Blackheart

Yup, the Chemo and the drugs are doing their best to kill both you and the cancer. you just have to make sure you're the one left alive at the end. It's like the 2 friends getting chased by the Grizzly, and the one takes his shoes off so he can run faster. His friend says "Don't be stupid, you can't outrun a Grizzly" and his mate says "I don't have to outrun the Grizzly, I only have to outrun you..."

Progress scans are a necessary, normal part of monitoring treatment and are not sinister at all. I went through several. However, still nerve wracking and unpleasant.

Hey. Great news you are turning pedals again. I sent you a pvt message, but I wanted to share this, just in case someone else might derive some motivation. I cant say enough about how being on a bike helped me recover/survive/stay sane (relatively). I was given a 2 week break between my last of 10 chemo sessions and the start of my radiation treatment. Smack in the middle weekend was the Argus. I decided to do it, a friend donated his entry and off we go. It took me 11 hours, and it really hurt, but it was wonderful. Everything is possible, until it's absolutely not.

Hi Cois I was diagnosed with a high grade non Hodgkin's lymphoma, I was initially given 2 weeks to live due to the size of the tumor and how involved it was with my colon, liver and spleen. I had half my colon removed along with various other bits and pieces, 8 months of chemo, 31 consecutive days of the highest dose radiation treatment. That was 20 years ago this year. I don't list the above to boast, or to prove anything, just to let you know that I've been through the ringer, I know what it's like in the trenches, and I'm here to chat anytime. If you don't feel like chatting, that's cool too, but if you do, I'm here. Please feel free to pm me anytime, or if you'd rather chat here, also fine. If we don't chat, can I please leave the best single piece of advice I ever received. My Oncologist once told me, and I held on to this so tightly. "I can only guarantee you one thing through all of this, it is not certain that if you fight with everything that you will live. What I can guarantee is that if you don't fight with everything you have, you will die."

I'm about to release such an app within the next month or two. We've been developing and testing it for the last 18 months and are just about ready. Key features: It will be available for Android and iOS. It will have a user setting for the crash alarm threshold. Alarm will fire off a packet of info containing the location and the severity of the impact (based on the G force recorded). The recipients of the rescue signal can be chosen by the user, multiple or singular. We will be linked to a central control room which can notify emergency services. The information will be recorded and correlated in order to be sent out as notifications to subscribers. This will allow tracking and advance warning of hotspots. The app will also have a manual activation which allows for a user to alert recipients of 3rd party incidents. There will be a proper launch happening soon. Will keep you all posted.

Did my 6th one, found the corrugations the worst yet..and more sand than usual. It was my first one on a FS, and I'm really glad about that! Respect to all who took the start, and to all the finishers.

"The leaders could have timeously intervened to ensure that overcrowding was minimised in order to be able to provide emergency services” "Their agenda at that time was to move people out of the Hout Bay area. This is the same strategy that the ancestors of Zille used to get black people out of Sea Point." Make your mind up.

It's encouraging to see so many well reasoned posts (well most are..) around such complex social issues. So many points to consider. As a long time HB resident, I have lived with people who have have lives devastated by fire, employees, work colleagues and friends, (non of whom breed like anything other than human beings) and have experienced first hand how traumatic it is. I have rebuilt homes, sometimes with my own hands, sometimes by paying for it to be done - in order to spread more cash around. I don't claim any special insight, but unless you have been doing all your training indoors, there's a pretty good chance that you've already ridden past a great number of people to whom your bicycle is a years worth of food,or clothes, or school fees (or all of those things, if you are pseudo wealthy) and have elicited some feeling of resentment. If it takes the cancellation of a push bike race to open your eyes, then more power to it. Let's not forget though, that the cancellation had nothing to do with the devastation in IY, it was a combination of 3 risk elements which individually might have been handleable, but together were not.

I did the windy one in 2009 on a tandem - it was not fun, but I felt a greater sense of achievement afterwards than any of my other 11. I haven't entered this ride since 2010 and didn't have an entry this year, so don't have any emotion invested. Some thoughts did pop into my head after reading the statement this am. 1. Is it windier than 2009? The wind is always worst at CTICC, in 2009 saw many riders stopped dead and blown over and or backwards. We had to walk most of the freeway section until we were in the lee of the mountain. We still had some nasty moments out on the course, including a massive endo when the guy in front got blown sideways in front of us. But we are big boys and can decide if gets too dangerous and stop. We didn't by the way. 2. The HB fire was brought under control by mid yesterday, emergency vehicles access is not compromised by the Argus route. I am an HB resident and we were up there this morning helping out with food and clothes. I can't remember the year we had the massive fires when the whole peninsula burned (2002/2003?), but we rode the Argus in a black sooty moonscape. 3. What exactly is 'protest action"? this seems to be the main reason, but we are not getting the whole story, I think? I also though straight away of the Dakar which was moved away from Africa because competitors security could not be guaranteed (as much as it can be). That is an international event with its own governing body based in France, so not a likely result for the Argus. However, any event which is compromised by lawlessness and security threats won't last very long. I think this is why the wind and the HB fire have been thrown into the mix, to play down the fact that safety and security cannot be managed. PS, just realised I refer to it as the Argus, sorry force of habit.

