Milkman

Vegan by choice is very much a first world thing . In most of South Africa ( excluding our major cities ) and countries like us you will unfortunately have a tough time eating out or even making your own meal ( decent tasty meal that's not repetitive every day ) and stay true vegan . To get the correct amount of protein and nutrients from your meal on the budget that most South Africans live on is currently not possible on a strict vegan diet . It's a simple scale of economics ; the fewer demand there is for a certain food , the more it will cost to produce/supply . So if one day more and more people become vegan ,and demand picks up , more people will produce for that demand and more restaurants and shops will cater for a vegan lifestyle - which will make it more accessible and affordable . But we are a very very long way from there , and with our economy as it is , probably will never get there ? Plus , as Gen mentioned earlier , food is not just consumed for its nutrition . Taste is a massive factor determining what you eat , and sorry for the vegans , there is no way you will be able to match or even get close to the taste of "normal" food for the masses with vegan alternatives .

Unfortunately with 5 more years of this I think our economy would have tanked so much that there won’t be any more electricity users left ? We have 2 x 200 kVA gen’s running on the farm to keep all the pumps and cool rooms going when eksdom loadsheds. Running at 3/4 load they burn roughly R 2 200 worth of diesel every flippen hour . That’s almost R 10 000 a day !! ( at the current 4 and a half hour load shedding per day ) How do you budget for this ???

Okay , I didn't really want to explain my situation too much for fear of sounding as if I am bragging , but your comment makes me feel as if I have to defend my actions ? Not everybody does the race just to try and finish it . Some try and compete as well . My 19 year old daughter was also competing in the race , so I had to give her a lift . She didn't have her best race but still managed 4th overall. So there was reason behind the madness ! O , and someone mentioned the Magalies Monster as a better race to get up earlier for . She won that one this year , so yea , we got up early for that too . ( okay maybe I am bragging a bit now ? )

Don't know if I am missing something, but it looks like it is not a Bestmed event anymore ?

Spare a thought for the guys that have to travel from out of town to get to the races please . Already had to get up at 3:00 to be on time for this one .

Considering they have to cater for so many people I thought the route was not that bad ? There was actually quite a bit of single track ( maybe too much for the later batches that might have had bottlenecks - but as mentioned earlier , you cannot have single tracks without having bottlenecks in a race with a lot of participants ) . So not too boring for a mass event I think . The climbing wasn't hectic ? 650 meters on a 55 km race is definitely doable . And as far as the stench goes - you cannot really blame the organisers for that now can you ? Rain before the event would have eliminated that to a large extend . You might have a point regarding letting people qualify to be able to do the event , but to be honest , I think the organisers will get even more stick for that from people that want to ride and are refused entry because of not qualifying ?? In the end the race is what it is - a mass participation Mtb event with single track ( bottlenecks ) some twists and turns on loose gravel and some climbing to be done in order to finish . It's supposed to be a " challenge " for the average guy is it not ?

Fantastic initiative of the organizers to have a separate ladies race. The girls deserve the exposure they are getting ! I hope other stage races follow suit.

Well good for you .You don’t think that’s a bit selfish towards the people that do take this sport seriously and do and and try and compete internationally though ?

Most of us here on Hubland are Mamils ( me too ) that don't give a crap about racing licenses and whether a race is sanctioned or not . We just wanna ride our bikes and try and get to the finish line more or less in one piece. We are also rather resentful towards being told what to do by someone that we feel has wasted "our " money . And I get that . BUT , that is a very selfish way of going about doing the sport we love so much . Currently we need CSA . Without it there is no way for the few of our pro's that can compete internationally to do so . Or should we tell Alan - sorry boet , you had a lekker ride at Worlds this year , but seeing that I have beef with the way CSA ran their business in the past , I am gonna go out of may way to make sure they don't get any money from me or anyone else I know ?? Just to make sure that CSA fails even more and I can then point a finger and go : Ha Ha yea , I told you it won't work without my R35 ! Come on guys ??? I have a daughter that has competed at World Champs as a junior , and she is working really hard to try and make sure she will one day be able to go to Worlds again as an U/23 rider and maybe one day as an elite also . Will it be okay to deny her any chance to go ever again just because some idiots mismanaged CSA in the past ?

