feel like doing something about it in future. 2) Road closures: The D2D didn't have much that I could see in terms of road closures. This is a HUGE problem, because as entered cyclists, we believe it's our right to use as much space as necessary for riding in bunches, but this is very dangerous and extremely selfish from a motorists' point of view. If road closures have been advertised for months in advance and alternative routes have been published (as with 94.7 and Argus) then It's a different story. The problem is that these races even further fuel the hate between motorists and road cyclists. Even as a cyclist I would have been seriously Pee'd off if I had to sit in a 15min traffic jam or to carefully negotiate my way past 1000 cyclists. I'm not getting at the D2D organizers, because in so many ways they have put up a very enjoyable race, but I just don't think that races like these (without closures and probably not sweeping the entire route for gel sachets) have a place in our cities. I think that perhaps with littering penalties (as with IM) the littering issue cal be resolved, but I don't know the answer to the issue with road closures. I've encountered the exact same thing at one of the races next to the vaal (as a motorist), think it started en ended at stone haven (if that's the right name) So, to finish my rant, I think safe and responsible road cycling events IMO are limited to 97.4 and Cape Argus

Don't be afraid to throw yourself into the deep end. Entering events in advance is the best motivation for training!!

Don't know where you live, but the cheapest place in JHB is Steelite in Booysens. Its at least 50% less than the second best quote you'll get

I don't agree with "open water" swims in either a lake or ocean being harder. I swim 22.5 minutes / km in a pool. With both IM and IM70.3 this year, I managed about under 19 mins / km, despite what some said was "bad conditions" at 70.3. Also from my mid-fielder's experience, swimming is not much of a fitness issue, but rather a conditioning one. I only did 5 swims over 2km for IM and my swim was very easy and enjoyable compared to the rest.

carry a spare deraileur hangar (spelling???) Its not so much fun to change your bike to a singlespeed if you happen to fall hard to the wrong side.

although triathlon is won on the run, a strong bike does make life easier. I would say cycle 50%, run 30-35% and swim the last 15-20%%. That works for me, but then again, I don't win races.

i fly my bikes everywhere. to argus, to IM and even overseas. Pack them nicely and bobs your uncle. with that said I don't have a R50k tt machine, but my Raleigh RC 3000 and Commencal have done a lot of trips with no problem. I know cycle lab has a bike transport service for some events, they did have that for Sani2C last year, so if you're really worried I'd see if somebody offers something similar.

Lets forget the actual cost for a minute. Can somebody explain what the role and purpose of organizations such as TSA and CSA are that require us to purchase licenses from them? What does a TSA or CSA sanctioned event bring to the event that otherwise would have not been?

yes, you can just swop the wheels. no risk, no problem

oh shyte... I thought it was Rand Sorry for misreading, I guess that's also expensive then