[Event] Medallion Tour De Stellenbosch

[Tankman]

Me, my brother and my dad were in that break. Two of us fell back to the bunch but no one seemded to want to work and chase the break. All a bunch off wheel suckers. Last 5km all of a sudden now they want to sprint for the finish. Made a break at 3km to go and it payed off. Came second in our start group. (F-G) Had a very nice ride.

 

Nope, you were not.

It was me (Flandria kit), Marius with his white Johnny Mellow top, a guy from the All Stars team with rotor-rings and a black Spez and another mature gentleman.

 

We got away after the fruitsellers 4 way stop.

Maruis and I dropped the other two before we turned right towards Perdeberg.

 

We continued to catch and pull bunches along without any real help, except for Frail, with is cannonball style as always shooting of the front with a moerse speed. Shot for the help tho bud.

 

Marius unfortunately had to stop for water just before Fairview, I carried on and finished 5min or so in front of the bunch, on me ace.

Edited February 17, 2014 by Tankman

[Gerlach]

As a 'soutpiel' (according to my club mates, thanks guys) that was a harsh lesson in heat. I think I consumed at least 4 bottles and poured the others over myself having had to stop twice for water.

 

Did anyone else suffer from 'group mirages'? I kept thinking, there's a small group head of me and you try and catch them only to find out that they had mysteriously become a single rider or only a couple of riders.

 

Nice to see you at the race Stephen!!!

[juanvd2]

Nope, you were not.

It was me (Flandria kit), Marius with his white Johnny Mellow top, a guy from the All Stars team with rotor-rings and a black Spez and another mature gentleman.

 

We got away after the fruitsellers 4 way stop.

Maruis and I dropped the other two before we turned right towards Perdeberg.

 

We continued to catch and pull bunches along without any real help, except for Frail, with is cannonball style as always shooting of the front with a moerse speed. Shot for the help tho bud.

 

Marius unfortunately had to stop for water just before Fairview, I carried on and finished 5min or so in front of the bunch, on me ace.

 

Yip that mature gentleman was my dad. Who still chatted to you (flandria shirt) at the finish. We were part of that group right at the start. Unfortunatly that did not last very long. Good ride anyway.

[Tankman]

 

Yip that mature gentleman was my dad. Who still chatted to you (flandria shirt) at the finish. We were part of that group right at the start. Unfortunatly that did not last very long. Good ride anyway.

 

Aaaah!

 

Sorry misunderstood you there for a second, thinking that you should have been on Jerry Springer if you, your brother and your dad were the four I described before!

 

[SeanMort]

Wow it was hot ! It was a last minute decision to enter for the tandem group, but with the understanding it was going to be a "training ride". Tandem wasn't quite ready for the job though after the recent Herald race, as the middle chain ring was worn, gear indexing out, and we seemed destined to ride the whole race in a 56 chainring. Painfully climbed over Hel's and then came tearing down the other side max'ing out at 94kph (did 104kph on Vissershok a few weeks back btw). Shortly before Kromm Rhee turnoff we got a puncture which we fixed after 2 attempts and 2 tubes. Decided to ride to Bottelary intersection and then turned around to ride back over Hels to the start/finish for a lovely DNF, and a mushroom burger and coke .. best decision of the day for us.

 

Also came across a tandem on the way back to Stellies that had a broken drive chain and had turned back too. Seems the pilot got a lift back to Boschendaal and left the stoker to push and freewheel back to Stellies .. so we pushed him back to Stellies instead. Reminds me to carry a chain-breaker with in future. Now to get the tandem fixed up for Bay City ...

[juanvd2]

Aaaah!

 

Sorry misunderstood you there for a second, thinking that you should have been on Jerry Springer if you, your brother and your dad were the four I described before!

 

 

bwahahaaaaa. The heat can make a man hallucinate sometimes.

