TitusTi

It's been a while since the girls played, good to see!

I'm gonna have to jump on the Assos band wagon here, it's all I use for the 24 hour races so it should work. This being said, I'm gonna be giving the ExteOndo bibs a go shortly.

I saw they have the results up on their site. www.180mtb.co.za or something like that.

Day 1:<?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> So I get a surprise entry into this race and arrive totally unprepared, figured I wouldn?t race it but just use it for training instead, good idea, in theory. Have a couple of beers on Thursday night and get all amped to race the next day. The race start with a 4km neutral zone, things are looking up, the race starts and everyone just stays calm and relaxed until we hit the dirt, a sharp right turn results in a big ass pile up, which I avoid ?cause I got them sharp elbows out and I hit the double track at the front, wondering how wise an idea this is, good part is I can slow everyone up a bit at least. After a bit of wondering about a sandy vineyard we pop out onto a tar road and proceed to climb for a bit, then the tar became gravel and the gradient increased and my legs stop going up and down. I then spent what felt like a day and a half trying to get to the top of (K)PakHuis pass, eventually we get up there and it?s time to have a bit of fun on the descents, turns out they?re quite short, fun though. Then spend the rest of the day struggling to get to the end only to fall on a stupid little right hand bend about 300m from the finish line. Finish the day in about 16th place about 40 minutes behind the leaders and about 20 minutes behind where I should have been a Decide get in some anti-oxidants in red wine format, also watched a guy get his dislocated shoulder wiggled about, cool, dinner and a show! Day 2: Red wine seems to have worked miracles (either that or the Hammer products are helping me recover quite quickly), still can?t climb but I can climb a little faster at least, in fact I can actually hold gaps to people who were riding away from the day before. Then decide to switch off the brain for the descents and see how fast a person really can go before your sanity muscles start kicking in, apparently your survival instincts kick before this, good to know. Finish the day being chased up the last hill by 2 guys, thinking if I can get to the top before them I can open the gap, I make it to the top with a 50m gap and proceed to open this up all the way down the hill, finished 6th today, a little better. I now seem to have picked up the nickname of ?The Hammer Man? and I can?t even do a hammer slide, must learn! Gonna try the red wine again! Day 3: Day 3 dawns to a nice fast pace, I can hang in just fine as long the climbs aren?t too long, we hit a climb that is too long, bugger! Get dropped from the front group and get involved in the chase, finish a couple of minutes down on the front bunch, it?s a short and rather uneventful day actually. It?s done, time to celebrate with a Boerrie roll or 2.

For the first 6-7 hours I try to keep it under 85% after that it won't go up very much anyway, so heart rate data becomes totally irrelevant.

For the proper 24 hour races I keep the red bulls for the last 3-4 hours, then you drink them in a water bottle mixed with water.

24 hour racing is an odd animal, I like to think I know what I'm talking about as I've done quite a few now but everytime I do 1 I learn a whole bucket load more about myself and about what works and what doesn't work. The eat as much as possible thing comes down to the fact that I personally can't eat quite as much as I could or should after the first 3 hours, this doesn't work if it's hot though. As to going fast for a long period of time, there is only so long you can go fast for, after that you just can't do it, the cool thing is the drop off rate is very similar for most people (it works out to around about 25%). HR - the course in Jo'burg is a bit of an exception though, there aren't many places where you can save alot of energy by maintaining your speed because you have to pedal alot anyway. The one climb is stepped as well, so that's gonna hurt your legs. Another tip, don't stop at night, the hardest part of your race will be getting up from your chair onto your saddle. It'll be against your very being, you have to fight this.

Long races like this are cool! The nice thing about the 24 hour cutoff (point to point type race) is you can start relatively hard because everyone slows down to about the same pace eventually, and the faster you go the faster it's over. Eat alot in the first 3 hours becasue you won't be able to eat much later. Try to not use your brakes and pedal as efficiently as possible.

I hear you brother!

They're really easy to service. Internals are not very complex, left leg is an air chamber on top of a negative spring, the air is kept above it by an O-ring, right leg is a non-servicable cartridge, although you can service it if you really want to, it's just not recomended.

which german sites? Not the Porn Sites you usually go to.

And a bit of a pedant to boot.

Every time you post you seem intent on taking someone to task over something.

Awesome, awesome, awesome, dig it!

Unless I'm mistaken, the guy that shows you how everything is done is Lea Holland? My official back up crew, well he was until he went over seas. Without a doubt the best operator of a wrench I have come across!

Custom, custom, custom! DT Swiss hubs I've found are generally the most bullet proof and lace them to the Stan's offerings, very good light and strong, use Sapim CX-Rays if you can get them if not use the DT Super Comp.

Hey! Stay away from the bloody paint ST, not again!

Yo, ST, I got a book at home that has cycle routes for Kazahkstan in it. Will go check it out, all rides start in Almaty as it turns out.

In the Giro, not recently. It was from an earlier post.

Will had a head on with a truck? He crashed on the old Hels descent?

Yo, Fan don't listen to them, it's not that hard, all you gotta do is learn to suffer a bit and you'll be fine.

Umm, have you actually tried to ride Grunau to Upington before? It's kinda warm there you know.

I find you quite amusing (meaningful enough?).

Naas, let me get this straight, you started an anti-moan thread to moan about people moaning? Just to clarify?

Thanks Miss C, I was about to say that as well.