SwissVan

Know your target event, make a point of reading up on it and follow the online chats by people who take part and share their experiences, practice what they preach. Train the basic concept of the event, in other words if it involves riding for hours on end 8 days in a row, then do that. Even if you only ride outdoors on the weekends and the weekdays at night on your IDT, just do it for 8 days in a row (ACE for example). Try to ride on similar terrain as the target event once or twice per week, for example technical ST, granny gear climbs (very steep), fast downhills with slippery surfaces, etc, etc) Practice picking up and carrying your bike with all your race kit, it’s not as simple as it sounds and uses different muscles to what you may be used to using, and what gym “bunny” training uses. When you’re riding mid pack or at the back amongst the “fish and chips” riders portaging your bike at bottle necks could save you time improving your finishing position and start group the next day. Have fun….

What a tragic story, which in hindsight could have been prevented. Pardon me for editing and removing some of shambles original text but some things stood out for me and raise questions in my mind, most of which I’ll probably keep to myself so as not be labeled as a insensitive t**t A lot of people are pointing fingers at the organization due to the water shortage and allowing the stage to go ahead / continue knowing in advance it was going to be very very hot., all valid questions or accusations. My question (here comes the insensitive bit…) when does a competitor and in the case of team events the rest of the team take responsibility for their own health and safety? For example “When he got dizzy, he wanted to keep going “ ”A little later, Ronny mentioned he was feeling dizzy. I let him ride in front and adjusted my pace. But Ronny was a fighter, and he kept going “ If only these warning signs had not been ignored until it was too late…. Yes I know, easy to say in hindsight sitting on my couch….. however I do have some experience having trained through a European winter for the ACE and suffering like a dog with food poisoning and dehydration on day 4 and 5…..

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Not that I have seen, other than reduced fees for early entries where the price increases the closer you get to the event date. Edit: Looking at the Swiss Epic (August 2025) they have an early bird tier system, Feb to April CHF 3185 (+/- ZAR 66’000) for a team, April to June CHF 3350. But nothing based on local or international that I see

Well done to you all that took part and finished I always wonder why overseas participants pay extra, it’s the same with the comrades marafun.

Humans in general are tossers, just look how they behave everywhere not only at the epic.

Yeah the coverage is pretty damn good The director did slip a bit in the last few km’s imo, would have been good to zoom out from the chopper to get a view of the gap between the Italians (2nd) and Swiss in 3rd

IPT TV TNT2 Bit of a wet start

I really hope it’s anyone but pog VdP is looking lean and relaxed from cyclingnews.com “Mathieu van der Poel is living his best cycling life. He is a favourite for Milan-San Remo but is not under intense pressure to win like Tadej Pogačar. He has already won six Monument Classics and will surely win even more this spring and in the years to come. Life is good and the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider seems to have worked out how to balance the intensity of pro racing with life's little pleasures. Cycling and winning the biggest Classics have never been forced on him or burdened him, they are not a personal obsession, they are naturally part of his life” "My life is not perfect, for sure I have bad days as well. But I think I'm at an age now that I've accomplished almost every goal I've set for myself and even more," Van der Poel explains. "That brings me a lot of peace. Everything that comes now, it's a bonus. That makes it very relaxing to race." "I still want to try and win the biggest races out there, another Monument, so I'm still very motivated. I'm well aware that I need to be at 110% to beat Pogačar. That's always good motivation." https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/i-need-to-be-at-110-to-beat-pogacar-mathieu-van-der-poel-takes-aim-at-milan-san-remo/

Tchy dis laat, jy moet slaap boet

Thanks for your daily updates, vasbyt this time next week it will all be over and you’ll be planning the next one 🤙👍

Tonight coming back from dinner (we walked to a nearby restaurant) we walked passed our local graveyard….. and I noticed a whole row of new graves with wooden crosses… about 15 of them and eerily my first thought was of this time 5 years ago

Is that a mtb on tar????? In the hardest mtb race in the world Pfffft….

4-5 hrs gps time on this garmin vivo thing? Thats swak, my polar with 32% battery life at the moment shows 9hrs battery life if I select a sport in gps mode. Ok so its still quite new, but I’ll take the garmin bashing opportunity no matter how small with both hands….. 😗

Or via rumours on a cycling forum specialising in classifieds