2019 Amashova

[HdB]

I was hoping to see how people done, what happened in their ride, not how many bars they eat and bottles they drink.

 

How was your race guys

I started in X, 5 minutes after the Elites. By my count about 24 people including some tandems and riders doing the relay. The website states "The event organisers reserves the right to refuse entry to the 160km if you do not meet minimum requirements.", but doesn't seem to mention what those requirements are, unlike last year. A number of the riders on the start for the 160km would definitely not have met the requirements from last year...

 

By the time we were out of PMB, it was myself and two other riders alone at the front, working together. The Richmond/Eston loop is quite pretty, though not easy.

Once we joined up with the normal route, we joined up with some AL riders, but soon lost one of the 160km riders, and at about 106km (so, Ichanga?) my legs suddenly started giving me warning signs, so I waved goodbye to the group (and many after that) and crawled up the climbs from there.

 

I saw a rider by the side of the road, lots of blood on his head, a bit before the road narrowed at 45th. Probably the crash in BL that others have mentioned?

 

I was better prepared than last year (I've already ridden more this year than in total last year), and beat my time from last year by 12 minutes. But with the heat I twice took water to drink and cool myself down a bit. Last year my two large bottles, and a few bars and gels, were more than enough for the 160km.

Having an upset stomach from something I ate the previous day, and not sleeping a wink as a result, probably didn't help.

 

Already looking forward to next year, though time will tell if I rather go back to the 106km.

[Jase619]

So my take away from the comments on here is that unless one has prepared for a year in advance and is able to ride 100km in 50 degree heat without drinking a drop or eating a bite in under 3 hours, that you shouldn't dare enter a ride that might challenge you.

 

That is pretty much the general vibe being given off. 

 

Don't be so offended that your rant didn't go off well, most don't on here, and from that we learn from our mistakes. You had some good points, and some fair ones at that. But you also had some horrendously inaccurate and factually incorrect points that unfortunately got picked on because we as humans tend to concentrate on the negative rather than the positive.

 

I hope you train lekker in the next year and arrive on race day ready to complete and do so!

[Jase619]

I started in X, 5 minutes after the Elites. By my count about 24 people including some tandems and riders doing the relay. The website states "The event organisers reserves the right to refuse entry to the 160km if you do not meet minimum requirements.", but doesn't seem to mention what those requirements are, unlike last year. A number of the riders on the start for the 160km would definitely not have met the requirements from last year...

 

By the time we were out of PMB, it was myself and two other riders alone at the front, working together. The Richmond/Eston loop is quite pretty, though not easy.

Once we joined up with the normal route, we joined up with some AL riders, but soon lost one of the 160km riders, and at about 106km (so, Ichanga?) my legs suddenly started giving me warning signs, so I waved goodbye to the group (and many after that) and crawled up the climbs from there.

 

I saw a rider by the side of the road, lots of blood on his head, a bit before the road narrowed at 45th. Probably the crash in BL that others have mentioned?

 

I was better prepared than last year (I've already ridden more this year than in total last year), and beat my time from last year by 12 minutes. But with the heat I twice took water to drink and cool myself down a bit. Last year my two large bottles, and a few bars and gels, were more than enough for the 160km.

Having an upset stomach from something I ate the previous day, and not sleeping a wink as a result, probably didn't help.

 

Already looking forward to next year, though time will tell if I rather go back to the 106km.

 

Durban Curry will do that to you 

[HdB]

Durban Curry will do that to you 

Yeah, my ordering technique for Amashova weekend now includes the sentence "How hot is the <name of whatever I'm pointing at>?"

[LongDonkey]

Simply this:

 

It was pitched as a mass participation ride, not a ride for only the elite. The organisers knew that the average rider would need hydration along the way - as evidenced by the multiple water points along the way. That was how they planned and "sold" the ride. They also knew it was going to be a very hot day - I knew that more than a week in advance. The point is that the organizers own planning failed. They failed to deliver to riders what they promised - and bearing in mind that many of the less capable riders would have planned with reliance on the fact  that there would be water points at the various intervals. Whichever way you look at it, the organizers screwed up. Whether or not the average Joe should be able to do the distance on two bottles of water is completely irrelevant in context. 

 

But outside of that, on the whole it was a great event!

Some fair comments but some not.

