Sondela Blood Cleanser :/

[Purnjap]

Seriously, a sachet called "Blood Cleanser" in the goody bag for this weekend's Sondela race?? lol

I have never laughed so hard in my laugh...wonder how it'll fare as a chain lube?

Edited May 17, 2012 by Purnjap

[baie-sukkel]

Enjoy the race,I am jealous,I am working Grrrrr !

[Purnjap]

Don't forget the cold front hitting us on saturday, I may be jealous of you in whatever nice warm spot you will be working in lol

[OshkoshXXX]

Just got back from SANDELA, in a word CRAP !

 

Course was 10km of nice single track followed by 10km beachsand, then 10 km of windy, windy that was boring, unpleasant seemed put together by someone with little biking expierience and even less sence of direction. The last 10km track was secondary road, then do it all again !!!

The marshals were useless and had no idea where on the course they were.... No distance markers to be seen anywhere.

All the marshals "dissapeared" at 2.00 oclock and there were still a number of riders on the course who were all left to their own devices to find the finish. Earlier in the day there were numerous cowboys on quads tearing up the course could not even one of them played sweep ?

Overall impression ? Not worth the entrance fee, or the drive out there.

AVOID this event, if youre not a racing snake. I won't go back and I'll make sure I tell all my riding buddies the same.

Advise to organisers, just a handfull of potential winners but lots more riders who arrive, pay and also want to be treated like they count.

[Old School Rookie]

I under-estimated the race myself, but the sandy bits, especially on the second lap after being churned up by the rest of the field, quickly put that ill conceived notion to bed. None the less: Well organized, nice vibe, excellent marking and marshalling and decent ample water points. Expecting of marshals to advise you what any little trip computer or the rest of the competitors can do is perhaps a bit harsh. It was advertised as a two lap marathon. Distance worked out to around 87km. Yes the fresh single track after the sand went on forever. Maybe a bit tough on the bum but a nice flowing single track gets my vote anytime. The last section was blissful single track connected by short bits of dirt road…..10km? I think not.

 

Anyways, personally I did the event for training purposes and to get out where the weather is always a bit warmer this time of year. It sure served its purpose and then some.

 

My mental prep will be a bit better next time, but I’ll be back.

[River Rat]

I didn't have a problem with the marshalling but that might be because I finished before 14h00. However, this was not course conducive to overtaking and mixing the 40 and 80km was disastrous. I really do not have a problem allowing the faster riders to pass but the only way this could be done todayon the single track after halfway was to stop and pull over to let them pass. This would seem reasonable but picture this, I would get stuck behind guys in my own race and I would have the 40 k guys trying to pass I would try and do the right thing by stopping and moving aside, everytime I did this I would be passed by at least 3 - 4 40k riders plus some 80k riders that I had passed earlier. Only to find myself at the back of the bunch effectively behind the same riders just 7 places back. You can imagine how irritating this was and after a while there was no more stopping which led to some wannabees trying to barge past and push me off the track. My humour was long gone when some skinny runt tried to push me into an Aardvark hole well my elbow adjusted his glasses and redirected him into that grasslands. His downcast looks and quiet demeanor when I could eventually let him passs tells me that I might not try that again.

 

The organisers of races seriously need to consider this aspect when deciding on the different start times for the various races. As for the Sondela Race they may want to name it the Berg & Beach with the amount of sand we encountered today.

[MONS]

Seriously, a sachet called "Blood Cleanser" in the goody bag for this weekend's Sondela race?? lol

I have never laughed so hard in my laugh...wonder how it'll fare as a chain lube?

You got a goodie bag??

[MONS]

The sand was a definately tough one for sure and after yeserday - I dont think I will ever be phased by it again!( There were sections where the laughter, squeals, flailing arms and riders flying off their bikes was rather entertaining and took a lot not to fall off my own bike from laughter!!!! That was one of the memorables.) Getting stuck behind a bunch of seriously slow riders in the warthog hole infested singletrack section left a few of us very frustrated as it was life threatening to try pass and veer off the track during the first 10km or so of that specific section.Add to this one of the guys (paramedics/sweeper???) sitting on our tails n his oversized quad for approx 7/8km, and overtaking us only to sit behind the slow group and feed us his quadbike fumes and dust was extremely annoying to say the least.What wasthe point exactly?? The lap route for the 80km riders (HUGE respect for them) was also a bad plan as it was sometimes very difficult to keep left and let them pass when you were dodging warthog holes in between - and one or two of the guys passing were rather rude about it - reality check dude - not about to break my neck to save you 3 sec of time - will gladly stop and let you ALL pass but dont yell when we CANNOT stop IMMEDIATELY or need to swerve back into the single track to avoid the holes.

Apart from that, weather was great, the vibe was great and the finish line vibe was great!!

Edited July 9, 2012 by Mons100