PaulTCR

Guys just be warned. The decription under Stage 1 on the jock web site (http://thejock.co.za/jock_classique.html) about the Brondal Road being fixed is a pack of lies. I live on the Brondal Road and use it regularly for road and mtb. It's as bad as it has ever been. A friend of mine spent three days in hospital recently after falling off his mtb because of potholes on the Brondal Road. Even the farmers in the Brondal Valley who use tractors and 4x4's have complained to the municipality about the state of the road. OK it's not the Paris Roubaix cobbles but for the organisers to have you believe 'the road is fixed' is completley misleading. They have just copied the spiel on the web page from last year (when it wasn't fixed either) and have changed the year at the top. I doubt any one of them has been down the road on a road bike recently cos if they have that basically makes them liars. All this for an increase in entry fees also. Pretty shameful.

I'm not much of a techie but have turned into a bit of a stravaholic - me and the wife even do the deed together right after our rides. We don't have matching bikes and avoid wearing matching kit but we do now have matching Garmin 500's after I upgraded from an old 305 last Christmas. This was great until we worked out that when she plugged her Garmin in it immediatley downloaded her ride to my Strava (I don't think plugging mine in has a reciprocal effect). There is probably a very simple, obvious setting that will solve the problem. But where the heck is it?

That is good news. The atmosphere was a bit flat when they spread it out over the whole w/e.

With regard to rules being rules. http://www.panoramatour.co.za/race-information/rules rule 21.3 states 'Riders are not permitted to ride on the opposite (right) side of the centerline on a public road', and that 'infringements of traffic regulations may result in disqualification.' From the same website: http://www.panoramatour.co.za/images/stories/2009/MTN_Panorama_Tour_Stage_2/PAN20380.JPG http://www.panoramatour.co.za/images/stories/2011/Panorama_Tour_2011-5071406_DSC_3795.JPG http://www.panoramatour.co.za/images/stories/2012/gallery/general/DSC_0287_640x430.jpg http://www.panoramatour.co.za/images/stories/2012/gallery/general/MTN%20%28323%29_640x430.jpg This seems commonplace with road races especially at the start and with the leading riders during the race. So can we conclude that there are rules but some rules are more flexible than others? If riding on the wrong side of the road is permissable, 'borrowing' a jacket can't be too high on the infingement scale.

Obviously not from CWC. They would have known to write 'We ARE clearing loads of stuff!!!'

My goodness that was a hard 65km? Anyone know the gps stats? Like total climb? Always a classic, varied, interesting race. I got 64.4km. 1686m of ascent. 4h43.20 and very tired legs.

Just a comment as no-one else has mentioned it. Having all the races on the same day, I found the general atmosphere a lot better than last year. Me and the missus also managed to do both our respective races without having to travel to Barberton twice.

Advendurance website says ascent for the 75k is 2350m. My records for the last two times I did it show 1742 and 1760. Has the route changed or have I got a dodgy GPS?

I do change hand position during longer rides but they are also handy when you get a puncture cos you can turn your bike upside down without scratching your gear position indicators or your trip computer/gps. Otherwise you'de have to take them off and you always forget in the rush to change the tube.

That's almost 30 a day, every day.

OK so there are some sad people like me - we should start a Face Book group Cycle Data Heads Anon. Another question then by way of comparison. How many do the pros do - they must keep records?

Do you have a job, or a wife. Do you need time to sleep and eat?

Mr. Excel says I rode on 176 days, so roughly every other day.

OK. My sad data records that I spent 327 hours cycling. That's almost 2 weeks solid.

How many sad Huber’s are there like me who record practically every pedal stroke and mindlessly spew it all onto a spread sheet. I have one page for each ride then another page to compare similar rides. Anyway, now we’re at the end of the year I am the proud owner of mindless information on how far and fast and high I went in 2010. Last two years were around the 4500 mark but this year went well with more training and more races. I had 5000 in mind but it soon became evident that 6000 might be attainable. I devised another spreadsheet page to tell me what percentage of 6000 I was on and what total I would reach if I continued at the current average rate. 94.7, Noon2Moon, Pilgrims, and Sabie Experience helped boost the figures in December and this last Tuesday saw the 6000 milestone. The Wife and I actually stopped and took a picture! Then, whilst entering the data that evening I noticed that 6205 would be a nice round figure to achieve as that would equate to an average of 17 km per day. So, today I was hard at it in 30+ temps making sure that even with the most major of mechanicals I could even push my bike the last few km to reach the target. A surprising stat is that during all this my ascent was in excess of 91000 metres. I bet there are many out there who would laugh at such figures. I remember someone asking the ‘how many have you done in a month’ question a while back and his total was three times my average. But for someone bordering on Masters and with a proper job, I don’t think 6205 is bad.