NGM

Classic. Simon and Garfunkel once listed the track length of one of their songs ("Fakin' it", ironically) as 2:74 because radios only played songs under 3 minutes.

But we should all be like Brian. I would have cried into my beer and sold my bike - he on the other hand bought another entry, smashed his way up to & group and is taking no prisoners this year (that's how I'm seeing it anyway). In the event that 1A happens to catch & group, Brian has my wheel*. *Unless he's miles off sub 3 pace and I'm in with a chance.

I couldn't agree more. If people didn't care about it as much as they claim, then why even post? I love the competitive aspect of strava and a lot of the people I know do as well. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's also completely voluntary. I've had battles with friends over segments that have gone on for years. Heck in some obscure segments in some small towns (the only place where I stand a chance) I've even made it to the top of the leader board. IT'S FUN to me! I've even become friends with random strangers because we've had unspoken battles on strava. Yes people cheat, but like most games in life they are chops and they are in the minority. It's not a reason to give up on one of the main premises of the app. Some nice pro-active solutions provided by a number of people on the thread to help maintain the integrity of the results on strava, thanks! I think that is what the OP was after.

Straight Outta Constantia

Is that not going to be a bit tricky with the aero seatpost?

It's all about the data:

If you've done 150km a week for a little while, then you can safely get in long rides (80-100km) in each of the 3 remaining weekends without fear of making yourself too tired. Some shorter rides mid-week with intervals and some recovery will also help. But if you do all that, then it will be important to do very little in the week leading up to the CTCT, a couple of short rides at most with high cadence.

Hahaha hey I still feel bad about that. We then proceeded to ride (unknowingly) about 4 mins behind you the whole way.

I have these too and love them.

I'm sure you can. I'm not aware of any official documentation but I know many people who've done that (heck I did that last year). Imagine you arrived late - would they stop you from riding altogether because you missed your starting group? So I think it's something for which they have to accommodate. And if they stopped people who did want to do that, then those people would just ride 1m over the start line and wait for their friend/wife/daughter/son, etc - also a silly scenario.

I'm in the same boat. OK technically 1A but am also not sure how I got there. In previous years I've had a better index and been seeded in a worse starting group, so I can only assume that (a) there are fewer people riding in general and/or (b) a lot of the decent riders who would usually be in those spots maybe just missed out on a lot of seeding events due to covid (either affecting them or the event). Whatever the case, I'll take it. But look out for me, I'll be the guy falling off the back of 1A up Nelson Mandela Blvd.

Sounds wise! There was a bit of chaos at the back.

The whole of the D group joined C. Not that I had anything to do with it, I was just hanging on. Hoping for a bit of a seeding boost but (a) not sure this will count towards CTCT and (b) the "beta" factor in the seeding equation will probably make this ride void anyway. Either way, lovely day for a ride.

I've been in this exact position. 2017 99er was my first ever road ride. I was fit but had zero seeding. I started in group CC (3 after group Z basically), but luckily 2 other guys were really keen to work. Actually we spent the first 10km trying to drop one another until one of us suggested working together, which we did for the next 70km or so. I managed 3:05 but had to be lifted out of my bike because my body was locked into a T-Rex position. It was still one of the most fun races ever though, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Either you'll be lucky and have other guys who want to work, or you'll solo until you reach a sort of balance point where the riders in front of you are too strong to overtake with ease and it starts to make more sense to ride with them. If I were in your shoes I'd go pretty hard until the halfway turnaround point to reach a good bunch, you'll need protection from the headwind on the way back. Then have a crack in the last few km if there's still something in the tank.

Any reason you are grouping all of the cape provinces into 1? 5 Western Cape, 4 Eastern Cape, 1 Northern Cape.

All good. Just semantics. To me the "old route" is the one where the last 10km included vissers followed by whatever-that-other-climb was where I wanted to cry but school kids were watching.

Also confused. I've done two 99ers in the past (2017 and 2018) and the last 10km included vissers and this other shorter, very nasty climb to the finish line.

@Pure Savage posted this a while back: https://www.strava.com/clubs/21210/group_events/1112428?new=true It has total elevation gain listed as 779m, which seems a bit high given that there's no real climb but I guess the undulations add up.

Doing a Kiesenhofer is highly encouraged.

That sucks. Climbing is about the only thing I do well on a bike and would often rely on this race to boost my seeding a bit. Hide in the bunch then attack on the climb, it was easy. Instead I'm now going to be massacred by the big strong men of Flemish ancestry from the northern suburbs.

Everything I've read agrees with this. The best of which is a book called Wheelmen. This is an except from the book. Long but worth a read: https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/wheelmen-book-excerpt-what-to-do-about-lance-armstrong-part-2/ I quite like landis to be honest. Interviews with him these days are always candid, funny and remarkably insightful for a man who bears a passing resemblance to kid rock.

It's very likely that you can make both a medium and a large work. There is a lot of leeway with moving saddles back and forth, changing stem length and angle (etc). But there is no substitute for a test ride and as @Eldron said, people often under-measure inseam. I've used this as a resource before: https://www.rivbike.com/pages/pubic-bone-height-how-to-measure-your-pbh Although if you spend enough time online you'll find people who disagree with Rivendell's sizing advice (that's the internet for you). From my own experience, I'm between 56 and 58 but have long legs, so I've found 58 works nicely because on a 56 the saddle was a long way up and I got back pain reaching down to my bars. My Fiance is between a 52 and 54 but has shorter legs (proportionally) and a 52 has worked nicely for her. I don't know if leg length is the deciding factor if you are between sizes, that's how it played out in our house.

From my own perspective (for what it's worth), I got covid symptoms on christmas eve and today is the first day I've felt complete normal while doing strenuous exercise. I didn't get especially sick: fever for a day and then a runny nose for 4 days. I had a few false starts trying to get back into it too early and seeing my HR shoot up after 10 mins of riding. But today I did a completely "normal" ride. All the numbers were as they would have been before covid, although a tiny bit (5%) slower, down to me not really having ridden for the last month. So I count myself lucky to have only caught this post-vax and getting a seemingly milder flavor of covid. The best part is that the time off the bike has given me a serious "gees" to ride again.

Ya I agree with some of that, and there's every chance I've not remembered all the details!

Ya for sure, I agree, somebody who is heavy as a result of lots of gym will be better off than somebody who is genuinely obese. But the perception that BMI becomes irrelevant if a lot of that mass is muscle is (apparently) incorrect. I'm obviously no expert, I'm repeating what was mentioned to me because I found it really interesting. It's still not a perfect metric by a long shot.