Tour de Worcester?

[MDJ]

Sad to miss it, hopefully it happens again with better scheduling. My daughter loved Junior CTCT at least  . Now to suffer through a long week of tapering .... 

[Thomo]

Only 37 riders for the long route and 73 for short... Woooow

That's rough if accurate.

Surely more must have entered for the event to go ahead and not be cancelled due to lack of interest.?

[firewolf]

Good event. Maybe next year will see more riders.

[Jay_B]

What a perfect morning for racing and probably one of the most beautiful routes i have ever raced on.

 

Entered last minute after being withdrawn from TOGH by my team following my crash 2 weeks ago and so glad i made the long drive out there. Racing was good and hard with a small field, ended up doing A LOT of chasing trying to bring the 4 man break back, 2 weeks off with a concussion i eventually ran out of steam with about 20 or so km to go.

 

Loved the gravel section and also nice to race something longer than the usual distance of the big races on the calendar. Really hope this race finds a permanent slot on the calendar and gets some more interest in years to come, i for one would make the trip down every year if i can.

[KingZA]

This event has great potential to be huge but the scheduling is terrible.

 

Most people wont enter this race so close to CTCT because of fatigue and the potential of a crash ruining their main goal of a good CTCT finish.

 

Change it to December to take the place of the Stellenbosch Cycle Tour of old or move it out to early April so that we can enjoy a cooler Worcester ride and I think you'll have a hit.

[Skubarra]

This event has great potential to be huge but the scheduling is terrible.

 

Most people wont enter this race so close to CTCT because of fatigue and the potential of a crash ruining their main goal of a good CTCT finish.

 

Change it to December to take the place of the Stellenbosch Cycle Tour of old or move it out to early April so that we can enjoy a cooler Worcester ride and I think you'll have a hit.

 

Early December or early Jan before the SCT would be great yes 

[Sbloomer]

I rode the 128, and was the longest ride I had ever done after coming back from a double hip replacement a few years ago.

 

When I saw how small the field was I immediately thought I had made a mistake, thinking I should have done the 74. BUt it was an awesome morning for a ride, so I thought I would just take my time and enjoy the ride.  At the start, the field rocketed away, and immediately left myself and another guy  at the back of the field going up Leeu-se-nek.

 

Heading down the other side, the two of us decided to try work together to see if we could catch the two guys riding ahead, which took about 10km.  The 4 of us then rode together until going down into the slanghoek valley, when my first "partner" got a flat.  The three of us then rode together, until we merged with the short route and had around a dozen of the short-routers to ride with.

 

I was having a great ride, until we turned away from the Brandvlei dam, heading back into Worcester, when I started to run out of steam, and was dropped by the two men I had been riding with for the best part of 50km.  The gent who had a flat caught me at the WP in Worcester, and was then caught by someone whom I hadn't seen (who apparently had a flat at the bottom of Slanghoek) just before we turned right onto the R60.

It was going to prove to be rather long, rather lonely ride for the rest of it, knowing I was now back at the field.  It became a little more demoralizing when I was caught by the sweeper vehicle about 3km from the bottom of the gravel hill.  That hill was rather arduous for me especially having got a puncture about 400m from the top.  Luckily the slime did its job.  It was somewhere around this point I realised that the last water point had vanished, marked by a solitary polystyrene cup lying on the side of the road. 

The rest of the ride I had the sweeper vehicle for company, which to his credit stayed reasonably well back, and I completed my ride, somewhat exhausted, but pleased with myself finishing in 5:23.

It was at this point I was astounded to find that almost everything had packed up.  There was no water at the end, no coke, no welcome, no nothing,  I had to ask for my medal, which they had to go scramble for because they had been packed away.  There was hardly anyone around.  Cut off was at 13:00, as was the lucky draw.  What happened to that?  I finished near 12:00.  I was so disappointed.

Anyway, I now have a saddle sore to deal with before the CTCT, and being in Joburg, I won't get much opportunity to keep the legs warm, but maybe that's not a bad thing.  I don't know if riding the 128 was a good idea or not, but I guess I'll only know come Sunday.

I do know that I'm going to have a lot cut out for me as regards my aspirations for Around-the-Pot.

Edited March 2, 2020 by Sbloomer

[Dicky DQ]

Don't have any aspirations to ride that

 

I'm just using these ride's for the warm up to the Round the Pot..., then when I'm big, the 36One (in 2021)

I is confused??? Is around the pot not MTB/Gravel Grinder and in July? A LOT can happen between now and then.

[Sbloomer]

I is confused??? Is around the pot not MTB/Gravel Grinder and in July? A LOT can happen between now and then.

 

Yes.  I have another 4 months or so to make it work 

[Sbloomer]

Does anyone know how long it takes racetec to fix results?

 

My results don’t appear and I logged a query submitting my garmin data to them on Sunday. Nothing doing.

[avatar]

logged a query, no response, called them and told them to change it, their response "we are too bust with the argus" Try mailing wendy, she is always helpful: wendy@pedalpower.org.za

 

Does anyone know how long it takes racetec to fix results?

My results don’t appear and I logged a query submitting my garmin data to them on Sunday. Nothing doing.

[-Az-]

Just a FYI. Wendy's flat out on the Cape Rouleur with us so you may not get a reply this week.

Edited March 3, 2020 by -Az-