billygoat0523

good to know. hope they fix it. my mild ocd can't handle it.

i managed to hang onto you guys until 81km and then those last hills cracked me ???? one of the guys in the crash is a work colleague, he says he's just a bit bruised, but his bike is not okay.

rode with BL today - my time and everyone else in that group seems out by about 3 min. sent a (hopeful) query to racetec.

this reminds me of a reply i received from an unknown Racetec employee in 2019: "Hi. The 99er is a seeding event, while the Cycle Tour is not. That is why the Cycle tour has a bigger penalty." Sent them a screenshot of the CTCT website which states that the CTCT is a premier seeding event and eventually phoned and spoke to Janine who was much more helpful than this anonymous person and sorted my seeding out. some people there know what they're doing, others not.

i've entered too. my last decent seeding event was 99er 2020... and i've added a bit of lockdown weight

points out the rules - "keyboard warrior"... er, okay. "photo on facebook doesn't look like it was taken in the dark" - ever heard of twilight? it's not personal Leo, like I said there's a pic with five marshals at twilight. (it's light, but the sun has not risen) if you're unsure about sunrise time, there's many websites that'll tell you when sunrise is - www.time.is, www.yr.no, www.timeanddate.com etc. the rules are clear, Sunrise to Sunset (i even bothered to put a screenshot and a link on a previous post) - not "Twilight to Twilight". I've p'd off a few friends by pointing that out to them too (with varying success) and I don't go ride before sunrise. there is an easy to see when riders are on the trail before sunrise. any how, you would think that if a website says something THREE times, it's pretty damn important: Instead of ruminating on the meaning of sunrise to sunset - let's stick to the rules and enjoy the trails, no matter who you are.

it's not no "night riding"... it's pretty clear on the BHC page: https://bottelaryconservancy.co.za/about-mtb-trails/#tab-1606478349794-2-8 or screeenshot here: Nowhere does it say that Marshals are exempt. Other people see this behaviour and think it's okay to just ride at whatever time they want. the whole point of this rule is to not disturb the mostly nocturnal animals in the conservancy. Edit: LOL for the BHC photo on Facebook which shows FIVE marshals on the trails before sunrise. Clearly no one gives a fudge and we can just do what we want. Sunrise is 6:20:

ha ha ha. that's a rubbish excuse to go chase KOM's at that time of the morning. NO ONE should be on the trail before sunrise. I did alert him to this fact BEFORE he became a marshal and he said that he checked up on the rules and he was in the wrong, so from now on he will abide by the rules. and abide by them he did, for a while. i wouldn't have noticed his several early starts had i not seen him on his way home when the sun just rose. so yes, i did speak to him before, but now he doesn't give a s... it is unacceptable and there is no excusing this.

so there is this fella who is a Marshal for Bottelary Hills, but for a while now he has taken his green and yellow bike on the trails before sunrise. I have commented on his Strava before, but he doesn't seem to care. Aren't Marshals supposed to enforce the rules?

depends on the specific trails. most trails will send out and email or do a facebook post on whether they're open or not.

Whenever I enter a trail, it has signposting up to say that it's "Private Property" and "You require a permit to access these trails"... doesn't sound "Public" to me.

https://businesstech.co.za/news/government/402737/read-the-full-lockdown-level-3-regulations-here/ you can download the document at the bottom of the article.

seeding's up. i missed out on moving up a group by 43 seconds i'm blaming the fella who caused the group to split up vissers

my race report: started in D. my aim was to not lose too many riders over vissershok which was going well until my group came to a stop when the steeper section started. some dude dropped a chain and then everyone went into a panic and swerved this way and that way. did not help that we had vehicles coming down on the right hand side. so when descending vissers i saw that about half the group was down the road and i was somewhere in the middle of the faster/slower contingent. i slowed down as i knew i couldn't catch them on my own. got some great help from 2 powerhouses and we set about catching the front group. catch was finally made at the fruit sellers intersection. just before that there was a close call as two riders touched wheels and the one rider did his best at a Jacob Fugslang swerve and save. I actually think his save was better than the Dane's at Liege-Bastogne_Liege as he had smoke coming from his tyres and i thought "oh f... that's gonna hurt". To my surprise NO ONE went down. The riders around him also responded quickly and calmly. The R312 was filled with distressed riders - more dropped chains and punctures galore. From there it was just a matter of hanging onto the bunch. Nearly got caught out on Slent Road's crosswind, but I just barged onto the right hand side to find some shelter. Adderley was a literal drag as I started feeling fatigued but I looked down at the Garmin and it looked like a sub-3 was on the cards so I dug deep to hang on. By the time we hit Durbanvale's circles I saw the sub-3 slipping away. Oh well, just keep going. Crossed the line just over 3h03. Disappointed and delighted at the same time. I could finally let go of last year's dropped seatpost saga

sometimes cramps happen. sometimes they don't. train well and don't start your race too hard.