Shebeen

simple: Kevin prioritized the rider experience to build the long term legacy of the event at the expense of short term profit. Ironman are using the long term legacy to prioritize the short term profit at the expense of rider experience. well that's the way this keyboard warrior sees it, backed up by riders from the field

so let me get this straight, guy rides 500 miles on an velodrome track. passes out momentarily. Doc says: "that's probably enough" He goes back out to see what it's like and rides another 5 laps (so 1,25km) and then calls it quits. but you're going to give him anonymous advice on how to move on from this tragedy on the day his race partner passes away? And defend it with your desktop research? Welcome back to the hub, I guess. Don't lose those login details. Ben Elst, if you're reading this - not all of us share this opinion. Sorry for the loss and the tragedy this adventure has become for you and your friends.

Hendrik, that's a bit unnecessary comment (after doing so well). To make such a statement you must know plenty to back it up. Someone died, and it looks like it could have been avoidable. (edit: Ben = Ronny's riding partner for 2025.) He was not some noob, this was his third epic. (I think, Epic have in their wisdom killed the rider history function from 2025, so this is legacy info still up on their site - nice one again) RIP Ronny.

Going to call it as I see it. This is epic upper management, (probably not even in SA) going into crisis mode. "Let's post the video of the afterparty with dance scenes" https://www.instagram.com/reel/DHlGXOYIgJA/ 10 minutes later "someone in IT says only 10 people have clicked on the early bird entry link each hour, normally it is 500+". "ok we need a reason to reassess. Can we still roll out the story of someone who died, after we denied his existence for a few days hoping everyone would forget? Do we need to R15m instant cashflow to pay off suppliers this week? With half the expenditure after all the cost cutting, that shouldn't be too hard" Kevin Vermaak will be able to buy this back at 20c in the Rand in 5 years' time. I'll back him to turn it around too.

Who is head of communications/ media at epic? They might be keeping schtum because of legal action over negligence This incident has been an EPIC FAIL on their part. I see serious blow back on how this event was handled in general. Good selling early bird entries at 4pm. Whoever signs up for that now is a sucker.

Figured stage 7 could be a cracker to go support, So loaded up my 10yr old bikebefok matt beers superfan with cowbells and fancy camera at 6:30am to go find the race snakes at Spectator point B - Dornier. we found this. The elites were expected in 45mins time, but there was clearly quite a lot to setup. since we had seen two signboards for spectator point A (waterford) which was only 2km away, we hotfooted there. Eerily there was no helicopter in the sky. followed some cars, and ended up in the waterford staff parking lot with waterford staff reporting for their 8:30 work day, and a few other confused fans. no one knew nothing, but we might find the waterpoint higher up on their farm, and then a blue overalled labourer came past on his quadbike, to show us the way. He got us to where stage 5 must have come through. Then we found the instagram post, no one had a course change/delay on their bingo cards so was quite a surprise to all.. Obviously a lot of moving parts, I don't know when the actual decision were being made - but there was clearly a big delay between then and putting it on socials. Non paying spectators are very far down on the priority scale, but not sure what we could have done differently (watch Youtube stream?!). Figured the scrum at Lourensford might not be worth the squeeze, so headed to wiesenhof action park waterslides - just 8 of us had the whole place to ourselves instead. Turned the (Cape) Epic fail into a great morning nonetheless.

https://www.bicycling.co.za/news-people/going-places-beers-and-nortje-form-toyota-specialized/

Yes. Definitely the female GOAT. To dominate 6 months after having a baby is insane. But it also says so much about the depth of the female field. Equal prize money has not raised the standard (many will say told you so). Not sure what they do, but the ladies race is just not the same level. Platt and sauser still the ones up in lights (imho).

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0614/8826/7429/files/AV_Roam_Main_Features_1_MB.png?v=1740989862

A real shout out to imbuko on their specialized bikes. Beat a lot of SWorks equipped teams

how was it?! was down the road doing a running race in a national park but figure this could be a brilliant event going forward

Can pog go to 4? He's the favourite at MSR today.

This is what makes the official Epic press release problematic. We know that water points ran dry, so they got that wrong. They put spin on the rumour of a rider death, which leads to speculation. The actual cape epic rider forum is hosted on this site if I'm not mistaken. How can they not be monitoring what is being said. Sounds like the golden goose is being cooked, would be very happy to be wrong.

Garmin SA seem to be dropping the ball. heard a few grumblings off line too when things go wrong they used to be fixed chop chop.

does this mean you are out? sorry if so (maybe happy to have been on a couch today rather)

The forecast was pointing that today was going to be hot. Now we see how good their action plans are.

That's what I was doing. Do you have any hits? I got zero photos.

photos still not up? I have a first time tandem stoker who is stamping his feet waiting.

Death, taxes and Nino having tyre issues at the Epic. Last year the winning margin back to scott sram was 11mins, and that was riding conservatively. This is not over, and if nothing else Matt Beers looks super fit (at least in the finish interview after hauling ass for 60km).

I saw that. but racing in mud/snow doesn't seem like ideal prep for the boland. most of the euro guys have been here for weeks (right?). Saying that, and obviously the level of competition is not the same, but Sofia did the same race and seems to be doing just fine in the leaders jersey. https://www.instagram.com/p/DG9maL8OwgH/?img_index=1 Agreed. I'm also expecting speed company to do speed company things soon which could blow the front pack up and create some chaos.

here's the link. https://www.strava.com/challenges/samsung-galaxy-ultra-power-through there's 80 000 entries already, with 5 bundles up for grabs I wouldn;t get too excited on those odds..

um ja. he did a (shortened) 100miler in Texas last weekend, doubt that was part of the original conversation when they teamed up. the guy has a big engine, he could still come right. https://www.instagram.com/p/DG-8Q5dOPtS/?img_index=6 Wonder how much of his kit is compatible with the spez backup team (which is imbuko or insect science?). 9 minutes to nino is ok since he will either blow his partner or have 20 punctures on a stage soon. https://rushsports.co.za/blogs/news/tech-keegan-swenson-dropping-bars-and-lifting-trophies

I don't think you've looked past the headline. A lot of your questions and concerns are answered by the later press release on this issue which is actually labelled a FAQ https://comrades.com/blog/posts/faq-comrades2025-two-starts logistics. the field was already too big to handle from PMB start. It's two seperate waves with all the bells and whistles twice - if you consider a ~10 000+ person mass start as "just another big run" then you have travelled much wider than me. should be very easy to identify people jumping ahead as the race numbers will be different colours. As this is effectively cheating 15minutes, thinking they will turn a blind eye to this shows you haven't been watching this space much (they are pretty much the only race that names and shames their naughty boys). this makes zero sense. sure. planned for accordingly. essentially two medal tables. how do you know that. 23 000 sold out. I have spoken to people who are gearing up to return to the race just for it. cool. you can do both.

That silly rule has been ignored for the past decade. The fact that it coincide with the polar sponsorship waning is merely conjecture. exhibit A: the race winner ignoring the rule and still winning https://www.strava.com/activities/11033828189

wow. part of the furniture