[Velouria]

I had the greatest scare going down hels. At about 60km hours the bike started to vibrate almost out of control. Managed to bring it under control. Lost the group... Overheated etc. The rest is blowin in the wind

Were you in the A-C bunch? I was chilling at the back of the bunch going down Helshoogte when you got spat out, and it looked like the wobbles were so big that you were taking up both lanes. Well done for keeping it upright.

 

Kudo's to the Hotchillee rider who was awesomely strong and consistent. He pulled the chasing bunch to catch me just before the Fairview turnoff. From there it was head down, watching the wheel ahead of me and rolling through when it was my turn to. Towards the finish, 500m to go banner, all of a sudden there are riders in our group who I hadn't seen for the entire race... Damn wheel suckers. Anyways, had a good race but just didn't have the legs at the finish for the sprint.

Sorry about closing you down, but I was more interested in the two guys ahead of you

 

While I don't mind sitting on the front, a couple of times I would pull over, and no one would come through. I'd take a look back assuming I'd been an ass again and ridden off the front only to see 15 riders pretending to be invisible, blown, or both. But as Tiny K says - amazing how they all popped out for the sprint for 53rd place.

 

ah that would be craig edwards, he is a freakin strong animal :-) just check what he did to the VA bunch in the Burger Race 2013.

Craig's pedal fell off going up Helshoogte (which if you know Craig, isn't that surprising). I was the remaining HotChillee rider in the bunch, while he chased to get back on. Almost made it at the Voor Paardeberg turn, but the wind put paid to those plans.

[Wannabe]

Tankman, you guys really turned up the heat on that last little kicker of Hels. Could not stick with you guys, and slowed down a bit. Going down the other side I got joined by a couple of Chaps on their 29'ers (knobblies and all) and a few other people.

We worked hard to try and catch you guys, but to no avail.

On the R304 we got thiings going well, having a bit of motivation to try and catch the bunch ahead of us. We slowly reeled them in, myself and one of the 29'ers working hard at the front. The section from Fruitsellers 4 way to Silo's I pushed really hard (in hindsight, too hard) to close the gap before turning right towards Windmeul. I actually avereaged 44km/h on that section. Avg at that stage was 37km/h.

After turning left towards the Jail / Prison, the carrot (bunch) was within reach. We got to about 150m from them when I just blew up spectacularly, it was as if someone just pulled the plug on me. Avg here was around 34km/h. Dunno if the rest of the chasing group managed to make contact, I hope they did after all the hard work we did.

 

After this I crawled home on my own, no power in my legs. All and sundry passed me with ease, including a guy SOLOING on his tandem. He came past me so fast it looked as if I was looking for shade (which I actually was)

I prayed that there would be a waterpoint at Windmeul, but no such luck. I struggled on, stopping a few times to seek shade under the Roadsigns / anything that looked like shade.

At the waterpoint on Suid Agter Paardeberg rd I filled my bottles with water and found shade against a LDV's wheel, trying to get some life back into my legs. This is where Woofie found me, convincing me to carry on (this was at 88km)

I tried to stay on Woofies wheel, but a few I, J, L & M riders joined us, There was one specific young lady that tried to sit on all the wheels at the same time, switching everybody. I dropped of the back and soldiered on on my own. At the Simondium waterpoint I met up with Woofie again, and after another two Iced filled bottles, we took on the longest 10km of my life.

I ended up with 3:58 on my Garmin (set to autostop), with Racetec giving me 4:13. MY SLOWEST 110km EVER!!!!

 

Had my two Camelbak bottles and a 500ml bottle with me. I filled my bottles twice at the last two waterpoints, so I consumed 6 x 750ml bottles and the 500ml bottle. That gives me 5l of fluids, and I still weighed in 2kg less when I got home.

[DARK KNIGHT]

Don't think anybody can complain about lack of Cold Water and Ice at the waterpoints. I filled two bottles up to the brim with water and ice at the last two waterpoints. Cudos to the people manning those waterpoints, they were busy and very friendly / helpfull.

 

The finish area, well that was another story. First you had to cycle what felt like a kilometre from where the line was to the mats, and then definately another kay or so to get to the Coke table. There was only coke on the table, and you were only allowed on cup of warm coke.

