Trans Baviaans 2016

[hboli4]

Rode my first Trans this weekend. The route is tough the MAK wow what a climb, watching the bike lights from either looking up or down was spectacular. The waterpoints were great well stocked, those sosaties, jaffels and soup all seem to come at the correct time. Luckily the weather was great, the evening did get pretty chilly. The last 5kms of singletrack felt like it was never going to end. I don't like shopping malls but when i saw the mall at Jeffreys i had the biggest smile. Will i go back and do it again for sure!!!!

Ja looking up from the bottom of MAC at night can really put you down...

[Nancy Drew]

Can someone explain how it is that Yolande de Villiers won in the mixed team category? Wasn't she sanctioned earlier this year for an anti-doping violation?

[Mopkop]

Aish I was hoping for different news regarding the surface...Suicide it will be then.

 

How deep are there watercrossings after Bergplaas? Do you suggest dry clothes only at CP 5? There are usually a couple after the big dipper but they just wet the tires and depending on water levels one after CP5 just before the NeverEnder.

The crossings are not deep at all but at speed its enough to wet your feet again. If at bergplaas its dark already, pack a spare windbreaker/gillet in your pocket as those descents get freaken cold after the Pakhuis check point (I dunno if theres a box for pakhuis)

[Velouria]

All I can say is pack your dual sus.. and if you dont have a dual GO AND GET ONE. The surface up to check point 2 K@k. That section is suicide on a hardtail.

 

Otherwise the event was awesome. food was great and water points very nicely stocked.

 

PS, there still some water crossings after bergplaas so pack your dry clothes accordingly

 

Yeah - hard tail and Lauf fork were probably not the best idea. But we survived. The last 5kms were tougher on the bum than the first 100kms of cr@ppy corrugations and road debris. That being said - the Kloof road is in probably the worst condition I have ever seen it.

 

Despite the constant headwind and bad road surface, it was still quite a fast ride.

 

Great to see the competition in the ladies/mixed heating up quite a bit - for those guys with weak ego's - time to up your game - two mixed teams in the top 5!

 

Aish I was hoping for different news regarding the surface...Suicide it will be then.

 

How deep are there watercrossings after Bergplaas? Do you suggest dry clothes only at CP 5? There are usually a couple after the big dipper but they just wet the tires and depending on water levels one after CP5 just before the NeverEnder.

If you can make CP5 without changing your kit, I'd go all the way in the same kit. Grab a jammer and some other warm stuff. Unless you're intent on swimming in the earlier river crossings or something...

[hboli4]

Yeah - hard tail and Lauf fork were probably not the best idea. But we survived. The last 5kms were tougher on the bum than the first 100kms of cr@ppy corrugations and road debris. That being said - the Kloof road is in probably the worst condition I have ever seen it.

 

Despite the constant headwind and bad road surface, it was still quite a fast ride.

 

Great to see the competition in the ladies/mixed heating up quite a bit - for those guys with weak ego's - time to up your game - two mixed teams in the top 5!

 

If you can make CP5 without changing your kit, I'd go all the way in the same kit. Grab a jammer and some other warm stuff. Unless you're intent on swimming in the earlier river crossings or something...

I was really hoping for better news regarding the road surface, as you say it has been deteriorating steadily each year, did my 1st one in 2010 and I remember it getting worse each year it seems...

 

So 'shake-rattle-and-roll' it will be..

 

We generally hit Bergplaas after 20.00 and then do a change of clothing and dress a bit warmer, usually finish between 15 and 18 hours. Changing clothes is more a nicety as a necessity I guess, maybe we will go through this year...

[V12man]

Well - we really f..ed up a few things - fortunately nothing too toxic.... adapt or die as they say:

 

Sent WP4 box off from registration of Friday with spare batteries, emergency warm and dry kit etc

 

Packed WP2 and 3 boxes for shipment the next day but one thing let to another and we arived at the drop off 40 seconds after the truck left (actrually saw it pulling out as we arrived)

 

No big deal - put a few more things in pockets and off we go....

 

Get to WP4 and chasing light to get down the hill, somehow we forgot that was the final box pickup point.... and we figured it out at WP5 after asking where the boxes were... and many blank stares later we got the message... turn around or forget it....

 

So we rode from 5 using 1 light at a time where possible (no spare batteries) and that worked out fine - I was pretty confident my light would last till the end on low power and it did - fortunately only about 3 hours of riding in the dark, so it worked out well in the end.

 

Lessons learned:

 

1 - BOTH partners must read the instructions

2 - there is a route profile sticker.... (fortunately 1 of us had one... not me)

3- If you plan to be under 12 hours, then it's probably not neccesary to pack a spare battery for anything except a failure

4 - ITB hurts.... never had any issues on that knee ever, but fell off 10 days ago and gave it a knock, so that's probably the root cause, although it was not giving trouble at the time, it did cause me to pedal up the top half of MAC with basically 1 leg, and then suffer all the way home - now struggling to walk up and down stairs...

