waveduke

Early morning bliss...

It will be better than having no seeding at all. But next year your CTCT 2026 seeding will be penalized because it's so long in the past. If you want a better seeding you should do one of the seeding races prior to the CTCT 2027 - it's also good for training.

All my before 7am starts I was the traffic... 🙂

I like the smell of the Muc-Off Foam Fresh: https://muc-off.com/products/foam-fresh

A weight of 7kg might be hard to beat with disc brakes - it all depends on the budget of course. As an alternative - the Cannondale Supersix Evo's are currently on sale: https://www.obike.co.za/product-page/cannondale-supersix-evo-3

Why did we get the UCI golden medal? Does anyone know?

If it helps: friends of mine took a bus from Dubai to Oman in order to get out.

Is it really relevant what group you are in? I would imagine that only your seeding index is important. Don't they fill up the start groups starting with the lowest seeding or something? In the past a similar index and similar seeding group got me into totally different start groups for the CTCT,

Just your time against the winning time - doesn't matter where you started.

You can filter by wave and then on the right hand side you will see your batch position.

In international trail running you have a point system. E.g. if you want to enter UTMB you will require a certain amount of points that you only get by finishing other long distance events in a specific time. This could probably be implemented in MTB too but would bring down the entry numbers most likely.

I've switched to oval on my MTB a few weeks ago and my experience are in line with the comments above: - subjectively more control and rounder pace on steep climbs - not very noticeable on the flats As usual there is already a GCN clinic on that topic 🙂

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I recommend to go with the lightest that you can get your hands on / afford. You don't win or finish the Epic on the downhills - it's the climbing you have to master. And there every gram on your bike and yourself counts 🙂

No one yet? 🙂 https://www.pinkbike.com/news/alan-hatherly-leaves-cannondale-to-join-team-jayco-alula-on-the-road-in-2025.html

I've got an USWE Outlander pack and I find it very comfortable to wear. What I dislike about the USWE is that it moves up and hits my helmet once the bladder is empty because it sits so high on the back. I guess it depends on your position on the bike and how your utilize the straps. Might be a non-issue for other people. Also with the 2l there is not much space besides the bladder. I can squeeze in a key - maybe a cellphone.

How are you supposed to overtake if you are not allowed to "deviate from the lane" ?

I recurrently ask myself the same question - why don't I get a hardtail instead of full suss? Save some on maintenance and weight. But every time I hit the three hour mark on a ride / race I'm glad to have suspension 🙂 My solution is now to have a cheap aluminium road bike for early morning road rides and CTCT and a full suss for weekends and marathons.

Over the years I had HRMs from Bryton, Sunto, Sigmasports and all of them failed for no reason after different periods of time. Besides factory reset and new batteries I don't think there is any other way to resolve.

@Eddie Stafford That's a beauty! What is the overall weight now?

And link for the 59km Strava profile: https://www.strava.com/activities/8728882416?share_sig=[C%404256b961679590255&utm_medium=social&utm_source=android_share Taken from here: https://www.entryninja.com/events/78559-lourensford-classic

@cadenceblur Route profile from Strava from the 40km last year:

Normally I would "Like" your post but if my wife sees that...

A lot of people are complaining about FinishTime but seeing the splits for each segment is highly interesting I think. Never noticed that on Racetec.

Is that flimsy front number board important now? I broke it on the first try...