[Event] NISSAN TRAILSEEKER #3 Down & Dirty

[Smolly]

We had Jager....

I retract my last comment!

 

Its a pity I missed meeting some awesome hubbers!!

[divernick]

I did the 40km and felt that the route was WAY better planned than last year. Started in C and didn't suffer much congestion.

 

BUT

 

Guys, if you start in A, B or C, please make sure you can ride around corners and up short sharp climbs. It's called mountain biking, not bike-hiking.

[Underachiever]

My race sucked. Good start en then the punctures started.

4 in total.

Schwalbe tyres are the £>#}^iest tyres out on the market.

 

Lots of congestion with the short route joining.

Walking home having used up all the bombs only to find out there was NO entertainment for the kids.....nudda.

Mom, madampie and pappa not happy with today.

 

Saw you walking the last 5 km. Blue Columbia/TCS kit?

[sometime]

My race sucked. Good start en then the punctures started.

4 in total.

Schwalbe tyres are the £>#}^iest tyres out on the market.

 

 

 

Gotta love sweeping generalisations.

 

Probably half the Epic field finished on Schwalbe. Bronze medal at Olympics running Racing Ralph. If you're running regular Schwalbe tyres and not the Evo Snakeskin version then you have only yourself to blame - everyone know they're hopeless for SA offroad conditions.

[sometime]

I started out of B and it took me 6km before we started passing A riders.

 

By 40km i almost passed half the A bunch.

 

 

Wow!

[Purnjap]

Ive got no real complaints as I only did 4km of it before me seatpost decided to call it quits.

 

Only real gripe is the seeding. Its a complete balls up in my opinion. People starting in B C and even D bunches that really do not belong there. Look im no race snake but hells bells.

 

Otherwise not bad and well done to Burry!

+1 Within 3kms i had chipped rim, ruined brand new tyre and chracked frame...without falling...weird

Especially bad since this is one of my favourite events every year

[Woolf]

Wasn't too bad. Did the 70km from D and only 2 holdups the first one at the bend to go up the hill at St George hotel and the last one at the single track before the broken bridge. The last stop did however save me from serious cramps up the last hill so it had it's benefit. Think I lost between 20 and 30 minutes which makes me very proud of my sub 4 hour ride.

[Trelawney]

Agree with all the rants on that last bottleneck, doesn't take a genius to see ahead of time that that wooded section could turn into one gigantic bottleneck, even assuming the bridge hadn't broken. I asked one of the couple hundred riders who took the tar road around it (3 minutes versus 25 minutes) and they said the organiser had told them to use the road. Will certainly screw up the seedlings with riders who were half an hour behind me with 3 km to go finishing along side me.

 

Rest of course was really good, no idea where that wind comes from each year though !

[steve61]

....and the pricks who ride past the queue at a bottleneck then push in at the front. Total b/s that riders used the tar road!!!!!

My total time was 3:06 and ride time only 2:31. Also have never been to a race where I've had to queue to get through the finish ...... I gave my medal back in disgust!!!

[kosmonooit]

jeez guys every year the same bitchin about this event - its just a big speel for the cameras and the sponsors. Route across the scorched earth, barren Mealie Fields via the plotte strewn with wattle can hardly be called MTB.

 

Now Van Gaalens a few k's to the west is a totally different story. .

[MTB0007]

Bad .. Planning and too many walking riders .. Did 40km 2nd one we've done ..disappointing to have to stand at every small technical area.. And the @#¤ up at the final river crossing had young riders pushing in past the queue then 3/4 of riders turn and do the tar section ... *** planning for such a big brand race .. Will prob skip this next time last one in calenon was much better

[crodi]

These ramps and floating bridges just don’t work in race with 1000+ entries. It’s in any case not a challenge for the fast riders, the slow riders will in any case walk these sections and the intermediate riders will attempt them and risk falling. The bottlenecks just aren’t worth the technical excitement they may offer for some.

[Helpmytrap]

Besides for the all the dust it wasn't too bad. Started in B batch on the 70km and was at least able to ride that last bridge before it broke (that being said, it was already on its last legs.) I just can't understand how I landed up overtaking at least 5 guys twice, frustrated the hell out of me considering how far back I had originally passed them. Oh well, still managed about 2h35.

[jcmeyerSS]

 

 

They actually called us to go around. ;-)

Well that was a bull***t call by them. 40min versus 3min does that seem right

[jcmeyerSS]

 

 

Hey JC it was great meeting you today. You certainly were closer to B batch than I was, my apologies to those C&D riders I tried my best not hold you up.

Was great to meet you too. I had a **** day out there would run a much smaller gear had I known we wouldn't be riding any Singletrack.

I'm sorry to hear about your wife hope she gets well soon

[River Rat]

@Jcmeyer Thanks, she fell about 7 kms from the finish and as luck would have it I arrived within a minute of it happening. Getting her to hospital was all that mattered from there on and my race was done, so I missed all the bottlenecks at the river crossings. Reading this thread I did the best part of the race and missed the worst. He fully we'll bump into each other at the next race.