Argus 2014-Lessons Learned

[Carcarias1974]

A couple of guys in the club found this out the hard way:

 

DO NOT sit behind MTB's in a road race. They did, and when the 29ers went over what to them was obviously a small blip in the road, 3 of the guys behind them all punctured one after the other on their road bikes.

 

Whahahaha!!! Kudos to the brother for taking out some skinnies!

[Pusher]

These 3 (the last 3 finishers of C) colluded together via some backdoor process. Maybe they're PPA officials.

 

http://results.racet...PID=536046&HL=1

http://results.racet...PID=536047&HL=1

http://results.racet...PID=561585&HL=1

 

Who's gonna make k@k about this?

It seems that the first two guys colluded last year as well!

[Maniax]

No complaints from my side. Compared to other road races, the Argus is the best one yet (from timing to organization).

 

I agree with the seeding though, I rode in Z and passed a few 'visible' cyclists with very high seeding and couldnt work out how they got there....

 

I'll definitely be back next year to break 4h00, maybe even 3h30...

[Tatt]

I think its brilliant..

 

Did my first last year with a charity, so got an early start, but finished with a rubbish time... So this here I was placed in PA, 9.32 start. Which gave me lots of time to sleep in, have a fry-up and make my way into town.

 

Was a fair bit of traffic, but still managed a 4.34. Also enjoyed riding with some of the other mtb'ers in the group... Next year I might put a bit more air in my tyres if I get a better ceding..

 

Tom

[Journosergio]

Pretty much a given to most of us that have at least done 1 race in our lives, but am I missing that it is not properly indicated to new riders to Keep Left and Pass Right?

• When I was on the left, I had guys trying to squeeze between me and the pavement, really?
  
• When I was in the middle, I had guys try and squeeze between me and someone else, forcing us apart, and;
  
• When I was hitting maximum speed down the right side there were people moving horribly slow, one of which did not heed my warning and luckily I had a MTB to go off the road into the dirt and regain myself at like 50km/h...
  

I understand that there are a lot of people doing the argus as their first race of all, but then whatever committee handles the printed information in the race packs and emails needs to put that point across.

 

Oh - And can the repair centres please have spare 29er tyres next year?

 

I blew my back tyre near Soetwater and they only had a mountain of 26inch MTB tyres and road tyres, none of which helped and I was sadly rendered as a DNF following some failed attempts at inserting tubes into my tubeless tyre with ruptured side wall which both blew.

 

You would think they would have more 29er tyres in the pile lol...

Edited March 10, 2014 by Journosergio

[The_black_stig]

Things that I'd learn from yesterday's event:

1. Wind in the Cape is a *****
   
2. One can only go as fast as the person that's in front, no matter how courteous you are towards other cyclists, there will always a prick try to push into a non-existing gap between you and the cyclist next to you when you ride up Chappies and Smitswinkel....
   
3. Group riders (pack of 3 to 5 people), riding abreast are often very ignorant
   
4. Most people never looked to their rear before a turn during a downhill / sweeper
   

 

Next year, definitely a police siren will be mounted on my bike to mind the other "cyclist"....

[The_black_stig]

I understand that there are a lot of people doing the argus as their first race of all, but then whatever committee handles the printed information in the race packs and emails needs to put that point across.

 

+1 on your sentiments towards some of the other "cyclists" behaviors, one can only wonder what they've done to their cycle tour magazine....

[canadonis]

I learnt that Snickers have a bigger marketing budget to pay the organisers than Bar One. Would swop my goody bag Snicker for the Bar One girls on the bend just before descending into Misty Cliffs, any day.

 

This was a big disappointment to me as well, as a fun rider I plan my route around the water points stops e.g. 1. Simons town 2. bar one 3. Lebombo 4 hout bay.

