Baaisikilist

We had the same. I told a few of them to back off, nobody listened, then the VB commissaire shouted at them and they dropped off...

Okes in the marathon, just letting you know... I'm bringing the hammer with, and i'm not afraid to drop it... Yes, the hammer, not the soap...

Yeah, I'm still learning the ropes as far as proper road racing goes. Soon as i'm more familiar with all the ins and outs, I'll have myself better positioned for when things get crazy. Will need a different brand of cement pilletjies for the next one. It's a lot of fun in VA, and as others have said, it feels a helluva lot safer riding with okes who can... I'll rather keep getting dropped till I can manage to stay on, than roll the dice in A and crash.

The commissaire had his clip board out and was scribbling away, taking down numbers by the looks of things, when VA was guttering all the way to the far right into the oncoming lane on the way past the entrance to Suikers. I opted to stay left of the centre line and got dropped like a bad habit. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. No good deed goes unpunished. I thought for sure it was going to be another Race For Victory whole bunch DQ scenario again. I guess that would mean consistent marshalling, which is like believing in the tooth fairy.

You're starting to sound a bit like a suurtiet... The route to "the top" is the same one for everyone. Train harder, get faster, do better. Then progress to the longer races, and improve from there, to a point where you're in groups that ARE willing to work and rotate, and generally "race" rather than ride/participate. Surely you aren't suggesting that you'd like to enter the half distance, but be able to jump on the back of a racing categories bunch, and enjoy a shortcut to "the top"...? @Cycotic. The open seeded categories are a free for all. It's only you, and Jesus who can decide what's right or wrong back there. If you feel right about jumping onto the back/into the middle/front of the long race open categories, from your short race, then by all means, have a go. There's no commossaire/race referee that will stop you, and you'll be able to cheat to your heart's content. Don't come crying here though when you get vloeked and made to feel unwelcome. The fast open groups don't like to be interfered with either.

As you seem to be interested in learning, let me teach you. You aren't allowed to "join up with the vets". when they come past, you are to allow them to pass without getting involved in their race, and you are to leave a gap between yourself and the back of the vets bunch that rolls through. You are not allowed to hang onto the back of them, or to position yourself in among them, and certainly not attempt to "take your turn at the front". They are in their own race, of 116km (in yesterday's case), and you are in your own race, of half that distance. By jumping onto the back of them, you are in fact cheating against your fellow competitors in the half race, by using the vets' pace to an unfair advantage, as well as becoming a hindrance to their race by being in the way. Don't take it personally as a "short rider". It's just rules. If (as i did yesterday) I get dropped in VA, and VB catches me, I have to do the same thing. I have to drop off the back of the VB bunch and am not allowed to get involved in their racing. Even if i'm also doing the full race distance like them. The commissaire told us to leave a gap when we held onto the back of them yesterday. Also, I see a lot of people commenting on how they "tried to hold onto the back of the tandems" at some point or another. Also not allowed.

Marathon for me...

Just got me some of these bad boys from Stance...

We'll never know... Fingers still in ears, LALALALALALALALALA...!!!!! still being sung.....

Just a question... How long is the TUE application and approval process supposed to take...? I mean, for our local "pro's", not Chris Froome. How many potential income earning events do you need to sit out whilst they fumble...? Is the process being run as a streamlined, well oiled machine...?

This is obviously speculation, but their fingers are still in their ears, and they're still going "LALALALALALALALALA....!!!!", so anything here is all pure speculation. One has to wonder why she only got 10 months, and why they are considered to have already been served. I smell rats...

And that's because you can be certain that the bungling bafoons that are SAIDS (and CSA) knew they wrongly allowed her to keep racing and racking up results, possibly knowing full well that what she was taking for medical reasons contained something illegal, and when the UCI stepped in and said "oi, what's going on here fellas...?", they hung her ass out to dry, offering "no further comment on the matter", which is the same as sticking their fingers in their ears and going "LALALALALALALALALA...!!!"

VA at 6:33

By "Bigger and Badder", I hope they attract the riders that lost interest in the dumbed down GR300 (or 220 as it has become). Funds permitting, this and K2C look like a great plan for my final quarter's race calendar.

No

I know this was a million posts ago, but if I may chime in... I had stanazolol in my system. Now, I know it's banned, and I'm not going to delve into that whole story again. But... Type Illium Stanabolic (the one I took for years before I had a bicycle), into the app search. Nothing comes up. So, saying its as simple as putting the name of your meds into the search isn't 100% accurate. That 70 year old oom could have a cold before his 7 hour race, get given a tablet or 2 by his wife that had them left over from her influenza back in '68, he types in the name and nothing comes up, pees in a cup and boom, son of a doping mother effer, he's dirty. I find it hard to believe that she was tested, on 3 separate occasions, and all 3 showed an adverse analytical finding, and she knew full well that she was on it. On all 3 occasions, and still continued to arrogantly roll that dice, laughing all the way... Do you think the retards at CSA, SAIDS etc are any different from the ones running our country...? Half assed systems aren't worth having. Everyone cries foul about the athletes failing the system. My money is on the system failing the athlete in a drawn out fumbling of process for a TUE here...

The Epic's policy is that if ANY athlete, amateur or professional, is caught doping, in any race, as of 1 January 2013, they are automatically banned from doing the Epic again. EVER...! Please baby Jesus let her be allowed to race it. I'm dying to do it again...

Just Google it and do it yourself...

I looked back at the 2nd last water point and thought that you two were my team mates, whom I couldn't allow to catch me, so I emptied the tank completely from there to the finish, only to discover that it was you guys and not them. Had i known, i would've waited there and the 3 of us could've worked together.

Exactly

Any piece of singletrack adds more value than a stretch of district road, to any mtb experience. In fact, if you're technically competent, that little piece of track could easily afford you an opportunity to pull a minute or two gap on whoever is hot on your tail. It was there (albeit that they made a slight error and almost missed the start of it) that i managed to pull a gap on JCZA and his partner, that they almost managed to close in the last 30 km.

Yawn...

Yip, there's over payment for under delivery...

5:16 in the ultra. 38th overall. Happy with that...

AS for me. Recovery race with the Mrs, after Barberton.