Skubarra

UCI definition as per the website So they are slightly over the "allowed" limit if you want to throw the book at them Swartberg 100 Miler also about 40/60 tar vs gravel So yes - lots of tar definitely part of the gravel scene, I agree the mix is part of the appeal and makes it more interesting. Have not seen many complaints

Was also wondering about that - not sure how you are going to fit in a team TT event with a series of individual events. It is a bit hard to figure out exactly what they are trying to achieve here but lets see...

Definitely on my to-do list. only 27,500 reasons there are a few other events ahead of it on my to-do list

Enjoy guys - this is a lekker event!

I found that this app is not very reliable.... Likely the weather will be even worse... 😄

If having an e-bike is the one factor that makes the difference between you getting out and cycle regularly vs staying on the couch because you hate that steep uphill and don't feel like sucking it up then its already worth it 100 times over.

As mentioned earlier - Brewery have new owners and they and the original organisers had a fallout - so previous organisers now organising Ride Darling and current organisers not allowed to use most of the trails in the area including Wolwefontein (guess you can deduce whose side the locals took...)

Entry fee was R590 for the 100 miler - which is just more than half the going rate for these kind of events - probably big part of the reason the turnout was so good, and also why I am more inclined to be forgiving for small things going wrong. I would like to think profits were made but don't underestimate the input costs, there are many costs we as the public are not aware of, not so easy to make "serious bucks" without a headline sponsor, if it was you would have seen these events happen every weekend. A bit weird that you wouldn't want to see mtb's at gravel events as generally they are at a disadvantage, and their presence (along with the unloved e-bikes) makes it economically feasible for organisers to host these events.

I might make myself unpopular here but this is not the first time a route marking goes wrong on a cycling event, nor will it be the last time. As someone mentioned earlier this happened to the race leader at the 94.7 which is a mass participation event with closed roads so sometimes things go wrong. I have seen it happen at Sani2C and other bigger and better organised events as well. We dont know if it's actually someone that stuffed up with the route markings or if it was sabotage - both can happen easily and sometimes the organiser have no choice to trust that the people responsible wont stuff up, you cant be everywhere and triple check everything. If you race often its guaranteed to happen to you at some point, I guess its fine if you want to trash the organisers to get the disappointment out of your system but life is a little bit easier if you accept that this is part of cycling and some days things just wont go your way. Sure this mishap will be fixed next year or at the very least most of us will know the route better.

Well to dope and then apologise without being caught must be fairly dumb and pointless? I don't know/care if its the absolute truth or not but I can see the logic of an athlete that only start doping / taking shortcuts when his previously successful career takes a dip because of injuries/illness/old age. Makes more sense to me than the standard hub logic that anyone caught doping has constantly been doping all his life.

Great idea - they should put in some effort to market this... Think these events attract the same crowds so a proper league would be nice.

On a aside - which races form part of the WP league?

Well they were following the marshall who also missed the turn-off, is it technically a short-cut if the marshalls gave you wrong instructions? And I am fairly certain they still ended up doing longer than the supposed route I ended up doing about 4km extra because of the missed turn-off, weirdly after we were turned back to the correct route some of the mid-bunch people also missed the turn-off. Not sure how it happened that people kept on missing that turn-off after it was corrected. I had a fun day on the bike, I enjoyed the flat fast route and would definitely be back next year (on a gravel bike not a mtb) - think most of the critisisms here should be easily fixable and this event have a lot of potential.

Think it happened right behind me when the group unexpectedly braked and the people at the back were caught unaware in the dark. Was hoping it would just be a few bruises but clearly it was a ugly fall - hope he has a speedy recovery!

My experience this weekend at RvR was very different.... Averaged close to 30km/h over 160km on my mtb only to finish back in the mid-bunch masses. Felt like I was at a constant disadvantage, whenever the peeps on the gravel bikes decided to turn-on the pace I was bleeding to hold on. Even on the rutted sections I did not feel that I had a clear advantage and on the more gradual climbs I was at a clear disadvantage (although that might be partly me being a crappy climber anyway). The first half of the race when I was still hanging on to the sharp end of the field I noticed maybe 3 or 4 mtb's in a mass of gravel bikes - the trend is bleeding obvious to me. Seems I have to start saving for that N+1 bike!

Yes - the week of the Cycle Tour is in theory appealing to the people travelling down for it, that was how it was with the ToGH when it still attracted corporates. Guess with technology nowadays many can get away with half-days leave, ride in the mornings and do some work in the afternoons. But according to me to make it work they will have to make massive improvements in the appeal of the routes for people to fly down and book 5 days accommodation for this - 5 days around Paardeberg with one hill-top finish in Du toitskloof is not going to cut it. They are going to have to bring back Franschoek pass and Bainskloof at least if this event want to have any chance of growing.

I don't know - not sure if there is other red tape involved with venue/permissions, catering afterwards, medics etc -also if you go bigger you have to start thinking about seeding and more starting groups (Swartberg Gran Fondo recently stretched the limits of practicality with one big mass start). But good to see a relatively cheap event selling out on debut in a time of expensive events and falling number of entrants- hope the organisers can pull this one off!

Entries sold out yesterday - pretty impressive for a brand new event!

Then maybe I should not so confidently put my head on the block!! Thanks for the heads-up....

Basically the bulk of the 50 miler route

As per my earlier post - I'll put my head on the block and say its a no brainer to go gravel bike for Saturday

On FB organisers said no late entries - but they also said entries would close on Tuesday and it is still open... So I guess if you want to risk it then maybe? 🤷‍♂️

I did about 60km the route last Saturday on an informal route recce - pretty much 99% of it was gravel bike heaven, only a few short rutted sections. The start is going to be a slightly dodgy, a farm road with random potholes so in a bunch there can be nasty surprises but once you get to the district roads the mtb's are going to eat gravel bike dust. Also it seems no big climbs, so if the wind plays along I would say go for the longer distance, you might very well be able to wing it even if you are not really fit enough.

I recently bought a secondhand car - did a lot of homework beforehand (and for my sins are now permanently plagued by car adds on my social media feed) so I felt I had a good feel for the range of asking prices for my class of vehicle in the market and the Autotrader fair price label was interesting... In my opinion that label was a bit erratic, a few decent deals were labeled as "high price" and visa versa. Would be interesting to know wat exactly the criteria is for that label (I would be p^&ed at Autotrader if I have an ad in there and they decide my asking price is "high" 😄)

ugh - that sucks 😞 Weather gods are fickle - 2 weeks ago we had perfect weather for the Swarberg Gran Fondo