Some guys took real chances on the last few km in AL. An absolute tjop attempted to plough through a gap that did not exist on the final sprint and nearly took me out. Ended up swerving hard to the right while I tried to regain control of the bike. Thankfully there was nobody in the way when I swerved like that.
Can't believe there is such a debate over this. The commissars say it is a no go so we don't race. That is how it works. They decide if we do or we don't, that is their job. Simple as that.
The real money is not in the entry fees. It is in all the other expenses of the people visiting: Accommodation, dining out, coffee shops, etc And seeing as many of the poorer people are employed in the service industry, it directly affects them.
This is why you do the Tour Of Good Hope as well, if you are coming from out of town. At least you will get to do some solid racing even if a day or two is claimed by the weather.
I tried doing without but lost the plot on the final climb. Ended up getting some water from a lady who was supporting her husband from the side of the road. My guardian angel!
While I have been mostly impressed with the organisation I do have a major gripe. There is no water handed out to rides at the water points, meaning unsupported riders have to stop or dehydrate. And stopping is not really an option if you are racing.
We could have received our time trial start times a bit earlier. The SMS only came through at 22:30 on a day after a long race, IE after bed time. The pace in the amateur bunch was definitely harder than most races, got dropped 55km in. The amateur bunch finished barely later than the VA's.
My aim was to get my first ever sub-3 and started in the E bunch. I was hoping for 2:58 or something like that so getting 2:45 means that I am over the moon. How was that shallow pot hole at the bottom of the big hill on Jan Smuts? The one by the zoo. It was a close call.
In principal every product is supposed to be tested. In practice the actual RF module in the device is often "off the shelf" so only that module needs certification. That scenereo is common with GSM chipsets used in 3g cards, routers and security products. All consumer electronics also require an EMC certificate to prove that they don't cause electeonic interference. But that is a lot less strict. As you pointed out, it is unlikely the flee market bluetooth gadgets have their certificates. They are not technically legal but nobody is going to chase them down either. Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
There are still restrictions within the ISM band for instance maximum permissible transmitter power. Naturally strict frequency band adherence needs to proven as well.
The problem with life bans based purely on a single positive test is that false positives do happen. Rare, but not non existant. There was even a comment in the statement regarding the Bloem lab that one of the aspects in the failed lab cert was false positives. I am all for banning organised dopers from sport, never mind just races, like Lance but a once off lab result is not reliable enough.
