Trans Baviaans 2018

[Velouria]

Well - Ecobound thought the route was corrugated:

 

[Cookie88]

So what is the general consensus around the corrugations this year - more forgiving road surface this year?

[WesleyR]

Thanks for the feedback thus far gents, much appreciated.

[bullet77]

So what is the general consensus around the corrugations this year - more forgiving road surface this year?

Yes, but only from about 30km mark to about 100km mark, thereafter it was the same or slightly wetter/worse. Rather expect the same and enjoy the smoother sections when they come.   

[Dicky DQ]

So what is the general consensus around the corrugations this year - more forgiving road surface this year?

Smooth as a baby's bottom. I did it on a hard tail and did not notice the corrugations this year.

[Dicky DQ]

Hey Guys,

Some advice for a first timer on what to pack in the boxes? As i understand it you get 3. CP 2, 3 & 4. I would think lights in CP3 box and warm clothes in 4.

 

What else should I be looking at packing?

Well we know it was going to be cold at the start so so we wore all our clothes and there was then no need to pack anything else. We still spent too much time at the stops though. I do not believe you need to pack anything.

[MTBmeisie]

This year I did my first Trans Baviaans, 5 months prior to the weekend I very impulsively decided to do it. I had never rode more than about 50km's on a mountainbike and my 'biggest race' was the short distance at the Attakwas in 2017.

 

Anyway, I'm a 24 year old girl and I completed the race with another girl in 14 hours on a hardtail with a not so great responding fork (luckily I only found out at the end).

Our riding time was 11:58, we just spent a little too much time at the checkpoints.

 

So to all the newbies like me, this race is completely do-able, even with minimal training (the suffering will just be worse) 

Don't start with too much food in your pockets, the water points are loaded with everything you need, definitely pack in a roosterkoek at CP1 for the road, I read that advice on here and it helped me a lot.

Only put dry socks on at Bergplaas.

Ry saggies oor die klippe.

Make sure you and your teammate have the same goal in mind.

[Wasbeer]

This year I did my first Trans Baviaans, 5 months prior to the weekend I very impulsively decided to do it. I had never rode more than about 50km's on a mountainbike and my 'biggest race' was the short distance at the Attakwas in 2017.

 

Anyway, I'm a 24 year old girl and I completed the race with another girl in 14 hours on a hardtail with a not so great responding fork (luckily I only found out at the end).

Our riding time was 11:58, we just spent a little too much time at the checkpoints.

 

So to all the newbies like me, this race is completely do-able, even with minimal training (the suffering will just be worse)

Don't start with too much food in your pockets, the water points are loaded with everything you need, definitely pack in a roosterkoek at CP1 for the road, I read that advice on here and it helped me a lot.

Only put dry socks on at Bergplaas.

Ry saggies oor die klippe.

Make sure you and your teammate have the same goal in mind.

Did you have the awesome reflector jackets?

[TheJ]

I underdressed. Completely my own fault, especially when I had lots of warm stuff stashed in all the drop boxes.

 

Started the race feeling hundreds, sitting with a great average speed, feeling good. Started the race with my RideFarr jacket on, it was perfect. And a buff around my neck which was pulled over my face if it got a bit dusty.

 

I think at CP2 or so I took the jacket off, so then just had a regular race shirt on, short sleeve. It was cool but ok. On the downhills I could feel it was a bit nippy. On the 2nd fang the legs came off, but I'm not sure if it was from fitness (which I doubt, I'm pretty fit), or the cold shutting the body down. So I put the jacket back on, but damage done. Oh, and by that stage I had already hurled once. More on that later.

 

Bergplaas took forever thanks to me walking most of it. At the top I took my RideFarr jacket off (windproof), and put my thermal top on, nice and fluffy (not windproof). My teammate was feeling 100x better than me, but with me being faster on downhills I dropped down MAC much faster than he did so that he could rather catch me up and not waste time. He caught up about 5km after the downhill ended.

