Subaru Cape Town presents the Western Cape XCO Champs

[Nick]

So who will be testing out the course on Friday afternoon? Might be nice to compare notes.

[Thermophage]

Myles, can I ask you something, as you know those trails.

 

Is it normally a puncture fest there? I had quite a few on Saturday and Sunday. Was I just unlucky or is that normal there?

Tonnes of devil thornes, but since I make sure I have tyre sealant I have no issues The rocks tend not to be sharp, that Malmsbury group stuff tends to break up easily and get rounded.. You may just have been unlucky the past weekend. Enjoy and don't be weary of Lombards, its chilled...And honestly, if I was racing some the the B lines are much faster IMHO anyway than the jumps

[Fisan]

Are there any people taking part for fun?

 

I've done an XCO once, only to be dropped hard in the first lap. I could use a cold coming up as an excuse....but these guys were just next level. 

[dev null]

I will be there tomorrow afternoon for registration while my son get to k now the course, and then Saturday morning at 9 when my son races.

[Jorrie]

Hey Jorrie,

 

The Bloemendal race circuit is BRILLIANT. There are jumps, small drops and doubles (rollable gap jumps, effectively) interspersed with a couple of rock gardens and plenty berms. 

 

EVERYTHING has an A / B / C line, and it's all very new and very well built. There is only one "Big" jump, and you can't miss it. It's at the top end of the course, and it's out of a berm where you need to carry your speed and STILL pedal in order to carry enough speed for the jump. Gap is about a bike length, but it's still intimidating. There's a LEKKER little rock garden as the B line, which you can just hang back and blast through with not a worry in the world if you have enough speed.

 

The only 2 places I'd consider warning you about are:

 

1st drop section (raised) - the biggest one on the right has a raised rock just before the crest, that if you don't hit properly will try and buck you. They are ALL rollable though, so there's no issue if you want to ride it a few times just to get used to it.

 

2nd section - Right at the bottom there's a section of woops (doubles & jumps) that are in a walled hollow. It's not that section itself, rather the exit. The woops are about 8-10m wide a the widest section, but the exit narrows to 1.5-2m wide and is over a wooden structure. So you MUST hold the centre line going out of the woop section, otherwise you will not make the exit. 

 

Otherwise - all the other jumps are fun and doable. No angry wheel ending jumps unless you do something HORRIBLY wrong. I wouldn't rate it as technical as Coetzenburg, tbh. But I'm going to be there in the later sections of the day to watch all and sundry. 

 

Oh - if you're not sure of a section, don't worry. As I said - ALL technical sections have A/B/C lines.

 

Thanks for all the great advice, really looking forward!

One last question, is the different lanes marked where you enter them or do you need to know exactly before you ride where to take what lane. Obviously it is advised that you know the course pretty well before you have a go, but we're only going through on Saturday from Tulbagh. I'll propably spend most of the training time to make sure my son knows what lanes to take and make sure he's comfy before worrying about myself.

 

I'll be in Star South kit on a Scott Scale Pro with a worried face say hi!

[Donovan Le Cok]

So who will be testing out the course on Friday afternoon? Might be nice to compare notes.

 

I will be going tomorrow afternoon. Leaving Westlake at 12pm.

[Donovan Le Cok]

Thanks for all the great advice, really looking forward!

One last question, is the different lanes marked where you enter them or do you need to know exactly before you ride where to take what lane. Obviously it is advised that you know the course pretty well before you have a go, but we're only going through on Saturday from Tulbagh. I'll propably spend most of the training time to make sure my son knows what lanes to take and make sure he's comfy before worrying about myself.

 

I'll be in Star South kit on a Scott Scale Pro with a worried face say hi!

 

The lanes are marked and they do indicate which is the B line.

 

Edit: spelling

Edited May 26, 2016 by Donovan Le Cok

[Donovan Le Cok]

Tonnes of devil thornes, but since I make sure I have tyre sealant I have no issues The rocks tend not to be sharp, that Malmsbury group stuff tends to break up easily and get rounded.. You may just have been unlucky the past weekend. Enjoy and don't be weary of Lombards, its chilled...And honestly, if I was racing some the the B lines are much faster IMHO anyway than the jumps

 

Thanks for that. Lombards is great, I hit it a few times on Saturday and Sunday. I agree some of the B lines are faster, but for XCO they will tape them in such a way that there is a bit of a time penalty for taking that line. Everything is very doable and I was clearing all the jumps on my second or third run.

[Donovan Le Cok]

 

A bit of a course preview, well the fun parts anyway. If you are not riding, come and spectate. There will be loads of good racing all day.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

some nice speed through there, Don. Definitely faster than me

[dev null]

Not many blokes I saw could make the triple and double in the gat.

[Iwan Kemp]

[Iwan Kemp]

[RyanD]

That looks friendlier than the cascades course. I was humbled when I rode that a few weeks ago.

 

Is that the case or is the camera flattening things out?

[dev null]

Some pics of my son's race.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dev null]

My son said the flow of the course is better than Helderberg, and the climbs not as bad. Not sure how this compares with Cascades, but I would guess the difficulty of Cascades to be world cup level.

 

The Bloemdal course apparently have 190m of climb over a 5km course.

Edited May 28, 2016 by Moridin