leona

I'm still surprised. you'd think you would have some idea of your ability before you entered something like that.. i did attakwas last week and i knew i could comfortably (as much as its possible to be comfortable for that distance) finish the ride or i wouldn't have entered. funny so many people don't know whether they can or not. id love to have come though, rode sabie experience and absolutely adored the whole area. shame its so far..

wow that is an amazing number of dnfs! i was entered for the ultra but decided against flying all the way up from ct..

How long are the mtb rides normally?

thinking I'm gonna have quite a lot of free time in the afternoons.. i know tehres tonnes to do in the area but def keen for some suggestions

yep. just about to enter tankwa trek too. shame theres so much in feb. would really like to do garden route 300 but 3 back to back is probably a bit much...

bummer. looks like the route from middelvlei goes right close to the hotel so it'd be nice to ride there partly off road rather than all on road but i don't want to be seen without a board even if i know I'm on my way to get one! shame theres nowhere in stellenbosch selling day permits.. its a bit of a long road trek to the nearest place isn't it!

just noticed the website address in the article.. www.mtbchallenge.co.za don't know any of the farms listed on it apart from delheim but none of the riding round here is exactly bad so i guess its worth entering. my only concern i guess that that masses and masses of people do it. might not be that much fun then.

​so I'd originally planned to do this but haven't heard anything much positive about the route so far. Had decided against it til i read the latest ride magazine. for anyone who hasn't seen it: "the 13th annual cape argus pick n pay mtb challenge will be bigger, better and a whole lot more singletracky. this is probably the biggest one day mtb event in sa and for 2014 it has a new home on le bonheur wine estate in stellenbosch. riders will be able to test their skills on brand new, never ridden before routes developed by well known mtb trail developer meurant botha." ​anyone got any insider knowledge on what its going to be like? i live in stellenbosch but i wouldn't claim to know any secrets!

masons in stellenbosch told me today i can get a day pass at the middlevei estate. cant find any mention of it on the website except that its possible to ride from there. don't want to get there and find i cant get a permit so wanted to check. planning to go tomorrow morning. il go up to the devon valley hotel if no one replys but id rather miss out on that road ride..

i just had a new frame and old components sent from england. the frame was a prize but the people who shipped it thought it would be better sending it as warranty. customs were arseholes. had to change the value of everything (limit is 20k btw) and then they wanted proof of export of the broken frame (told them id done it in england) then they wanted proof of purchase. i couldn't provide it but in the meantime they decided to release it with a bill for 2666rand..

same tyres as for epic. continental protection x king front and race king rear.

id be interested to know what the entries would be like if xco because more popular in terms of numbers of events. I'm english and we don't have any marathon races at all bar the nationals. just 1 single marathon race because of byway laws meaning you cant race on public rights of way. yes there are organised 'marathons' but they aren't races. I've only raced xco and cyclocross the last 3 years and I've got to say i don't miss it one bit! its so much harder and you can travel for hours and hours just to race for 1.5 hours. marathon racing is much better value in that sense but i for one appreciate getting sections of single track in a marathon rather than it all being jeep track which i find quite dull. I've been to mankele and was pretty shocked at how technical it was compared to england. for eg.. there was a round of the british national xc series on the olympic course. it was so much more technical than anything people were used to riding that 7 people broke their collar bones and countless more dnf'd due to crashes. it would be great to have more technical xco in england but it would be even better to have marathons..

