bleedToWin

But to get back on topic. Tour de Worcester is a great race, and the more people enter the better!

Especially in recent years with PPA events being poorly supported. Maybe One Tonner the only exception. A lot of cat 1 teams boycott PPA because the seeding is a joke. Then also A-seeding is an index from 0-15 which is quite broad already, but often at a PPA fundride the A-group (custom per event) will go 0-22+ Whether you do seeding or self selection it's hard to get everyone in the groups they belong in!

I had to rewrite my category descriptions a few times after realising no matter how I frase it I come across as pompous! 🙈 If I remember correctly WP historically mapped to PPA seeding (which has largely fallen apart these days) as follows: Cat 1 - A seeding Cat 2 - B,C seeding Cat 3 - D,E,F seeding

I think the 86km should also have decent entry numbers, but maybe the fact that the 140km passes the finish venue at 86km, and again at 115km could encourage a few to go for the full distance knowing it won't be a long lonely day if something goes wrong...

It's definitely like that. I'm maybe just describing things poorly.

Yeah, we need better references for these things. Cat 3 at WP events is normally the slowest group where riding is still organised. Cat 1 is the serious racers, Cat 2 is the "sub-3 argus, but only just" group.

A handful of cat 3 level riders entered last year yes.

Hopefully this time round the route will not be change last minute. Shouldn't since that was council requiring that we avoid town intersections last year and the new route does that. Last year we were turned around a million times because not all marshals and comms had the correct GPX file from the 24h before the event change in route...

That was because of mishaps with seeding before the event that could not be corrected when brought to organisers attention on the morning of the race. Insider info says they will decide on the number of start groups once entries close.

Time to start testing tyre pressures...

Get a mate with a power meter to do a ride on your indoor setup at a few different power levels and dual record that for your tests.

Especially this year with the perpetual headwind. Not that much climbing but it means you're always on the pedals...

You waited till Friday though... 😆

@WaldoZ you guys rocking up with XCO fatigued legs?

We've fired off our emails for the mis-seeded riders, so no drama needed. 😄

He has the head start but you (theoretically) have the stronger support riders around you...

No going back for me. Best no-frills training, and super detailed data analysis of anything and everything (especially after linking with strava to pull your IRL rides in for analysis.

While reading your comment I was thinking this really should just be a service to the greater good of the community...

Agreed. The rules last year were perfectly fine. Problem was unclear and very late communication about location and setup of feed zones, and rules not being enforced. I'm sure the organisers have learned from the first running of the event.

How many entries could you generate for a well organised event with a great route like Tour de Worcester if you spent the R60k on social media placements? I'd be surprised if you don't easily hit the required 150, but not my field...

Thought for sure the answer is zero. Goes to show I haven't done Killarney since 2008...

How many corners do you have to brake for at Killarney? 🤔

They don't do any (real) marketing, it's just that the racers do the effort to go and find the events and participate. Your comment about making less competitive riders feel welcome is on point, but the question is how?

16h. Since it's all on one bike (the road bike) my average speed is normally fairly high. As @Jbr said with 3 bikes and 2 chains for your most used bike you could do the wax routine less frequently and wax all 4 chains at the same time. For me I think I'll stick to Smoove.

Thanks. Mind made up!