sluiper

Yeah, that's not a pleasant piece of road when the wind is blowing. I've been dropped on that section more than once. If you lose the wheel of the guy in front of you, you get blown away like an old newspaper.

James Cunnama 9th after the swim. Argh, so irritating, doing the Gun Run tomorrow so need to get to bed early and won't be able to watch the finish.

Those bikes look very slow and un-aerodynamic. Would not ride. They also seem to have forgotten the tri-bars and deep section wheels on all of the models. If they want to be taken seriously in the time-trialling world, they'll have to do a lot better than that.

Nice pics. Any news on the guy and girl who took a tumble on the 2nd lap? Are they OK?

Yip, doing the "long" road. I'd like to finish top 25%. I heard that the course has changed, so I don't really have any goal times.

He f&cking is. Anyways, here's my top 5: 1. Raelert 2. Schildknecht 3. Jacobs 4. Kienle 5. Bockel

I like Dirk Bockel for a podium because he competed with a broken hand and managed to get a top 10 last year. Seriously hardcore. Also, soft spot for Faris al-Sultan who can rock a Speedo like it's no one's business.

Yes, but course record is nearly 20 minutes faster Not saying he isn't fast, just that there are a bunch of guys that know the stage and can bring it on the day. Would be super happy if he did make top 5, though.

I don't know if James has a fast enough bike to make top 5 in a full IM. He's been doing well in the 70.3s, but, as we all know, there's a huge difference between 70.3 & 140.6. His run is awesome, but he lags a bit on the bike against the other top guys.

Only know about Ironman live. Coverage was ok-ish last year. My top 5 (in no particular order): Andy Potts, Ronnie Schildknecht, Dirk Bockel, Pete Jacobs, Andreas Raelert.

Yeah, it's going ahead. I mentioned in another thread that it actually sold out this year. I'm doing it on the Saturday and the Gun Run half marathon on the Sunday

Yeah, I know. I've been thinking about it myself. Trouble is, with a long distance triathlon you need a lot of support and planning. Another issue is that with a sea swim is that you need a few lifeguards to check that guys aren't getting into trouble. Also, you need at least a few support tables/volunteers to ensure guys/girls don't dehydrate. The longer the event, the more support you need. I'm going to try and chat to Warren Fialkov who organises the 1SOMS swim next weekend and hear how he goes about organising support. I think an Olympic distance event might be easier to organise as you could maybe get away with only two support tables if you do laps, e.g. you could have a 2.5km out and back run lap where athletes pass both tables twice. Also, making it Olympic distance makes it a bit more accessible to most people who wouldn't normally have the nerve to do a 70.3.

I see this has now sold out too. So weird that events are getting cancelled due to lack of interest from sponsors while every single event available sells out?

I guess you could do it if you're lucky and extremely fit. Lucky in the sense that you don't get sick directly after the Ironman due to a broken down immune system. Personally I wouldn't consider doing the 2 events so close to each other, unless my or someone else's life depended on it. The full distance Ironman really takes a lot out of you and I wasn't close to being recovered 2 weeks after the event. I also don't think you'd be able to do either event justice by giving it your all.

There are a bunch of rides you can do very safely in that area. For a bit of hills you can go north from Kommetjie to Noordhoek -> Chapmans Peak -> Constantia Neck -> Ou Kaapse Weg -> Black Hill and back to Glencairn. For very long rides I tend to go up the West Coast with the R27. It goes on forever but it's a bit of a boring flat road, so it's pretty much up to you how far you want to go. Another nice, long ride is to head north to Bellville and then on to Stellenbosch via Bottelary Road. From there across Helshoogte to Franschhoek and back. There are very few real "danger areas" that I've experienced and I ride alone a lot of the time. The southern area where you're going to be staying is especially safe. There are quite a few clubs that you could join up with for their morning rides, e.g. Club100 or CycleLab. but they mainly ride over weekends.

Ha, yes, well, I'm a triathlete, not a swimmer, and everyone knows triathletes are sissies.

Wetsuit for me. I'm not crazy.

Anyone doing the heritage day swim tomorrow? https://ntri.co.za/indexswim.php

Prize for the most optimistic ad ever has to go to this guy: http://www.gumtree.co.za/cp-sports-bicycles-fitness-in-other/giant-iguana-mountain-bike-526095989

Ha, praise be! I'm saved!

Just started watching the whole of Babylon 5 for the 3rd time. One of my all time sci-fi favourites. Time to admit I'm a geek and just give up trying to be cool. Edited for shameful spelling mistake.

Wish I could say the same for Suunto. Their customer service in SA really sucks. Gave in my D9 in a month ago, still haven't heard anything from them except when they told me it would cost R3200 to fix. I'm seriously considering selling all my Suunto gear and going over to Garmin.

My 5 year old boy rides a 20" Raleigh Roost BMX. Bought on Gumtree for R350, works fine. It came with training wheels and we took them off shortly before his 5th birthday. He regularly does 10-12km rides with me (even though we have to stop every now and then for water breaks).

I'm keen.

Also in. I missed the Clanwilliam Triathlon because it sold out, so might as well make the best of it 7 hours does seem a bit long though. We did a 4:50 from E last year and the pace wasn't ridiculously fast. Would be interested in aiming for a relaxed 5:30 to 6:00 hour ride. Edit to add: Oh, and I think the course was only 150km or so last year.