This did not bother me too much,as I still had cold water left in my Camelbak bottle from the Simondium water table, but I did voice my displeasure about it. The attitude of the one guy who poured the hot coke also stank!!

Can only feel for the peeps who finished later in the day.

 

I agree! attitude at coke stop was vrot! organizers also need to relook at this '1 cup 'a coke per cyclist', not that I'm unappreciative, I just think they make enough $ from entries for an extra cup or so

[DJTerblanche]

I agree! attitude at coke stop was vrot! organizers also need to relook at this '1 cup 'a coke per cyclist', not that I'm unappreciative, I just think they make enough $ from entries for an extra cup or so

 

Seems I was lucky or they realized I needed more than one cup.

Took one at the start and one at the end of the table (first cup finished by then) and they did not say anything

[GLuvsMtb]

on a side note: Is it customary nowadays for the race snakes to pelt the short route riders with their empty bottles 4km's from the finish? dodging your empty bottles with a tandem is not as much fun as you think. Usually I am somewhere in the middle bunches doing the long route, but decided with my Tandem partner that we will rather do a few shorter events before the Argus than try and hit those long ones.

 

How important is it to win the C to E sprint and does dropping your bottle with 50ml of liquid in it make a difference to you?

 

and another thing: If you have an elite racing number on your back, what are you doing contesting the C to E sprints? Surely the right thing is to hang back and stay out of the sprint?

[Tiny K]

 

Sorry about closing you down, but I was more interested in the two guys ahead of you

 

While I don't mind sitting on the front, a couple of times I would pull over, and no one would come through. I'd take a look back assuming I'd been an ass again and ridden off the front only to see 15 riders pretending to be invisible, blown, or both. But as Tiny K says - amazing how they all popped out for the sprint for 53rd place.

 

 

No worries! I was hoping that a few guys would also try to bridge the gap and get rid of the drift wood... like the one who broke away with 3km to go - where the hell was he the entire race?!

 

By the time we caught your CAT buddy in Adidas kit, I was smoked. Just hanging onto a wheel to make it to the end. It was difficult to overtake you on that stretch as you two were side by side and there wasn't really space to go past... The lack of legs didn't help me either

[DJR]

I agree! attitude at coke stop was vrot! organizers also need to relook at this '1 cup 'a coke per cyclist', not that I'm unappreciative, I just think they make enough $ from entries for an extra cup or so

Hey dark Knight, please have a second cup of Coke this coming Sunday, I don't drink the stuff at all, you can have mine and not feel bad about it!

[DJTerblanche]

I was in the H-I bunch.

Started at the back of the group as I have an I group number, the pedal power queue were to long to get my new "G" number.

Was playing catching up from the start as our combined group were 112 people big according to racetec and I think I started at least a minute later than the first H riders.

Although I went hard from the start I did not make it to the small group of 8 H riders who crested helshoogte first and formed a break-away and I could not bridge the gap. A big group H-I riders caught me at the railway crossing.

 

There was a crash after 57km, just after turning from the R304.

We were going at 24km/h against a head-wind at the stage.

Missed the falling riders in front of me just just.

 

I think all of the riders managed to bridge the gap after the crash.

At the 90km mark the group seemed somewhat small (20-30 riders) so the rollers must have taken its toll.

Myself and a few riders stopped at the 90km water point and a 4man group formed after I started again.

The last 10km was extremely tough for me, from the point where we joined the short course group.

 

Overall I am quite happy with the race, think my body was nicely pushed to the limit.

['Dale]

 

 

No worries! I was hoping that a few guys would also try to bridge the gap and get rid of the drift wood... like the one who broke away with 3km to go - where the hell was he the entire race?!

 

 

Easy now, Tiny K

Racing is for League; bunch riding for the alphabet groups.

[Maniax]

 

 

Easy now, Tiny K

Racing is for League; bunch riding for the alphabet groups.

 

Just a pity, the bunches are far and few in the alphabet groups...