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You should have stopped typing after the first exclamation mark.
and you should have stopped typing after the first "Y". There, now we both wasted 20 seconds.
quite entertaining! I see websites like gumtree dying a slow death. Faceless buyers + Faceless sellers = the perfect scamming environment.
I like the way you think ! I'm doing Sani next yaer, but will not be making use of my tent as my OH and son are coming along for the trip and I will be staying with them. It would have been great if the supper and accommodation were removed from my entry free. The jackets etc however I want as proof that I finally managed to get into Sani.
The nice thing is that we have so much choice these days so can chose the ones that are good value for money and skip the rest.
They need to provide for your accommodation, whether you use it or not. You share a tent with your riding partner, so I'm guessing that he/she will have extra space. One of the reasons Sani2C is still affordable is because they recycle the race villages to get 3 seperate races in. I suspect that most (95%?) of the riders use the tents at this race. There's nothing like the sound of farting and snoring in MacKensie and Jolivet to get you to sleep.
Se vir Katot PAPPA wag vi hom!
Let me say upfront, I will never support Cycle Lab again.
Here is the story. I walked into Cycle Lab Fourways at 4:30pm last Friday with a brand new road bike that has done less than 100km. I asked the sales agent (he said his name is Ben) if someone can please assist me quickly as the cable (for my jockey) has stretched and I just need it to be adjusted, it should only take a few minutes. Ben told me that they cannot help me at that time since it would not take 5 minutes as my hanger is most probably bent and needs to be fixed which would take a long time to fix. I again explained to him that it is a new bike and that if the chance of it being cable stretch is 99%. I also explained to him that it is urgent as I was on my way out of town for a race on the weekend.
Ben told me that they will not assist me and should take it back to the shop where I bought the bike. Granted, I did not buy the bike at Cycle Lab but I could not take the bike back to the shop where I bought it as it is a couple of hours drive from Fourways and I needed urgent assistance. Ben just told me rudely that they will not assist me and that I can take my business somewhere else. I then told Ben, based on his rudeness and his recommendation, that I would in fact take my business elsewhere and that I would not support them again, to which he responded “thank you, please don’t come back again”.
Again, granted, I did not buy the bike from Cycle Lab. The sad thing is, I did however buy my Mountain Bike from cycle lab only a few months ago. In fact, I have spent somewhere between R70 000 to R80 000 over the last 6 months at Cycle lab. I visited their store at least once a week and all the staff there know that I am a regular customer (even Ben). So is this how cycle lab treat their regular customers? And BTW, I am also a member of their cycle club. Sure I guess my spend is only a drop in the ocean to them but frankly I expected more. I did not ask them to do it free of charge, I just needed someone to urgently assist me and I was more than willing to pay for the service.
I ended up driving through to Dunkeld Cycles at the last minute and they assisted me straight away (and I’ve never supported them before). And guess what, it took them less than 5 minutes to fix the cable stretch! Thanks Dunkeld Cycles for the friendly service, you will surely see me again.
Cycle Lab is obviously not dependable so I won’t waste my time there again.
You could have done a couple of things to get Ben to assist you.
- ask nicely and appologise for not having an appointment.
- a quick phone call on your way to the Lab to ask if they could quickly help you with this because your multi-tool was out of order at that moment.
- grow a pair of t!ts, pretend to be clueless, bat your eyelids at him and show off some leg. If you were a pretty blonde poppie the other salesmen would have beaten Ben to death to get to you first.
A full-of-himself (rhymes with) brick <assumption as I haven't met you, but throwing numbers around numbers on the OP is a clue> demanding immediate service without an appointment would definately get you thrown out of most cycling shops.
I'm also keen on a Cape Town session.
To do the draw the shop needs to have a PR function with it, otherwise its really pointless, so instead of doing some charity ball or something, they are connecting it to something cycling related. This makes perfect sense, but maybe this should have been communicated in advance via the website.
I'll admit to the w@nking, but if you accuse me of wearing white lycra, I'm going to sue.
It does seem expensive for a self catering event.
Sani2C was about R3500 per rider, but we got 3 meals, tented accommodation, 2 winter jackets, 1 long sleeved shirt, 1 long sleeved runners jacket and lots of other goodies.
On top of this the website still had conflicting info on routes, distances and ascent on the website. I emailed the orginisers about this and got a reply stating that they are updating the website, but I am still unsure on what info is correct.
At R2450 the routes really got to be top notch to get my vote.
Nothing says "FUNRIDER" like wearing Intercontinental Pro team kit. Its almost as amusing as the guys and girls that think that they need to match up their bike brand with the branding on their cycling kit.
The sponsor doesn't make huge amounts of cash from selling merchandise. In fact they are more than happy if people copy their kit as it is free advertising for them.
Remember to be 10 minutes early. Nothing gets the guys backs out of joint like a newby thats late.
Stay modest.
This is very much a look-see by the other riders to measure your fitness and skill, so they may want to push you a bit to find out.
Never take the lead on any technical section. Infact, try to stay as far back as possible, even if your skills are better than the guys infront of you. If you are more skilled than them, they will probably ask you to ride through. This is ok to do.
Don't challenge the leader of the pack on the first ride.
Say hi to everyone, but focus on 2 or 3 riders in the group to talk to.
Complement their bikes and gear and ask questions about their equipment.
Never touch another man bike without them giving you express permission. Chances are they'll rather loan you their wife / girlfriend for the weekend than touch their bikes.
If you bring anything other than energy bars /gu to eat, be prepared to share (Nuts or biltong are some of my trail snacks of choice)
Take your celphone with incase the ride gets too long for you and someone needs to come pick you up.
Take cash along so that if they stop for coffee / cooldrink that you can get one too.
You don't have to pay for everyone's coffee / cooldrink.
