Gravity Sux

Another reason could be that the chain jumps off / gets caught up and when the crank is turned again the derailleur gets pulled off. Happened to someone on our ride on Saturday just riding on corrugated road. I try keep the chain on the middle blade on rough downhills to prevent it jumping off

The hiking trails are good too Will take a while to explore the new stuff though

Rode Groenkloof for the first time in a while yesterday. Rocks on side of track are quite a pain but fortunately not too much of this. One cool thing is that they have added a whole lot of track on the north end of the park Instead of taking the wooden bridge along the fence, took the new right fork up the hill. Also did some of the new tracks on the R21 side of this koppie. All good stuff. Quite rough and technical but all ridable Think this more than makes up for the spoiled track

I have seen carbon frames broken by lesser men (without crashing). Think if I was a bike manufacturer I would be on here recommending my competitor's brand for the Agent

Must confess I quite enjoyed the race. Did the 25 last year with my son but decided to let him ride on his own and do the 50 this year. Tuning the route definitely sorted the congestion problems. Enjoyed riding in leeukop (which I obviously did not do on last years 25). Must agree though that they could have done a bit more on the route prep. There was a big piece of wire (nice loops just wailing to hook in someones drivetrain) within the first km (and this was towards the front of A1 so I doubt whether someone went bushwacking and brought it onto the track). Could also have been better marked in places. Was almost taken out by a motorbike who ignored the marshals and shot the last road crossing over the Old Pretoria Road - suppose road crossings will always be an issue when a MTB event takes place in the city.

Personally I like Schwables. Put a Nibby Nick / Smart Sam (non UST) combination on in February and rode Sani2c, Epic, Joberg2c, couple of one day races, and all my other riding including a lot of the rocky stuff in Groenkloof before getting my first flat on Saturday (Stans had dried out so this was my fault). I have been using Schwable for 2.5 years now and will confess that I have had 2 side wall cuts plus a couple of flats but then I have done around 25000km on them. Cant think that I would have done much better with any other brand of tire (there are plenty of tires that would have performed a lot worse). I get about 2000-3000km out of the rear and somewhere between 5000-8000km on the front - this really comes down to how little tread you are prepared to ride. I am not too fussy with training / fun rides but will replace worn tires for a big race. My guess is that the Racing Ralphs will be just fine. You will need to decide if you are happy with he grip. Everybody has their own opinions but I say make up your own mind. Interesting to see how many people think that light tires are soft. Guess the above experience goes against that. My point is, if light tires do the trick then why choose heavy tires? If you are going to do that then you may as well get a steel frame and fill it with sand too. Just like carrying 3l plus all sorts of other rubbish in a Camel Back, why? If you can get rid of 300g on your tires do it (and if you can get rid of another 300g with non UST tires do that too). It cost you a lot less to shed weight on your tires than most other bike components but you need to figure what works for you.

This is a point made at any of the Polar presentations they give each year for the Epic. You will battle to get it into the 80%s and will not see more than 85% after 3 days. Big thing is your recovery each day. Judge your performance on how you do each day rather than your average HR. If you are slowly moving up the field (temember teams higher up the field are dropping out) you are doing well and recovering fine.

Terrible news. Condonences to Bruce and Angela. RIP Adam.

Just been looking through the seedings and noticed the following. Vet men top 100, 97JACQUES MALAN34.8197CORRIE MULLER34.8198MARTIN PUZEY34.93 Only result for JACQUES MALAN / CORRIE MULLER, Sani2c race in 11:38:43 Only result for MARTIN PUZEY, Sani2c adventure in 13:05:26 Hopefully these are just teething problems. Here is the answer to those who want to improve their seeding index, make sure you enter the Sani2c adventure and not the race. That way you can go 85 minutes end with the same index as riders finishing 85 minutes faster than you in the race Gravity Sux2010-02-28 15:42:40

Have to laugh at the cost per km, so if the route is badly marked and you get lost you get better value for money (extra k's for your bucks) and when comparing road to MTB maybe we need cost per hour. Bummer here is that the front riders end up paying more than double what the back markers pay (per hour) - maybe that is because the track isnt used when they get there . Seriously, it doesn't take much to blow R100 at the movies on a Saterday night. I am not going to judge what is affordible to others but I an happy to skip the movie and do a good race. I would even pay double for some of the good races I have done but would not do again even if I was given a free entry. If it is value you are looking for try Grounkloof. For around R17 you get as many k's as you like. Tracks are well kept and are good for everybody from the novice to the expert. There is no congestion (the sort you get on the single track at some races). Only problem, no timing, no medals, no water tables. I can ride there from home so I don't even pay petrol to get there and it is dam good fun!

