Skubarra

Very cool stats Out of interest. The wave in your stats - would that be the whole of the group or just those on the dataset that did sub-3? I was in the same group and same age cat for the past 5 years so the comparisons work well in my case.

Think we are probably "back to normal" in 2026? 500 sounds about average from memory? Very unusual to have a 1000+ peeps ride a sub-3.

if you are in the top 25% of your age cat you qualify for the medal. Something that can be difficult to achieve in a small race with a strong field but a bit of a joke in a funride with 20K participants tbh

Glad you are ok'ish Honestly did not enjoy the race in @ today, too many crashes, bunch way too big. Only started feeling comfortable when the bunch scattered on Chappies. Was always keen on getting to 21 cycle tours, seriously rethinking that goal now.

eish - sorry to hear - did you manage to finish?

I try to convince myself that the income the cycle tour generates from the expo helps to keep the event viable and somewhat affordable so I'm performing my good deed of the day by walking through the expo, but yes its a mighty schlepp 🤣

I still love this event, also being part of a road club the build-up & buzz around the tour is my cycling motivation for the 1st 2 months of the year. But as I'm getting older & more risk averse with age the massive groups at the sharp end of the field are getting to me. Would have loved better organised age cat racing groups, feels very much like an afterthought for the organisers. Still I think the age cats are still marginally safer than the fast groups just behind it. (Also a bit crazy to think bikehub is probably more than a decade older than WA 🤣, make sense that a lot of the Cycle Tour questions & conversations happens on cycling WA groups first)

My point is just that you don't need an ebike in the group for someone to be much faster on climbs (and be considerate to the slower climbers). Maybe captain ebike is an ex-analogue rider who is now getting his revenge for all the times he was dropped by the skinnies in the group.

Is that a specific e-bike only problem though? Any cycling group will have stonger and weaker riders on the day and unless its a drop ride its the responsibility of the stronger riders to make sure everyone is keeping up?

I was in B, we didn't have a group doing pulls like Savage did in C but there were quite a few individuals taking turns up front and the pace was hard all the way. There was the odd attempted breakaway but it was mostly a consistent hard pace. We ended up only being 2,5 minutes slower than the main A bunch so I think B bunch rode well as a group. (and you guys did well to almost catch us -I saw on the flybys you came very close on the Philadelphia road!)

Very cool post 👍 Both races had great conditions, think the PPA route is slightly more difficult and on the day there were some crosswinds to deal with which wasn't an issue on the 99er. Just looking at Strava the last 10km on Adderley was faster for most on the Tour de PPA with lots of KOMs, cups and PRs achieved.

It used to be like that but last 2 years I got great seedings from the DC

None of what you say address @Bro Derek's point that if the victims choose not to lay charges or pursue a criminal case then there is not much further the state or CSA can do.

L = Long Route S = Short Route

What is wrong with it?

Organisers not very consistent here, but some years they would apply penalties to the indexes of "non-official" events for your CTCT seeding ie your CTCT seeding index might not be the same as your "normal" seeding index

My biased comment based on years of PPA funride participation in the lower alphabet soup groups 🙃 Usually at the funrides almost every group has 3 or 4 worker bees doing 90% of the work, a few okes who will put in a turn or 2 and 90% passengers either just hanging on or saving themselves for the heroic sprint finish. All that happenend in B on Saturday is you had a few mates rotating up front along with the few worker B's and suddenly you are the fastest group bar the elites, easy, no heroics or anything special. "A" bunch had plenty strong riders, B should have never came close, if they could put 2 minutes into B over the last 15km they could have easily put 10 minutes into B (or more) over the full distance if enough guys consistently worked up front. I know this is never going to change but it's a a pet peeve of mine that the strong social riders treat PPA races as league races riding for position instead of working together with others in the group and actually improving their seeding. PS - gap between A and B wasn't quite 20 meters but your point stands 🙂

No I'm referring to the champ in D who did a TT faster than everyone except the elites 🙂 Suspect something went wrong there

this looks a little suspicious 🙃

Cycle Tour last year the elites were about 20 minutes faster than the age cats Saturday winners were only 6 minutes faster than the alphabet soup groups, so adjusted winner time looks ballpark reasonable I would say

if you did the same time from E compared to someone in C you will have the same seeding index from the race. Don't get your hopes up too much for 99er though, because route is flat & many elites were not riding penalties will likely be applied. You will probably know in a weeks time when they do the seeding for Tour de PPA

Back in the 80s and 90s there were 2 funrides/races every weekend, now there are 5 or 6 in a season excl CTCT. So unfortunately we will never get to system again where people build up seedings over a long period and learn the skills as they move up. I dropped back to ride with friends in a lower group, for me I have no desire to mix it up with elites in $, too dangerous for me and as a mamil I cannot compete with youngsters racing bikes for a living. Also I don't like riding in % as its way too negative & slow, too many peeps doing "racing tactics" at a pace slower than the alphabet soup groups coming from behind. Yes occasionally too big bunches can form but I think it happens less than you think, very difficult for most people to hang onto faster riders that go fast enough to catch multiple groups.

Looking at the resuls now, did no one tell the peeps in % this is a race not a coffee ride? 🤷‍♂️🙈

I hear you, roads around Durbanville have become way more busier over the past few years. Not sure moving it to a Sunday will make a significant difference though. (R302 between Stellenbosch and Malmesbury always busy with long distance traffic) We do need to give the organisers credit though for the road closures on Adderley, really not something trivial to organise and makes the race significantly safer.