Blue Monster

Gerald normally goes through the timing results and gets them cleaned up quite quickly.

Thanks for a great event I hope the guys that went down at about 90km, in BL, are all ok.

Seeding is out on racetec BL for me, quite a while since I've had a BL start, no racing due to injuries will destroy your seeding.

Vets for this race is a much better idea. Two years ago the A batch remained as a massive group to the end, and Racetec could not record all the finishers. I had to send garmin file to get a result. Large group in vets (usually smaller than alphabet soup) is much better than large group in alphabet soup. Vets tend to have better skills, but the racing is hard, but fun.

125km race got a beta of 0.82. Possibly one of my worst seeding results in the last two or so years. Oh well, will have to see how this Sunday goes.

Got dropped in VC at 58km, while on LH side of white line with entire VC group on the RH side. Commissaire driving behind group on RH side of the road. Hard slog back with a small group of VC sucking wheel, and one VA rider who shared the load. Great day out otherwise. Gerald got his wind, with the added benefit of a really cold start

I have been racing AL for the past 3 years, with some really dodge riding in the group. I have since done three vets races, 947 & Emperors & Satellite, and have found the riding to be far more civilised and controlled. The guys do try to move up through the group, but none of the overtaking into the oncoming lane and swerving back for the traffic. They do however drift over into the oncoming lane for the wind cover. I enjoy the racing more in VC, but the pace is high, with many true VETERANS of the sport in the group.

Thanks VC put the hurt on as Satellite between 50 and 80km, and I got dropped. There were 4 of us taking turns up to Hekpoort, but we all know what happens on Hekpoort of F***** legs. Will have to see how it goes. Last year November AL we savage. Will have to see how it goes.

I have done the 103km race for the last few years, including the double last year. This year I am racing VC. Besides the obvious extra distance, does the additional double loop make the race significantly harder?

According to Strava, from the LH turn that we would take on the old route after Hekpoort climb, there would be about a 2km climb @ about 2% to the finish.

At least the first 20 odd km should not have wind that early in the morning, and the two small bumps on fresh legs should be ok. I always hated that last piece, small groups with no one willing to work in the wind. Race results will now be based on a hill climb , with a 100km warm up

Exactly what I did in 2015 for the short one, we rode every day. Last year rode every second day & had a blast. CTCT needs to be part of a holiday, not an event in itself, especially for those of us from up country.

According to SMS sent, AL start is 6H58.

Thanks Really looking forward to it. Also slightly smaller group should be better than the 200 in AL.

That was the plan. No real impact on seeding, as R4V is usually my best seeding, and also at the wrong part of my training plan. Hope to stay near the front and see the difference between AL & VC.

First official Vets start, VC. Will have to see how it goes

Email from ASG states that it is the same route as last year.

I think we are all in for a surprise. 2015 102.9km with 1113m climbing 2016 107.6km with 1188m climbing So 105.9km will be a case of following marshal directions and hope for the best.

Route map shows same as 2015

Carnival 103km 2:45 947 2:37

Time: 2:37.28 Ave power: 183W Normalised Power: 232W Max Power: 776 Ave HR: 161bpm Max HR: 184bpm Weight: 70.8kg (morning of race) IF: 0.94 No time at front, just bleeding through eyeballs mid pack. edit: wrong time

WRT the number of sub 3 finishers. Cycling is becoming more popular. There are also more formalised training studios. When I started riding 4 years ago, the only one I could find on Google was Cadence. If you do a search now there are plenty. The racing after winter this year seemed to have changed a lot. I trained all through winter and got quite a bit stronger. I however still placed in roughly the same position in the batch at each of the races I entered. Guys are getting stronger and will skew the numbers of sub 3 finishers.

Thanks guys for the response and for coming on to the HUB to offer feedback. I believe that the event is very well run. One observation. I started in VD and rode to the venue. I then rode up to the start to see where the staging area was. This was at about 5am. There was no control of who could get up to the start. I believe that closing off the start chute, where the two loading areas merge into one, would have prevented most of the problems. As soon as the pre loading pens start to fill up, I would assume most riders would not move up beyond their start group. Most of the above possibly only includes/happens in the racing groups, up to the upper alphabet soup.

I think the big difference is that 947 tries to accommodate all the cars in the same venue. CTCT gets you to park away from the venue, and ride in. CTCT also has a different start and finish venue. Must help a lot with logistics as they don't need to accommodate starters and finishers at the same time. 947 could fence off the area similar to CTCT, but the landscape is not flat, and is dynamic with all the construction happening in the area. I do think someone/more than one needs to stop riders moving beyond their allocated start pen, staging pen. It could be improved, but it was not that much of an issue, considering the number of cars, people and hospitality.

My firs race in VD. I have ridden most of the last two and a half years in AL. Race started off tough, but I had one goal, and that was to not get dropped until Nelson Mandela bridge, because it is all down hill from there The pace was frantic and the group broke up a few times, and the lead VD riders took advantage of the Carr street turn around and made a break for it. We were strung out from there, until we caught them just before Rosebank. Good pace from there onwards. I was still with the main group up until halfway up Witkoppen, when my LH hamstring started to cramp. This as a result of a lingering sciatic nerve issue. Managed to get a pull from a tandem down towards Cosmo city (Thanks Tim & Tam), who kept the pace up Cosmo City climb. They helped pull a group of riders to the bottom of Cedar at a really good pace. I properly "fell off" up Cedar and limped home from there. Official time 2.37. Very happy with that, as it was 6.5 minutes faster than last year. Well organised race. Only one real gripe was the Elite Ladies standing in the start line, blocking at lease a meter of the RH side for our start. I realise that the logistics at the start are very different from CTCT, but I am sure they will make improvements for next year. We all do need to remember that CTCT/Argus have had many years to fine tune their start system/procedure, at the same venue. This was only the third start at Riversands, and just think back to the first one there, this year was a massive improvement. I am looking forward to next year