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I rode Groenland berg in 2019 Epic in the rain .Riding up was slippery and you kinda lose every third pedal stroke .Downhill is fun and fast .If you hesitate disaster looms ,if you trust your abilities and gun it down its awesome

Scott pays his salary .They decide where there is the best exposure to their paid representative .Probably gets a bonus for winning

If amateurs were allowed to enter Le Tour at the same numbers as the Epic and allowed double the time to finish like Epic ,i see a lot of people taking that on year after year .Your 120kg CEO can make it if he prepared .It will be hard ,but doable .You need to be fit and be able to ride technical trails .Some of these amateurs spend a year preparing .Show me another event motivating to such a degree

This has been my regular route since Covid . I have ridden there many times alone . Buffels no more , now delmas no more .Groenkloof trails unkept .I prefer to ride alone .Since the sinkhole is fixed the trucks are abundant again . Not safe anyway

Done & dusted my first one .Really beautiful route with excellent road conditions .Missed under 4 h by 1minute .Must be the gravel tyres .On the smooth tar i battled to keep up with the groups ,but on the rough tar on chapman's peak ,i felt i was faster .My first impressions .Well organized .I think 94.7 ridejoberg have a lekkerder roadside crowd .Chappies is the hardest hill ,but suikerbossie is the wrong hill at the wrong time .The last 20 km takes looong .The City is very clean .Well done organizers

Riding my first CTCT . Prep was bad .I will be riding on the road converted to gravel bike and be using that as an excuse for not coming near 3h30 minutes .My goal was to ride with my daughter and her husband ,but their prep was /is to pump their tires and ride ,so i think i will be frustrated riding with them .Looking forward to a beautiful day around Cape Town

The lions don,t pay entry fees anymore .The Epic has some form of addiction that very few other races have . I have done two and would certainly do more if life permitted it .The only other event i have experienced such an addiction is the Magalies Monster .You know you are going to suffer and that brings you back . It is an evil race . The six month,s before the start your mind seems to lock onto the idea of it and it cannot be removed

For Nam you need large 4x4 tires at 1,8 bar and never go over 100km/h on the dirt roads to avoid punctures .If you have Michelins ,take two spares

Very entertaining and lots of info on cars .

I see you avoid VW and Toyota like me. First priority is safety for me to .Too many noob drivers have either been killed or have been in accident,s . I don,t want my child to be a carjack victim either ,the reason i avoid above mentioned makes .Student,s don,t drive that much if they live on or near campus so economy is not that important to me ,reliability is .They often have to park outside and they will bump the car at some point .You don,t want a high insurance premium either .

Spez and Scott .Buy the Nylon sole type .Amateurs like us don,t need carbon soles

2003 model R6900 .25000km .These cars were built to do 700000km .Lexus USA reputation is built on this model .Best selling SUV in North America .Same 3L petrol engine as the Toyota Camry

Both my two daughters used a 2001 prado 90 series as a student car .It was paid for ,insurance is R300 a moth for 3 party and they could park anywhere they want to .Away weekends the friends all shared petrol and they used it as a comfortable long trip car .It is also saver than these modern tin cans that sell for double what that car was worth

I used my lexus rx 300 for ten years as my cycling car .I can fit a XXL MTB inside ,lying flat .They arn,t the lightest on petrol ,but also super reliable and cheap to repair

I eventually received goods ,but it took way more calls , emails and persuasive harsh words than it should have been . It,s not only Bike addict thou . It is rare to find good service in RSA currently .Vote with where you spend your money

Standard handlebar scratch from bars overturning in fall with or without rider .All my bikes have this signature . I will just put a sticker over it .Model paint from a hobby store should work nicely if you really have to fix it ,but it is bound to happen again

The rocks arn,t as sharp in the western cape as they are in Gauteng and the magaliesberg .I rode with what i use up here Vittorio Barzo and Maxxis ikon,s .More important is to have the correct sealant and enough of it .Only fresh Stan,s ,tyrejuice or ryder sealant .Those unbreakable orange tubes are crap .Ours lasted 30 minutes before puncturing .The area around the valve is also too wide and does not fit in some rims ,so they don,t allow a good seal .Take two normal robust rubber tubes and test them before .I lost an Epic medal because of the above mentioned .Robustness is more important than weight .I used a Schwalbe nobby nick in front once and with my 100kg weigh ,i never slipped on any off camber turns .My second event i used Maxxis ikon,s 2,4 back and front with no punctures .Ikon,s and schwalbe tyres are reasnoble easy to get of the rim if you need to .Vittorios are excellent but can be a monster to take of and replace again

Much more info needed like age for example .Ex Springbok rugby player friend that has always been fit ,trained his whole life ,all the cardiovascular parameters are excellent ,needed a pacemaker for a heart rate disturbance .Lots of very fit people end up with large floppy hearts that give rhythm problems .Go see a cardiologist . I discovered that i have two leaking heart valves only after ten years of serious cycling

I ride a Spez roubiax that is supposed to be a road bike ,but i use it as a road and gravel bike .Comfortable and i no more have worries of going of the tar and cutting across a gravel section to join up again on another tar section .I use 32mm panaracer tires on it and it is certainly a more comfortable ride than my proper BMC road bike . I would certainly consider getting a proper gravel bike like a Spez Diverge .

I spoke to the manager last year before spring and already they were talking about it .The good rains we are having is not good for them .No customers and higher maintenance .When they started out we were just getting out of a drought so the trails were used a lot

The problem is that even the jet spray leaves some residue on your hands and even the tiniest amount can cause a huge problem if you are far out in the sticks and have to cycle back like in this case where they were far from help .The water bottle solution is a better option in this case .I have also done it and it actually works

Just a word of advice on using pepper spray .Any amount sprayed at the offending party will also end up in your own eyes .You need very little to be carried on the wind to drift into your face .The only solution is to put local anesthetic drops into your eyes .I carry a small amount with me. Pepper spray is very effective and will take anything with a tear film down in seconds

Dead in RSA .Alive still in Europe