ZeroPlay

Spaanschemat River Road, between Steenberg Village shopping centre and the American Embassy. 5:50am this morning. Two entrepreneurs looking for customers at the infamous Strava segment "The Hijack Danger Zone - Be careful here". One on each side of the road. The guy on the Westlake side stepped into the bike lane to stop me and said, "sir, sir." I growled f-off and veered right. He didn't follow. The next rider I caught up to said the same thing happened to him. I stopped at the American Embassy and phoned Constantia Watch to come check it out. Next rider to arrive said same thing happened to him too and noted that there were 2 guys, one on each side of the road. I hope nobody became a victim there today.

Not the case this time:

PPA Posted a whole lot of photos from the event on their Facebook page 👍

Was it quite near the start? I think I saw two tar bumps (little mounds of tar) marked with yellow paint. This was on the left. On the right shoulder of the road was an ambulance and a rider indicating the danger to our group (thanks, whoever that was).

How long does it normally take for PPA to update your seeding after an event?

I saw some official looking photographers along the route. Anyone know if those pictures will be available online?

I don't trust myself to change front and back simultaneously to get the closest, next-easiest gear when riding hard. Sucks when, pushing hard, cadence dropping, I botch the simultaneous front and back gear change and go straight into spinning with no resistance, losing momentum. Sucks even more if the chain drops when changing from big to small chainring. Often I rather just cross chain for a bit in the big chainring to carry momentum over a short hill or carry momentum onto the start of a longer climb. I hate it when that rubs the chain on the front derailleur, though.

Would getting "New Old Stock" (NOS) 1st gen SRAM Red eTap (11spd circa 2017) today likely give good, trouble-free service for another 10yrs? Does it have the "yaw" feature on the front derailleur and is one able to cross chain the big chainring with the largest cog on the cassette on the back, without rubbing? Keen to get your feedback if you have experience with this groupset, please. Thanks.

Women's race, a few meters before the finish line.

From the comments alongside the video: Congratulations to Mr Abe Louw of Johannesburg! You were the lucky winner of the Do It For Dave raffle. That beautiful handmade bicycle is yours.

https://pulse.tv/events/swissepic2023 It has started. Stream quality looks good. Awesome scenery.

https://classicsteelandvintage.co.za/product/do-it-for-dave-raffle-ticket-fund-raiser/ The prize is a classic steel Mercer bike. Draw is on 13th August.

What was the outcome of the legal action following Nic Dlamini's arm being broken by a SANParks official? I couldn't find the answer in my Google searches.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I like the feel of the latex tubes when paired with a low rolling resistance tire. I currently use Challenge latex tubes with Conti GP4000 II. Puncture-free for the whole of last summer, ridden 3hrs most weekends. I doubt that latex vs butyl makes any difference if a sharp object has penetrated the tire. I did install them very carefully and coated them with baby powder. So they really were "babied" 😀

I'm looking for latex inner tubes 700x25, but can't find any at SA shops by searching online. Does anyone know of a local source? Thanks.