Haven't really noticed the music - but then maybe I am going deaf. They do cover some interesting races though - stuff that would probably never make it onto the box. I enjoy the show

If you have too many stars maybe you are spending too much time on the hub and not enough time riding your bike ?

Rode the 25km with my son. Started in B4 - rode for 1hr 40 and were stationary for 30 minutes, almost 20 minutes at the last bottleneck. Don't think that qualifies as a race. Also got quite ticked off about the idiots pushing in at the front of the bottlenecks. Thought I would do this one as a father / sone bonding but after this I think Baba's lodge is a better option. 50km sounds like fun. Maybe I will do that one next year.

On the weather take a look at the satellite / weather radar and decide for yourself ( http://www.weathersa.co.za/Imagery/ShowRadarMap.jsp?map=3 ) To me it doesnt look like there is too much to worry about - particularly in the morning. If there is some cloud that will be welcome . Wearher24 says scattered showers in the afternoon (42%). Weather service says thunderstorms Friday (30%) Saturday (60%) - 5 or 6mm - just enough to settle the dust. At least the max is only 25C (32C forcast for today)

Unfinished business 4 me, entered last year, collected my number and was all ready to go and then went and broke my collarbone 2 days before the start. If I get past Thursday without any mishaps I've already done better than last year

Similar problem, never done 94.7 but have done a lot of MTB races. Just ride it as a time trial and enjoy passing a lot of people. Next year you can still improve your time substantially as you will probably then be seeded.

Can understand your frustration - it would make me feel better if this happened to me and I could bliksem someone .. even if it was not their fault.

Guess you are always going to get riders who start the longer route and swap to the shorter course on route. Those who finish before the long race winners are easily caught out but where the real problem comes in is in the various categories, particularly the ladies categories (for example vet ladies 3rd may be finishing 150th in the GC). Did a race recently where a lady came in 30 minutes ahead of the official ladies winner and it took a couple of days for the timing people to sort out. Don't know what happened but I presume she switched to the shorter route. Eventually she was listed as DQ. Unfortunately you cannot rely on peoples honesty to inform the race officials that the did not complete the race they started or to not cross the mat at the finish. Probably 2 options for the organizers. First is to put a timing mat out on the course as suggested in other posts. If cost is an issue then put a marshal on the shorter route to take the numbers of all who have changed races and tell them not to cross the finish mat. If you have swapped races you should no longer be racing so it should not be a problem to stop so the marshal can take down your number. If those who opted for the shorter route do not cross the finish / sort out with the officials that they did not complete the whole race then list them as DNF. If someone crosses the finish list them as DQ. As long as a DQ result only applies to people who have cheated there is no need to name and shame as all their friends will know that they cheated when they check the results. I would assume that most people do not switch races to get a better result but end up crossing the finish because they simply do not realize / do not care about the chaos it causes. If you are determined to cheat you can probably find a short cut / have someone else race with your number / use performance enhancing substances and never be caught if you are not finishing at the sharp end of the race. There have been gold medal performances in the Comrades Marathon that have later been found to be the result of cheating so I suppose there are many who have got away with it further down the field. In their case we just hope they have a conscience which causes them not to sleep so well at night.

I got an entry. Were you not rider 2? There is only 1 entry per team from 2009. Don't know how they manage it but maybe rider 1 gets preference.

Did 78kph on stage 3, Villiersdorp to Greyton of this years Epic - was dropping my partner so there was no point going faster. There were some blokes who recorded over 100kph so if you really want to go fast on dirt I guess that is where you need to go.

235 days to go, bit early to start that panic save it for the last week

Broke my collarbone, had it plated in October. Rode Sabi Experience in December / enjoyed my holidays. When I went for X-ray in January the screws had pulled partially out and the one end of the plate had lifted. Doc mentioned that he used a thick plate as he had had patients who had broken the plates. Maybe he thought I looked mad. Became pretty uncomfortable. Each time the kids gave me a hug they head butted the plate and I kept knocking it on other things. Had it out in May - in early in the morning, home by lunck time, no pain. Now I have a plate a 6 screws in a plastic packet as a momento.

This is the 3rd attack I have heard of in the last 3/4 weeks. There was one near the pipe factory / irene shooting range 2 or 3 weeks ago and another in the Smuts house area (maybe the same spot, I am not sure) a week before that. Please guys take Rex's warning and be very careful. They will be back this next weekend.