leona

yeah i agree, its nice sometimes to not have to kill yourself but the flatter it is the harder it is kinda coz you have to ride more.. if its up and down you get recovery, if its flat you don't! it was nice though, remind me of what i said if i get to ride the worlds coz I'm sure if i do il be wishing it was more downhill..

am i the only one who would have liked more climbing in the second half then? i thought the climbs were really nice, never to steep or rocky. someone came up next to me at the top of one around the 20km mark and told me the climbing was mostly done. turned out he was right! i was really glad there wasnt a tonne of flat coz it would have been grim into that wind but at least the wind brought warmth with it. i gather that race is normally much colder. yeah the danger signs were a bit over the top but far better that than not enough of them! it was marked really well, best marked ppa race I've done. i did go a little bit wrong at that water crossing but my fault as i followed someone else..only 3m or so though. how we both missed the massive arrow i don't know! nice race anyway, wish i coulda taken the trophy but seemed a bit daft with leaving the country in 5 weeks.

I've been in stellenbosch since december and can honestly say i didnt even know there was a cafe there til all the branding showed up. good that theres a tap there, may have been one before but i never noticed. still, it doesn't look appealing at all and i see no reason to ever stop there when ride in is just down the road..

so long as it isn't like the mankele bush tunnel. i followed my friend through there and thought id get decapitated

oh well

it looks like that is as slow as he is able to go...

rode there today. did the red and green off the yellow from devon valley road. the first new bit is ok, i would say its just different than before (you can still go the old way) unless like me you are crap at switchbacks in which case you will welcome the practice, it was a bit longer too i think. the second bit was excellent though, really good

if you can find them try bontrager shoes. distribution isn't great in sa apparently so not stocked everywhere.

well thats me not going then. i just don't fancy the 100 but i don't want the hassle.. theres that hex thing same day at least

the problem is lack of common sense... i have 2 pairs, they are ugly as sin but they are so nice to wear. i started in big bouncy running shoes then gradually got less and less heel/toe diff til i was in bare foots.. seems just common sense to me..

theres a fox shop in shopping centre hell (century city) in CT

nope...not for me...epic is done now, i have no need to sit on my bike for that long maybe the 50..

smashing. il look forward to that. useful reminder to people as to why you need to buy a permit!

i went yesterday. the last time i went was about 3 weeks after w2w and to do the big loop you went a different way to how it is now. you go to the tasting room to pay then the number board they give you should have the gate code on it. you can get round that big gate though, theres a little gateway you can go through but if you just do that and bypass the paying bit then well.. well you shouldn't do that. i went wrong a few times riding the big loop. some of the signage isn't quite there but generally i was really impressed. it was terribly over grown and falling apart when i went last. it was so bad that once i got up near the road on the big loop i climbed over the fence and rode back down the n2 to get back to my car. it was miserable. i found one the amphitheatre stuff at the start of the big loop a bit scary for me so i just walked that bit. i imagine you could get into a lot of trouble if you weren't realistic about your ability but for me, there were good challenges and things to use to work on issues.

is it? you might be right actually, its normally near my mums birthday which is mid march.

clue is in the title

you too, nice to be recognised by my tattoos shame there were so many events on yesterday, it was a perfect course for a first time trying xco. coulda been one or 2 races on today instead of all yesterday eh!

bugger! kept thinking i must update this and forgetting. it was a bit all over the place signage wise when i went. we figured out its because theres a start loop so i cant tell you how long the course actually is as i didnt ride the whole thing in one go i don't think. so theres a start loop which is round a field with a climb then some of the bridges. the scariest one (for me) had a narrow steepish ramp down off it onto a narrow ramp. i diditn ride it and i couldn't even climb down it. i raised it with them so hopefully there will be a chicken run. I'm sure it rides fine but I'm terrible with having clear air on either side of me and theres just no room for error. aside from that theres nothing technical. the other bridges are fine. there was one tight switchback i couldn't ride coz my back wheel kept slipping out but its barely even worth mentioning. nice course though, one steepish climb (big ringable at least for the first few laps til your tired) and one slog up a field which was into a head wind today. i don't see it being too much worse for the rain thats been today, seems to drain pretty well. ive entered elite..im regretting it but at least i can be confident in my last place. just don't want mariske to lap me but that is entirely possible as the lap is quite short i think. good luck tomorrow anyone who's going. il have a red jersey with 'la fuga' on it so please say hi but probably not before the start coz its a year since i last did an xco race and I'm nervous!

I'm going so il report back. expecting a mud bath though.. a cold one

so on some of the jeep track through fields, there was the most amazing sweet smell but no obvious source (i.e. flowers). anyone got any idea what it was from?

yes but the problem with a shorter climb is that its going to be much steeper which might make it unrideable when you get really tired. it needs to be somewhere in between.. something like merino monster but without all those god forsaken steep humpy bits that make you want to throw yourself off the side. theres a really steep climb here that seems to point straight up. wouldn't take as long to get the elevation but i bet you wouldn't be able to ride it after a while.. walking wont count for sure

willow bridge would need a whole separate chicken run course for me to ride there

oh my god.. 10 times up the merino monster.. no no nononono

shouldn't be any.. i wouldn't race willow bridge.. no way!

I believe that is Jennie stenerhag... Yes she survived and was 4th. I'm not 100% sure but she is Swedish nat champ and wears that kit so in pretty sure. I walked that bridge and I have no shame admitting that!