Cat2forLife

If I may weigh in on the bike fit issue, I completely understand your frustration? If I can put it that way? Many seasoned cyclist obviously do have bike fits and have key measurements, but with experience, also comes a sense of what will work and what wouldn't. In my humble opinion, doing a bike fit with your current bike wouldn't be the most productive way of going about it. You will get some key measurements like saddle height, reach, stack etc. but they will be more informative to that specific type of bike. When changing to a road bike, crank lengths may differ from what you have, geometry WILL differ from what you have and that will impact your bike fit.If I may put forward a recommendation, Specialized stores use the Retul system for bike fits. Now that in itself is not the be all and end all, but what they do have is the Retul rig, which is an 'infinitely' adjustable rig to get your setup and measurements before you buy. I'm not sure where you're located, but if you're in Cape Town, I'd recommend Jos at Specialized Tygerberg. He's an ex UCI racer (raced in America I believe for a Continetal level team) and races gravel and MTB these days. He is extremely knowledgable about bike fitting and cycling in general. He has a Retul rig, so you tell him what kind of bike you're looking at buying, what kind of riding you intend to do etc. and he'll be able to fit you accordingly and advise which bikes to look at. Now granted, many people have had great experiences with Irmfit as well, so might be worth a shot. But I'm not sure to what extent she can help BEFORE you purchase a bike. Anyway, just my 2c. I am in no way endorsed or sponsored by Specialized/Retul. But I've had great experiences with them and can highly recommend them. EDIT: Perhaps if I can add some more context, the fit between a road bike and MTB for the same rider is different even, so that's why I'm recommending the Retul fit.

Tekkie Town?

As an avid (pardon the pun) Sram fan with Sram on my bikes and riding Sram for the last 15 years, that statement is debatable 😅

Where are you going to buy this Cannondale from? Locally or import? I think it's going to be quite difficult to get any Cannondale road bikes locally.

Thank you, sir!

That's the RC20. RC10 is the same bike, but in white. And comes standard with power meter and carbon wheels. I bought the power meter when I bought the bike and have ordered a set of Winspace Hyper 50mm wheels. The bike comes with Syncros alloy wheels that I'll keep for rainy days. The wheels in the picture belong to a friend of mine who has an RC15, but has since purchased a set of Black Inc wheels, so these are on loan until I get my new wheels. The bikes comes with Sram Force AXS groupset and Syncros saddle and alloy bars. I've put my S-Works Power saddle on, because my butt is already imprinted on it and I've put on some carbon bars.

After 5 years of faithful service, I have replaced my Specialized Tarmac with this:

Did you remember to enter?

Totally planned and meant to do that

Are you guys going for the win? We're defending champs. Just sayin' Although, I wasn't actually riding for that team yet at the time

I was near the back of the bunch (stupidly) when we hit the 'climb'. It looked like a scene out of a Vietnam movie. I remember I also stupidly attacked just before we hit the N7. Nearly got dropped on the little bump on the N7 because of that

Our average speed last year was 39.8 last year out of A. Pretty sure that's not the fastest ever, though. Hold on to your hats!

That's gonna be fun

Maybe it's just because I'm too slow to have any, but I don't really understand why people make such a big fuss about KOMs ons Strava segments. Is it perhaps a case of caring too much about what your friends say and not enough about having the opportunity to just go ride?

I think you can conclude from this that endurance sports like running and cycling make your legs tired, elevates your heart rate and makes you out of breath. This is something that seems to happen to most, if not all athletes.

And yes, that is EXACTLY what Buchanan said in the SCT thread.

So do you not agree that the chances of crossing a white line is much bigger in a racing bunch than in the alphabet bunches, where riders generally split up more, creating smaller groups? And also, if you haven't raced there, then yes, you wouldn't know. Just like I have never performed heart surgery, so I wouldn't know what goes on in an operating theatre.

This thread is awesome! Glad I came across it.

I highly doubt anyone noticed anything other than the taste of blood and the smell of rubber and melting carbon braking surfaces. But having the video gives us a chance to admire the sunrise

Funny thing is, after being dropped from the $ group, I rode most of the race with the % group. There was A LOT of white line crossing going on. But sorry, that shouldn't be mentioned. It's only ever the a******s in $ that would dare do something like that.

That start was rough.. Tasted blood pretty much all the way

That's exactly my problem

There was crazy wind predicted at the time of your post. I am very, very glad it's gone now!

Is it because of the wind prediction?

But it somehow seems that people who have never ridden in $ seem to know a lot more about racing than those who ride there all the time. We know it's illegal. We know it's our own decision. But most of the time you're being forced out to that side by other riders. What I'm saying is that it is inevitable that going over the middle line is going to happen. I am not flaming or passing blame to the organisers. I am merely giving my point of view and I suggested a solution which is that the racing bunches should have rolling road closures.