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Mamil

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Everything posted by Mamil

  1. My first bike in 2015 was an entry level Momsen Hardtail - 3x drivetrain, narrow handlebars, very heavy - rode most of the local XC races on that and the Houwhoek tour a couple of times and a CTCT and then a Merida dual suss and then .... and after that .... each one has revealed a lot. ALthough how that momsen didn't kill me while hooking me on the sport I don't know
  2. Ja I often ride there. Sorry to hear about this experience for your part and what it means for all of us. Looks a gorgeous machine. Hope you get it back
  3. So this is the super steep set of switchbacks headed towards the lookout point over Chapman's peak?
  4. Thread hijack ... What we have to understand about @Jewbaccais that he's a proper athlete who doesn't take himself too seriously unlike this mamil who has minimal ability and plans training, nutrition, race strategy meticulously to mitigate this dearth of talent. So he arrives at the water point having ridden the last 30km with empty bidons, announces that he doesn't have anyone to feed him, eats half a banana and the soggy end of a leftover boerie roll, and then takes a short nap before finishing ahead of me and my carefully mixed malto and fructose drink, my imported energy bars and my perfectly timed taper. It would not be a good marriage. To wit, I'm carefully curating my bike setup for munga at the end of the year, dynamo lights, losing the Camelbak in favour of saddle mounted bottle cages, painstaking selection of handlebar bag, fussing over whether aero bars will work for me. I'm already training, riding trial events .... Etc etc @Jewbaccawill get his BMX out the back of the garage, brush the cobwebs off, do a loop of the green belt in preparation, lube his chain and be asleep at the third race village when I get there.
  5. Mamil

    Tour du cap 2025

    "Would you like honey or condensed milk on your bread?" asked Rabbit "Both" said Pooh, but then not to sound greedy added "But don't worry about the bread"
  6. Winde has a standing invitation to ride with me through early Friday afternoon traffic from Camp's bay through to Southern suburbs - he can dispense with the blue light escort he enjoyed on his recent publicity stunt ride with the PPA and deal with the Clover truck accelerating towards the red robot as the cycle lane ends just outside the waterfront, and the SUV squeezing past in the cycle lane ... The roads jammed packed with frustrated motorists in vehicles with obscene amounts of kilowatts idling in fumes of lung clogging diesel - the roads clogged like the arteries of the corpulent cayenne driver, whose rosy cheeks are patinaed with the telltale maroon lattice of high blood pressure the legacy of too many boozy business lunches while he hoots at the uber driver in his unroadworthy base model Toyota with broken mirrors and a scrape down the left hand door. Meanwhile me and the frightened looking pick n pay e bike delivery rider, exchange glances in recognition of the danger each of us is in. He looks barely in control of his steed and very frightened of the mayhem blocking the intersection ahead of us. An indifferent traffic cop, himself looking like he'd rather be having another boerie roll, stands in the middle of the intersection, offering no indication of whether he's overriding the robots or just passing the time of day. His firearm is slung low on his hip which makes me think twice about telling him he's not really helping the situation. What a mess. Earlier I descended through Kommetjie and on the way out, completely unprovoked, an ageing hippie, scrawny and brown from too much THC and sun flips me the bird for no reason whatsoever other than I'm a mamil on a bike in what I think is a nice looking ciovita outfit. Clearly some cyclist or other has called him something rude before. Later, on the Woodstock bridge, a little girl young enough to be my daughter flips me again cos I told her to wait one second while I filter to the left. I caught her 200 meters further on where the gridlock frustrated her progress again and told her she could be my daughter, and would she ride me off the road like that if I were her father. She gave some sassy retort, about me being old and I asked her where her mom was circa 2000 before leaving her behind. She overtook me again just as I entered my neighbourhood and I stopped next to her and gently reminded her to be careful who she flipped off because the next one may not be quite as nice as I am. To her credit she went red and coyly called me papa. And I was thinking about Dale and the rider knocked over near Simonstown the other week and just how dangerous this is and how simply it could be changed if there was political will to do so - all the resources devoted to making sure that cars have space, roads, parking, and fuel and .. and and ... when our population could be reaping the rewards of cycling - the quiet, the health, the cleaner air .... all the benefits we all know. rant off - it was a lekker ride for on my Friday off. But seriously Winde - stop mouthing off about how muich you support cycling and actually do something.
  7. Mamil

    Tour du cap 2025

    Yeah baby!!! Lekker!!! Just please don't come embarrass me on your BMX
  8. Mamil

    Tour du cap 2025

    Come @Jewbacca... It's an absolute blast. GC racing, small group, mostly friendly people ... "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may" ... "Tempus fugit" ... "...and at my back I always hear, time's winged chariot drawing near" and all that jazz. Seriously I don't think de Villiers cycling is very good at marketing but the event adds something to the local racing scene so I want to support it.
  9. Mamil

