SeanMort

The actor - Philip Seymour Hofmann

I may happen that someone riding in the later start groups for the long route decided, for whatever reason, to take the short route instead, and passed over the finish mats with an incredible finish time. The timekeepers and organisers then have to go look at the past history of the riders in question and make adjustments. I'm not sure if the short route for the EP Herald had an additional timing mat, but this has been a known problem with the PPA races in the Western Cape. Some not so innocent riders have used this tactic to unfairly get a better seeding, and then use that as a basis to qualify for league racing. Our club had one such rider that habitually did this, including in the Argus cycletour, and it went all the way to a PPA disciplinary, where he was found guilty/banned, and ejected from our club. As regards the licencing and rules issue, clearly there were some riders in the EP Herald VB 2nd bunch that didn't understand the rules. So when the VC breakaway came past they joined on and didn't care for the rest of us saying they weren't allowed to. There wasn't an official in sight either. Seems that licencing is just a means for some to get a faster time in a perceived faster bunch.

See you there

Shortly after they were asked to leave the field we saw them having a re-match in the road outside the parking lot.

Good to meet you too, and to bolster the ranks of the red-eye training bunch.

Yeah, um, sorry about that ... didn't realise that had happened until we stopped for Quinton to fix his puncture and Steve came riding past

Yay, another hotel for the strained tourism market in the Western Cape ... NOT !! Given the not-so-great hotel occupancy rates in the WC, and not-so-great forecast for the next 3 years at least, I wonder how the council arrived at the decision to build another hotel, and in this location ??

PPA has often made several seeding revisions In the past, following initial seeding release. Rules may be based on fuzzy logic though

Some more info ... The prospective pilot rider needs to be based in the Cape Town city/suburbian environs, and needs to have a similar or better riding ability to the current pilot, who is retiring due to injury. The current pilot rider is a regular C bunch Argus female rider, with 2011 & 2012 finish times of 3H05 & 3H19 respectively (and quite a few sub-3H10 previous finishes), a 6H25 Double Century finish, and competed regularly in Womans League with admirable finishes. As before, if you have any further questions please contact Theo Schmeisser on the details in the original post above.

I'm not sure what discipline, but I guess they're not looking for a blind pilot too ! ... like I said in my original post, ask Theo.

I'm posting this request on behalf of a friend ... Wanted: Above average female tandem pilot/cyclist for young partially-sighted (blind) female stoker, with a long term view to train for, and compete in the 2016 Paralympics in Rio, Brazil. Competing in milestone events leading up to the Paralympics will naturally form a part of the plan. The tandem stoker has competed internationally on two previous occasions, with great results, but her current pilot is retiring soon. Please direct your questions and correspondence to Theo Schmeisser at schmeissertheo 'at' yahoo.com , or PM me for his contact number.

Was some nice racing yesterday, even in the cool and damp conditions. Luckily the SE'r wasn't too much in evidence, otherwise the wind-chill factor would've been unpleasant. The hosting club finally had some representation in the race, but it's a pity the hosting club decided to pack up their logistics and kit & caboodle well before the prize giving, leaving the other attending clubs to finish off the event

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I don't think it is much of an issue. I was also in B group this year on a tandem, but we didn't have an issue with Boye's drive, or any of the climbs really. I think the out-of-towners have more of an issue with it than the local riders.

Well done to Muhammadeyah Cycling Club for hosting a great event !

Looks like more weekend fun ! Will be on the start line again for this.

CycleLab in Cape Town CBD has gone way down in my estimation. Perhaps they didn't have the best passing trade business when they were situated at Northgate Island, but they had a kick-ass team there, and they were on the ball for the most part. Whenever I checked a bike or wheel in for service I would get regular feedback on status, and then an SMS to collect. I couldn't fault them, and they got regular business from me. Then when they moved it all changed, for me anyways ... Almost 2 months ago I booked in a Mavic R-Sys front wheel to have a spoke replaced (after a small incident). This required them to send it to the agents for replacement, which I accepted. After chasing up for a response in that time (note - me doing the chasing up, absolutely no updates from them) and getting the run-around, my significant-other decides to go there herself when in the area over a week back. The staff there appear to be confused as to the whereabouts of my wheel, and then they produce a Mavic MTB wheel that has my job ticket no on it and say "there you are !". She, being a cyclist herself, says "Um, no, that's not the wheel ... and look, the actual owner has also attached their own details to it !!". So then she suggests that they call me there and then, which they do, and I then lay out the whole story for them again ! They then say that they will call the agents for an update and then call me back. I'm still waiting for that call ... anyways, I decide to go there myself this past Monday, and we're back to square one with confused staff not knowing where my wheel is ! After talking amongst themselves they tell me that the guy who knows about my wheel is not in for the day, but he will call me about it. Yet again, I'm still waiting for this call too ... ! The upside of my visit though, is the kind offer from one their service techs, out of his own initiative, to lend me a set of Kysrium wheels in the meantime so that I can do the WPCA race the next day. Give that man a Bells !! CycleLab CT CBD are not going to see my business in a hurry though !

