Delarey Posted November 3, 2017 Share Yeah I am good with climbing...but it has to be a what goes up must come down thing...haha...not just up and up and up!If you are ever in the Sedgefield area I strongly recommend that you try the Garden Route Trail Park. The Mountain Mania trail has a downhill that is the best I have ever ridden. On strava the section is called The Long Drop. This single track downhill is 5.2 km from top to bottom and you drop 227m in elevation. It's got big burms and switch backs that drops several meters in the bends. All very ridable and exhilarating. dev null and Fox3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dev null Posted November 3, 2017 Share If you are ever in the Sedgefield area I strongly recommend that you try the Garden Route Trail Park. The Mountain Mania trail has a downhill that is the best I have ever ridden. On strava the section is called The Long Drop. This single track downhill is 5.2 km from top to bottom and you drop 227m in elevation. It's got big burms and switch backs that drops several meters in the bends. All very ridable and exhilarating. I have intimate knowledge of those trails. Lots of my skin still out there at one of those tabletop jumps after the big berms. Edited November 3, 2017 by Moridin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delarey Posted November 3, 2017 Share If you are ever in the Sedgefield area I strongly recommend that you try the Garden Route Trail Park. The Mountain Mania trail has a downhill that is the best I have ever ridden. On strava the section is called The Long Drop. This single track downhill is 5.2 km from top to bottom and you drop 227m in elevation. It's got big burms and switch backs that drops several meters in the bends. All very ridable and exhilarating. Here is a clip I found on youtube: Fireface 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox3 Posted November 3, 2017 Share If you are ever in the Sedgefield area I strongly recommend that you try the Garden Route Trail Park. The Mountain Mania trail has a downhill that is the best I have ever ridden. On strava the section is called The Long Drop. This single track downhill is 5.2 km from top to bottom and you drop 227m in elevation. It's got big burms and switch backs that drops several meters in the bends. All very ridable and exhilarating.Sounds freakin' awesome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox3 Posted November 3, 2017 Share Here is a clip I found on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqzdGT3bezAThat seems like just the thing!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dev null Posted November 5, 2017 Share Day 2 and Day 3 coming soon... Delarey 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dev null Posted November 6, 2017 Share Day 2 So early on after dinner I stuff myself into my tent, trying to get early rest. The humming of the generator bugs me and I try the earplugs. No, not much help for the low frequency humming. I keep trying to catch the elusive zzzz's while there are wholesale carpentry going on around me. My immediate neighbour effortlessly sawing Pine while somewhere off in the distance someone was battling with Rhodesian Teak. The generator dies and darkness descends, but my roasted body refuse to let me slumber. Eventually somewhere around 3h00 I think I find sleep, only to be woken by the generator starting up for the morning. After laying a while I try to sit in the tent and gather the required muster to tackle 'Play Day'. We gather in our starting batch and Paul reckons it will be much cooler today with the cloud cover, and guarantee us that the temperature will not go over 26, or he will buy us all beers. We set off and I start feeling OK. Legs are still very much fine, but the dust gives my Asthma a wake-up call and I pump a few puffs on the inhaler. We keep a steady pace and eventually get to some ST and a queue forms. I have no idea and ask why the hell we are queuing. It turns out there is a loose rocky descent and some people are walking it down. Me and the wife decide, bugger that, we came here to ride. She takes the lead and makes it 2/3 down before her front wheel gives and she puts one foot down the rest of the way. Not to be outdone by the wife, I try to make it further, but also gets undone by the very same few stones. We see WP1, but before we get there have to manage a piece of freshly turned soil. We get to WP1 and eat a bit and fill the bottles. So far so good, the cloud is still keeping things manageable. Almost immediately we hit one of my favourite ST at Oak Valley; the one running along the ravine. I have done this one a few times before and I bomb this one at speed. I know my wife is quite good on ST, so no need for waiting. Before we get to the next ST, some ..... behind me start swearing at some poor bloke walking in front of me. Jeez, some people. Does the bloke not know this is mostly J and K batch? If he was such a ST animal he should he trained more and made sure to start in F batch at the very least. We hit the Sounds Of Silence. Nice ST, but so dusty. We eventually start climbing out of Oak Valley, and the sun decides that we had enough coolness for the day. The cloud dissipates within minutes, and it starts cooking again. By the time we hit the Wit Klippies climb, we are at around 34 degrees again, and my half recovered body start feeling the heat. A whole bunch of us decide to stop at a little stream on the climb to cool down and fill bottles. I go a few meters further and feel like a bug squashed by the heat. All my power moertoe, and decide to