bleedToWin

2 years ago at One Tonner when the infinitely wise organisers started medium ahead of long route an ebike jumped into our elite bunch. His movements in the bunch and his responses to changes in pace and changes in gradient were so unnatural and he was not comfortable having us close to him, yet he insisted he paid for the race so he's allowed to be in any bunch, and swore at anyone asking him to leave (to be fair the asking also involved swearing). Luckily we dropped him on Helshoogte as it was an accident waiting to happen.

I'm ebike ignorant - What could you realistically achieve on a normal bike? I feel like 2h50 on an ebike means you could do 3h30 and be well ahead of the bell curve and then you would actually experience what we experience. 🤷‍♂️

Calling @Tiny K 👆

I always thought the point of gravel was to make a race long and hard a fast enough so that the best bike choice for 95% of the route will leave you severely underbiked for the technical 5%.

Best way to know what's up with top level racing to be honest. You can curate your instagram feed to only be cycling 😉

Bike craft performance on all social media channels did really good daily recaps of the elite race. Jeremy had good insight into how things unfolded and why we raced it the way we did. We (Asap) came off with great results from the tour, and super stoked to have carried that momentum into CTCT with our main speedster taking it! 😁

Elite numbers my man 💪

Finished in the 2nd group of $, 2min30 behind winners. Missed the split on Chappies main climb. Whole race 4.2 W/kg NP Smits 5.3 Klein Chap 5.5 Main Chap 5.4 Suikerbossie 5.1

If you greet a rider in blue ASAP kit you have a 25% chance of it being me or @Jbr 😉

We just need multiplayer elo. Road cycling is much more like chess than golf anyway!

All results are on FinishTime website Road https://results.finishtime.co.za/results.aspx?CId=35&RId=5027 TT https://results.finishtime.co.za/results.aspx?CId=35&RId=5025&EId=28

Always "gun to mat" timing.

Luckily they didn't use a quantum camera, or they might have changed the result by measuring...

An upgrade from the usual Comm shouting out of an open window into the wind and nobody able to hear the time gap yes!

2-man sprints are never as fast as pack sprints

30+ or 40+ vets? Just want to know if I should vloek you 😜

Frequent updates on whiteboard from comms and folks shouting the timegap in the feed zone

I think it is likely yes. I suspect most elites from 947 will have a seeding under 3, and it's not yet penalised like last year's CTCT is for being older than 6 months. I got a 1.7 from the breakaway at Oudtshoorn and at Winelands my race number was $11, so I suspect at least 30 or 40 Western Cape locals have a seeding below 3.

It's really almost impossible. I did One Tonner 172km in 41.5kph average finishing in the winning 4-man break a couple of minutes ahead of the bunch and only got a 4.9 seeding for it. 😢

Now how do you get into $ at CTCT is a whole other can of worms. Last year you needed a seeding index below 3!

Seeding is largely effective with a few flaws that get exaggerated to the point of breakdown the higher you go up the ladder. Using alphabet only, yes you can get up to B but you will never get seeded into A by riding with B, and once you are in A you will only loose it if you stop finishing with A for 6 months+. So how does anyone get into A? You ride WP Champs or an early season WP league race where you can self seed into cat 1. You finish with the group and then you ask to be bumped into A when the first event using PPA seeding comes along. Like some have mentioned there are a few events that you may get lucky at due to small number of entrants where more riders will be placed with the big dogs, like the late season PPA funride or even Oudtshoorn Cycle Tour.

And when an online community comprised of your fans is waiting for your side of the story don't come in and go full Kanye West on the thread

100% It's also his prerogative to not care what we think about him. It's just curious that brands like Thule and Olympic Cycles, who presumably do care what we think, is getting on board. Also, what happened to his Cycling Friends ambassadorship from about a year ago? Never saw anything after the post announcing it, and never saw him on the bike either.

The announcer relayed poorly what the commissaire said. Neutral to the first left. Announcer added 'to get you out of town safely'. That chaotic start has been the norm every year. Last year a big crash in $ and in B I think, but didn't hear of any crashes this year.

Thereabouts yes