HdB

On Wednesday, we had to let our angel go. Her back legs had been iffy on and off for over a month but then she would seem to recover. Now they simply didn't have the strength anymore.

For me after CTCT this year it helped that my wife is riding more regularly now, so the Tuesday morning was just getting out on the MTB and riding with her. It wasn't some VO2 workout etc that I wouldn't feel like. I also had TR workouts scheduled that week, all easy rides at least, but it helped that the first ride was just a nice relaxed cruise with someone else.

Since last week's update it is available to all on Android; and currently the iOS version is available to subscribers. The bots' AI is pretty good, enough that even races with mostly bots can be interesting. But there are events with no bots if you prefer. https://events.indievelohub.com/ I like that the wind direction and draft has an impact on your trainer resistance. Different areas in Zwift are more visually distinct though, much easier to know where you are on a route.

For racing, laps are good. I'm looking forward to the local crit series starting, and back in Bloem there used to be a race with laps of about 25km that was great. But for the riders like my wife who aren't racing but just participating, laps are not much fun. With the racing groups speeding past multiple times, at what probably feels like a hair's breadth away for the slower riders, is scary and sometimes dangerous. And of course there are always the few Open category/Vets racers with too much testosterone who need to shout and be rude as well.

Whoever starts it, should chat to MongooseMan and add those Start Group/Responses links to the first post

If I'm not mistaken: CTCT2024: Early PPA - R755, PPA later R795. CTCT2025: Early PPA (what I paid on Tue) - R795; general early - R850

Also keep in mind that the organisers need to plan for up to 53000-ish bottles/tins if every entrant actually rides, finishes and takes a coke and water each. Else they might run out, and people are (justifiably) going to much more unhappy about getting none, than about not getting double because they chose not to stop and take on the route.

It is available, but not if you search for your name. From the main CTCT results, filter until you find your name (on a phone, you may have to change to landscape view), then you can see Batch Pos

Those caught out a few in the front part of @, us stragglers 50m off the back rode past a few riders on the ground. Chappies was... interesting? Headwind, tailwind, headwind, tailwind as we wound our way up.

The event organisers would surely have the names of all the riders who entered, so "random tests" could be organised for the riders who dropped out?

In 2022, there were 207 finishers from @, so not exactly small then either. But well over 300 starting? Everything up to splitting on Edinburgh will be chaos if you aren't near the front. I see a few names in there that I recognise that are definitely way faster than me, as in SA Champs podiums in my age category. I felt great at the Herald, but not THAT good... don't think I'll be able to get near the front if I tried. My cold just got relegated in terms of things to stress over for the weekend.

I assume we'll get an SMS again with our numbers and start time, and we'll show them this

Both days' events ran pretty smoothly last year, if you exclude one marshal on the 85km being a bit late to their post. Seems like the road event is back this year, so I've entered for day 1's 85km MTB and day 2's 100km road.

My wife used it to track me and my dad, it just used the timing mats along the route, no predictive magic. I think it occasionally missed a mat, but not too bad. The app hasn't worked properly in a few years though.

They are in %, starting at 6:05 in Fish Hoek, and the u/17 boys at 6:00 from there as well.

Yes, @ seems to be just age, as I'm "lucky" enough to start there, and I don't hold a racing license. At the weekend's Herald, I rode in the Open Seeded, instead of the racing vet batches.

It is quite funny how many riders in the second 1A group (because they also missed the split on Smits and refuse to work at all to help me close a 30m gap) suddenly turn into Nacer Bouhani at about 107km, for that all important 652nd place and barely scraping under 3h, or worse causing a huge pileup within sight of the line. My fastest CTCTs have all been from 1B to 1D, and least enjoyable were in 1A and @ ChrisF's "start later" suggestion sounds tempting, though for some strange reason my dad doesn't seem that keen on me falling back to his group (usually around 2A) and helping him to a good time 🤦‍♂️🤣

I'm hoping we can drive down on Thursday, then I can go for a short ride on Friday morning before going to the Expo, ideally with a friend that lives nearby-ish. The people we stay with every year have moved, so going to have to check for safe routes.

Done with the Versus 500, at least unofficially. We'll see if the trainer rides count. I'm definitely looking forward to more normal weeks 🤣

I'm not sure either, but I saw this morning that the FAQ doesn't specify virtual activities. "For cycling, road cycling, mountain biking, and e-biking all count." I will keep adding the "Versus Back to Base" text. Still counts for fitness, if not free* socks 😁

I think I didn't read the Versus challenge description properly, and my virtual rides probably don't count... I will probably get around half way with outdoor rides.

185km left, by far most done on the trainer. Should get a good chunk of the remainder on the MTB tomorrow and Friday, but the weather for the weekend looks wet, so TrainerRoad and Indievelo will have to do.

What a pity! I quite enjoyed not watching Marriott and Cecil Nurse ads at the worst possible times...

I tried Indievelo this morning, just a quick ride with a bot group. It seems quite good so far, should be interesting to see how events etc work, for the inevitable bad weather days where I don't feel like yet another VO2 workout on Trainerroad.