bleedToWin

One can tweak the idea, but it needs to come down to a solution that the riders proposed and all agreed to so when you are pulled back you can't really complain.

Normally the team drilling it at the front will have all their riders safely left of the line (I believe this was the case yesterday) so they won't even notice the motorbike coming up and pulling one opponent out 5 wheels behind their last man, they will just keep pushing as they have a positional advantage they want to capitalise on.

I've been thinking for a while now that we need something akin to the "rider's commission" that they have in Europe and that we as the riders need to come up with a solution that all the teams can agree to... Something like: A group gets 2 centre line warnings which will be signalled with a giant yellow flag. Each transgression afterwards will see one rider flagged down. It's not a DQ, but you have to pull over and come to a complete stop before continuing your race. The motorbike marshal will do his best attempt to flag a transgressing rider as close to the front of the bunch as possible. Reason being, the riders right at the front are not transgressing so collective punishment is unfair. The riders at the back have to choose between staying left in the wind and closing an impossible 30 bike lengths or risk getting flagged. It's a non-choice as both ends your race immediately so you rather gamble getting flagged. Somewhere near the front there is 2 to 3 riders that had a choice between taking bad slip on the white line or good slip just right of the line, and they are forcing the hand of those behind them.

Not sure if the caps are because you didn't find my feedback constructive? 🤔 Like I said, I don't know if it was Shumeez or another Comm or official vehicle, but a mistake was made that can easily be corrected at future events and I appreciate you keeping an eye out for info on it in the race report on our behalf. 🙂

You guys got stopped for 90s, opening our gap back out to 2min15 with 30km to go. At this stage the chase must have been hard already (we were drilling it up front into the wind and you guys were closing) so after being stopped it was a serious task to close it. The defending champion burned through his whole team and eventually had to chip in himself to chase it back. He ended up coming 3rd, with two privateers taking 1st and 2nd after (rightly) not contributing to the chase. The break go caught but the results were for sure influenced...

If you don't mind giving them some more feedback, they were sitting way to close to the front of the $ bunch in the first 30km and for sure interfered with the break formation phase of the race. Not sure which Comm it was, but felt like they were very inexperienced w.r.t the distance required to not offer some slipstream advantage to riders behind you. I say this as one of the 4 riders who most likely got the biggest benefit from their actions...

Likely due to the mentioned lack of clashing events this year there are more strong riders entered filling the first 3 groups.

They should really remove the PPA group eligibility as there hasn't been PPA groups in years and it just confuses people. If 500 people with an "A seeding" enter then they will fill up $, #, A, and half of B. Invariably someone with a "B seeding" will end up in C. The part you want to look at is your index, and how different races results in favourable indexes due to strength of field, difficulty of race etc. Seeding queries are largely reserved for those who did events outside of this timing ecosystem FYI.

He was impressive at provincials so certainly would be foolish to discount him. Pity de Bod couldn't make it this year.

First question is elite mens and womens TT today. Small, but very competitive field!

Thank you very much. The back drop is hilarious! Honestly I missed it completely until I saw it pointed out today on socials! I actually prefer the flat podium over the regular setup where my head is above the backdrop, but that's probably just a 6ft3 person problem...

Breaking your 7 year silence. Welcome. 😀

Flyby of someone in B-group with me as reference. Look how much time he made up in the beginning!

The race director (who follows the leaders under race conditions) drives his car in front at a reasonable speed. We bunch up behind him. When it's race on he waves a flag out his window and speeds away.

A-group was neutralised this year till we got out of town after some horrific crashes at past events. Seems they need to look into something similar for all groups... 🤕

Best reserved for the 2nd Sunday of March...

Yes please on all the Stellenbosch options. I'm starting from Somerset so if there any tips that includes that I'll take it. Been getting my ass kicked going onto MTB green trails, but having lots of fun. 😀

DM's sent.

I'll ask for more info. Just know it's a Stellenbosch group.

Hearsay, but from reliable sources it is being confirmed as reported. Early morning attack with maximum violence by two individuals. I'm also really hoping for more info. How do you prepare for unprovoked violence of such a nature? 😱 Apparently there is a growing fund for any info that would lead to arrests.

Jonas has two descending sections yes, but when it climbs the only slack offs are down to 10% between long stretches of 15%... 🤣 Looking at power and speed and gradients from a top contender now for Swartberg. I think it's mainly where it's placed in the race and the loooong drag into the the actual steep part that makes this one such a challenge.

Yeah, 156km in the legs will change things up quite a bit. With Jonaskop I was quite fresh, although not 100% in good health. Would have liked more gears, but made up for it with Watts in the first 50 minutes. It was only the last 3km or so where the relentlessness of the climb and the elevation started to take a toll. My sense of humour requires more oxygen than what is available above 1300m, and those >15% weren't funny anymore.

Can anyone compare Swartberg to Jonaskop? I would have preferred better gearing, but managed reasonably well with 1:1

I've been eyeballing your entry for weeks now, but apparently I not only need to convince my family that Prince Albert is a nice holiday destination and not really that far of a drive, I also need easier gearing.

810 is officially 34t max, so that's what I've got on. How does it handle going 11-36?