 

At Pakhuis I was cold. The thermal wasn't doing its job, or it was but it was no match for the cold. The wind would just blow whatever warmth you had straight out the back of the thermal. Left there still cold, quite cold.

 

On never ender I died. I'm pretty sure it must have been the cold shutting the body down. I crawled while on the bike, and walked. I would stop and lay my head on my handlebars to "rest". Twice, I immediately fell asleep. My legs would buckle and that sense of falling wakes you up again. Cold. I think I read once its signs of mild hypothermia, the sleepiness. Other friends also reported being very "sleepy". Oh, and stopped to properly hurl on Never Ender. 

 

Never ender took over 2 hours I think.

 

At CP7 our supporters saw us off, but 500m later I turned around and asked for another jacket. Gatvol of the cold. I put my rain top (windbreaker/rainjacket) over my thermal, and only then did I feel the heat starting to build. Finally. The last 30km into JBay I was strong (thanks to heat?). MiniMAC was a breeze, legs strong. Smashed up the last climb to the mall catching 5 or 6 teams.

 

Finished in 14h40m or so. Almost 3 hours slower than planned. Riders who I usually assist with a push on the back during group rides, came past me on Bergplaas and Never Ender. So yeah, a bad day.

 

* Overshare warning *

 

At CP2 or CP3, can't recall where, I grabbed a quarter slice of orange, as I really enjoy oranges in general. I was "clever" and didn't touch any of the sugar chewy sweets or anything. Orange and a potato to keep everything natural. Also had a very lekker sosatie.

 

On Baviaans Back, I puked. What comes out...? half of the orange I had. Sosatie still down. At Bergplaas I had a cup of soup and half a slice of bread, very lekker. Also downed the protein milk. No puking. At Pakhuis I had a few bites of a chiproll. And also the most of a can of Score for a bit of kick.

 

5km into Never Ender, huge puking. What comes out? Not the sosatie. Not the chip roll. Not the soup. Not the bread. The other half of the fking orange comes out that I had BEFORE the other stuff I ate, hours ago. So the stomach literally pick 'n chooses what it wants and doesn't want, and literally just purges THAT one thing.

 

I wish I could find someone that could sort my food out for me, dunno how. In all the long events I do my stomach always gets upset. Training always on point. Nutrition always a f-up.

 

Anyway, Baviaans No.11 done. 

[Jakkals.]

2 knee ops in Feb/March, condition: osteochondritis, I'm still battling but getting there.

YTD training 700km, last year Knysna was the last for me on a bike due to severe knee pain.

Baviaans time 11h48m. cant say that I'm unhappy about the time. Conditions were perfect.

[TheJ]

2 knee ops in Feb/March, condition: osteochondritis, I'm still battling but getting there.

YTD training 700km, last year Knysna was the last for me on a bike due to severe knee pain.

Baviaans time 11h48m. cant say that I'm unhappy about the time. Conditions were perfect.

 

I've also got a dodgy knee. Doesn't hurt all the time, just now and then a little bit. But forget about standing up from a crouch. I can run and cycle without pain 95% of the time. Knee been bad for 5 years. Have always put off going to have it checked/fixed.

[Pure Savage]

I underdressed. Completely my own fault, especially when I had lots of warm stuff stashed in all the drop boxes.

 

Started the race feeling hundreds, sitting with a great average speed, feeling good. Started the race with my RideFarr jacket on, it was perfect. And a buff around my neck which was pulled over my face if it got a bit dusty.

 

I think at CP2 or so I took the jacket off, so then just had a regular race shirt on, short sleeve. It was cool but ok. On the downhills I could feel it was a bit nippy. On the 2nd fang the legs came off, but I'm not sure if it was from fitness (which I doubt, I'm pretty fit), or the cold shutting the body down. So I put the jacket back on, but damage done. Oh, and by that stage I had already hurled once. More on that later.

 

Bergplaas took forever thanks to me walking most of it. At the top I took my RideFarr jacket off (windproof), and put my thermal top on, nice and fluffy (not windproof). My teammate was feeling 100x better than me, but with me being faster on downhills I dropped down MAC much faster than he did so that he could rather catch me up and not waste time. He caught up about 5km after the downhill ended.

