2018 PPA CycloSportif

[babse]

oh yes... more ques on the morning   

[Pure Savage]

Just send your team manager to collect all your stickers [emoji58]

[MDJ]

Just send your team manager to collect all your stickers [emoji58]

 

... so you can queue for the bathroom instead 

[Pure Savage]

... so you can queue for the bathroom instead

Ha ha ha!! So true!!!

[Breezer]

Can we still enter tomorrow morning?

[-Az-]

not according to the website

 

"Entries close 2018-11-29"

[Breezer]

not according to the website

 

"Entries close 2018-11-29"

I was hoping that it was just for online entries.

[MDJ]

Yes there will late entries in the morning tomorrow based on the official email I received yesterday.

 

A limited number of late entries will be available at registration on the morning from 04h30, so please do tell your friends who may have missed the cut-off, about it.

 

 

LATE ENTRIES

Distance

PPA Members

Non Members

91 km

R350

R450

 

 

[Mamil]

This bathroom ... portaloo story is my pet hate at PPA road events. Very often there are 4 loos and a queue of 40 people all crossing their legs and looking nervously at their watches. Advice to organisers... think about how many portaloos are needed and then double it.

 

... so you can queue for the bathroom instead

[Skubarra]

So after 7 years of "crash free" road cycling my luck finally ran out...

 

Was chilling at the back of A-B bunch when the middle of the bunch went down near the Hermon turn-off.

 

"No problems that is why I ride at the back of the bunch, will just pass to the right of the crash"

 

"Oh crap, the bike marshall in front of me is now also stopping, no prob, will just pass him to the right as well"

 

"Oh f^&* the bike marshall is now also swerving to the right, I might have to pass him in the emergency lane"

 

"OH F%^& the bike marshall is also swerving into the emergency lane, hope I can make a soft landing in the grass..."

 

"Oh f$%^ f%^& there is a barrier" 

 

So that was me, the bike marshall and the barrier connecting at the same time. I came off worst of the 3, at least I saw it coming, I think the bike marshall got a proper fright when out of the blue someone crashed into the right hand side of his bike.

 

Busted knee, buckled front rim, guess it could have been worse. Somehow limped to the finish line.

[Mamil]

Mark Cavendish and I have two things in common: we've both had bouts of glandular fever this year and neither of us has the middle medal to complete the 2018 "coffee coaster" cyclosportif set. It's up on my wall next to the kitchen anyway - like a wheel without a hub or a pie that someone started eating from the middle.

 

Bugger.

 

I arrived at Windmeul really early - no way was I falling foul of the registration woes that beleaguer the sportifs or the foulness of the portaloos and the infernal queue. In one of the little twists of the knife that prove that there is a deity and (s)he enjoys taking the p!ss out of me, there was an abundance of portaloos but none of them was operational yet because the Bidvest guys were still assembling them. 

 

I knuiped and veiled my annoyance behind a bitter smile. I have only myself to blame - I must stop having second helpings of almost anything that's going and snacking inbetween too. 

 

Seeded E-F but definitely not backing myself to hold the wheels I lined up in G-I along with BillyGoat who looked his usual skinny self.

 

The race itself followed the familiar pattern. We bombed down to Wellington - a somewhat sedate pace to Hermon considering the tailwind - so sedate that I took a few turns on the front just because I love the feeling of it but didn't manage to be there when the cameras were so frankly what was the point?

 

Enjoyed a collie walking with his owner on the farm alongside the road as he sprinted alongside us - we may have looked like a herd of sheep?

 

Felt the frisson of fear as we rode past the mopping up operations of the crash that Skubarra described - hope noone too seriously hurt and just after we turned towards the climb I heard someone go down behind me followed by a call of "don't look back" and hope noone hurt in that one either.

 

Strung out like clothes on the line up the hill, Billygoat squeezed around a wider rider he'd been sheltering behind and disappeared as I knew he would. He finished 8 minutes ahead of me according to Strava. I managed to stay in the main bunch but got dropped on the rollers on the way back. Just a brief note of thanks to the Savage from A-B (obviously had his race plans changed by the crash) who dragged the bunch up the long drag at a pace just a little too fast for recuperating Mamils to hold ... 

 

Just over 3 hours - meh - but not bad considering how sick I was not too long ago.

 

2019 - here we come!

[Tomik]

I was right behind the riders that went down. Happened because guy in front of me was putting his bottle back in (at 52kph!) and spent too much time looking down. Didn't see group slowing slightly and went at straight into the guy in front of him. Then the carnage behind me.

 

I hit the guys bike, cut the side of my shoe and grazed my calf possibly on his bladed spokes, but stayed on fortunately. Others behind weren't so lucky.

 

Hope everyone heals well. And learns something from this incident.

 

A video should be up on YT shortly (a friend had a gopro).

[Pure Savage]

I was in the dudes wheel that went down, was super slow mo, he took a sip and look behind, then, the group slowed and he ploughing inti the back left of poor dude in front, luckily didn’t have to swerve much as they were skipping along the tarmac still pretty quickly.

 

I think the African teams thought there were UCI points on offer today they rode [emoji854][emoji854][emoji854]

[babse]

I was in the dudes wheel that went down, was super slow mo, he took a sip and look behind, then, the group slowed and he ploughing inti the back left of poor dude in front, luckily didn’t have to swerve much as they were skipping along the tarmac still pretty quickly.

 

I think the African teams thought there were UCI points on offer today they rode [emoji854][emoji854][emoji854]

Felt like a continental race with all the foreigners out there.

[TC KIECK]

I was right behind the riders that went down. Happened because guy in front of me was putting his bottle back in (at 52kph!) and spent too much time looking down. Didn't see group slowing slightly and went at straight into the guy in front of him. Then the carnage behind me.

 

I hit the guys bike, cut the side of my shoe and grazed my calf possibly on his bladed spokes, but stayed on fortunately. Others behind weren't so lucky.

 

Hope everyone heals well. And learns something from this incident.

 

A video should be up on YT shortly (a friend had a gopro).

can you share the link please.

[Frail. "Will forever remain "Frail"]

Does No One cycle to Events anymore?

 

Me getting lonely, warming up the Legs before races!