Urban MTB Assalt

[DR ◣◢]

Thats what I thought as well, last time i saw Maxxis on his Stead - i remember the green rims...

if it was @maxxis - Mark would love to join you guys on your next spruit ride.

that was his first experience of the spruit ever.

Is Mark your SO? Hahaha. That is awesome! I had such a solid time riding with him. Sucks that he had to bail out. Mind you so did I only 5km later.

 

He is welcome to join us on the next ride.

[ChUkKy]

Was a lekker event, even though mine was cut short due to technical failure. Total noob mistake: sidewall cut on that little soft-sand decent around 10km in, just before the cemetary, followed by not checking for thorns when putting the tube in *pssshhhtt*. had a few offers of tubes but everyone was carrying ones with Shrader valves which don't fit. Walked back to start, thanks to Mike Bike for the tube and then a solo mission trying to regroup with the missus and mates. The beers in the backpack went down really well!

 

Not sad to miss the smelly sewers, but would have been nice to have a go at more of the obstacles. bottlenecks were crazy!

 

You took a tube from that dodgy old ballie, Mike Bike

Im suprised it wasnt full of holes.

[FlandersZA]

Are you thinking of the correct bridge? I flew up the OXFORD road bridge (and we had no issue riding down the other side) but the RIVONIA road bridge (linking School road) was too steep for me to ride up. The ride down was more subtle and totally safe.

 

Ya, the first one of the two road crossing bridges was a definite highlight for me. The 2nd one I encountered was closed. I blasted up it but then had to murder the brakes to stop for the crowd at the top. Nobody was willing to ride down the other end so it ended up just myself and one other guy hammering down on our bikes. This, however, highlights a point that a few others have made. Please, for the love of all that is good in the world, if you feel the need to walk the obstacle, then by all means, but crikey, MOVE out of the way for people who do want to ride. A woman almost walked in front of me on the way up (which would have been reeaaaally bad) and then when I came down, I nearly had to dodge people again who were simply not looking and walking in the line.

 

Having said that, I do believe there is a bit to consider with following distance, especially when behind someone who looks a bit unsure of things. I went OTB into one of the small drains near Melrose. A woman in front of me backed out of the obstacle at the last second and I almost hit her and went OTB. Luckily not serious and I blame myself for that one.

 

Question -

 

I am not seeded and was my first race/event so started in V. The first portion of the ride was very slow. Once the field had opened up later, I was then riding solo and felt good so I decided to ramp it up and so I was passing a lot of people. When I got into Delta, there was a line of about 15 people riding very slowly. I went right and passed. At the same time a woman (who I'm not sure was even a participant) came from the opposite direction. She went off at me, screeching at me to "blinking move left!". WTF? Was I in the wrong here? She was headed into oncoming traffic during a race and throws a hissy at me passing. At that point I couldn't move left because of the train of riders I was passing. Is racing etiquette the normal 'keep left/pass right' type thing?

[MTBc]

You took a tube from that dodgy old ballie, Mike Bike

Im suprised it wasnt full of holes.

 

He did warn me it might be a holy tube. In all fairness, I was looking much dodgier than him on the day. I wasn't even invited to join for a beer.

[Tromp]

I don't think i have ever seen and heard so many people fall as yesterday.

Switch off your hearing aid , and you won't HEAR so many people fall. Oh , Lekker , 600 posts of peeing you off Ha Ha

[ChUkKy]

Advanced appologies if i missed it in a previous comment but...

 

WTF was with that purple ramp towards the end, I saw its height and knew i didn't have the legs to take it on, but in front of me was a lady walking away from it with a broken collarbone and there were 4 or 5 people that i saw behind me that tried it and bailed really bad.

 

Does it make a great photo op to see people getting hurt? Why not put it earlier in the race when people have fresh legs and more importantly are concentrating rather than being dehydrated and legless.

 

It makes an awesome photo op when its taken properly, where can I find my photo?

 

Surely your body tells your mind to steer left or right of it if you are too tired to jump it?

 

I cant blame organisers for that, its a matter of choice, if the aunty fell and broke her collarbone thats her own fault really.

There was tons of room either side of it to go around.

[martinsnyman]

Ok, so all the complaints like bottlenecks and lack of water points aside, we loved the course and had loads of fun - up to the 41km mark where my riding buddy fell and fractured his wrist quite badly.

 

10:28 - I phoned one of the emergency numbers on my number board - 082 566 4605 and got through to Russel. I was assured that a medic was on his way and that we should wait, so we did.

 

10:48 - I phoned Russel again to inform him that we were moving out of the single track where the incident happened and would be right next to William Nichol rd to make it easier for the medics to reach us.

 

11:10 - Phoned Russel again to see if he had any news, he assured me they were on there way but said I have to be patient as there were many incidents along the route. Russel confirmed that they would also send a sweeper vehicle to collect our bikes, kit and myself and take me back to the start venue.

 

11:18 - My mate in serious discomfort, so I phone my cousin who lives in Sandton to come and fetch him and take him to Sandton Medi clinic.

 

11:33 - I phone Russel to tell him not to send the medic, but to please still send the sweeper vehicle to get myself and all our kit and both bikes.

