Sondela Bela Bela Challenge 2012

[Agteros]

94.7 no

So this is a 'B' race then? Good enough for seeding purposes for the upcountry seeding races

[Peter Parker]

Normally the A bunch is very quick and very big. If you stuck in with them you did well.

Congrats, keep it up.

The VA bunch was wicked. I got a hiding of note.

The big problem was the size only 20 odd people.

And from the start it was attack after attack.

First 10km the group nearly halved.

To quick for me.

Time to pull up those socks

[Speed Racer]

After six failed attempts in various races to finish with the A bunch, I allowed myself to be talked into starting with them again against my apparent better judgement.

 

I've been given the advise to ride closer to the front of the bunch, so decided to give that a go, however I wasn't sure I'd last 5 km. Fortunately the absolutely pancake flat nature of the race (224m ascent according to the GPS), and no wind allowed me to hang in basically to the end.

 

A few apparently random(to me) attacks in the first few kilometers ended in the whole bunch rolling forward as a whole, with ever rider going out front either sitting up, or being pulled back.

 

Around the second last right turn, the nervousness in the group picked up a few notches as riders started coming through from the back on the right hand side of the road. This caused much unhappiness with the marshalls eventually threatening to disqualify the whole group.

 

I'm not aware of any mishaps, although I saw a case, and experienced another, of quads hitting handlebars. Fortunately no wobbles due to that!

 

I hang onto the bunch right up to the finish where the serious okes sprinted of for line honours. Thought of picking up the pace, but my legs were on strike so I just rolled forward to finish with the rest of the bunch, and finished around 30 seconds down the winner.

 

Hopefully this will not give me a false sense of accomplisment for the races post winter! Maybe time to dust off that IDT again...

 

Not sure how the regular A bunchers experienced the race, although I've heard one saying that the dynamics of the group was a lot different from the usual. Different in the case meaning worse, but I guess that can be expected on a flat, fast, windless course?

 

For those interested in how the A bunched 'rolled', here are the accumulated average speeds at 5km splits (as measure by that pesky GPS again:

 

 5.00 : 41.1
10.00 : 41.5
15.00 : 41.6
20.00 : 41.8
25.00 : 41.5
30.00 : 41.0
35.00 : 40.5
40.00 : 40.6
45.00 : 40.5
50.00 : 40.4
55.00 : 40.2
60.00 : 39.9
65.00 : 39.7
70.00 : 39.5
75.00 : 39.7
80.00 : 39.7
85.00 : 39.7
90.00 : 39.6
95.00 : 39.4
100.00 : 39.4
101.62 : 39.4

 

Thanks for your race report, RoboCyclist. Well done on staying with the bunch.

 

This was my first ride in the A group. The group was fast, and the early attacks jacked the pace up. I see from your figures that the group got slightly slower as the ride went on. I went anaerobic in the first five km. My water bottle went flying on the mini speed bumps at about 20km. It being a R60 Elite Scalatore 1l bottle. I stopped to pick it up. The cap was smashed. I didn't even try catch you guys, as soon enough BL came flashing by.

 

Talk about extremes, whereas AL seemed like a well-oiled machine, BL couldn't get going. Another rider and I drove the buch for 60km, but we were battling to keep going at even 35 km/h.

 

20km from the line a few CL riders bridged and cranked the pace. The sprint was a tame affair, with only a few riders bothering.

 

There was a fair amount of aggro in BL. Shouting at a junior on restricted gears for not taking a longer turn at the front, or almost coming to blows because someone got too close in a field sprint when you're battling for 5th place in the B group defies logic.

 

In spite of this minor quibble, a fine day's racing. Looking forward to the Jock, when staying with the bunch for a guy like me of 95kg is going to take some doing on those climbs.

[Spinnekop]

Normally the A bunch is very quick and very big. If you stuck in with them you did well.

Congrats, keep it up.

The VA bunch was wicked. I got a hiding of note.

The big problem was the size only 20 odd people.

And from the start it was attack after attack.

First 10km the group nearly halved.

To quick for me.

