Bub Marley

Quite pricey though.

This is extremely helpful. Thanks mate.

Serious question here. Did you both have a straight face when you told each other this? 🤣

Please post a review of this event and how it compares to GB once you’re done. I’m keen to do one of them so any feedback would be great.

The distances have been reduced dramatically. Would love to know the reasoning for this? How this wasn’t communicated though is beyond me? Seriously, you’re paying so much money the least you expect in return is communication. Not good this.

Yeah he’s not doing himself any favours. He killed his wife with a vehicle. People have a right to ask questions. His response gives me the impression that he’s not learnt anything from this whole episode.

While i do agree with your point in a general sense, the choice of words used here is pretty bad. “What an absolute weapon”.

I dont think it’s necessarily about TSS scores. People are just talking TSS because the commentator kept harping on about it. The main positive for me is more exciting and aggressive racing if the distances are shorter. I don’t think that’s agree though that the women being caught by the men is a bit stupid and they need to figure that one out. Ideally the women need their own race entirely like they have at the TDF. But obviously that is clearly not realistic and obviously that boils down to sponsorship. However I am in favour of shorter distance racing for the Elite women just because it should provide more exciting racing. Now I get that at the moment, this doesn’t look like it is the case this year but I also think the Epic needs to draw better quality of riders. And maybe this is a way of doing it.

I’m also curious to see how this plays out. In comparison to Gravel burn, the stages on the GRG are longer with more elevation so hopefully the terrain is not as rof as Gravel Burn.

This is not the case actually. Demi Vollering was on record saying that the women are not ready for a longer TDF. The teams are nowhere near as well equipped in comparison to the mens and the level between each teams is too large which will not make for exciting racing. A shorter race means a more exciting race and gives more teams or individuals a chance of winning. I don’t think that’s up for debate.

If hes not the one that bought it then he can’t leave a review. Admin should be able to remove the review for you.

It’s interesting that none of the local bike shops bother anymore. There used to be a time where every single bike shop had a stand from Chris Willemse, City Cycles, Crown, Olympic even the ones up in Worcester were there every year.

Nah. Race actually went way better than expected. I handled the heat pretty well even the last climb I was baking in the Sun but never cramped at all. The only time I did have a minor twitch was while climbing some of those steep switchbacks especially when you have traffic ahead of you and they slow down and then you either need to unclip or it just throws your rhythm out and you get like a twitch in your muscle. I have been riding later in the day while preparing for the race so maybe I just acclimatised well. But you were right, there is loads of shade on the route which also helps a lot. What an amazing Race though. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will definitely do it again. All that stressing about the heat and I managed it quite well so yeah definitely wanna do it again. The descent from the cliffhanger all the way down to the waterpoint… Just wow. I don’t think I’ve ever had a smile on my face that long ever on a MTB. People talk about the cliff hanger switchbacks but the real fun comes after that in my opinion. Just a pure adrenaline rush. Just a few thoughts. When I do the race again, I will definitely push harder on the first climb to get more forward. I was obviously in 2 minds because of the heat situation but yeah moving ahead of The pack is important for the rest of the race. I did get a stuck a bit in traffic on the 7 peaks climb and then again on the cliffhanger. It wasn’t as bad as some mtb races as I think you have to be quite fit to do this event but I definitely would’ve liked to climb at a faster pace especially the Cliffhanger ascent but was very difficult to overtake. And then the cliffhanger descent I also kinda ****** it up. Should’ve given the guys some distance before I went down because everytime someone unclips it just throws you out as well so that kinda spoilt it a bit at least the first 2. But yeah after that it was smooth sailing and I was just in awe of where I was riding. That section before you hit the forest where you essentially just riding on side of the mountain with a do right next to you. Just amazing. And how long of that cliffhanger ascent? I felt like I was just climbing and climbing and climbing, switchback after switchback and then all of a sudden… boom you pop up on the top of the mountain in the middle of nowhere. Unreal scenery.

You can lock out your suspension on a full suspension to get closer to a hardtail feeling but it’s still not a hardtail. Ive had both bikes and the main difference is comfort. If you are doing long gravel rides then maybe that extra cushioning will be helpful. However there is nothing that beats a super light and stiff hardtail. If you are doing majority gravel stuff with the odd trail then for me the HT is the best of both worlds. It’ll be faster on the gravel stuff and still allow you to ride trails when you want to.

Get a hardtail.

Cool. Yeah so based on this I definitely think try and get the first 3 done as quickly as I can without obviously blowing up completely but definitely not just spin up in the hope of saving legs. And then yeah just survive that patatskloof climb in the baking sun and cry essentially and somehow crawl to finish line.

You did it last year. How much shade coverage is there on each climb?

Im not even sure how to approach this race. My thinking was always just dont go too hard and save your legs. With this heat im gonna die regardless. Thinking of just going harder while its cooler and hopefully spend less time in the heat.

Yeah we are going to die.

Depends on whether you use seat tube or top tube. I generally look at seat tube length for frame size.

I ordered a part now from Bikeinn with ups shipping. The VAT amounted to R192 which is accurate. They’ve then slapped on a disbursement fee of 140 bucks and a brokerage administration charge of 248 bucks pushing my total to over 550 bucks which is ridiculous. So yeah just beware if you choose ups option.

Hi guys Would appreciate some strava route links if possible for some routes on Table Mountain. Never ridden there at all so Im completely clueless where to start. Never done blockhouse, or Rhodes surrounds or even green belt or Tokai or anything else south but thought I’d try and give it a go this holiday. Where’s the best place to start? Looking at around 30-50km routes with some decent elevation. In terms of my own skill level, well I’ve done basically everything on the Tygerberg network besides Conties Black Rhino. Also wrt permits etc what all do I need to ride? Any assistance would be appreciated.

Descending on the tops on gravel bike? Not sure I agree with that. You need the braking power that you can get in the drops. I would never descend on the tops on a gravel bike.