Denis Dell

I made it to the 174km mark (according to my watch gps), when i was confronted by this mountain that looked something conjured up in the depths of Mordor. Head wind that might have found a place in Moses plagues during his time in Egypt. The body and mind is like Frankenstein's monster before the two were connected. The one say go, the other say, fook off... Signals between the two got so mixed, it made the Covid task team looked like a professional organisation Eventually both mind and legs came to the realisation that this mountain from mordor still meant there is about three hours left, thats when the arse started sharing his views and chimed in too. Arse made it very clear that since he was not consulted in all this, he will initiate plan sabotage. Plan sabotage resulted in hell from the saddle. Standing up resulted in opperation custard with jelly, the brain child of legs. Meanwhile, brain was doing calculus, combined with Euclidean mathematics, thrown in some string theory to demonstrate that resisitance is futile and the only future left is with borg collective. QED. Thats when i played the rocky motivation speech to these miscreants, "life will hit much harder than me, it doesnt matter how many times its hit you down, all that matters is that you stand up". And then eyes, looked up, and said: " Dude that aint life, that is Mordor!" And i had no arguments left. So yeah, in summary, a hell of a ride, and will be back next week.

Remember I asked, when do other people start asking the WTF did I sign up for... Well I drove the course this afternoon (with a vehicle that has a diesel engine and an automatic transmission), my arse got sore at the 150km mark and I knew the answer to the above question for myself.

I see that there is an additional motivation for the William Wallace band to work together. According to epic ride app, a head wind will start hitting us as we turn to head south. So the slower we do the first 150km, the stronger the headwind. If we push 28km/h (from 07:00) then we will only have 10km/h plus head wind for the last 20km. If we slack the first 150km at 20km/h, then we will start hitting 10km/h+ head winds from 60km out. If we get chased by a bunch of bmx riders, and do 35km/h, well, then there will be almost no wind for us, but also, we will probably be finishing this race in the back of support vehicles with signs on our bikes "free road bike to the first responder, willing to ship anywhere on my own cost"

at what stage of an event do you go and ask yourself the question, WTF did I sign up for?

from somebody that has NEVER done any racing at all (ever), and trying to read everything pertaining to this event that is humanly possible, this document seems to suggest there will be marshals and signages at the different intersections https://www.wpcycling.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/V2V-Event-Guide-Sue-Lenovo.pdf

Not sure what is the better motivation for that breakaway group... being chased by an ou tannie on a BMX or a couple of racing snakes from the elite group covered in tinfoil...

Good morning. In less than half an hour, riders from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest road battle in the history of racing. Racing -- that word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps its fate that today is The Big day, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution -- but from annihilation. We're fighting for our right to live, to exist, to RIDE!!! And should we win the day, the 26th of July will no longer be known as The Big Day, but as the day when the world declared in one voice: We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive!" Today, we celebrate our Victory!

I really hope not, not only can that be an administrational nightmare, but as a social rider, I am hoping to draft the faster groups until I can no longer keep up, struggle forward till the next batch catches me and then I will try to hang on for as long as possible... every time the next batch comes by, I'd be suffering more and more because their average speeds will be higher.

Basically, what this sounds like is that we expect a breakaway to form from the social bunch around the first feeding station (about 30 minutes after Braveheart joins the fight).... thus far, said breakaway will consist of Frodo, a hairy dude on a pink bike. Mell Gibson, a Scotsman wearing a kilt and blue face paint, a small guerrilla weighing in at 105kg, (who started cycling 4 months ago, me). All we need now for motivation is an old tannie chasing us on her BMX.... Yeah, I agree, I can see nothing wrong with that picture.... 😉

Ask not what the peloton can do for you, but what you can do for the peloton....:-) And it seems the peloton has spoken and asked you to complete the event in a kilt and blue face paint... 🙂

My support team (my wife and kids) promised they may be waiting at the finish line for me provided I don't take too long to get there... koeksister nogal ne? Who do I have to bribe to get on to your team to share in koeksister glory?

I think the link is broken, and since I have no clue what this comment means, where can I find the rules etc? It would really suck if I rode 10 hours on the bike, only to be disqualified in the last 5km because I had to get off my bike to push it over a speedbump.

The only time I can do a 35km/h pull for any reasonable time is when I am being chased by a BMX or a MTB. No matter how hard it is, a man must have some pride left at the end of the day...

ooh, you and me both! I am also starting in the fun group.

We clearly have different definitions of "flat"

lots of different apps available, but yeah, what #Lechatnoir said looks about the same as what Epic Ride Weather is predicting.

So what are everybody's target times to finish this event? Also, I seem to recall there will be a "sweeper" vehicle, I assume that if you fall behind that, you are kind of screwed? What is the expected time for that vehicle to finish at?

yeah, that is exactly my train of thought too. Keep getting dropped by faster groups, hang on to the next one for as long as I can, get dropped, rinse and repeat.

I would define slow as somebody that is checking how much sunlight is in the day and then contemplating taking a flashlight in case the finish line is missed in the middle of the night... 😉 Seriously though, I think the definition that is used for the slow bunch is below 25km/h?

as one of the "slow bunch" riders, this is great news

that is so true, I've been trying to get some long rides in on zwift, I will start the ride by telling myself, just hit a nice casual 200w max, but then you see those few pixels in front of you and before you know it you are cranking out the big watts.... few minutes later, you just go, oh crap.... I've only done 20km, and there is still 80km left...

I am personally not going to be "racing".... just hoping to actually finish

do we know how many people have entered yet? And have the start times been confirmed (last I've seen it was just "indicative" start times.

quick question, I see there are three watering points. Where is the Saamstaan one? Could not find that on any map?

somebody mentioned the potential to start earlier, the other benefit of starting a bit earlier (especially for us slower riders) is that it should be cooler in the morning. It is winter, so not sure how much of a problem that will be but baking out in the sun for 9 hours+ is going to be another interesting adventure.