cant beat porridge for a pre race meal. sometimes il even have it for pudding the night before. i cant normally eat on a big ride especially if its hot. i did attakwas on sat and for that i had muesli in the morning which i left soaking in the fridge overnight in milk and water. i had 2 pieces of toast and peanut butter too but that was just being greedy and i felt a bit full... lucky this was at 4.30 in the morning so id digested it by the start! i rode the first hour and a half with just water+electrolytes (i used nuun coz it tastes nice). after an hour i had a gel then at the 2nd water point some 2hours ish in i filled up my bottle which had enduren in it. i drank this between water points 2 and 3. i use it mainly because i won it but also coz its flavourless. the only other energy powder i use is an english company called torq. its also flavourless which i find crucial in the heat. i cant stomach anything sweet and every flavoured energy drink tastes sweet to me in the heat. i carried on using a gel every hour and had another bottle of energy drink which i didnt finish. i probably ate about 6 small date balls in total and a couple of pieces of watermelon. i always have a protein shake after, not a complete recovery mix with protein and carbs because id rather eat solid food after. theres no right or wrong way to do it. everyones energy requirements are different and you have to see what works for you. if its a long race or a multi day id always err on the side of too much rather than not enough. you need to try things too coz there are so many products out there that there is no reason for you not to find one that you like the taste of.

i don't know how you rigid fork lot did it. i ride an epic and my arms were really hurting on that final descent to the finish where it was so bumpy.

seconded! someone tapped me on the shoulder in the start pen and pointed to my back tyre. there was a massive pin stuck in it. i didnt even think before pulling it out. spun the wheel a few times and job done, no more hole!

and the batteries are different depending on which generation hub it is. which one is it? if its small and black its the newer which takes cr2032 batteries but if its the older one then its not the most common battery and might take a bit more time to find. older : elite+,pro+ newer: g3,g3c so far as i know they've stopped making the pro+ now but depends how old yours is.. its unusual for it to register on the garmin every time and then not work. does it work at all even for a few seconds? if it does then def suggests battery.

no, there are races but theres no marathon really at any point in the year. due to some weird right of way law, although you can have organised rides on public rights of way, you cant race on them so there is only 1 actual marathon race and that is the national champs. there are too many people in england and not enough space so all the land is owned and its all agricultural so you're never going to let farmers open up their gates and let people race on their land. its all xco in england really.

more like this type of thing: http://files.myopera.com/badmadcyclist/blog/ShimanoMT51.jpg rubber sole so youl get grip on a wide platform. if you've just got shoes like what you posted i don't see any benefit to the wider pedal myself. i have tried them in the past thinking they'd help me if i unclipped because i was worried about a descent and couldn't clip back in quickly enough. the reality is that you don't have any grip on it so its just as slippery as not being clipped in with a normal pedal with no cage.

i think they are useful if you have trouble clipping in or wear those kind of trail shoes that have rubber soles. otherwise i wouldn't bother.

yeah epic. i started it in 2013 but crashed really badly on day 4 and tho i finished the stage i couldn't carry on the next day. loving marathon racing. its just not possible in england.

i wasnt nervous going into it coz i had no idea what to expect. i loved the first 60km but went too easy in the first hour or two because so many people had said to pace myself. overdoing the pacing meant i came in at 7.03 which I'm really annoyed about. i wanted to get inside 7 even if only by a minute. we were so lucky with the weather, not too hot at all and i even got a bit cold at one point though not for long. that infamous rocky descent really wasnt that bad.. I'm not sure why people worry about it so much! it was incredibly long..the last 20km were especially bad for me as i was starting to realise id be over 7 hours and riding all alone on bumpy gravel road was just a bit miserable. the scenery was great for the first 60km and it was amazing how it changed over the course of the route. its impressive how little tar was on the route, just wouldn't be possible to do a race like that in england.. hopefully il be able to be here next year to do it again and definitely go sub 7.

I've done 2 sets. exactly the same problem. both have been warrantied. to be honest your probably better with xt.. i bought a pair to tide me over and never took them off when my replacement xtrs arrived. always happens in a race too doesn't it!

yeh. i don't know if there was an official announcement but its been published in a few places. i saw him riding with erik kleinhants and it looked like he was struggling but he did pretty well at attakwas today so it should be a good pairing.

just looking for info at what distances the water points are at. the best i can find is the route profile. is ti safe to assume the arrows indicate water points? http://www.atta.co.za/images/race_info/elevation_extreme_2014_large.jpg

someone needs to design a camera that films what things actually look like. that video clip doesn't look that bad at all but from what I've heard its much worse than it looks! itl be interesting to see when i get there!