The Cape Argus is flat......

[Zula]

anyone know the total ascent?

[udxcob]

OMW the first climb is 70km long

['Dale]

*swipe to the hornest nest*

 

So, looking at that profile:

 

Who said that MTBers are tougher than Roadies?

[udxcob]

Well to be fair Bender, someone needs to superimpose a stage of the toughest mtb race in the world

[Yang]

That does it- double Argus for me next year.

[Big H*]

We intend to do those climbs one day, what type of camper should I hire?

[wolf182]

Nooit man - can it be true ? I am sure if is ...

[mikkelz]

Well to be fair Bender, someone needs to superimpose a stage of the toughest mtb race in the world

 

Craft Bike Transalp 2010: I can't comment on whether or not it's the toughest MTB race in the world. Most participants (foreigners) last year who'd ridden the ABSA Cape Epic said the Epic was tougher.

 

Anyway, this was stage 5: http://connect.garmi...tivity/42043155 Livigno, Italy -> Ponte di Legno, Italy

 

Distance: 106.02 km

 

Elevation Gain: 3,156 m

Elevation Loss: 3,771 m

Min Elevation: 652 m

Max Elevation: 2,305 m

 

Bare in mind this was after having ridden the previous 4 stages of ~200km's or so, each with with ~2,000m of elevation. And being in the Alps, you're well above sea-level so the altitude is a bitch for someone living at sea level. To put that elevation into perspective, the Argus is ~1,100m of elevation stretched over 110km's.

 

Cape Argus 2011:

 

http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/photos/full/346631793.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJF3XCCKACR3QDMOA&Expires=1310713032&Signature=zT7kMAunVrD3g4RVDTp76LVV5Fo%3D

 

 

Craft Bike Transalp 2010 - Stage 5:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/photos/full/346633467.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJF3XCCKACR3QDMOA&Expires=1310713246&Signature=zFRrZYPXITnclsXD9G7KDdtH9Sk%3D

['Dale]

Well to be fair Bender, someone needs to superimpose a stage of the toughest mtb race in the world

Yeah, you're right.

That would be interesting.

[Inusc]

65km of climbing????!!!!

[gummibear]

Craft Bike Transalp 2010: I can't comment on whether or not it's the toughest MTB race in the world. Most participants (foreigners) last year who'd ridden the ABSA Cape Epic said the Epic was tougher.

 

Craft Bike Transalp 2010 - Stage 5:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/photos/full/346633467.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJF3XCCKACR3QDMOA&Expires=1310713246&Signature=zFRrZYPXITnclsXD9G7KDdtH9Sk%3D

 

From 50-70km must have been fun.

[mikkelz]

From 50-70km must have been fun.

 

It was! Mortirolo Pass: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortirolo_Pass

 

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5208/5300016448_9e7b36da85.jpg

 

 

The Mortirolo Pass (Italian: Passo di Mortirolo) (el. 1852 m.) is a high mountain pass in the Alps in Italy. Also known as Passo di Foppa, it connects Valtellina and Val Camonica. The road from Mazzo di Valtellina is one of the most demanding climbs in professional road bicycle racing, having been used in the Giro d'Italia stage race many times.

 

 

And this was done on a mountain bike.

[Prince]

Argus Argus Argus, so much of fuss.

[dutchMan]

I did a cyclo in early June in the vosges region of France. The race was 205km long and had an elevation of 4500m. We climbed 6 mountain passes, of which one of them was and HC (le Grand Balon), the others were 1st and 2nd category climbs. The highest point was 1400m.

 

It is something hard to understand for us Saffa's but when we think of these climbs, although long, we tend to associate them with an Ou kaapse weg or Du toits kloof or something of that nature, alas we are all wrong unfortunately.

 

The only way i can contextualize these things is to say that imagine for every one of the 6 passes i climbed that for approximatley three quarters of each of their lengths i was riding gradients the equivalent of the first 100m of Vissershok, no jokes!

 

Compact and triples are not enough.

 

It took me 47 minutes to climb the final climb to the finish and it was only 5km, although it averaged 10% and was after 9 hours of racing, yes, it took me 9h47m to finish that bastard, i got a silver medal for my efforts and life long emotional and mental scarring.

 

I would recommend that if you love racing and feel a bit like a racer, then don't come ride these mountains in a race.

 

BTW i was over 3 hours behind the winner - hehehehehe (i was also not last)

[Giant]

I've done stage 18 in one day.

In a Volvo C30. Then hired a bike, rode down and back up ADH.

In a pair of Baggies and my tekkies.

Was an amazing 2 hrs and some change

[gummibear]

I did a cyclo in early June in the vosges region of France. The race was 205km long and had an elevation of 4500m. We climbed 6 mountain passes, of which one of them was and HC (le Grand Balon), the others were 1st and 2nd category climbs. The highest point was 1400m.

 

It is something hard to understand for us Saffa's but when we think of these climbs, although long, we tend to associate them with an Ou kaapse weg or Du toits kloof or something of that nature, alas we are all wrong unfortunately.

 

The only way i can contextualize these things is to say that imagine for every one of the 6 passes i climbed that for approximatley three quarters of each of their lengths i was riding gradients the equivalent of the first 100m of Vissershok, no jokes!

 

Compact and triples are not enough.

 

It took me 47 minutes to climb the final climb to the finish and it was only 5km, although it averaged 10% and was after 9 hours of racing, yes, it took me 9h47m to finish that bastard, i got a silver medal for my efforts and life long emotional and mental scarring.

 

I would recommend that if you love racing and feel a bit like a racer, then don't come ride these mountains in a race.

 

BTW i was over 3 hours behind the winner - hehehehehe (i was also not last)

 

I have seen guys sitting sobbing on the side of the road on some of these "hills".The worst is when you go down hill you can actually smell the brake pads burning and you are not slowing down.