 

11:41 - My cousin arrives and takes my mate off to hospital.

 

11:48 - More than one hour after the incident, I am still waiting to be fetched - a Marshall arrives on a motorcycle to come and fetch my mate to take him to hospital - on a motorcycle? He did not have a spare helmet, so was my mate going to ride on the bike without a helmet? 

 

12:32 - Phone Russel to confirm the sweeper vehicle is still on it's way, no answer. I flag down two marshalls on moto -x bikes who are very helpful and they phone someone else.

 

12:33 - I get a call from Jaques to say he is leaving the venue to come and fetch me.

 

13:08 - Jaques fetches me from the side of the road.

 

In my opinion it is disgusting to think an injured rider has to make his own arrangements to get to hospital! 

 

The event was oversubscribed, there were not nearly enough medic's, recovery vehicles, or marshals - I mean ones that could assist, not the ones lying in the bushes playing on their cell phones. 

 

As said earlier, we really enjoyed the route, but there were serious issues that needs to be addressed for future events. 

 

Edited by martinsnyman, Today, 12:34.

[HollardJUMA]

Hey everyone, one gallery of photos is up here, trying to dig around to see if I can find more:

 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.809013565797439.1073741867.108250029207133&type=1

 

--Andy

[Daniel J Méssem]

Well, technically we were not a water point - we were a Birzman tech zone - but the BOS iced tea people ran out of their juice at about 10:30. So they packed up and sent the scouts home. We then gave all of our personal water, fruit juice, coke, (beer and Jaeger was reserved for our Swampdog riding buddies ) to the desperately dehydrated last half of the field.

 

This was while Duncan and in his WWII Russian military bike with sidecar and my other half rushed off to clear the shelves of about 70 x 5 litre waters at every retail shopping centre in a 5km radius. Although it wasnt our responsibilty we just felt that it needed to be done. I'm sorry about the few hundred we had to turn away while this unplanned shopping spree happened. I hope you made it to the finish.

 

Just a few notes:

I let guys know that there was water in the scout hall loos, an 80m walk away, but no one I talked to was desperate enough to take 5 minutes to go and fill their bottles there.

 

You use bottles on the Spruit? Really? Most bottles and bikes I saw or worked on were covered with vile smelling substance of unknown origin.

 

The most common mechanical was an apparent lack of air in tyres. But seriously guys no tyres should be 2.5bars. It is just way too hard...

 

The many people whose bike's we sorted and wanted to know where to find us again - we are opening a bike workshop (with coffeshop later) across the road from Fratelli at the Spruit's Trailhead.

 

My camelback had run dry for the 2nd time when I got to your tent - life savers - big THANKYOU!!!

 

Will be looking forward to visiting your new shop on weekend mornings

 

Seeing what you guys are riding, hoping to see some nice AM type bikes / frames at your shop?

[RockCoach]

My camelback had run dry for the 2nd time when I got to your tent - life savers - big THANKYOU!!!

 

Will be looking forward to visiting your new shop on weekend mornings

 

Seeing what you guys are riding, hoping to see some nice AM type bikes / frames at your shop?

Thanks.

Have a look at some recent posts on the 'Post you Pyga' thread.

[hayleyearth]

It makes an awesome photo op when its taken properly, where can I find my photo?

 

Surely your body tells your mind to steer left or right of it if you are too tired to jump it?

 

I cant blame organisers for that, its a matter of choice, if the aunty fell and broke her collarbone thats her own fault really.

There was tons of room either side of it to go around.

 

 

Agree 100%.

 

Really I can not believe some people! It is like a moth to a flame it seems ...'oh pretty purple thing, let me ride over it' (without knowing if I will be able to roll off the other side or have to keep my front up for a bit)

 

I tell you, I was shocked yesterday with the actions of some people.

[Ferret69]

Agree 100%.

 

Really I can not believe some people! It is like a moth to a flame it seems ...'oh pretty purple thing, let me ride over it' (without knowing if I will be able to roll off the other side or have to keep my front up for a bit)

 

I tell you, I was shocked yesterday with the actions of some people.

 

 

I Cannot Agree More, I was riding outta A bunch and probably in the first 50 to pass that Purple Ramp, and I even knew in my Fatigued state to bow my head sheepishly and ride around the side cringing as I heard the Camera Snaps.

[Ispeed_V]

22 KM non winner.

 

Racetec 22 KM winner. A bit of an oopsy if you ask mee

 

100 item(s) of 100 on page:

Name: Race Time: Position: Gender: Gender Position: Start Group: Group Position: Age Group: Age Position: Avg. Speed:

Gierke, Grant 0:02:01 1/1155 M 1/801 VIPS 1/10 M 30-39 1/260 654.55

[habanero]

I did the 22km even though there were bottlenecks still had great fun. I was not technically skilled enough for all the technical sections so would love to be able to do a course to get myself up to scratch for next year. Did most sections but also needed to walk some because there were to many people walking already.  

[Guest Travis.]

I was handed a couple of these

You were lucky. I was told to get my own. 

[Guest Travis.]

I'm still paying the price for re-hydrating with these. Went down like mothers milk at the time though.

HTFU