Lost City 2013

[Joeboy69]

First road event was an opportunity on new MTB, need a wider saddle but first survive tomorrow :-)

[TALUS]

MTB was quite a bit harder than previous years. Got rid of the silly bit through Valley of the waves. Had about 5k TT into the wind on the shoulder of the road. Some very tech climbs and descents. Reasonable amount of singletrack and lots of Jeeptrack. About 730m climb. Only got into short distance riders right at the end. Much improved.

[Chopper Jr]

That road race was hairy to say the least! I think A group was particularly big and fast - I would have been happier if the group that broke away up the hill stayed ahead but alas the entire group came together again. Fortunately no incidents in our group.

 

Bloody speed bumps! We must have hit some of them at 40km/h... try bunny hopping in a tight bunch! Plenty of roadkill to savour and the odd veld fire. Idiot driver overtook us on the gravel on the left... idiot cyclists riding into oncoming traffic a number of times.

 

Nonetheless the sprint was for the taking! Damn, I always go too early!

 

Enjoyable race! Even better weekend at Vacation Club!

[TALUS]

I was in the breakaway, then lost both bottles over a speedhump before 50km. I then decided I will wheelsuck and try to limit my dehydration. In return made no effort in the sprint (wouldnt have been able to anyway - but felt right morally). How about the short distance group we rode into 7km from the end at 40km/h+, and some guys got into the action and only succeeded in breaking up the bunch. Maybe a camelback is the right option - a guy finished with one in the middle of A.

[RastaMan]

No Incidents? Sho Was my first race int he a group, I kept on falling behind in the start playing catchup every 5 minutes, eventually I let the group go. caught up with 5 or 6 other riders we shared the pace.

 

In the township we almost got charged by a massive cow. lol

And about 10 km before the finish the b group caught up with us and the a massive accident happened.

probably 10-30 people involved, saw bikes flying higher than cars.Unfortunatly I was behind so I lost the group because of the accident.

 

Anybody know what happened? and are all the people involved ok?

 

In the end finished with a 3:06 with an avg speed of 37.01 km/h. I think about 13 minutes behind the winners, what speed did you guys avg.

 

Need some more practise before I can keep up with you guys.

But I recoon its not to bad as I only started cycling june last year.

[SurferChild]

I must agree with some of the statements above... those speed humps were a real pain in the butt, and i saw water bottles flying after each bump.

Luckily my cages held onto my bottles and i was good with the fluids till the end. It was quite a chilly start to the morning but warmed up quite nicely soon after the start of the race.

 

I managed 6th in the B group with an average speed of 38.34 with only 2sec's splitting me with the winner. Well done to the man in the ASG kit who won our race!

[Grondpad]

The road race went well but I could feel the lack of training during the winter. Started in batch A and got dropped on the climb at the 40km mark. Got into a nice rhythm with 2 other gents and a lady. We worked well together but the two other gents did the bulk of the work. They were super strong! Respect. Picked up another A bunch cyclist that also shared in the work until the first group of B batch caught us with VC, VB and other A group riders. Nice big bunch and we did made great progress until a massive crash about 10km from the end just before the joining of the 60km riders. I was in the first 3^rd of the group and I just heard all the crashes and saw the bikes flying. At that moment we were doing around 38/40km/h. Some people must have gotten hurt really bad and it was a massive shock to the group cause as soon as the 60km riders joined the group also split up and most just staggered home on their own. I finished in 3:08. Happy with that time.

 

The MTB route was great (but I did hope they would have taken us through the Valley of waves). I think if I did not do the road the prior day, I would have loved just about everything of the route. Great climbs that bites really hard and some nice technical descents. At about 20km into the race I was riding with 4 other okes and we got lost. As we cycled along we saw some other riders but they were lost as well. We formed a group and whilst looking for the route we found more lost cyclists. Eventually we were about 25 riders that cycled through a township and managed to find the tar road towards Sun City. We got on it and after a short while we saw the ranch and went in there. We found the route again but obviously we were now screwed with our distance and time. I was at 27.5km here. The leaders of the race passed us not long after that. Most of the ride I rode with another very pleasant cyclist with a massive beard that did the road race as well which made the ride back much more pleasant. I took a DNF after mailing them today cause at the end I did 64km but I heard that the ride was actually 67km. I see the result are not out yet and I am glad I don’t have to try a sort that out. I heard many many riders got lost and even o the 25km route riders went astray. My sister did the 25km route and ended on 29km. Even after getting lost and so on, I really enjoyed the day out in the bush. Did a 3:11

 

Great two days on the bike, I just hope that the riders that went down are OK. The crash was really hectic

[bmw1za]

Great race(road), took an hour and 10 mins off last years time . B Bunch start but, I got dropped on the second climb again .... Rode 3 man for about 30ks , the guy with me was great to ride with, splitting the workload, and spent the morning chasing the main bunch with various little bunches . The last 40 was lots of fun in the wind and a great bunch of guys. Thanks for dragging me to the end guys !!! one really strong "A" Bunch rider in blue, and a gentleman in yellow on a scott foil 15 like mine.

Those bumps(OMG) ... I still have whiplash ...

Finish time 3h14

[djsam]

Rode B and have to say it was a massive group before the climb settled down nicely after the Climb, at 35km, was dropped by the fast guys but managed to find a nice group... finished with a 3:12, ended up getting stopped @ a cow crossing! lol race incident in Africa, respect to the gent on the MTB finishing in the group

[LongDonkey]

 

The MTB route was great (but I did hope they would have taken us through the Valley of waves). I think if I did not do the road the prior day, I would have loved just about everything of the route. Great climbs that bites really hard and some nice technical descents. At about 20km into the race I was riding with 4 other okes and we got lost. As we cycled along we saw some other riders but they were lost as well. We formed a group and whilst looking for the route we found more lost cyclists. Eventually we were about 25 riders that cycled through a township and managed to find the tar road towards Sun City. We got on it and after a short while we saw the ranch and went in there. We found the route again but obviously we were now screwed with our distance and time. I was at 27.5km here. The leaders of the race passed us not long after that.

Was with you Grondpad, on that tour through the township, Bit annoying that we all missed the markers which were not great, wonder how the other batches and riders saw what we missed. Lessons learnt i guess.

[RastaMan]

Rode B and have to say it was a massive group before the climb settled down nicely after the Climb, at 35km, was dropped by the fast guys but managed to find a nice group... finished with a 3:12, ended up getting stopped @ a cow crossing! lol race incident in Africa, respect to the gent on the MTB finishing in the group

 

Myself and a couple on a tandem almost got charged by a cow there in the township.

 

I think the lady's screamed scared it off though, cause it lifted itself as it was ready to charge and I heared the scream and it backed off

[Schnavel]

That road race was hairy to say the least! I think A group was particularly big and fast - I would have been happier if the group that broke away up the hill stayed ahead but alas the entire group came together again. Fortunately no incidents in our group.

 

Bloody speed bumps! We must have hit some of them at 40km/h... try bunny hopping in a tight bunch! Plenty of roadkill to savour and the odd veld fire. Idiot driver overtook us on the gravel on the left... idiot cyclists riding into oncoming traffic a number of times.

 

Nonetheless the sprint was for the taking! Damn, I always go too early!

 

Enjoyable race! Even better weekend at Vacation Club!

 

We tried to stay away after that hill but the wind picked up too much for only 3 of us to stay away for the rest of the race... Maybe next time?