HomerSimpson

Interesting how many people had bad experiences on the 99er....the 2009 99er used to be my worst ride ever..until this year's Argus cycle tour. Came down with bronchitis 3 weeks before the ride. Thought I was fully recovered, started quite late (09:04), had a good first half, then hit the wall. Walked for the first time ever on the ride (halfway up Chappies. 40+ °C in the shade (maximum measured by my Polar was 50 °C). Not really sure how I managed to get to the finish, but I have photographs to prove that I did.....

I was one of those....first long road ride since the Argus. Woke up at 3 a.m with a sore throat but decided to ride anyway, I had psyched myself for the ride. Maybe not my brightest moment. Finished at around 11:30. Polar gave maximum temperature on the road as 43 °C. Then I still needed to cycle home after the event (at around 12:30). Fortunately I had lots of beer around the house to speed up recovery. The sore throat has since resolved itself into full blown tonsilitis. Hope it clears before the Bay City.

Must say it is a pity that the ride was canceled. This is a ride that originated in the era of free traffic assistance, and that really acted as a fundraiser for the school. Unfortunately it now costs a small fortune to have traffic control for a funride, and the numbers for this ride has really declined over the past four or so years. Around 2008 there were typically about 1000 cyclists who did the ride, this has steadily declined (around 700 in 2010 and just about 500 in 2011). There have, unfortunately, also been some safety issues with the finish of this ride (as some hubbers will be able to attest to) which lead to the finish being moved. As far as I know (but I may be completely wrong), the route for all the funrides is determined by the organisers, and the funride coordinator(s) from the PPA, in conjunction with the traffic authorities. I think it may be somewhat unfair to lay the blame for the cancelation of the ride on the PPA alone.

+1 on all of the Bornman above....

My (somewhat delayed) 2 cents worth here...I frequently ride that route, on both MTB and road bike. As rpedro said, the gravel section is quite smooth, just the short section where the dirt road joins with the tarred section, there are sometimes a few potholes and loose gravel. Take note of this, as it is at the bottom of the hill when you come from the golf club side. This section coincides with a sharp left hand turn and a steep little drop. I regularly ride from home via Polkadraai through Kuils River and then back via Bottelary and then over Devon Hill and back home. Cuts out the section on the R310 past Kayamandi. As was mentioned before, there is a gate across the road at JC le Roux, but there is a rideable (with MTB) or walkable (with roadbike) bypass on the uphill side of the gate.

You are allowed to cycle on the N2; it is not a freeway anywhere along that section. You can stop in Riviersonderend for a pie at Die Ou Meul bakery. Or you can turn off through Caledon and do the 50-odd k's to Napier. Good road, nice shoulder not all that busy. Or turn of that road at Van Brakel's and cycle towards Stanford (not sure what you will do once you get there, the road from there to Hermanus is pretty narrow and busy).

It was noticeable that there are far fewer bicycle tyre tracks going up the steep (difficult) option than most of the rest of the route. I noticed that when walking up there the only time I tried that option... I was not able to ride there this weekend. On Friday I was bitten by a spider. I waited all weekend for my superpowers to appear, but nothing happened. So I'll ride the Yellow/Purple option this afternoon as a mere mortal.

A few pics I took on the Yellow Loop late-ish yesterday:

My feedback for the weekend's riding is all good. As Mountain Lion said, we met up on the Yellow Loop on Saturday, whilst looking for the missing turn marker near the dam. Hving ridden these areas before, it was not a question of being lost, we just did not want to stray off the marked track...anyhow, ML pointed out the right way and it was all good. We had a very leisurely ride on Saturday, made even more leisurely by a plethora of punctures. We met three ladies at the exit point of the Yellow Loop-Middelvlei link onto the Devon Valley road wanting to know if this was the Bottelary road...they missed a turnoff somewhere. If you are coming down the brick road near the end of the Yellow Loop at speed you could quite easily miss the turn back into the farm and end up going towards Middelvlei. Yesterday late afternoon I did the Middelvlei/Yellow loop ride (from home), and it was quite just amazing; the views in the late afternoon sunlight were just great. Near the top (highest point) of the loop you get this panoramic view of Stellenbosch against the backdrop of the surrounding mountains, and barely 1 km later you exit a section between a vineyard on one side and an orchard on the other to be treated to a great view of the plains past Klipheuwel and surroundings. Oh and the missing marker at the dam was now in place. I am sure there will be some teething problems, but these will surely be sorted in due course. Once again, a big thank you for all hard work that has gone into setting up these trails for us to enjoy!