Does anyone read the info on the web site anymore. I have had a go at my colleagues as they do not read the friendly information on the websites. Number of waterpoints was indicated, route description, route detail, profiles etc. I think the organisers need to provide information which they did. I think organisers need to make sure there is enough water at the points they have indicated no matter what the weather. And i only refer to water for this point as the slower riders are out there longer and will definitely drink more than just two bottles!

 

It is the riders responsibility to know their limits, plan for the ride, read the damn website, train, do some basic planning on the ride with regards to nutrition and fluids. Just showing up with one bottle half filled and say "the organisers will provide me with everything cos i have paid an entry fee" is unrealistic and very naive. Yes I have been very extreme in my scenario but the rider is still responsible for their own race plan. 

 

I am reasonably experienced but i finished my first bottle around WP3 which is a very high consumption rate for me. Only realised i lost my second bottle just after the WP3 and was not going to turn around. I managed to get one bottle at WP4 and then another at WP% (only finished half of that one).

 

It is lousy you had a bad one and your expectations were not met, but hopefully this thread and word of mouth will filter through to other noobs for any race and they will be better prepared. Specifically the 947 ride. That ride is however a bit more large scale and organised.

[Vetplant]

Some fair comments but some not.

Does anyone read the info on the web site anymore. I have had a go at my colleagues as they do not read the friendly information on the websites. Number of waterpoints was indicated, route description, route detail, profiles etc. I think the organisers need to provide information which they did. I think organisers need to make sure there is enough water at the points they have indicated no matter what the weather. And i only refer to water for this point as the slower riders are out there longer and will definitely drink more than just two bottles!

 

It is the riders responsibility to know their limits, plan for the ride, read the damn website, train, do some basic planning on the ride with regards to nutrition and fluids. Just showing up with one bottle half filled and say "the organisers will provide me with everything cos i have paid an entry fee" is unrealistic and very naive. Yes I have been very extreme in my scenario but the rider is still responsible for their own race plan. 

 

I am reasonably experienced but i finished my first bottle around WP3 which is a very high consumption rate for me. Only realised i lost my second bottle just after the WP3 and was not going to turn around. I managed to get one bottle at WP4 and then another at WP% (only finished half of that one).

 

It is lousy you had a bad one and your expectations were not met, but hopefully this thread and word of mouth will filter through to other noobs for any race and they will be better prepared. Specifically the 947 ride. That ride is however a bit more large scale and organised.

I saw my sister yesterday, who will start 947 at 9AM, and she only has a single bottle cage on her bike... she was going to "wing it", that is just her personality.

 

So I took the moment to drill into her that she needs to have a 2nd bottle cage and both bottles need to be full and frozen overnight, and she should take a 3rd bottle along to drink up in the start pens and then discard it.

 

Hopefully she will have a better experience on the day after the chat than she would have had without the chat.

 

We need to warn everyone we know that will ride, it will inevitably be a scorcher of a day.

 

PS. She also didn't know that her clip-on aero bars won't be allowed on race day.

[Martin PJ]

A few years back I rode with my son to take him through his first Shova, his bike broke on Fox Hill (my fault as I built the bike), we walked back down Fox Hill from the top all the way to the YMCA to get picked up. We saw the entire field going up Fox Hill, I reckon about 90 percent were non serious cyclists, many hundreds looked like they did no preparation whatsoever. One guy was even riding an ice cream bicycle, single gear with a huge ice cream cart in front. On a hot day, many people are going to run into problems. Organizers are quite right to stop the race once they think people have had enough.

 

In the year I walked back down Fox Hill, once loading my son into the car, I wanted to catch up the field and ride the rest of race. Cops wouldn't let me, they said that once the broom wagon passes you, that's it. Cops told me that rules are rules and you agree to them when you enter the race. It would have taken me five minutes to catch the back riders. So I sucked it up and drove home. They were right, of course.

 

If you not sure about the 106 km, then do the 65 km or 35 km, that is what they are there for. It's the same logic that I ride the 106 km and not the 160 km.

[Ozzie NL]

So my take away from the comments on here is that unless one has prepared for a year in advance and is able to ride 100km in 50 degree heat without drinking a drop or eating a bite in under 3 hours, that you shouldn't dare enter a ride that might challenge you.

 

That is pretty much the general vibe being given off. 

That would be a good start.

[Jase619]

Yeah, my ordering technique for Amashova weekend now includes the sentence "How hot is the <name of whatever I'm pointing at>?"

 

I've learnt that Durban mild is the same as the rest of the country's Extra Hot. Things you learn the hard way stick with you forever.