This I like. An E-Bike only Megavalanche would be cool.

For me it's more about the shared experience. Don't really care about the mechanical device per se. Which has two sides to it. 1. It would be great for my someone like my 80 year old Dad, (who rides a rigid 26er every day), to be able to spend a day with me on the trails I ride. E - Bike is the only way that's going to happen. So great. Shared experience. 2. But someone taking an E- Bike onto the trails and thinking he's ridden them is different. Maybe he had an absolute blast, and that's cool, but he's doing something other than mountain biking. I can't relate to his experience, and he can't relate to mine.

fixed.

EVERYONE. I've decided fugit, I'm riding through it now. One of us will die first and it won't be me.

For a National event why are volunteer marshals being used, instead of traffic officials with the correct authority to make the idiot truck driver stop?

Must say it was very boring to see the leaders riding together so nicely...what happened to duking it out for the win?! Just because we were riding together doesn't mean we weren't duking it out. This event is only about 40% physical, the rest is all mind games, strategy and mental toughness. Quite right. I didn't ride this year, I was managing the race for the eventual 2nd place finisher. Trust me we were all 'duking it out' and we all gave everything we could to win. ​Monitoring lap times, trying to assess the competitions strengths and weaknesses (not many, it turned out..), developing and covering strategies, and all the while keeping our own athlete motivated, fuelled and healthy. I don't think any of us could have given any more. I'm proud that we could do it all with a spirit of mutual respect (including a midnight coffee break, bike lube and some marginally insane banter), while never compromising our drive to win. Goes for Dane too, really good guy - formidable competitor.

Haha. Like starting a sentence "with the greatest respect...."

All too easily!

It was close to the top, drop into the berm at the start, then it was roots, stumps, one small log step then one big one. Just enough space to get the back wheel off the first one before the front wheel went over the second one. Solution was to hit it at speed and take the second one out of the mix. Then try and sort everything out before the trail narrowed between an old stump and a rock. Epic had a prologue there, lots of guys just bottled it and walked. Platt tail whipped it.... Absolutely agree with considering it a work in progress.

Was so cool to be back in Tokai on the weekend. A massive thank you to all who've worked so hard to make it happen, from negotiations through to building and everything in-between, it is a great achievement. I first rode there in 1995 and conditions allowing probably a minimum of 3 times a week ever since. I have seen it change many times over the years, and while this is the biggest change yet, I'm sure it will change again in time. Some thoughts/musings/questions I like the idea of parking by the picnic area, feels more secure and its a bit of a warm up for the upcoming hill... I really enjoyed the new hill, that's a proper challenge. Will it remain? or is it really just a detour? Found the jeep track generally rougher and looser than before. But still set some PB's...(I think that was the stoke of being back). Undecided about the new single track. I rode the snakes and Vasbyt down and it was a ton of fun and had me whooping out loud, but once the buzz had worn off, and on reflection, I found I'd missed the technical challenges of the rocks and sneaky roots. To those involved, please don't take these as complaints or criticisms, just my first thoughts after 2 days there. I never expected it to be restored exactly as it was. The only disappointment to me was that the big log step on Vasbyt has gone, that used to be my nemesis and took me a long time to grow the balls big enough to clear it. Then it became my favourite thing. Used to love landing it then juuuust making the line between the stump and the rocks. But I'm sure I'll find new challenges to grow balls for. Again though, back to the top to reiterate the thanks to all involved in bringing this back to reality for us all to enjoy.

I assume the trails are rideable in both directions?

Fantastic! Big thank you to all involved in making this happen. Please, please everyone now do their own part to make this a long term success.

Get me some of those!

It's been done before, as mentioned above depending on the state of the corrugations, it could be very tiring. I remember one year I kept getting past by a guy ( I think it was Francois from Manic Cycles?) on a CX bike at warp speed, only to keep passing him sitting down, fixing punctures, with a very unhappy face.

Done every one so far. Back again this year - Great event!