    Tour du cap 2025

    Received this mailer for next year Following an amazing 3rd edition of the Tour du Cap, entries are now open for the 2025 Tour, which takes place on 3-7 March 2025 in the lead-up the Cape Town Cycle Tour. Riders who enter before Friday 29 March will pay a preferential entry fee of R3600 before the fee reverts to the normal price of R4300. To enter, go to https://myactive.cc/TourduCap2025 The tour route and format will remain the same for 2025 – all the route info is on www.tourducap.co.za To ease rider logistics, the tour is based at Kleine Vallej in Wellington for all 5 days, and all stages start at Kleine Valleij. All the stages also conclude at Kleine Valleij, with the exception of the queen stage 4, which finishes at the top of Du Toitskloof Pass in Paarl. The tour features two mountain top finishes, two flat finishes and an individual hill climb time trial. The 2024 route features more substance and the difficulty and length has increased. The hill climb time trail (stage 2) takes place on Bainskloof Pass and Bainskloof also plays host to the finish of the opening stage. The 2nd and 5th stages will dish up something for the sprinters while the 4th stage will likely be the decider over 132km and 1983m of vertical ascent, finishing at the top of Du Toitskloof Pass. The total distance is 464km while the elevation is 5245m. With the tour based at Kleine Valleij in Wellington, it eases rider logistics by vesting at the same venue every day. Riders can ideally book accommodation in Wellington for all five days. Once accommodation in Wellington is full, Paarl is also a nice option, only 13km from the venue. Entries for the tour are limited to 250 and are filling up nicely. For all the Tour info, click to www.tourducap.co.za For enquiries, email denishuman.cycling@outlook.com
  10. That's good advice. Take a chain checker tool to any viewing.
  11. I am developing an allergy to the word "iconic". It's a lekker race for sure - unfortunately doesn't fit with this year's aims
  12. Entered - first step, we admitted that we were powerless over .....
  13. Here's that point where I rescind my annual decision that the risks are not worth it and I compulsively enter again.
  14. After the tour and finding my S.O. on the short route and realizing just how broken my legs were as she dropped me on Edinburgh drive on her Titan nitric ebike, we rode back on the cycle path taking the Woodstock ramp. Dodge I know but I thought I'd risk that and was sure there would be a police presence there because of the tour. (There wasn't) This morning as I weaved through the log jam of cars all headed into town I had a mental picture of that first-class piece of infrastructure, a real asset to the city, lying derelict and empty while the roads are clogged and the air choking with unburnt hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide and the picture of Winde crossing the line and just how far away we are from a sustainable, environmentally responsible, health-promoting way of life and how little will, despite the mouthings of politicians, there is to attain this. How many of the people in those cars would believe that their 40 minute traffic session into the CBD would be a 15 minute morning bike ride? Andif they knew would they take it up? Maybe the problem on the cycle lane isn't policing so much as it's that no-one uses it. What if even 20% of the people in the traffic were on the bike lane?
  15. The event is perfect as is I feel - yes it's a commitment but if you treat it as a holiday you're spending on your bike then ... The problem is the marketing - poorly advertised and de villiers cycling is using it's mailing list to spam me with stuff for other events which speaks volumes about the marketing - it needs a proper social media presence and a "brand" to appeal to more riders. It's an important event I think - GC racing for age groups (there was a 17yr old young lady racing) - elites and for ordinary B and C batchers like me. I bumped into the crew from the open group at the CTCT finish and we had a reunion photo - good fun and a lekker gees. Here's some of the little bunch that finished stage 5 together at the end - that's me hiding in the back with my bike in the air.!
  16. This makes about as much sense to.me as the weight dopers on zwift. Can't understand why anyone would want to do this. Surely it can't be to claim a sub 3 or sub 4? Why?
  17. Ha Ha - We could have used your services in Stage 3 and in Stage 5 too!! For context - Zone 2 upper limit for this mamil is 245 and I weigh 92kg
  18. You would need to be an incredible athlete to get a sub 3 on that setup. In fact I would venture that it's impossible - gearing, rolling resistance, aerodynamics, acceleration, top speed all well short of what's needed
  19. I have never done a sub three. Of the 7 I've done so far 3:08 is my fastest although this year my fitness is better than it was on my fastest CTCT. I have found youtube channels on periodised and polarized training immensely beneficial and disciplining myself to ride in low aerobic and zone 2 on long rides has been a key part of this.
  20. The narrowing at hospital bend is a good idea. I still don't like the cones.
  21. 1A was quite safe I think despite a lot of people still not understanding the concertina that happens on hills into a headwind. I didn't have legs or appetite to chase wheels so I let them go and noodled along being picked up by random groups and did 3.19
  22. I agree in principle and it might work in elite bunch but in 1A there are 400 mamils all gassed from trying to hold on up the off-ramp and the freeway, anoxic, frontal lobes shut down by adrenalin .... Cones are are really stupid idea. You can't see them from in the bunch, they can be easily moved or knocked ... Narrowing the road early is a fabulous idea but it needs a long line of those plastic bulwark things that the road works guys use. Big. Immovable, bright yellow chest high jobbies. I don't think I'm up for the melee ... Think I'll ride at the back of 1A and try tag onto B somewhere just before Edinburgh.
  23. Mention of cones on the side of the road makes me nervous. Cones have no place next to a peleton IMO
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