Velouria

My advice - ride the bike you're comfortable on. The bike you know. The bike you trust. It's such a long event that you're going to hurt regardless. Might as well make sure it's on a bike that isn't going to give you hassles. Your hands will hurt, your bum will hurt, your feet will hurt, your knees will hurt, your back will hurt. Sometimes on their own. And sometimes all at once. Lance (while still being a toss) was and is still right about something. It's not about the bike. Make sure your preparation is good. Make sure you know how to look after your body. Make sure you know how to deal with the predawn demons in your mind. You conquer those things, and the bike won't really matter. (I've ridden 4 times, 3 times on a hard tail, and twice of those with a Lauf fork). Comfort is overrated. My bike, on top of Rooiberg Pass. We're usually here just before sunrise...

A roadie 24hr rider and winner, but not a world champ. Also winner of the Dutch beach riding champs. Now if Jason English were to ride there would be fireworks!

Send him my way. Even better - take him along and buy him breakfast afterwards!

Wow! Probably some of the best trails in the Western Cape at the moment. You have to work for it, but the single track is AMAZING. A trail builder with a brain clearly built these! If you haven't ridden here yet - go now!!!

Reminds me of this:

Do you know what a total mind ****it is to have your Garmin suddenly start talking in miles? I felt fast, but the speed numbers were too low. And the distance wasn't as far as usual. I thought the GPS satellite system might have been sabotaged and that I was just getting faulty data. (It would never be my Garmin, right?) Stopping and restarting my Garmin did nothing to fix the problem. Until I saw the teeny tiny MPH sign...

"You had better be good to wear white shoes. I don't even think it's legal to wear white shoes with unshaven legs. You need to check your local ordinances regarding this matter." From here Apart from being good, I think meet all those requirements

Going home was no better. One of those fancy Range Rovers tried to turn in front of me. The situation was made worse because of the almost non existent indicators on that monstrosity. It was almost like dealing with a BMW driver...

I am beginning to form a theory about the colours that motorists take note of, and the colours that they outright ignore. (Don't judge my fashion sense) Today (clear and sunny) - red bike, white shoes, black socks, red and black shorts, mostly black shirt, and white helmet. Completely invisible to motorists. Putting aside the fashion cacophony, I thought I would have been quite visible with the contrast of red, white and black. My research will continue tomorrow...

I disable that guy. Not quite sure who he is, and who got to choose him as my buddy, but I think he's just a show off!

That's my biggest worry - egging on the wrong guy (or girl) here and before I know it I've been flattened in a fit of road rage. As I mentioned yesterday, a cop almost took me out, so I'm not sure how they would deal with a complaint from a cyclist...

So - riding into work this morning, I'm busy cruising in my bike lane, past a whole bunch of cars that are stuck in traffic (I don't think I was being smug yet - it was still early on in the ride), when one car decides to sneak up the inside, into the bike lane, RIGHT in front of me, without even checking mirrorrs etc. You know that move where your bike goes one way and your body goes the other way? Like a Matrix move on bikes? Well that was me dodging the car. The result was that I was practically floating over the bonnet of the car, so I took the opportunity to snack it as hard as I could. My hand is still tingling! And then the car hoots at me with indignation!

What if I try - *gasp* - to befriend a motorist, and find out what's going on in the group, while still being able to be smug. I might even be able to convince the motorist that bike riding is quite cool. We get to be smug a lot, about many things.

But then how will I be the smug cyclist that rides past them when they are stuck in traffic?

I am convinced that there is a motorist's Whatsapp group or something where all motorists on my route into work decide how they are going to drive for the day. Today was one of those days where every second person was driving like a moron, SAPS policeman included. And other days my commute will be boring and incident free. Like they all agreed to drive properly for a change. What do I have to do to get on that Whatsapp group???

Which made this morning's ride in sunshine with blue skies all the more odder. It was windy, but not "blowing old ladies over" windy...

Unless, like me, home involves riding straight into the teeth of the South Easter. Or your definition of fun is warped!

I must have put my invisibility cloak on this morning by accident - I was completely invisible to cars, taxis and pedestrians. One of those days where it felt like there was a contract out on me!

I know - despite all my good intentions to avoid this race like the plague, we're back. I need to get mentally tougher!

I'm going to assume you mean the halfway point, and not the bit on the tar behind the police vehicle!! This is always the problem with these races - hidden gems that grow and become popular, and then lose the bits that made them so special. A Catch 22! Me too - 2600+ All in all, a very cool event. I don't think we rode a single piece of flat road for 160kms - it was either up or down, all day long! The post ride vibe at the finish was brilliant, as was just about everything else about this event - well done to the organisers!

This monstrosity: Many an hour of torture, but if you're a data geek, a fantastic way to see exactly where you are!

I've done just 2 Wattbike sessions this winter. Still prefer the big outdoors to riding in my garage!

I have vowed (several times) to never do this race again. Part of me is keen

Ahh - you've spotted the weakness in my AV setup. My VHS player stopped working about 10 years ago.