I occasionally still ride there. The adrenalin rush you get when going onto the "wrong" side of the hill adds a few km/h to the average speed! Since the fires erosion has really started ruining even the jeep tracks in places, but I am actually planning on resurrecting the orginal ST that was on the section of the mountain just above the edge of the suburb (eastern side of the hill). This area was completely covered with fallen trees and dead wood after the orginal fires, which obliterated the tracks that were there some years ago. After the latest round of fires all the deadwood and fallen trees, as well as some of the remaining live trees were basically reduced to ash and cinders, and when I walked there a couple of weeks ago I found the remnants of about 60 - 70 % of the old ST still there. Should not take more than a couple of days with a spade to rebuild a large portion of the track. I'll wait for the first decent rains, though.

To add to my earlier reply to Tankman: This is the Google Earth Image of the road from Distell to Middelvlei

Take a right at Distell traffic lights (towards Oude Libertas Amphitheatre). Then (pay attention now) you go straight on (the road turns to the left at the top of the first little hill, if you turn right here you wll go to Bosman's Crossing). Once past that turnoff, you just keep going straight on. No turning off into any streets, right or left. Less than a 1 km and you will drive through Middelvlei's gates. Oh, and I am now the proud owner of a few Bottelary Hills MTB bike boards

Could not agree more. I am very excited about having this formalised and controlled. As far as i am concerned, I am not too fussed about sticking to the marked trails....at least I won't get lost so often. I have also had a few interesting encounters with some rather large dogs on a couple of the farms. Hopefully sticking the marked trails will minimize these meetings... And you can compare these trails to Tokai, Eselfontein, Welvanpas, whatever...the Bottelary Hills trails have one quality none of the others have...not one of the other trails are right on my doorstep. OK, so now I am REALLY going to go buy my permits at Flandria. See you on the trails on Saturday!

Figuratively speaking I was rushing off, just figuratively speaking......reality is that I am probably only going to be able to do this on Friday (working for a living sometimes really sucks). Seriously though, Hellwarp, I cannot begin to explain what this initiative will mean to me personally; I have long thought that having trails in this area would be just perfect; now it's a reality. Great stuff, guys!

Oh boy! I live a full 1.1 km away from one of the starting points! This is just great. While I have always had permission to ride on some of the farms included in the trails, this is a great initiative, and I am running off now to get my annual permits (for self, wife and son). I have always been a little worried when riding in this area that I might be straying onto land that I am not supposed to be on. Having marked trails will be great! In addition it will now be possible to string together some decent (for me at least) distances (off-road) on the MTB (with some more than enough climbs thrown in) and I can do this starting from home.....

The seeding is sometimes a bit of a mystery. My son also got a D seeding this year, which was a bit of a surprise to him, as his last Argus (or any seeding race) was the gale force ride in 2009. The year before that he did not ride (2008). So no real history, except his earlier results, which does include some substantial sub 3s. (As he did a total of 1 road ride in preparation for the 2011 Argus he started with me low down in the alphabet soup.)