call it a day, as do a few other blokes. My wife goes on. Yster. I hit the camp and try to get more rest for the next day. My wife eventually finishes at after a ride of about 7 hours. She looks tired and grilled, but wants to do this. In my mind I just hope I can recover for Day 3. By the looks of her, she will need me to get her to Hermanus. Paul off course have to remedy his poor attempts at weather prediction at dinner. He admits that he was out by about 14 degrees and offer some beers. Not quite 1200 beers, but 48. What do they pay these commentators? Edited November 6, 2017 by Moridin Quagga, SteveS, Delarey and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crankmaster Posted November 6, 2017 Share Is there a way that I can exchange my Medium W2W tops for Large? I only fitted one when I got home, and they are too tight. Obviously I have not worn them at all yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delarey Posted November 7, 2017 Share Is there a way that I can exchange my Medium W2W tops for Large? I only fitted one when I got home, and they are too tight. Obviously I have not worn them at all yet.Owning a W2W shirt that is one size too small is actually a right of passage. The sizes were not as bad as last year, but it was still hit and miss. If at least one of either your jacket or shirt fit then you have done well. Edited November 7, 2017 by Delarey paul goddard 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babse Posted November 7, 2017 Share checked out results of the race, some super quick times with serious average speeds. has this years w2w route been toned down or were conditions just that good/ much stronger field of riders? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dev null Posted November 7, 2017 Share checked out results of the race, some super quick times with serious average speeds. has this years w2w route been toned down or were conditions just that good/ much stronger field of riders? The weather for the Race was almost perfect. The Ride had the worst weather for the tail end of the field while the Adventure were somewhere in between. Day 2 this year had more ST. Day 3 had the same route and Day 1 had one ST cut out at the end I believe. Day 1's first climb was maybe a slight bit easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ttocs Posted November 7, 2017 Share This is still the best stage race in the country by a mile. Thanks to the all the teams who worked on this race, the hospitality was fantastic. A couple other races can learn a lot about how to handle route marking from W2W. Only gripe is with the podium riders who have a "god" complex. If you have a technical and are chasing back you are still required to follow the same rules as all other racers. We are not required to just stop and move over because god has spoken. We will move over when safe to do so, and yes, we are still racing. May the Masters winners have many more technicals in the future as you can only learn from your mistakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riaz Posted November 7, 2017 Share checked out results of the race, some super quick times with serious average speeds. has this years w2w route been toned down or were conditions just that good/ much stronger field of riders? No doubt riders are getting stronger but are the slight route changes making it easier ...Had a look at strava for the last 3 w2w and unless my garmin is under-reading elevation, day 1 climbing was way off2015 Day1 - 74.6km 1582m Day2 - 65.6km 1276m Day3 - 74.6km 1117m2016 Day1 - 63.9km 1628m Day2 - 66km 1251m Day3 - 71.4km 1045m2017 Day1 - 65.6km 1264m Day 2 - 68.5km 1140m Day 3 - 69.4km 939m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaBee Posted November 7, 2017 Share Your Day 1 reading is a bit lower than both mine and my partner's. We had around 1500. But we did comment that on all three days the "advertised" climbing was not reached. And if on Day 3 you're sitting on about 800m gain with very little mileage left and you're awaiting the mother of a climb to take you up to the 1200, it does mess with your head up to the point where you say stuff it. To the guys saying the conditions were perfect - you most likely only saw the highlights package with the leaders riding in the almost dry. Us starting in the later groups had a real fun day on day 1, rain from about the start, wind, wet trails and roads. Hardly ever did not have rain.I was fortunate in that I decided I'd rather put my jacket in my back pocket for the wind more than anything else and see how it goes. I put it on before the start - and there were some guys in just shirts, they must've had a really bad day. Day 2 and 3 were awesome though! LeoKnight 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spinnekop Posted November 7, 2017 Share No doubt riders are getting stronger but are the slight route changes making it easier ...Had a look at strava for the last 3 w2w and unless my garmin is under-reading elevation, day 1 climbing was way off2015 Day1 - 74.6km 1582m Day2 - 65.6km 1276m Day3 - 74.6km 1117m2016 Day1 - 63.9km 1628m Day2 - 66km 1251m Day3 - 71.4km 1045m2017 Day1 - 65.6km 1264m Day 2 - 68.5km 1140m Day 3 - 69.4km 939mGarmin watch2017Day1 - 68km 1697mDay2 - 69km 1148mDay3 - 70.3km 929 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeoKnight Posted November 7, 2017 Share Garmin watch Garmin 520 2017Day1 - 68km 1697m 67.1km 1 367mDay2 - 69km 1148m 64.9km 1 118mDay3 - 70.3km 929 70.2km 939m mine above Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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