Take your own spares along and know how to use them.
Take it easy initially up Swartberg pass on day 1. The climb gets progressively steeper so if you go too hard, you're going to suffer later on. Don't eat a Spur burger at the second last water point. There is ALWAYS a huge climb right after a spur water point.
Be nice to the guys on the route. Chances are that you'll be camping next to the asshole who almost caused an accident right in front of you earlier in the day.
Drink lots of water after stage 1 and take the time to chat to the other riders.
On day 2 you'll climb out of the Hell quicker than what you'd think. The hard part is still coming. You're going to ask yourself where day 2's climbs were when they were supposed to be down-hill. Take a moment before descending the Swartberg pass to take in the view. The Kruisrivier floodplain is beautiful right now.
Riding down the Bridle path (switchbacks) in Tokai forest will teach you quickly or painfully. They don't come much steeper or sharper.
My advice: Reduce saddle hight an inch or two. Pedals level, outside pedal forward. Move back on saddle. Very lightly on front brake. Keep rolling fast enough to get through ruts or over roots. Practice by doing very slow figure of 8s in the parking lot to learn balance and control.
Great piece of trail, them switchbacks down the Bridle path. Its a pity that the big bikes have cut those horrible ruts on every switchback. It makes going down now risky for the RD.
Whatever you do, try not to drag your rear wheel around. It compounds the problem for the next guy thats coming down if there are ruts in every corner.
Define your training goals to match up with your racing ambitions and do specific drills to reach your goals. Doing a stage race successfully is more like the reward you get for training hard than being the goal itself. Your goal can be to climb faster, recover faster, improve your technical skills, etc.
The worst thing you can do is to go riding with no goals in place for that session.
Measure your progress:
Take body measurements as well as resting heart rate, cholesterol, blood pressure and BMI
Do a timed lap every second week or get a power meter and measure your power output on the Indoor trainer. You will soon see what has the most impact on your training.
Often you can improve your performance by losing 4 or 5 kg's.
Riding 5 x a week for ave 2 hours at a time is better for fitness than riding 2 x a week for 5 hours ave.
Should this not be under the "for sale" section?
I've tried and bought many brands of bibshorts over the years.
My current favorite is the Vermarc bibs (about R800 a pair). The previous generation of Assos shorts were also more comfy than my current Assos FI Mille and FI13 shorts. I've actually passed these on to my wife as she seems to enjoy them more than what I do.
Take the Cycling lane from Cape Town to Table View and back. It runs along the BRT route so if you don't feel like doing the return leg you can simply get on the bus.
Did the ride with my wife from Table View to Cape Town on Saturday. As we got to Town it started raining so my wife had a valid excuse to take the bus back to Table View.
She does not enjoy riding in the traffic (who does!) and enjoyed not having to worry about this.
Its also very flat (about 50m ascent in 20-odd kms) meaning she had no trouble doing this in less than 1 hour. The return trip is ideal for unfit beginners.
PM Sent!
Thanks DL - got it.
Just a quick status update for those that have been on the wall about joining...
The master's swimming has been going on for 3 weeks now. The group is balanced well between swimmers and triathletes, as well as beginners and stronger swimmers. And depending on the day the amount of people in the pool varies from 2 to about 15. The coach is great, and helps with stroke technique and it's up to you how long and hard you want to swim for.
The pool itself is great for open water training, especially with no lane lines in.
So hopefully see some more of you on the pool deck! Especially now that the water temp has warmed up from f%$#ing freezing to just freezing!
Send me the details. I'm quite keen to improve my swimming. Word of warning - my swimming skills are non-existent.
Ok, after reading everybodys posts, I am in two minds about this race... I want to do it so badly, but will I be fit enough in 10 weeks time?? I did the Transbaviaans in August and then after that I didn't do much, just a 2-3 hours a week... (I am very furious with myself for doing that and not keeping my so called "fittnes") Anyway, you guys who have done the Atta - what do you think, will I be able to do it when I stick to a heavy training program or not?? And does anybody have a program like that I can use? Thanks all! And good luck!
If you've done this year's Trans Bav, you've got it mentally. 10 weeks is ample time. Ride 4 x a week (2 x 2 hours in the week and 2 x 4 hours over the weekend) at about 70% intensity, take the week between Christmas and New Years off and come back for a final hard week before resting until the race.
hahaha! looks like I type slow (same thing is in my prevoius post)
Take it one further. Use the 6 o clock / 12 o clock position when you need to nail a corner (lift the inside foot and turn the knee out slightly, almost like a Superbike rider). Lowers your C.O.G. and gives the rear extra traction. Also assists to use momentum and body weight to turn in stead of the handle bars as you will end up leaning into corners more.
The Anthems I've seen this on was where riders downsize for some reason. Riders that should be riding a large, ends up on a medium and extend the seatpost beyond the safe limit. When Giant replaces your frame, have an independent bike setup professional advise you on what frame size to get.
These comparisons so bore me... What are we trying to proove? "The one I did was harder than the one you did?" Who cares? (maybe your mother)
I think your last race is always the hardest one. (Because your brain still remembers the pain)
They all good events. Just ride the bike.
(and I have done both)
Could be said for about any discussion on the hub, so if you don't want to provide constructive input, then don't provide any input.
SANI2C Tyres
in Technical Q&A
Posted
Ride with what you know / are comfortable with.
If you manage in the Cape (Jonkershoek / Tokai / Botlary Hills) with Crossmarks you should definately be fine during Sani2C. I prefer something more agressive on the front (look at the GEAX Saguaro, fast but very grippy when cornering).
If you end up having a wet day, you are no better off with wet weather tyres, unless you manage to start in "A" or "B". Better suited tyres won't get you past everyone else in the single track but will slow you down on the gravel.