Sid the Sloth

How are the groad conditions along seven passes after all the rain? When I was there in September they were pretty lovely, does the rain do much damage?

I see. Never mind then!

Unfortunately I am a roadie with a slight gravel inclination so I am really not sure what MTB options are best. In terms of resale, I would get a carbon size M hardtail mtb, you will probably only get alloy wheels at that price. Personally I would go for an 11 speed bike instead of a low end 12 speed groupset as replacing parts off bikehub if necessary will be cheaper. I am sure many of the MTB gurus can help you more than I can though

Agreed strongly... If they are not happy talking about the bike who knows what is going on with it. You are buying something with potential issues in so many places, you really want to trust the person you are buying it from. Good luck with your search and welcome to Bikehub

Coach has approved and girlfriend will find out… on about 28 December when I start complaining that my legs are tired!

Thanks again for that one @Pure Savage

I am aiming for Festive 500x2, I will mostly be around Knysna and then CT. It's 125km per day so about 4-5 hours depending on if I take road or gravel bike. Might cut down a bit from my usual elevation gain. Also need to chat to the coach!

My poor GF just finished 4 days of soigneur duty for me at Tour du Cap so I will wait a bit before I ask nicely. Or just ride out, climb it, and then call her to fetch me...

The WAGS can drop us off nearby, and we can tackle this bad boy and ride back to Robertson. Lekker.

Your ride bike has disc brakes so it is basically a gravel bike. I have the 10-36 cassette waiting for you...

I AM FROTHING to head out and do this climb... Thinking mid December. I think I will take my gravel bike though as the ratios are a lot nicer for climbing a beast like this... 38 front 42 rear on gravel or 39 front and 28 rear on road... But paying a 2.5kg weight penalty and the rolling resistance for the gravel bike (I will exclude aero as I don't think that will have much effect on this beast)

Love it if you have any hesitations about buyer or seller.

I just use one of the flat sided two prong adaptors... They are kind of a hexagonal shape.

I crosschained and my cranks got stuck so I had to hop off and get it out of the big cog so I could ride again. Not the worst mechanical. Much nicer than today's puncture at 80km in.

Is holding onto someone's hand like that not illegal? It looks like a sticky bottle without a bottle. Are there any consequences for this behavior? Especially when it is caught on camera...

Race directory route has old Helshoogte on the image of the route, and then the turn-by-turn seems to have "new" Helshoote.

It looks like this time we are doing Old Helshoogte and not the "new" Helshoogte. I am wondering if we should be expecting a last minute change or not.

Yoh I feel silly now

I am surprised to see little mention of this on le Hub... I am looking forward to racing this week, and the elite field looks fairly decent. Does anyone have GPX files for the stages?

Personally I think the organizers made the right, extremely hard call. It is easy for those of us who are aiming for sub 5 and good results in our categories to complain, because we have some experience riding in the rain and we won't be out there for too long. Unfortunately the organizer has to consider the team who will have 10 riders out there for over 10 hours, with individuals strewn kilometers apart. Because we were a mixed team, we were seeded quite early despite having some very fast ladies. We would have been overtaking the whole way up the pass and on the descent which would DEFINITELY not have been fun. Things could have gotten sketchy very quickly. Having a friend pass away a few years ago at a sports event due to lightening strike I was not feeling very enthusiastic when we were up at 5:00. It is easy to say with hindsight that the event should have gone ahead, as we still did a shorter 160km loop and @Pure Savage did the full loop and didn't have many issues, but the organizers are not just thinking about the fast teams and probably have a lot of other stakeholders putting pressure on them not to host the event (I can imagine both the traffic department and event insurance where not particularly keen) Thanks to Food Lovers for the epic braai pack, even the vegetarian side was awesome and we felt very spoilt.

Just because I am a humanities student does NOT mean I buy into cancel culture ????

Much more eloquently put than my ramblings. It is a horrible situation and it seems like the blame should probably fall on that cone blocking the left turn causing the confusion.

I am FROTHING for this thing. Team looking strong and excited to meet everyone

Wow, I am pretty sure I learnt the difference between fact and opinion in junior school. Road racing involves tactics. The solo break tactic is super high risk because the odds you get caught are high, and you expend a LOT of energy. Teams behind were being smart and trying to maximize efficiency at minimal risk. Would've, could've, should've, just suck it up and accept that you can't win a race if you take a shortcut. I am sure she was riding with a gps, why not set up the route to follow the course? It sucks for everyone but the organizers had to make a call and there would be controversy either way. I think the winner should be the person who completes the course in the fastest time.

... There were more than two other ladies in the race and a solo break burns a lot of matches