Eon du Plessis

That surely depends on how much you paid?

Going to downgrade myself to 80. My BL will achieve nothing other than killing me. Maybe somewhere along the middle of the 80s guys will be good.

This would be first race of over 100km and I've been seeded BL. Granted, my pace on the shorter races wasn't too bad for a novice, but I find it tough to believe I'm that far to the front. Must be a mistake.

I'm hardly a pro, I just happen to have a very nice bike that's likely being let down by its wheels, if they really make that big a difference.Will nag a LBS and see if they're willing to give me a loaner set for a day or two.

Do you really notice a difference between an entry level wheel like Mavic Aksiums and a R12k set of Dark Horse carbon wheels? Understandably strangers wouldn't be keen to let me take their set for a spin and I don't have any close friends with sets to try and I'm not dropping that much on something that may not actually improve my experience.

Have a set of Aksiums that are pretty good in my novice opinion. Would love to test a set of higher end wheels to get a better idea of what difference they actually make before throwing cash at some. I recently upgraded my MTB rims from crappy Alex rims to hand built WTB i23s and went tubeless at the same time, and the difference there is night and day, but do you notice that big a difference on road bikes where you're not constantly accelerating like with mtb trail riding?

The 69km was my first Road event and my first ride using a Racetec chip as I haven't been cycling very long. My results aren't showing and the racetec website says that no rider has been associated with the chip number yet. Should I just be patient and maybe shoot them an email? The race was quite fun and riding in groups really ups your performance significantly more than I expected. I even got to help out with pulling now and then, but nowhere near strong enough for my own linking yet. Did a 2:15 or so, by my own calculations. Looking forward to getting stronger!

Bruce Reyneke cycles has sessions weekend mornings where the guys go towards Harties a fair distance. Lots or riders on Klapperkop as well, if you want to try a bit of climbing.