The definitive Sani2C 2013 thread

[rouxtjie]

I completely disagree with you. I am a weekend warrier and I certainly don't walk and cause bottlenecks on the singletrack. Yes, I walk on some of the uphills, but never get in anyone's way. I have such limited riding time (1 day on a weekend) that I spend as much of that riding the fun technical stuff and not just training on boring jeep tracks.

I was with Patches and Hayley on the Umko descent and we saw SO many people who couldn't even ride around a switchback, but yet they cruised up hills. One guy was from Zim and said there is no singletrack there to ride and admittied he was struggling.

mmmm, what I was trying to point out was that the people causing said bottlenecks on the route are most definitely not dirt roadies. Those boys are WP1 on day 2 when the later batches start....they hang in groups(like roadies, hence the name dirt roadie) on all the sections that isn't singlefile, take turns on the front to pull and can suffer like dogs because they don't want to be dropped by the group...they roll in A-batch not in H. That is a dirtroadie, someone starting in the batch in front of you, holding you up when it gets a bit sketchy isn't a dirt-roadie, it's a weekend warrior without skill....just saying.

[V12man]

Patches you are right about the better technical guys don't race.

 

 

How do you know that? ever followed an A group rider down the hill on his wheel? They just don't spend the time showboating, but a lot of them have the tech skills in place - which they need to go at the speed they do - downhill as well as uphill.

 

Sure there are some that have a level of caution, because getting to the finish is ultimately what counts, but as a general rule I would say the front hard men have bike skills aplenty - either that and/or brass balls....

[rouxtjie]

How do you know that? ever followed an A group rider down the hill on his wheel? They just don't spend the time showboating, but a lot of them have the tech skills in place - which they need to go at the speed they do - downhill as well as uphill.

 

Sure there are some that have a level of caution, because getting to the finish is ultimately what counts, but as a general rule I would say the front hard men have bike skills aplenty - either that and/or brass balls....

Edd zachery my point, those boys are fast, actually they are moer fast...up, down, singletrack, jeeptrack, district road...doesn't matter.

[patches]

How do you know that? ever followed an A group rider down the hill on his wheel? They just don't spend the time showboating, but a lot of them have the tech skills in place - which they need to go at the speed they do - downhill as well as uphill.

 

Sure there are some that have a level of caution, because getting to the finish is ultimately what counts, but as a general rule I would say the front hard men have bike skills aplenty - either that and/or brass balls....

Edd zachery my point, those boys are fast, actually they are moer fast...up, down, singletrack, jeeptrack, district road...doesn't matter.

 

I don't think the top few batches were being referred to (well at least not by me).

 

I was talking about the "front of the middle pack", if that makes sense?!

[rouxtjie]

I don't think the top few batches were being referred to (well at least not by me).

 

I was talking about the "front of the middle pack", if that makes sense?!

Fair enough...All I am saying is the better technical riders are found in the dirt-roadie category. They can really shunt down some of the trails. Going down at speed changes the game imo

[Pipsqueak]

I don't think we're thinking of the same kind of singletrack.

[rouxtjie]

I don't think we're thinking of the same kind of singletrack.

Help me then, which one did you refer to.

[davetapson]

It was a frustration because I couldn't play and have fun on the trail, the way I wanted to.

 

I suspect that if you want to play and have fun (at your own speed) on the trail, then maybe the race 'that has on Thursday a rider every 57m from Underberg to Scottburgh' is probably not your ideal venue.

 

In which case the real discussion is 'Hey, if you want to ride down big mountains feestyle, go to the Alps, and if you'd like to do a pretty awesome ride through the 'berg, do the Sani'?

[V12man]

I don't think the top few batches were being referred to (well at least not by me).

 

I was talking about the "front of the middle pack", if that makes sense?!

 

Not really - because they are always mixed in with the back of the group in front...

 

The secret is just to ride in A, B or C batch - you don't get held up, and the decent is more fun in the early morning gloom... to say nothing of staring right into the rising sun at times....

[Markdeep]

I don't think the top few batches were being referred to (well at least not by me).

 

I was talking about the "front of the middle pack", if that makes sense?!

 

You 100% correct Patches.