Time to pull up those socks

 

VA was slow! Sadly the slowest licensed bunch of the day!

You better get some of those sock expander thingies (or whatever they call it) to hook to the panties to get the socks up!

[Peter Parker]

You guys must have slowed down AFTER i dropped off

[Joe Low]

Thanks for your race report, RoboCyclist. Well done on staying with the bunch.

 

Talk about extremes, whereas AL seemed like a well-oiled machine, BL couldn't get going. Another rider and I drove the buch for 60km, but we were battling to keep going at even 35 km/h.

 

20km from the line a few CL riders bridged and cranked the pace. The sprint was a tame affair, with only a few riders bothering.

 

There was a fair amount of aggro in BL. Shouting at a junior on restricted gears for not taking a longer turn at the front, or almost coming to blows because someone got too close in a field sprint when you're battling for 5th place in the B group defies logic.

 

In spite of this minor quibble, a fine day's racing. Looking forward to the Jock, when staying with the bunch for a guy like me of 95kg is going to take some doing on those climbs.

 

Hi Speedracer - I was also in the front B bunch and had a different perspective. Thanks for driving the pace, we averaged over 40 in the first hour and the overall average never fell below 37.5. It was hard for a lot of us for 1hr 50 til we turned for Settlers and got a slight tailwind. A few kms down that road and the pace dropped, after the 3 or 4 CL riders joined. Everyone must have decided to shut up shop for the day and cruised home the last 12-5kms.

 

30 of the 150 bunch finished together and I couldnt do better than be in the middle of that where everything was pretty routine and cool. The road surface gave some pause for thought but no alarm.

 

The only incident and it was a bad one, was a lady and a guy going down a few metres from the line having hit a badly placed barrier. It was a big noise and looked grim.

 

We finished 2:44 and I think A was 2:38 - nobody was racing hard as the winning time was 2:22. Leaves us with a seeding of 13, that'll do nicely.

[TNT1]

I was also in the front B bunch and had a different perspective.

 

Stop shouting at Juniors.

[Joe Low]

Stop shouting at Juniors.

You get to my age and state of decrepitude and you dont realise you're shouting. Besides, I cant get close enough to the whippersnappers to get heard any other way.

 

 

 

(ps... wasnt me)

[Speed Racer]

 

 

Hi Speedracer - I was also in the front B bunch and had a different perspective. Thanks for driving the pace, we averaged over 40 in the first hour and the overall average never fell below 37.5. It was hard for a lot of us for 1hr 50 til we turned for Settlers and got a slight tailwind. A few kms down that road and the pace dropped, after the 3 or 4 CL riders joined. Everyone must have decided to shut up shop for the day and cruised home the last 12-5kms.

 

30 of the 150 bunch finished together and I couldnt do better than be in the middle of that where everything was pretty routine and cool. The road surface gave some pause for thought but no alarm.

 

The only incident and it was a bad one, was a lady and a guy going down a few metres from the line having hit a badly placed barrier. It was a big noise and looked grim.

 

We finished 2:44 and I think A was 2:38 - nobody was racing hard as the winning time was 2:22. Leaves us with a seeding of 13, that'll do nicely.

 

Thanks, Joe. Didn't realize we were moving so fast. Some of my comments were perhaps injudicious. Thanks for the ride.

[Joe Low]

Thanks, Joe. Didn't realize we were moving so fast. Some of my comments were perhaps injudicious. Thanks for the ride.

If you were up the front then you can say what you like - thank you for the ride.

 

Just interesting for different points of view from places not too far away from each other.

 

There were the three water bottles passed our way on one of the turns - caused a bit of shouting & the lorry with 2 trailers was bowel-loosening. Otherwise fun in the sun.

[ZZbunch]

I also rode in the big BL bunch. A very relaxed ride until one of the Cycle Lab riders got very stressed and started to force his way passsed everyone at the end. Shouting and swearing at everyone. I agree with Speedracer - why get so stressed and aggro about the race for minor places in the BL "fun" bunch? If you are that good, then go and race with the big boys - not the kids, geriatrics and women in BL!!