 

Still - all in all a good ride - not sure it's really my iea of fun riding, so not in any hurry to go back.

[Grondpad]

Sho! This was much harder than I thought it was going to be (and I thought it was going to be really really really hard). Genade!!!

 

The first 104km was terrible. They say take it easy but you still rattle into pieces. I still don’t have feeling in my left hands small finger.

 

We got to Bergplaas just before 18:00 and I was shivering. I don’t know if it was really that cold or if it was me that had such a hard time on the MAC (what does MAC mean anyway?). Changed some clothes, had soup and it helped a bit.

 

Then the Neverender was hard. I think if its not for the 180km before it, it won’t be so bad but it was brutal in the race.

 

We finished in 13:22 (stukkend!)

 

Good stuff:
The beer
The check point is next level. A lot of races can take note here.
The scenery (if you can see through your bleeding eyeballs)
The vibe throughout the 2 days (from WIllowmore the night before until JB)
My super strong partner (physically and mentally). He was a machine and if it wasn’t for him I would have packed it in at Bergplaas.

 

Bad stuff
Not much, really. You cannot fault the race. Only the lack of training

 

What did I learn
Us MTB’rs are a special kind of breed.

 

Will I be back. Absolutely not. I am still shattered. The box is ticked, never again.

[TheJ]

MAC = Mother of All Climbs

[Prozac]

man i'm looking forward to this race this weekend !!!!

[Prozac]

Please keep those reports coming . . . 

[Mike 1]

MAC = Mother of All Climbs

....with a silent F...

[Velouria]

Get to WP4 and chasing light to get down the hill, somehow we forgot that was the final box pickup point.... and we figured it out at WP5 after asking where the boxes were... and many blank stares later we got the message... turn around or forget it....

 

Still - all in all a good ride - not sure it's really my iea of fun riding, so not in any hurry to go back.

 

I have the same issue - I never know which checkpoint is which - the first checkpoint where they don't check you, then the first time they do check you is at the second checkpoint. From then on, oxygen debt starts messing with the brain and I have to refer to checkpoints by their descriptions - the one at the long river crossing, Bergplaas, Kondomo, and the last checkpoint (which in the past wasn't the last checkpoint as the unmanned checkpoint used to be after it).

 

As for fun - I thought it was fun. Sitting in a bunch with 40 mates, eating dust and hunting for that elusive smooth line for 3 hours certainly beats sitting at work. And that's not even the fun part of Baviaans!

 

Sho! This was much harder than I thought it was going to be (and I thought it was going to be really really really hard). Genade!!!

 

The first 104km was terrible. They say take it easy but you still rattle into pieces. I still don’t have feeling in my left hands small finger.

 

We got to Bergplaas just before 18:00 and I was shivering. I don’t know if it was really that cold or if it was me that had such a hard time on the MAC (what does MAC mean anyway?). Changed some clothes, had soup and it helped a bit.

 

Then the Neverender was hard. I think if its not for the 180km before it, it won’t be so bad but it was brutal in the race.

 

We finished in 13:22 (stukkend!)

 

Good stuff:

The beer

The check point is next level. A lot of races can take note here.

The scenery (if you can see through your bleeding eyeballs)

The vibe throughout the 2 days (from WIllowmore the night before until JB)

My super strong partner (physically and mentally). He was a machine and if it wasn’t for him I would have packed it in at Bergplaas.

 

Bad stuff

Not much, really. You cannot fault the race. Only the lack of training

 

What did I learn

Us MTB’rs are a special kind of breed.

 

Will I be back. Absolutely not. I am still shattered. The box is ticked, never again.

Well done Grondpad. It was cold at Bergplaas - we got to the bottom with frozen hands and feet, and that was at 4pm. And that block headwind didn't do much to warm things up!

 

I'll give you a week, but I'm prepared to bet that you'll be back next year!

[GLuvsMtb]

Can someone explain how it is that Yolande de Villiers won in the mixed team category? Wasn't she sanctioned earlier this year for an anti-doping violation?

IIRC she served her ban of 11 months from March 2015 to Jan 2016, so she is surely clear to compete again? I recall that they found traces of hydrochlorothiazide which she explained as medication she took for high blood pressure? I'm no expert here, can someone remember the full story?  

[Velouria]

IIRC she served her ban of 11 months from March 2015 to Jan 2016, so she is surely clear to compete again? I recall that they found traces of hydrochlorothiazide which she explained as medication she took for high blood pressure? I'm no expert here, can someone remember the full story?  

She still raced Baviaans last year and won the mixed category. Don't think she gave the prize money back...

[Mike 1]

She still raced Baviaans last year and won the mixed category. Don't think she gave the prize money back...

Know off hand what the prize money was this year for the ladies?

[Velouria]

Know off hand what the prize money was this year for the ladies?

No idea - not even listed on the website...