Zook

Probably told to keep the camera pointed at the other riders. Backwards seems safe.

I SMS'ed the organizer's number and they said you can enter on the day with a R40 penalty.

What's done is done and Gu might or might not take up the suggestion, so let's not bet on that to get back access to the reserve. Is anybody in a position to negotiate on behalf of cyclists, or is it a lost cause at this point?

Here's a first-time attempt at editing together a few of my video snippets. Handheld, shaky rider, but hopefully it'll bring back some memories!

I love the climb. That's why I go there. The rest just wore me out. Unless you're really fit, these are your options: - train a lot more for this race than others - do the shorter distance (but miss out on the Mamba) - walk the initial climbs so you have something left (but that breaks my heart)</li> - or prepare to hate your life and hear "are you f***ing kidding me?!"; around you every time there's another uphill

Just for some energy usage comparisons: my Polar says 5371 kcal. Barberton was 3891. 94.7 was 2254.

I thought I was holding back. However, I did want to ride up the whole mountain. Man, that hurt me later. Try 7:50 for the marathon! From about 50 to 65km I walked anything that was vaguely tough looking and only got some spirit back in the last 10km. The sense of humour did not come back, though. Last time I did the Sabie 80km in 2004 I did 5:45ish and thought that was slow. Now I have a new platform to measure pain by. Agree, it was spiced up for the UCI okes. If the UCI is back there again next year I'm going nowhere near the race unless I'm a lot fitter.

Unhappy. I saw you a few km from the end and you didn't look pleased with life! You finished, and that counts. Turns out there were quite a few DNF's yesterday.

The hills aren't that long so it's not too bad. My g/f did it with about three training rides last year, so don't stress. (Although she has latent cardio fitness from running, which helps.) You can manage your heart-rate on the hills by just going slower, but there are some sections that will kick it up, like the rocky uphill jeep-track. But that's short and you can walk it if you're not handling.

Two things: 1) Drove out to Northern Farm this weekend and saw a whole bunch of Club100 riders on Cedar road, all on the left and pretty much single file. They spread out a bit when it got to two lanes, but on the whole it was great to see. Really cool to see the big clubs taking it seriously. 2) Not sure if they've been involved in all the work at Northern Farm, but the place is a joy to ride with all the singletrack and there are Club100 signs everywhere. Whoever has laid the track, nice work!

I used to be a part of Cyclelab and loathed that road-cowboy behaviour. It just feels *** when so many have such little respect for other road users. About a year ago, driving into the Cradle for a ride at Teak was the worst - clowns all over the road, not giving a damn even on blind corners where you either just sit or overtake very dangerously. Even as a cyclist, I wanted a fire engine with a fully loaded hose. Not sure what non-cyclists must feel, but I assume it's less forgiving. Then we freak out when they put nails on the road? Well, move over then. Not a fight we can win, and we're the only ones who can improve the situation. Hopefully we get more reports like I FLY's above, so we can feel proud more often of our fellow cyclists. Until then, +1 for numbers, or just post pics of riders doing it with a "chop of the week" award.

The climb was great, but I didn't keep enough in the tank and the second half broke me with the short and steep up-downs. Eish, I was happy to finish Those 100km+ route riders are monsters. I couldn't believe the pace at which they blew past us. Hats off.

+1 camelbak for mtb and road both. I go through a ton of liquid on a 3 hour race. Camelbak means I have two hands for handlebars. Fashionable...not so much. But truly bad fashion is taking out the peloton because you're stuffing around with bottles when something happens.

Patches: She's not a flower-bike kind of lass, but it would be amusing to see her destroy grown men up the Sabie Mamba on a girlie chick bike Phillip: thanks, useful to know. I guess she'll just have to try a couple out and see how they feel for her. I think her road bike is women-geometry, tri bike isn't.

What I've found is that auto-seeding doesn't translate but if you go to the re-seeding counter at e.g. 94.7, they'll be pretty accommodative. You can pull up times for other events (even Ironman, say) and they'll consider it when re-seeding.

Thanks - much appreciated.

On the Spruit? That's sucky. Anyone else know more about who/where?

Well, that's important too. Get the right bike but the wrong anatomy, you're screwed.

I have a friend who does a lot of road/tri riding and is about to buy a MTB, for XC riding. Have any ladies here found that moving to a female-specific frame geometry has helped? Does suitability depend on fitness levels, femur-tibia ratio, how often you might ride road bikes with a different geometry, or anything else? Obviously each person is different, but it'd be nice to get some tips so she doesn't make a mistake on her first mountain bike.

It's awesome. Even the tar roads are great - 1000m climbs everywhere. My g/f's passport expired and we only realised at the border on Sani Pass, but they let her in that time. Don't try this at home You can get a temp passport fairly quickly.