Not talking about giving a push just to help keep the momentum going every now and then; talking about guys propelling people along at a speed they would probably not be able to achieve by themselves. And by the way; it is actually against the rules. Cyclists are not allowed to receive outside assistance. Just as a matter of interest; my wife rode her first Argus a couple of years ago at the age of 45; not having done a ride of longer than 50 km beforehand. During her first ride some well-meaning bloke tried to help her along up Smitswinkel. Poor bloke got told off good and proper. As she explained afterwards; she wanted to do it herself. No help from anybody. But I guess you are right; it probably makes no difference in the big scheme of things. And MariusL, I'll think about the offer for next year (particularly after this year's effort, I feel I might need the help next year!)

Slowbee, if I may add a little rant to yours... The same to all the second lappers (and to those who dropped down from the top groups to do this) who then rode with wives/girlfriends and pushed them up every little incline and hill (and somtimes along the level parts as well)..I am sure the girls must be really proud of the times they achieved.

Ok; phoning racetec did not work (obviously busy so the number just goes to the cycletour office voicemail), and e-mail query pretty much did the same (got an out-of-office type reply). So I did a quick check on their system: if anybody knows a Mr Zaid Dolley; please tell him I have his timing chip.

I know this is a long shot... I picked up a timing chip (on a bike mount) in the parking lot (P2) after my Argus ride yesterday. If you know of anybody that lost a chip, I now have one. Alternatively I could of course contact Racetec with the chip number and have them trace the owner, but I thought I'd go with the long shot first. (Or I will use the chip in the next few rides and see whose name pops up in the results.. )

In the past I've done both (they have been on the same weekend once before)...cycled from home to the start of the Wingerd ( a little over 20k's), then do the ride and then cycle home (little over a 100 k's for the morning). Then, full of bravado I was off to do the Bay City the next day...went Ok until I hit Ou Kaaps... So this year I will cycle to the Wingerd, act as start marshal and then ride home. Hopefully I will then survive the Bay City the next day.

Rant on: On Saturday we once again had a couple of people that turned up at the Franschoek MTB with old PPA numbers. In one case a two year old number. The standard excuse is then: the PPA has not sent me my new number...or in the case of the two year old number:..I moved and the PPA must have sent it to my old address, (amazing, two years in a row! And you did not think of maybe supplying them with a change of address??) OK, so this happens quite regularly, and we are quite used to these guys/girls attempting to bypass the temporary number/day license route. On Saturday the one guy refused to go and buy a temp number and to pay for his day license. Apart from this creating unpleasantness at the start, I just don't get it. This idiot was on a R 30 000+ MTB, good helmet, expensive sunglasses....but he is too much of a cheapskate to pay the costs due to ride the race. What makes him so much more special than the other 200+ guys who got the temp numbers etc? Contrast this to the 4 or 5 guys who turned up having left their PPA numbers (and membership cards) at home, enquired what they needed to do and cheerfully went to get a temp number. Rant off: Overall I really enjoy marshalling at the start of the PPA rides; you get to chat with a bunch of different people every week; and you end up making quite few new friends along the way. Just a pity about the few idiots.....

This is seriously bad news; I frequently ride there by myself. This has to be a planned attack; this is not an area where you will get casual passers-by; these muggers would have had to make an effort to get into the area. Was the attack in the forest above Paradyskloof or more towards the G-Spot/Coetzenburg?

Apologies if this has been posted; (I have been away for the past three weeks, and a search of the site revealed nothing) I just heard that Steve Hayward, Chairman of the PPA, was hit by a taxi on Marine Drive whilst cycling on the morning of December 30, 2010. Steve fractured his pelvis, and is at present in the Milnerton Medi-clinic. He is apparently OK, but will obviously take some time to recover.

Two three things here: 1. I used to get pissed off with these suckers who cheat at funrides, until I realised life was too short too get stressed with petty stuff like this. 2. Karma will get them. 3. This type of cheating is just an indication of how these folks will act in almost all walks of life. Case in point, two people who used to cheat at funrides here in the WC; both subsequently arrested for, and convicted of fraud. One guy is still in jail, while a woman had an advanced degree withdrawn from the university where she obtained it.