MarcelGriff

The site is looking good and eager to see the finished product. Keep up the good work.

100% agree. This makes no sense to me. There was hardly any coverage of the ladies. No coverage of the ladies start, nor the important moments or climbs. Surely in today's age one can get a proper sports director to direct the footage. You can switch between the action and still have the other race ( ladies or gents ) in a small block on screen while you view something in the other race and vice versa. And then when they do switch over to the ladies, while on Candice and Alexandra they have nothing to commentate about, so they talk about ladies TSS efforts, and when the XC starts later this year..... shocking. I dont understand how this direction is improving, advancing or empowering ladies cycling. Which is what i thought this was all about.

Yes he packed in some running shoes for after the race so we managed to send a voice note ahead and he got them at the Ruiterbos school waterpoint. The mechanics there also could not make a plan with a spare hanger so he took the shoes swop.

The weather was as good as you could possibly get. Mid to high 20's ahead of KOM and and on the other side it was cooler with some light rain for a small patch. As for the ride it self it was a different story for me and my brother. We did a slowish start per normal and with the first major climb before the 3rd water point we slowly started to it up increase the pace as we are able to ride the first climb and big parts of the KOM climb. This is our normal tactic and so we pass quite a few of the early gunners who burned to much and are now slowing down. On the first big climb getting in our grove passing quite a few guys already walking, I had to dodge some guys bailing mid track on both sides and forced me to go up the ridge in the middle between them. I managed to pass them but a my brother behind me flicked a rock and it hit his derailleur which then broke the hanger. This was on km +-51. Trying to figure out what and how we are going to deal with this, the plan initially was to get he derailleur of the bike and then get down to WP3 and see if the mechanics could assist in some way. I know you all will say why don't make it a single speed ..... he has an oval chain ring up front so single speed was not an option. As the bolt on the derailleur is a bigger T bolt than what we had on our multi tools we could not get the derailleur from the bike. Loosing trying to make a plan with the derailleur one of the support motorbikes came along and we could cut the cable and put the derailleur and chain in his hydration bag and start the big hike of 15km to WP3. As the terrain was very technical there was not many ways I could assist or support him. Downhills he jumped on the bike and flew down and tried to go as far as he could with momentum, up hill he walked as fast as he could. Eventually getting to Bonniedale hoping for a miracle at he tech station, but there was just no plan that could be made. Nothing could be done. Quit or run. My brother does not quit easily thus we resorted to math. Looking at the time still being before 12pm and doing some math it could still be possible to finish the race in the cutoff. Knowing that I would be able to assist with pulling / pushing on the roads after Bonniedale, as the track was not technical going forward, and in high spirits we decided to give this a go. So on the hills he walked and ran as much as his body allowed him and on the flats and low inclines he held on to my backpack so I could pull him. Some creative track hand Madison slings helped to get him over some of the rollers with momentum and on the flatter roads it was just pure old diesel tow. Slowly but surely we started to believe this ridiculous plan could work. Every few km we looked and saw we are getting closer and we are slowly getting ahead of some time plan made for ourselves. With lots encouragement from fellow riders and good amount of banter and jokes between us keeping our spirits high we managed to run / hop / skip / sling / tow our way to the end before the cutoff. This will surely be something we both wont easily forget. Yesterday I completed my 4th and my brother his 8th and even with the high temps of the previous years and being super proud of being able to complete them, I am the most proud of this finish and that we were able to do it. Huge respect to Johan for his fighting spirit and not wanting to give up, when the odds was highly stacked against him. A big thanks to all the people along the route supporters and riders who encouraged and motivated us. P.S. Oh and by the way I told him to get a normal chain ring Monday morning first thing.

Me and the wife had a great time at the event today. We did the 80km and will definitely be back next year. Stunning views and great gravel.

I am missing the consolidated location where you can open and see all the current events and choose what race you want to watch and, boom there you go. Often I just opened the app and started to watch a race I did not know was on, it was fun watching the races all over the world. Now you have to first know what race you want to watch, then find the provider who is broadcasting that race and then hope you can watch it with the right app and VPN and some internet dance so it does not buffer. I miss GCN+ it had it issues but it was simple to the point and worked.

Thanks for the energy, gave me a good boost for the last few km to push hard.

The whole event was well organized and run. Loved the Trilogy, and think it has huge potential to grow in numbers. I did it on my MTB but believe this is truly a gravel race and if you could swap more tar for dirt roads it would be great. This is not a complaint just a comment. With all the chats along the ride I am sure the Trilogy is going to blow up next year everyone loved it. Also not sure how possible it would be, but a longer route might also be an option, this is a fast route, not a bad thing, but a extra 15-20km section might add that bit extra spice to the ride. This is my perspective, have to say i did finish in the top section overall and I am quite fit so others might not feel the same. Overall a top ride and will definitely return next year.

I have to be a fool as I keep on going back to my weather app to see if the weather has changed. And yes it did BUT THE WRONG DIRECTION. I am now a firm believer that if I stop going to look it will come down again. Not going to check it again I promise.

Will be my second time, wish I still had the blissful feeling of not really knowing what this ride is all about and approaching it with zero reference to any other event. This time round now I am second guessing everything I did to prepare, even tho I have done more and better prep than last year. I have this feeling that you are never in full control of this race, that potential ACE up the Atta's sleeve is making me worry. This race seems to create many legendary stories, of great efforts both physically and mentally. The best part of the event is to ride along side new friends/brothers motivating each other, all working hard to reach that end.

Yip i enjoyed their commentary way more than the current rubbish. There was some talk about the new guys placing more cameras on course, which is nice but the current commentators are butchering everybody's names, it is just painful sometimes to listen.

I think the bigger questions is, what will DSTV broadcast via cable or even stream. I am not sure the move from GCN+ to Supersport will be a straight like for like content move. Would be nice if DSTV would make some sort of statement regarding their commitment and plans.... we are allowed to dream some times.

This is quite sad, never used to watch other cycling than the Redbull mtb XC, and then stumbled on to the last week of the 2022 TDT, since then we got the GCN subscription with a vpn and started to enjoy so much more cycling, track, cyclocross, other road races and the documentaries. I hope there will be a way to still get the same access to these events somehow. I am not convinced local broadcasters will broadcast even 15% of the content that was available on the platform.

Its so sad, for Louis. He was starting to climb up on the positions, and had hope for a big day today for him.

Wow what captivating read, truly a massive effort both physically and mentally. Congratulations in completing this ride within your goals despite all the weather conditions fighting you. I would want to say this is inspiring but then it could possibly mean that I might want to do this at some stage ... I have 3 more years till I turn 50 I tell myself.