Pegasus

I agree completely. My boy rides mainly MTB races, where they are limited to 30k events. Problem is that the Argus is a huge issue for him, so Burger is for Argus seeding and he can ride Argus but apart from that we are curtailing distance and climbs.eg. he's only allowed to ride to the mast once a month. This has been a big issue for us. I have spent a fair amount of time researching the issue and trying to ensure that he's not burnt out before he even finishes school.

My son was in a white Craft top. We did spend some time trying to drag a group back into a bigger bunch, but I tried to keep him out of the wind a bit

I think conditions were great after all the concern about wind and rain. I certainly deserved better weather after the conditions at last weeks DC. Good to have seen you on the road, Wannabe!

First time Burger. Left a great party early to get my son a good Argus seeding. We started in C and did 2h40, which isn't bad for a 14 year old in his first long road race. It's a scary race in places though, on the way through Pneil(?), crossing those brick sections, someone braked hard in front of us. The whole bunch just skidded and some guy behind me hit a bike or the pavement. Went down hard judging by the sound.

Riding this for the first time. I'm seeded C hoping to improve my Argus seeding from J, so that I can make an attempt at Sub 3 Argus in 2013. By my estimates that means a 2:45 Burger. Just rode DC in 7:35, with no problems. Long story with some questions for those who know the area and the race Where is a good place to ride a 20 to 30 min warm up? I'll never have a good ride up Helshoogte on cold legs. And with 2:45 as a target time, what should I be aiming for in terms of time splits over the race?

Anyone have a spare crank bolt for a FSA SLR crank? It will take weeks to get one from the local supplier, maybe less if I can get one from CRC, but I need to be back on the road asap to train for DC It's for my Cervelo R3 Road bike. The team CSC issue one that came out in 2006

Rode it in 2010 with my 12 year old son. If it's the same route then its essentially up the mountain and then down the mountain. As has been mentioned it was quite congested. The most technical bits were riding between slower and walking riders on some of the steep muddy sections. We did it in 2h13, having taken it easy on the climbs as my son had a bit of a tough day. I would rate it as a hard ride for a unfit rider, but pretty easy if you're fit and can climb, no serious MTB skills needed. Remember that it can get very hot there. A few years ago everyone battled at some MTB ride in Lourensford when the temperature soared.

two gatorskins and two tubes for R600 at CWC, was what I saw. They had marked the price down on the original special

I have no idea what it actually costs to organise a race but most CT races are organised by charities, with some sponsorship. . Any large undertaking like organising a road race must have lots of expenses that you don't see at first glance. Racetec won't be doing the timing for free, will they? False bay Rugby Club or whatever venue you use will also charge. Does the PPA charge the charity to use its name when organsing events? The traffic dept also charges as far as I know. Who pays for all the motorcycle marshals petrol? etc etc. And many sponsors have become much more tight fisted than a few years ago. I seriously doubt that there is anyone make big bucks organising funrides. There certainly isn't enough communication between the cyclists and the charities. They are effectively supporting each other and don't really understand how they impact each other.

These discussions are amusing enough. But I think that the dedicated MTB'ers are often guilty of reverse snobbery. While the exclusive MTB'ers all claim that they are humble, genuine, earthy and friendly folk, the venom that sometimes gets directed at roadies reflects very poorly on the superior attitudes that they profess to have. I cycled on the road on Saturday and was greeted by lots of friendly roadies. I was in Tokai forest yesterday and saw more than one sullen, surly MTBer. Is that a valid sample? Can that be interpreted as a trend? I don't think so. And almost all the roadies I know ride MTB as well. Do they change attitudes along with their bikes? And on that note if someone wants to ride a Dogma wearing an Ed Hardy outfit for 20 minutes before posing at Caprice for a few hours, they might not be a serious cyclist, but what's it to you? Why do people even care enough to complain about it. If you think that because you're riding a MTB you're somehow a better person than someone riding a roadbike then you a fool. It's as bad as judging people simply on of the make of car they ride. If you think I'm a pR#&% because just I drive a BMW, then you need serious help or medication.

I'm in J Should be high enough to make an attempt at improving my PB of 3:10

I've had an issue with figuring out my max HR as well. 220-46 =174 is the simplistic calculation for me. But I can get to that under a hard effort quite regularly. I've been told that there is no way that I could truly hit my max while riding hard up Chap/Peak as an example. So I just adjusted my Max up on my Polar until it sort of corresponded with my perceived effort. Whenever I see it hit 100% I adjust it up. I hit 101% last Saturday while chasing some riders up Chapmans and I felt absolutely fine. I've been using 182 so I'm going to raise it. I should probably go for the proper test. But apparently its not a fun process

The reason why distributors exist and will always continue to do so is because the manufacturers don't/can't deal with thousands of retailers. The manufacturers also benefit from pushing some of the working capital requirements onto the distributors. It's the same in most industry supply chains. Only when the players are quite substantial do they benefit from dealing with each other directly. Add in issues like returns, guarantees,s and country specific complications and you can see why OEM's(who's core competence is usually design and manufacturing) doesn't want to get into the nitty gritty of the distribution and sales end. Distributors exist in high tech industries like networking and software where you can be pretty sure that any online benefits have been untilised. I suspect that the reason why SA prices are so high is a mindset from the old closed economy days. Retailers knew that consumers had no option but to pay the prices asked. And some of our retailers have simply not cottoned on to the logic that if they lower their margins they will sell more units and profits might even rise.

Thanks guys. Useful advice

Last years Argus wasn't great for me, too many distractions and too little training and I felt as if I was operating way below my potential, so I decided to up my training game for 2011. I'm in my mid-40's, weight 79kgs, about 2 or 3kgs' above my ideal weight. My best time for the Argus is 3:10 and I'd love to better that by a minute or 10! I started training in December doing more k's and riding more times a week than I ever have before. I rode 5 times a week putting 31 hours during December. Not all hard sessions, I MTB'd with my son about once a week. But riding into the wind the last few weeks in CT has made all the longer rides seem tough. Previously I've never ridden more than 24 hours in a month. I'm trying to train in a cycle of two high intensity weeks and followed by an easy week. I know what it feels like when I overtrain, I tend to get sick easily and then have no desire to ride. I don't feel like that now, I just feel stuffed, and don't feel recovered after my days off. I'm getting to bed early and eating well. I've steered clear of the recovery drinks, in the past they've just made me put on weight. Do I keep up my training program and hope to feel better as my body adjusts, or do I ease up?