Skubarra

WP Cycling's newsletter last week said Tour de PPA will not be part of the league. So you are welcome to fall back to Group D with us and have a lekker fast ride 😉

Few years back (when there were still more road races around) - I finished at the sharp end of B bunch 4 races in a row without improving my road seeding tot A. 1 month later a little mtb race in the boland with a massive beta halved my road seeding index despite an unspectacular result. At that point I gave up being under illusion that the system is working (despite the impressive maths behind it)

it sometimes happen that provincial xcm and gravel events fall on the same weekend - a bit annoying for people who want to compete in both

But then how do you get from B to A? % is expected to be slower than elites, if its not then either the elites were sleeping on the day or the seeding system is wrong Answer is probably that you need a group of strong guys in % (or A at Winelands) to ride for time, ie work together to get the pace as high as possible and finish as close as possible to elites. Problem is there are many in %/A with no ambition to ride elites or they just want to win the group (which is their right, everyone have their own goals) which make it real hard to get a paceline going as many will just hang on or spoil the pace when given the opportunity.

Always a safe option to fall back a bunch or 2 and just do you own thing... Just don't let the hub critics find out... 🙃

You might even say one of the original gravel races, before we even knew such a concept exists!

Agree - and sometimes it can be very hard to improve your seeding from the 2nd group at the best of times. Last weekend at the Winelands A (2nd bunch) was slower than B and C (ignoring the D bunch story). So even if you broke away and won A bunch your seeding would not have improved.

Generally speaking you need about 1 strong result every 6 months to stay in or move up a group. For most it would mean that after the CTCT you need a strong result in either the Durbie Dash/One Tonner or DC to maintain your seeding before the next calendar year.

It shouldn't affect your time if you fall back (we did that for Winelands and it was fine). The incident you mentioned would have been an error, hopefully it was fixed.

Sorry! If you just asked 5 minutes earlier....

@NicholasH Quick question - do I understand the website correct that no substitutions are allowed? I entered early but a school activity unexpectedly popped up for Sat Morning, would not want my entry go to waste.

A few of the strong guys that were in Cat2 last year were riding in Cat1 at Philadelphia, just my perception but Cat2 felt a bit easier than last year. Just on our fellow hubber in Cat 3, if I was a super strong masters rider and I had to choose between mid-bunch anonymity in Cat 1/ Cat 2 or competing & hurting others in Cat 3 I know what I would pick!

Did anyone on here actually check the Cat 3 results before bashing the oke for being too strong for his Cat based on a mid-race photo?

if you also do 320 watts while drafting him you are doing drafting wrong 😁

In the past Cat 2 was usually mainly Vets and Cat 3 mainly Masters + then the guys moving down from higher cats that are too strong for them. So for me I have no problem if Cat 3 has a master riding there hurting everyone else....

I would love a seeding debate but I suspect we would bore the rest of the hub to death. Will just say I dont particularly like the robbing analogy 😀, what we did is perfectly within the rules and imo not at the expense of anyone else. At the end of the day we are all just having fun participating in the sport we love and should not take ourselves too seriously. Some days I prefer a fast ride while helping my fellow club members over trying to negotiate the negative tactics in A (on Sunday) bunch. When you & me started out cycling we had a road race every second weekend to improve our seeding, now there are 2 or 3 seeding races over a whole season, so times have changed and opportunities to improve seedings are limited. I am sure anyone that wheelsucked from D at a 39km/h average for 100km in the heat and on a route including Bothmas, would be fine wheelsucking in B & C bunch at 35km/h at the next funride - so you really don't have to worry about loads of weak cyclists suddenly being over-promoted.

Idea is to give team mates the opportunity to improve their seeding (like Pure Savage, Outriders etc have done in the past as well). But it isn't a free ride, no hands were held and you had to be able to keep up (not all could), also a number of other D & C riders were taking their share of turns in front. I don't see how this could mess up the seeding system. If you can ride a strong time in a bunch your seeding should reflect that. If you happened to muck around in a bunch that was slow, its only a missed opportunity, not a penalty against your seeding because someone else went faster.

Other bunches doing racing tactics, while we ride for time as you are supposed to do at a funride.... 🤫

I remember a few years back PPA and WP league co-operated and then the league races included Helshoogte, Ou Kaapse Weg & Vissershok climbs & Philadelphia was the only race without a big climb. Was never much of a climber and could always quite easily point out exactly where on the route the bunch was going to drop me 🤣

If you are ok to ride singletrack on your gravel bike then I'm sure its doable, very much doubt that the route will be very technical for this type of event.

My bad, misunderstood some of the earlier posts. That said, even with that nasty climb I would say the 130km is relatively speaking one of the easier routes around. And that is not a bad thing, more hard climbing does not necessarily = more fun

As gravel routes go the 130km route is one of the tamer ones around, since you are not skipping out on the big climb anyway when opting for the 80km I would say enter for the 130km - you still have more than enough time to get fit

Unfortunately, traffic is not going to keep you safe from the attackers.

The diesel engine only kicked in after about 100km's... So after Kalbaskraal when legs in the bunch were starting to fade a few of us upped the pace to thin out the bunch before the final sprint. I'm not a sprinter at all so that tactic suited me very well 😁

Also not sure how it works - they took back our timing chips but not our numbers so you might have to purchase a new one. But they will definitely allow you in Cat 3 Haven't done Atlantis in a while but its a nice circuit to race, unfortunately I have another race on that weekend.