[MudLark]

Some fair comments but some not.

Does anyone read the info on the web site anymore. I have had a go at my colleagues as they do not read the friendly information on the websites. Number of waterpoints was indicated, route description, route detail, profiles etc. I think the organisers need to provide information which they did. I think organisers need to make sure there is enough water at the points they have indicated no matter what the weather. And i only refer to water for this point as the slower riders are out there longer and will definitely drink more than just two bottles!

 

It is the riders responsibility to know their limits, plan for the ride, read the damn website, train, do some basic planning on the ride with regards to nutrition and fluids. Just showing up with one bottle half filled and say "the organisers will provide me with everything cos i have paid an entry fee" is unrealistic and very naive. Yes I have been very extreme in my scenario but the rider is still responsible for their own race plan. 

 

I am reasonably experienced but i finished my first bottle around WP3 which is a very high consumption rate for me. Only realised i lost my second bottle just after the WP3 and was not going to turn around. I managed to get one bottle at WP4 and then another at WP% (only finished half of that one).

 

It is lousy you had a bad one and your expectations were not met, but hopefully this thread and word of mouth will filter through to other noobs for any race and they will be better prepared. Specifically the 947 ride. That ride is however a bit more large scale and organised.

 

 

Fair enough.

 

I didn't have a bad ride BTW and I wasn't one of those affected by the water shortage. 

[scotty]

 

PS. She also didn't know that her clip-on aero bars won't be allowed on race day.

Even these ??

Edited October 23, 2019 by scotty

[OneLove]

I think that Cyclelab guy was Stiaan but he burn too many matches on over accelerating up the climbs but yes he was very strong.

Lol this was a lot of fun, we were really driving it up those last few climbs, I was on the blue/turquoise Swift.

[Jarl Borg]

Good race! The longest distance I did during my training was one 65 km, and the rest were 40 - 50 km rides.I did most of my rides in the burning afternoon sun though. It was my first 100 km race and I finished strong, wasn't totally knackered. I did wanna train for the distance but unfortunately my time did not allow. Imagine having to run 90 km regularly in preparation for the Comrades 

Edited October 23, 2019 by Jarl Borg

[Roguemeister]

I was hoping to see how people done, what happened in their ride, not how many bars they eat and bottles they drink.

 

How was your race guys

I had a nice chilled race. I hadn't done a seeding event in years, substituted someone's entry and wound up in EL, which was perfect as 2 of my friends were in EL, both wanting to do a sub 3. So I decided to ride with them and try help them out.

 

We had a small group going up fox hill, maybe 5 or 6. The group had swelled at the top, maybe 30 or 40 guys at the thornville turnoff. I did most of the work on the front, with a couple of guys in orange and black kit (vitality)? Helping out. That group slowly got smaller but most of the guys lasted until inchanga. My one mate had dropped off with some heart rate issues, and the other was hurting a bit, so we spun easy up inchanga and bothas. And then got a decent group for the middle part of the race.

 

Coming down fields was awesome as always! One of the 160km guys who had taken a wrong turn came past so we jumped on his wheel, along with a tandem.

 

Then a nice group of guys came past, about 5 of them willing to work so we joined them all the way till 45th. By then my other mate had had enough, cramps and general brokenness, so we cruised in to the finish. 3:15 (Computer) and 3:17 racetec time.

 

It was a really enjoyable race for me, having not done a race in a few years and my last amashova being in 2006. And was nice to ride with some friends who were trying to better times and help them out.

 

I'll be back next year for sure!

[Jase619]

Good race! The longest distance I did during my training was one 65 km, and the rest were 40 - 50 km rides.I did most of my rides in the burning afternoon sun though. It was my first 100 km race and I finished strong, wasn't totally knackered. I did wanna train for the distance but unfortunately my time did not allow. Imagine having to run 90 km regularly in preparation for the Comrades 

 

Interesting point, but not a direct comparable thing. Maybe compare it to Tour de France distances then we can compare them. As in nobody rides a Tour de France in preparation for The Tour de France.

 

A 100km cycle and a 90km run are DEFINITELY not the same thing by any measure, least of which is the actual distance

[Owen]

It was bad research by myself and others I know, but we were under the Impression only racing Licenced people could do the 160km. If I had known better I would have done it instead of the 106km

Same here. I did it ast year. When I read that it's open for elite men. I did not bother because I knew the pace would not suit me.