Yea , have to agree with Rolling Stone here. I also haven’t seen plenty of warnings from K2C regarding the race not being sanctioned ? I might have missed it though ??

I know some licensed riders that got a warning when they did the Juma race .

Also really enjoyed the event. I think it’s one of the most underrated Mtb stage races in SA. Those bush tunnels are flippen awesome Edit spelling ( autocorrect and Afrikaans ????j

That might have been the 3rd e-bike I mentioned ??

Two of the e-bikes ( I think there were 3 e-bikes in total ? ) were people from Trek South Africa . They had gotten special permission from Farmer Glen to basically do a real life test of an e-bike in stage race like conditions . They were not allowed to interfere with the race and had to stay in their batch ( I think it was batch D or E ? ) every day .

Is she doing the race , adventure or trail ? We are doing the race , so if she is doing the race ,we might be able to swap.

I have a medium ladies that I would like to swap for large mens . Only problem is we are doing the race , so not sure how we will manage to get together to do the swap ?

So both of our SA ladies that entered the u/23 race have had to withdraw from the race because of injuries now . Danielle Strydom fell at Sabie Classic 2 weeks ago and damaged her knee , and now yesterday Bianca Haw fell in practice on the track and a stick penetrated her calve muscle . Crap !! It's so seldom that our local riders have the opportunity to compete in World Cups without having to spend a Guptillion bucks to get there so really not lekker when they have the opportunity and then gets injured just before the race .

Entries are only closing tomorrow , so batches etc will probably only be out after that ?

Sorry , I see Eldron beat me to the reply .

They ( Head ) are more known for their tennis and squash racquets as well as ski's . So they must at least know a thing or 2 about carbon manufacturing . But I agree , great to see someone is putting some money into woman's cycling in SA !

I also enjoyed the 2 day format. Firstly I have 2 teenagers , so they were not allowed to do the marathon Sat , half marathon Sunday format , and therefore the option of doing 2 half marathon’s Sat and Sunday was great. And then of course it made it a lot more attractive to travel to a race that was quite far away if you knew that you had 2 days of riding. It therefore was like a mini break for the whole family with some great riding thrown in. I ( for example) would never have traveled all the way to Kaapsehoop if it was just a 1 day race , but because it was 2 days we went. And boy was it worth it !!! I absolutely loved the littl town ( which I probably would never have seen if wasn’t for the race ) and also loved the trails.

So Ashburton did not renew their sponsorship for the national MTB series for 2018 , and so far it does not seem as if they have a new sponsor yet ? Please don't tell me the series is not gonna carry on this year ??? This was a fantastic series in some of the nicest parts of SA for Joe Soap and his friend to ride lekke trails and it will be a huge loss to the SA marathon riders if it does not carry on . Is there maybe a Hubber that has some good news for me regarding the series ?

Thanks guy . That’s nice to hear , ‘cause Giba is one of my favorite place to ride. You guys are flippen lucky to have such a lekker plek to ride close to you !

Driving on the N3 past Giba , I noticed that the informal settlement has grown a lot and moved a bit closer to Giba since we were in the area a year ago. We love riding there when we come down for our yearly break , and I just wanted to find out from the locals if it was still as safe to ride there as in the past , or are there areas that should be approached with caution ?

A few years ago the organizers of Sani asked the riders to please not give any "sweets" or goodies to the kids begging next to the trails. Things had gotten out of hand where some of the "kids" ( remember where an 8 year old might be all innocent a 14 year old might not be ) harassed some of the female riders so much that they felt unsafe. It is very obviously a compound problem that will eventually lead to a bad situation if kids are encouraged to beg and become violent with each other ( and maybe later on riders ) due to the fact that they get thrown sweets by some riders. You have to be very naive to not see that eventually things will turn ugly. Please don't get me wrong , I also really feel sorry for the poor kids , but as mentioned earlier , there are much better ways to contribute to their lives and happiness than to throw them a handful of sweets at a cycle race. I have 2 young daughters , and I hope that they can for many years to come feel safe enough to enjoy riding the 94.7 .