 

At Pakhuis I was cold. The thermal wasn't doing its job, or it was but it was no match for the cold. The wind would just blow whatever warmth you had straight out the back of the thermal. Left there still cold, quite cold.

 

On never ender I died. I'm pretty sure it must have been the cold shutting the body down. I crawled while on the bike, and walked. I would stop and lay my head on my handlebars to "rest". Twice, I immediately fell asleep. My legs would buckle and that sense of falling wakes you up again. Cold. I think I read once its signs of mild hypothermia, the sleepiness. Other friends also reported being very "sleepy". Oh, and stopped to properly hurl on Never Ender. 

 

Never ender took over 2 hours I think.

 

At CP7 our supporters saw us off, but 500m later I turned around and asked for another jacket. Gatvol of the cold. I put my rain top (windbreaker/rainjacket) over my thermal, and only then did I feel the heat starting to build. Finally. The last 30km into JBay I was strong (thanks to heat?). MiniMAC was a breeze, legs strong. Smashed up the last climb to the mall catching 5 or 6 teams.

 

Finished in 14h40m or so. Almost 3 hours slower than planned. Riders who I usually assist with a push on the back during group rides, came past me on Bergplaas and Never Ender. So yeah, a bad day.

 

* Overshare warning *

 

At CP2 or CP3, can't recall where, I grabbed a quarter slice of orange, as I really enjoy oranges in general. I was "clever" and didn't touch any of the sugar chewy sweets or anything. Orange and a potato to keep everything natural. Also had a very lekker sosatie.

 

On Baviaans Back, I puked. What comes out...? half of the orange I had. Sosatie still down. At Bergplaas I had a cup of soup and half a slice of bread, very lekker. Also downed the protein milk. No puking. At Pakhuis I had a few bites of a chiproll. And also the most of a can of Score for a bit of kick.

 

5km into Never Ender, huge puking. What comes out? Not the sosatie. Not the chip roll. Not the soup. Not the bread. The other half of the fking orange comes out that I had BEFORE the other stuff I ate, hours ago. So the stomach literally pick 'n chooses what it wants and doesn't want, and literally just purges THAT one thing.

 

I wish I could find someone that could sort my food out for me, dunno how. In all the long events I do my stomach always gets upset. Training always on point. Nutrition always a f-up.

 

Anyway, Baviaans No.11 done. 

Go to spar, buy a christmas cake. cut up so fits in pockets. done.

[TheJ]

Go to spar, buy a christmas cake. cut up so fits in pockets. done.

 

I am a huge Christmas Cake fan. I will try this!!!

[GAP]

Double trouble for me, doing it again this weekend, got a last minute invite. Super excited!!!!

[Groadie]

Its been great reading all the various stories of this years Race edition. My crew and I saddle up and head out on Friday (from Cape Town). That's part of the whole adventure, right? Some of us in the team have sub-10 times in past "bumpier" TB's, so we're excited to hear that things are a bit smoother (and it looks like another tailwind - gentle, but we'll take it!).

 

The winning times from the Race were unbelievable! SO many sub-9/10hr times really showed that not only were the conditions good but that the riders were also fully prepared to race from the word go. Just finishing this race is a huge kudo - but to really power down over that distance is amazing endurance and awesome cycling. 

 

TheJ - you had one of those days out there. It sounds like you really had to dig deep to overcome the challenges of the day. Well done man. (Strangely enough, I've often craved fruit - especially oranges - on hot stages of the Epic in the past. Fortunately they haven't had the inclination to climb out again).

 

Anyway - thanks for all the stories. We are now starting to get excited (as we do each year) for this truly South African experience (we do love to suffer the long gravel stuff!).

[TheJ]

Double trouble for me, doing it again this weekend, got a last minute invite. Super excited!!!!

 

I'd go again if I weren't already in for another event this coming weekend.