Hmmm ... I seem to remember someone on The Hub a few months ago saying that Outriders Cycling Club would kick City Cycling Clubs' butt in a team event. Come guys/gals, where are you ?? A good, hard racing series like this doesn't happen every weekend in winter. Get some club members together and be there !

Racing categories · Cat 1 – Elite/ Junior/Sub Vet of sponsored teams. Cyclists must be licensed and ride in their sponsored kit. · Cat 2 – Veterans 40+/ Women/Masters of sponsored teams, Cyclists must be licensed and ride in their sponsored kit. · Cat 3 – Inter Club – for WPCA affiliated Clubs - all categories including Juniors & u16’s (excludes sponsored riders). Club members to race in club kit. · Cat 4 – PPA Clubs/Schools, u14/u12’s. The WPCA league will be contested as a team/club event. Points gained over all of the races will determine the best team / club overall. Points will be awarded to the 1st 10 finishers in Cat 1,2 & 3. Points to be allocated to the team / club of the 1st 10 finishers. Individual winners will be acknowledged in the results. The inter club category is specifically for unsponsored club members.

It was flippin freezing riding in the rain ! They should have called it the Three Oceans. I was riding in front of the leading male runners and when we came into Kalk Bay the heavens opened up. It was impossible to keep warm riding at such a slow pace, for cycling that is. In the first 10Km's or so, I was amazed at the amount of stupid, arrogant early morning motorists trying to ride down the road toward the mass of blue lights and cars, and us, all leading the front of the marathon across the breadth of the road. One guy didn't even have his lights on, so we indicated for him to pull over to the side, which he wasn't happy about until he saw the traffic cop on the bike next to us. My mate on a Mtb next to me said to him "... and switch your f#!@%!ng lights on too moron !" The traffic cop had a good laugh at that. The leading runners pack pretty much stayed together for most of the race until Chappies inevitably started to split things up, and then the Valley of Death through Hout Bay and up the 'Nek filtered it down some more. The finish line was a very welcome sight for us. We had to filter off the course at UCT just before the finish line, and were greeted by the organisers with ... a nice cold coke , which we politely declined in favour of finding a coffee shop nearby, and quickly ! I think I spent more energy shivering than from riding. Kudo's and respect to all those runners that took part in those trying conditions !

I'm not aware of any PPA event/race for the 22nd April, but there is a WPCA Winter League race scheduled for the 22nd April in Atlantis. Contact CCC2 here on the Hub for more info.

Weather forecast so far looks like it'll be a wet day out for the runners, and for me in the saddle. I'm riding along with the runners as one of the Powerade support officials. There will be quite a few of us riding with the lead runners of each category. Haven't ridden in the rain for a while, so have to pay my dues again it seems. Here's hoping the weather improves.

I got word that this event has been moved to the 29th April and unfortunately will not take place this coming weekend. There are also further WPCA race events coming up on the 15th April and 22nd April. The organisers will no doubt confirm the details of this in due course.

Yep, that was us. We figured it wasn't worth the energy to shave about 40sec's off our finish, so we trailed behind instead. We would have fared much better with the RT group though from my previous experience. We had no real power issues going up the climbs with B group, but you do work much harder than a single. We did the Bay City race a few weeks back over Boye's Dv, Smit's (and then Ou Kaapse), and we had faster time splits then which equated to a 3rd place finish for us. My pilot is still a tandem newbie, and we're still getting into sync. His real talent is track and crit racing, but he's got a load of Argus sub3's and a Giro under the belt so he's good to go. The other-half wants me back on our tandem now though. We've done a lot of tandem racing together. She did the Argus with her dad again this year (she's a stoker) and they came in on 3:30 (she wanted to beat last years 3:20 with her dad). Seems like everyone had slower times this year.

We had 4x 250ml Energade bottles in our pockets, that we refilled with carb drink for the race, in addition to 3x standard water bottles on the bike frame. We ditched 2 of the empty Energade bottles when passing water points so we could get into our pockets for GU's etc, and know that they will be picked up with the cleaning crews. We binned the wrappers and the other bottles at the finish.