Sid the Sloth

Yes I have been practicing my KOM hunting so much that I even spotted there was a KOM available on Helshoogte that no one else noticed!

Awesome day on the bike. Still in shock that we made the break work from about 15km into the race in elite... Lol.

Over the past year I have spent about two months riding alone on the gravel roads around Knysna and I have had 0 issues. When I have had mechanicals or crashes, I have been offered lifts. I do avoid riding UP past Concordia but I don'd mind descending through there (this might be @copperhead's township near/on the hill) and instead take the ridiculous Simola + Gouna hills. I have not gone further than the turnoff to Hoekwil on the Seven Passes road from Knysna as the round trip is like 150km of gravel and if I am doing that sort of mileage I would rather head inland and do a loop towards Uniondale and then Plett. To be honest my biggest worry is wiping out catastrophically and not seeing anyone for a while... The roads are pretty quiet sometimes. If you need route advice go grab my number off the ads and I will happily send some advice.

A few months ago, two second hand new-gen scalpels kitted with xx1 eagle popped up at R55 000... If I could get one of those at R50 000 I would be very, very happy. But I see you say new so I am not sure. I also like the look of the Anthem, there's a nice GX one a bit under your budget that is listed at the moment I think.

Luckily I was only damaged on Saturday last weekend and I am assuming this Sunday I will be too

Good thing I was doing my warm up for KOM hunting in the north wester lol... Maybe next week

ALAN SHOULD BE THERE INSTEAD OF RIPPING EVERYONE'S LEGS OFF IN THE ROAD RACES

Maybe that is because you are in a car?

+1 for the supersix.

Observing the stem very closely.

Windy like the thing that causes echelons or windy like Chappies is a winding road (or is that windey)?

Nope. He was excluded from $ in CTCT because he did not have one and raced 40-49 at SA Champs too.

I know for certain that one of the 40-49 vets I ride with is with me in $

Spin to win baby. (I thought we established we want big rings up front and not small cogs at the back)

Depends where you park? No this is a very good question, I was wondering the same thing... I am too lazy to make a route on Komoot

yes sir, that silly boi on the Canyon

That reminds me I should probably fix my rubbing brake before Sunday lol

Sounds fun, looking forward to it. I am planning on not doing the time on the front as that cost a lot of energy on Saturday...

What is the expected/usual vibe in $ for a race of this length? I am new here

Well if they are running 55t + chainrings in TT's partly to stay in the middle of the cassette, and people put on OSPW, wrapping your chain around a 10t and having a small front ring does not sound like the optimal combo. You are right though it is probably only milliwatts.

The difference between the 10t and 11t is quite impressive. Running a 38 11 is similar to a 34-10 (3.45 vs 3.4). Running a 36-10 gives you almost the same ratio as a 40-11. I have found the move from 11 to 10 on my gravel bike pretty impressive, and I was considering moving up a chainring size before but now I am pretty happy. Now don't get me started on the drivetrain inefficiencies of running a smaller front ring or a smaller cog on the back...

No, I am now in university and weigh 10kg less

You can count me in the numbers too because I had the casquette... Right @Pure Savage??

And by fun a I mean PAIN IN THE RAIN but a cool experience

Not too bad actually. I think we got really lucky with the conditions and I would 100% do it again in those conditions (and 100% not spend as much energy as I did early on haha). The one bottle strategy worked well for 2h15 ish