Mamil

You might have been the mixed team in the floral shirts? If so you okes rode very well - you had to chase back on after someone had to stop just before hels I think - caught us just before the railway line on the Franschoek road.

I started in D - but ended up in E cos of a mechanical outside Wellington

I just wanted to get away from the DC team that was pulling my bunch. Noodling along and riding dangerously (see previous comments). So I attacked! twice!! It's a grandiose term for what was more like a threshold interval for 5 mins or so but predictably they upped the speed a bit. It was them that sprinted past me for the win while I noodled across last

That's horrible to hear. Hope the bike is ok. Losing my appetite for peleton riding. Tried to ride away from a DC team that was leading my group of stragglers because they were scaring me. 45kmph in a bunch of 20 riders with hands on the tops and overlapping the wheel in front of him .... Turning around to see where his mates are .... Makes me nervous. Anyway, was a good day out even though my report card has read "mamil doesn't play well with others" since grade 1.

Ha ha ... I don't see even my colleagues in my demoted D batch tolerating 2 watts per kg for 8 hours!!

I'm a member but increasingly annoyed with them. There is hardly any visible advocacy for us and what there is seems completely ineffectual. Development after development goes up with new roads being built with no riding infrastructure incorporated. Silence on crucial issues and an endless stream of posts telling us to share the road, ride single file and wear bright clothing.

Interesting. Most of mine is at sea level through to a max of about 900m and it says I'm acclimated to 1000m.

I've been doing nothing but endurance training for months and months for the terrifying Munga so I'm definitely not peaking - I very much doubt I have the 1 and 2 and 5 minute power to cope with a surging bunch. And I'm scared of the risk of falling in a big bunch of mad mamils so definitely looking for a few agter osse to keep me company off the back

I use the intervals.icu ftp estimate to track progress - I find that a flat out 40 minute zwift race is far preferable to a boring 20 minute ftp test. I like the garmin endurance score and heat acclimation metrics and the vo2max estimate. Also by feel on certain staple sessions in my library - there's one called war of attrition which is essentially short vo2max intervals with longer recovery intervals at threshold followed by a 30 second high anaerobic effort at the end which gives a nice subjective indicator of where I am.

This is a tapering ride for me so my plan is to get dropped and ride solo or in a small group off the back of D batch (my seeding seems to have slipped quite a bit) ---

I haven't ordered from fruugo and never seen that product anywhere. I have bought this before https://www.takealot.com/ztto-universal-adapter-for-garmin-mount/PLID70845803 and used it on my little garmin inreach messenger tracker thingy - rock solid sticky on the device. Not sure if that's any good for your use case

I don't have a sub 3.... (Sigh) It could be a marker of maturity to note that I don't want to add "yet" to that sentence, an indicator of acceptance of age but there's also a youthful idiot inside who says don't be soft and has entered the 99er to try for 1a seeding again.

Ja if that rain is rolling in it gets a bit too risky for my liking.

I really want to support this outfit and I do all their events most years but jislaaik sometimes it's quite hard. I'm definitely not making 2 trips to Paarl.

Number collection at start?

Oh no!!!! Echoed my the norwegians

I was matric in 86. By 88 I had hair to the middle of my back Now it's 2024 and I don't have any hair.

You don't get better riding weather than that

Are you sure about that? - I don't have an email confirming the start time and 07:15 was the start time for the boland gravel monster

Been having the same thought

Ja. The new roads around the river club development are a case in point. It's the only viable through route from the south to the CBD, used by thousands of riders week in and week out... Not even lip service to bicycles or NMT.

Maybe the cyclists are riding 2 abreast (as noted umpteen times in all sorts of fora this, although illegal in ZA is often a safer way to ride because it discourages the I'll just squeeze past mentality) BUT .... The motorists are all transporting 2 sofas, a hi Fi, 80 liters of liquid storage, 350 liters of dry good storage, 4 light assemblies, how many square metres of carpeting?, 3 mirrors and a tonne and a half of plastic, glass and metal around a crowded urban landscape .... Imagine cities designed around people instead of cars.

Not sure this is a completely fair comment - the last large event I attended was trailseeker wellington - single entrance and exit point, ample parking inside, efficient and confident team of parking marshalls directing people quickly into a well structured parking system - it works

This event was cancelled last week and refunds given. I asked why and was told only 19 entries were received. I'm extremely disappointed - was going to be my first one and a last all-day ride and a refreshing change to be on the road bike again before tapering off for Munga. 19 of us! Really okes?