2019 Amashova

[Jase619]

Interested to know how you got to this conclusion?

 

Yeah, that is interesting, but comparing the Comrades to a 100km cycle event is laughable at best

[Jarl Borg]

Yeah, that is interesting, but comparing the Comrades to a 100km cycle event is laughable at best

You misunderstood. I was by no means comparing the 2. I was talking about training for the distance, and the Comrades is the most comprehensible example where participants do not cover the actual race distance during training.  

[eddy]

This thread has been very useful.

 

A friend started cycing a few months ago, never having ridden a bike before, and loves it.

 

She did a 76km gravel race in Greyton at the end of September and entered the 94.7 as it would only be another 20kays or so.

 

BUT, she is starting in one of the last batches in the heat of the day and it is likely to be a long hot, not very pleasant ride. Based on the opinions in this thread, she would be much better off doing the 40 and even though I am seeded in D, I may well join her.

 

We can rather go off and do a 100 the next week, starting early enough to get it done before it get too hot.

 

 

 

I would do the full route.

 

You know that you are in for a hot day and what to expect.

Waterpoints will be very well stocked so take it easy and make a lekker day/morning of it.

 

I cant see the fun/accomplishment in doing the 40, just my humble opinion.

 

 

Thank you for your reply as your post has forced me to think it through properly. The more I do so, the more convinced I am that 40 for her is the answer.

 

I may do the full route and based on this year vs last year's training will do something between 2:55 and 3:05 depending on weather. Either way, I'll be done before 9h30. When it is very hot I typically carry a third bottle (sommer an Energade one with a drinking valve)  in my jersey pocket which I use first and throw away. No problem, I never stop.

 

For her though, although she is a life long athlete, she has never done a road race and will be starting in the second last group at 9:01.

 

She is capable of doing around 4 hours (*) but the roads will be crowded and any flow will be impossible with walkers up the hills slowing her to the pace of the lowest common denominator. It is likely to turn into a 5 or 5:30 hour ride. It will be unpleasantly hot, she'll be battling the cut-off and the logistics become horrible as we start 2.5 hours apart and will finish 5 hours apart. With travelling, it will make it a 12 hour day for both of us.

 

(*) A typical morning ride comfortably takes in Conrad Dr, Northcliff hill, Hill Rd, Jan Smuts and sometimes Munro. At 48kg, she can climb.

 

 

 

 

 

I cant see the fun/accomplishment in doing the 40, just my humble opinion.

 

 

 

Fair enough, but battling through the hordes in the heat of the midday sun and  being forced to walk the hills will be no fun at all. 

 

Having achieved much in her life, she has no ego invested in doing the "race". It won't register an any significant accomplishment.

 

However, 40 will give her a taste of mass participation, she can ride to the start, will have fewer slow-coaches ahead of her and will be able to ride all the hills, she'll finish not far behind me (or I can time my start so we meet up on the road and ride together) and be home in time for an early lunch and a beer. This sounds like much more fun to me....

[shova]

Pretty sure the organisers aren't reading this, but for posterity sake, here is feedback from someone who abandoned.

 

1) Start times are frikken stupid. Why does every distance except the 100km start at 5 am? The 35km/65 km people could start later if they are worried about the elite/pro people coming past. Elites / Pros tend to do wway under 3 hrs so start the 65km people from 6:30 and the 35km people at 7:30 and then everyone gets to finish before the mid day sun.

 

2) Water points should be WAY more frequent. If the 947 can have a water table every 10km or so, then why the 25km between water points on the Shova?

 

3) A little bit of training on bike handling for the people in the sweeper trucks. I put on new bar tape before the race and it is now a mangled mess. No clue how to add an image to this post so cant show the bars now, but the entire left side is a ground up mess, I even have a few deep gouges in my bars themselves.

 

That is about all I can think of. I gave up at the Harrison Flats water point after having my heartrate sitting over max for more than 15 minutes, feeling seriously light headed and just generally like I was about to collapse, I knew I would not make it up drummond / Bothas so threw in the towel. Sadly I then lost my Garmin as well so cannot even upload my completed portion of the route to see how badly I actually did.

 

My main take away from the Shova this year is that it was really badly organised, Some people were being let through at the closure points, water tables ran out of things that should have been extra stocked due to the heat that they knew about at least the day before if not on Friday already ( I received warning messages on Saturday already that there was a warning of extreme heat). The 160km people didnt see a water point until around 80+ km into their ride. I gave half a bottle to one of the 160km people who was seriously suffering.

Thank you for your your thoughts on the event, we are sorry that you had a bad experience. We have been holding report back meetings with all involved in the Shova this year and we have made the following changes to the 2020 event. We will not hold the 160km event next year and the 106km and the 65km events will start earlier. We are working on exact times so that the 106km meet the 65km/35km on the M13 where there is a lot of space to pass each other. 

We hope to see you back again next year!

[shova]

I don't think it was badly organized at all. I think they actually do a pretty good job considering the logistics of having the start and finish 100km apart.

 

One thing I think all races can do is have buckets of water with sponges for people to pour over themselves Instead of people pouring the bottles of water over them. Bottled water is for drinking. This adds to a lot of events running out of water.

Great idea! We will definitely consider this! Thank you.

[HdB]

Thank you for your your thoughts on the event, we are sorry that you had a bad experience. We have been holding report back meetings with all involved in the Shova this year and we have made the following changes to the 2020 event. We will not hold the 160km event next year and the 106km and the 65km events will start earlier. We are working on exact times so that the 106km meet the 65km/35km on the M13 where there is a lot of space to pass each other. 

We hope to see you back again next year!

 

A pity about the 160km, but understandable considering the number of people (other than the Elites) who did it this year. I enjoyed it last year and this year.

 

Just a note - a number of people have mentioned that they were not aware that there would be a group on the 160km for riders other than the elites, so they entered for the 106km.

It would be great to have the information on the site be quite clear (as far as is possible) right from when entries open.

 

For example, we entered my wife for the 35km this year, entry was done on 30 April with mine, and at the time the site mentioned that there would be bus transport to the start of the 35km. A few months later when the bus bookings became available, this was no longer the case. We probably wouldn't have entered her, had we known this at the time.

 

We are glad we did enter her though, we were able to arrange a shuttle for her with the Suncoast hotel, and she thoroughly enjoyed her first big event.

 

From our side, the organization of the event was good, we enjoyed it, and will definitely be back next year

[shova]

A pity about the 160km, but understandable considering the number of people (other than the Elites) who did it this year. I enjoyed it last year and this year.

 

Just a note - a number of people have mentioned that they were not aware that there would be a group on the 160km for riders other than the elites, so they entered for the 106km.

It would be great to have the information on the site be quite clear (as far as is possible) right from when entries open.

 

For example, we entered my wife for the 35km this year, entry was done on 30 April with mine, and at the time the site mentioned that there would be bus transport to the start of the 35km. A few months later when the bus bookings became available, this was no longer the case. We probably wouldn't have entered her, had we known this at the time.

 

We are glad we did enter her though, we were able to arrange a shuttle for her with the Suncoast hotel, and she thoroughly enjoyed her first big event.

 

From our side, the organization of the event was good, we enjoyed it, and will definitely be back next year

Thank you for your reply. We only had 2 queries for the 35km bus to the start so didnt have enough people to fill a kombi - we will see next year if we get more takers. Glad you enjoyed it and see you back again next year!

[MudLark]

Really great to see the organisers responding here!

[Jase619]

Really great to see the organisers responding here!

 

Yeah, very great to see. Have always found there organisation to be much better than a lot of other races, and they are just proving it again here