 

The bar one stand is always a great sugar boost and albeit snickers has bought the slot via cycle tour I feel they need to spend some of their big budget with a stand on the day which benefits the riders. Imagine if energade was to 'buy' the marketing sports drnk rights from powerade and gives each rider a 500ml bottle of energade in our race packs but no support on the day on the course. So it's very simple really, either 1 in and 1 out or don't mess with a winning formular so to the cycle tour organizers snickers must step up to the plate and fill the role previously managed by bar one or they give the water point back to Nesle. I'm pretty indifferent snickers or bar one but there must be at least 1 on the bend to misty cliffs

 

 

[Cellar]

This was a big disappointment to me as well, as a fun rider I plan my route around the water points stops e.g. 1. Simons town 2. bar one 3. Lebombo 4 hout bay.

 

The bar one stand is always a great sugar boost and albeit snickers has bought the slot via cycle tour I feel they need to spend some of their big budget with a stand on the day which benefits the riders. Imagine if energade was to 'buy' the marketing sports drnk rights from powerade and gives each rider a 500ml bottle of energade in our race packs but no support on the day on the course. So it's very simple really, either 1 in and 1 out or don't mess with a winning formular so to the cycle tour organizers snickers must step up to the plate and fill the role previously managed by bar one or they give the water point back to Nesle. I'm pretty indifferent snickers or bar one but there must be at least 1 on the bend to misty cliffs

 

While I get the whole fun rider bit, are you seriously saying that the lack of a free little chocolate bar caused this much discontent in your day? You couldn't just put a piece of food in your back pocket?

[stringbean]

Lesson learned.XX1 was not designed with the argus in mind.Average cadence must have been about 150 for the whole ride.

[Blue Monster]

All the comments about the seeding seem to contradict other issues:

 

Everyone wants last years event to not have any penalty. So a rider has a good 2013 Argus, and never gets on a bike again, and expects a good start for 2014. There is the problem with riders seeded too high. Possibly have not been on a bike for months.

 

I personally spent the last 13 months preparing for the 2014 Argus. I have done nearly every Racetec event, in an attempt to get a good start at the main seeding races for 94.7 and Argus. My first race last year was the Fast One with a glorious time over 4 hours.

 

I managed to get my seeding index down to the very low 20s, which got me an F start.

 

I also took three weeks off over December, we were out of the country, and took nearly 1 month to feel quick on the bike again. I would hate to think how I would have felt being off the bike for longer.

 

The seeding will never be perfect. But I think it is pretty dam close, with maybe a little more emphasis should be placed on the more recent events.

 

Would you guys answer a questing honestly on the entry form, as to whether you in the race for fun(day out), or to race (racing snake)?

[stringbean]

I agree Blue monster,but when I start passing people that started in the racing tandem group on my mtb,something is wrong.

[GLuvsMtb]

I agree Blue monster,but when I start passing people that started in the racing tandem group on my mtb,something is wrong.

Its only wrong if no one passed you on their road bikes. Shouldn't you have done the 'right thing' and seeded yourself in the XX1 with a 36 x 11 ratio group down in unseeded??

Edited March 11, 2014 by GLuvsMtb

[stringbean]

Finished in the middle of C so don't think it was the 'wrong thing'.

[Brent]

All the comments about the seeding seem to contradict other issues:

 

Everyone wants last years event to not have any penalty. So a rider has a good 2013 Argus, and never gets on a bike again, and expects a good start for 2014. There is the problem with riders seeded too high. Possibly have not been on a bike for months.

 

 

There will always be times when people get a good seeding against the previous years events and then landed up high up the alphabet soup when they didnt train to be there for the current ride......however.....one cannot implement a seeding system to cater for every single eventuality.

I do think though, that with the PPA/Argus seedings penalising any events over 6 months does require some extra thought but that is for another topic !!

Edited March 11, 2014 by Btus

[eddy]

 

 

Oh - And can the repair centres please have spare 29er tyres next year?

 

I blew my back tyre near Soetwater and they only had a mountain of 26inch MTB tyres and road tyres, none of which helped and I was sadly rendered as a DNF following some failed attempts at inserting tubes into my tubeless tyre with ruptured side wall which both blew.

 

 

A road tyre is a 29" tyre.