MongooseMan

That was a *very* cool route @guidodg, good job. I did feel for the one guy whose gears decided to only go into the small cogs, as the meanest part of the main climb started. I think he had a proper sense of humour failure at that point, saw him beating his shifters at one point in frustration 🙈 Aside from that, great morning out, will be back again.

🤞

@guidodg how was the rain last night? How much puddle dodging are we likely to be doing?

I motivate for a special route marking, just for @BuffsVintageBikes that takes him through the forest, and then up to 1st bench before the finish line 😆

Should organise a Monday coffee ride Edit: Or Tuesday, since Greyton appears to shut down on a Monday 🤣

Wind seems to be in the better direction (long section and climb with tailwind, descend into the headwind)

Cool, just want to avoid @Jbr and @Sid the Sloth running into the back of my mom on her ebike 🤣

@guidodg are we finishing through the forest single track? are you not concerned about 130k leaders running into the back of the 30/80k riders there?

Have sent DM

More like gravel vs road At this stage, only one bike, but there are plans in the works...

New shoe day (x2)

The Ceder race is 5 October, just something to be aware of (since it may impact accommodation)

More of a tool than Pidcock? Honestly, I wouldn't read too much into a Netflix doc. I've watched a couple of other youtube vids with him in and he comes across as a genuinely nice bloke. (Tristan is mates with him, so obviously he'll show him in a good light, but the point stands). I'll be rooting for him, just because it's nice to see an underdog come right (much the same reason I rooted for Kuss last year).

On Friday it was flowing faster than we were comfortable testing a9ff0c12-31dd-4949-9b36-1c52d74a00e3.mov

Those pitches don't last long, but the 4.5km climb starts with Garmin telling you 8% remaining. With 3km to go it's at 10% remaining. With 2km to go it's at 12% remaining. And that last bit has the pitches in it.

Yes, that’s the spot (3.5km from Oasis) No idea how long it’ll take to fix, you could always phone oasis on the day and find out. You really don’t want to get there and then discover you can’t get through, going back up that hill was less than pleasant. Rode from Oasis to Op die Berg today, and then towards Ceres (until my friend in the car caught up). Some proper climbing in the first bit (4.5km, 321m; followed by 15km, 661m; both with pitches of 16-18%). Then nice rolling gravel before some tar to Op die Berg and a lekker headwind downhill towards Ceres https://strava.app.link/oeZQ4rK4WLb given the impending rain, and likelihood of more flooded roads, we called our “training camp” a day early in favour of a Sunday at home. Still got 2 decent 90km days out of it (1600m & 1800m of vert respectively) with lots of gravel saddle time.

Drove to oasis yesterday. Road from op die berg to oasis is fine. We rode to the top of uitkyk pass today. River is flooded just before the Wuppertal turnoff, so you’d need to go the other way (turn left 3k from oasis). We only discovered this on our way back, so we were 5k from home and had to turn around and do a 20k detour 🙈 https://www.strava.com/activities/12104255047

So the Olympic TV feed has no time graphics while they’re riding? edit: ok, is back now

I’ll tell you next week 😁

Seems they made it round fine yesterday https://strava.app.link/B3YFHvB5MLb Currently holding thumbs and crossing fingers and toes that next weekends front stays south and doesn’t make my trip a wet one 🤞

Was also on the gravel bike, bit irritating to not be allowed onto Tafelberg, even to get to the jeeps at the first switchback.

Thought I saw an SA jersey coming off signal hill 😉

The nice thing about my weekend plans is that, as long as I can get to Oasis, I'm fine. If a road is closed on a ride, I'll just turn around and go get the distance somewhere else. The advantage of not doing a loop (this time 😀) For those wondering, my 3 days: Day1 (first up and down of the Ceder245, then back to Oasis to pick up my companions, who will hopefully have had breakfast by then. We'll roll out towards Wupperthal and back again) Day2 (First 55k of the Ceder140, to the bottom of Uitkyk, and back again) Day3 (Oasis to Op Die Berg, first 60k of Ceder245)

Will do, I'm not doing this weekend, but am heading to Oasis for 3 nights the following weekend to get some gravel and climbing in the legs ahead of the main race in October. Plan is to do out-and-backs from Oasis, using it as a base. So will do the Groot Rivier Hoogte pass, before turning around and heading to Wupperthal, and then back to Oasis Next day is to the bottom of Algeria and back. Last day is one way to Op die Berg, where I'll jump in the car.

Agreed, but at least the video gives a nice view of some of the climbs, which are hard to put into perspective otherwise.