 

 

My partner and I didn't do many SA seeding races so they put us in Batch L for the trail on day 1, we where shocked at how pathetic riders skills where in the most basic forest single tracks. I mean come on nothing on day 1 was technical, just lovely flowing single tracks. We raced as hard as we could on day 1 just so we could enjoy the rest of the race, started at front of batch B on day 2 and it was like we had that valley to ourselves. It is a different race when you don't have people going 5km p.h and stopping to get off for a tiny root.

 

So yeah I dont think it's the oaks near the front but being in the back batches is super frustrating especially if you enjoy bombing single track.

[Helpmytrap]

This is one of the reasons why I enjoy the USN Cup races, they are at least 90% single/jeep track. Those with less technical skills fall behind while those with better skills and power/fitness are able to do well. Plus it's an awesome way to push hard and you tend to force yourself to ride right at the edge of your comfort zone if not beyond it.

[Markdeep]

This is one of the reasons why I enjoy the USN Cup races, they are at least 90% single/jeep track. Those with less technical skills fall behind while those with better skills and power/fitness are able to do well. Plus it's an awesome way to push hard and you tend to force yourself to ride right at the edge of your comfort zone if not beyond it.

 

agreed, u riding tomorrow ? But you see SASeeding doesn't import this series..

[RocknRolla]

Not really - because they are always mixed in with the back of the group in front...

 

The secret is just to ride in A, B or C batch - you don't get held up, and the decent is more fun in the early morning gloom... to say nothing of staring right into the rising sun at times....

 

not the case in C batch Adventure day 2.

 

got held up a plenty.

 

stopping, unclipping and waiting - waiting.

 

i gave space to the riders in front, plenty of space and not long till i caught up. Not one berm was ridden... airtime is something to be found on the locals's phones... it was frustrating.

The first time we picked up real speed, and could smell the brakepads was on heaven or hell.

 

In retrospect (watching the footage) we (my teammate and i ) should have given bigger stick from the start. but keeping in mind enjoying an hour of ecstacy only to suffer for 5 hours afterwards, we kept ourselves in check.

 

TBH (i know there will be a stake and pire waiting for me at USN tomorrow for saying this) I have had my fun at S2C, it's a great event, but it's time for me to move on.

 

We were lucky enough to have had our sani paid for in full this year by our suppliers, and next year we will be attempting something bigger...hopefully...

[RocknRolla]

i also think the event is oversubscribed by about 150 teams for each of the events.

[deanbean]

Did you maybe overheard me when I spoke about this.

 

We were playing like yo-yo the whole time...on downs we will try and pass the slow one's only for them to over take us on the climbs. (Worst is, at most climbs there are more than enough place to pass, but on the downs/single tracks (the super fun ones) it is practically impossible.

I hated that, so would let them get good and far in front of me, but wouldn't help if some one jumped in front of me, but my buddy and I had this sorted, he'd cause a block and allow mw to get to the ST first. The problem is that some people's skills are sooo bat that I'd catch them in no time.

mmmm dunno so much, you finish day 1 in a good time, you get a good seeding for day 2 and front row seats for the umko. Seems pretty simple to me.

 

Its a timed point to point race, surely riding the mountain bike "properly" as you say means getting from point A to B the fastest or am I missing something

I'm repeating myself here but my perception is that those kind of riders are more the exception than the rule. Most (yes not all) riders in the front groups of the Sani had at least the basic technical skills and most would agree that Sani isn't the most technical race around anyway.

 

Besides, it's easier to improve your fitness than your technical skills. So no good reason why good technical riders should be stuck behind the slow noobs beyond day 1.

 

The biggest problem is that I'm running my own business, and it's not your ordinary 9-5 business, and I've got a family, and other commitments, so time to train is a premium, I just don't get enough time to train properly.

Taht said my partner had a shocker of a day on day one, so we were dropped to N for day 2, but our fitness was better than most of N, so we got into the front of the group going into the first dual track, and managed to only get stuck behind people much later. But they were the back of M group, and gave us track when they could.

[DJR]

Edd zachery my point, those boys are fast, actually they are moer fast...up, down, singletrack, jeeptrack, district road...doesn't matter.

 

After the reverse order start on Day 3 of the Race, we were overtaken by the leaders a few kms before the finish. They started 2 hours after us and they overtook us after about 4 hrs 30 of riding. That happened on the last stretch of single track going through the sugar cane, and I can promise you they were flying. I'm a pretty good technical rider, but there was no way in hell my skill would have kept me going with those snakes, not even in real gnarly stuff! Big respect. I think the midfield racers might be a little different though?