[Event] 2019 PPA SPORTIVE #7

['Dale]

Getting to Perdeberg for a 6am start from the southern suburbs means stumbling about in the dark searching for clean bib shorts in the mass of black and lumo that is my lycra shelf while muttering expletives about Eskom with my cycling lght clenched between my teeth. 

 

The gate motor fortunately has a new battery so it opened easily and with my brand new Emonda on the roof rack (courtesy an insurance payout and an end of line special from trek) I drove off into what still felt like the middle of the night. My spirits lifted as dawn broke and by the time I had sipped the last of my overnight oats, peanut, banana and almond milk smoothie I was in a good mood.

 

Bike racing in C-E batch!  Yes please!

 

I arrived with 40 minutes to spare - strolled over to the portaloos and after waiting in the queue just long enough for the oats to provoke the inevitable peristaltic urgency, was able to restore comfort without undue stress. 

 

As an aside I had collected my number and sticker on Friday from the PPA offices as part of my day-off ride and so felt organised and superior and as I mooched to the portaloos I was approached by two very attractive young women (yeah I wish) who offered me a sticker in exchange for a peep at my SMS. Great idea PPA! Do that more, it will alleviate the nightmare that registration can become when the event is busier.

 

I strolled King Edomondo (the new bike, who has entered the pantheon of mamilian bikes as an old war buddy of Captain Trek - RIP after nasty top tube incident - and ex boyfriend of Princess Merida) to the start line and he attracted many admiring glances, including from MDJ whose exploits I observe with admiration and envy on Strava. 

 

I lined up with C-E and then thinking about a tactic BillyGoat has advised, elected to drop back to F-H. In the end, I think this was a good move.

 

Now - King Edomondo is more bike than my ability warrants and I think LeChatNoir is probably correct when he tells me that the placebo effect is real, but man he is a pleasure to ride (King Edomondo that is, not LeChat) and there's something about this bike that rewards the pain that I put myself through in such a way that it encourages me to hurt myself even more. This is how I managed to keep up with these mid packers - that and finally mastering the art of moving up on the downhills and dropping back on the ups.

 

On the long hill before Malmesbury I just managed to hang on over the top but saw that there were 2 other smaller breaks ahead of the main body. We worked well together and by the time we were through Malmesbury we had all merged back together and I was feeling like a proper racer. A mate from the MTB Goats asked me where the battery was on my new E-bike.

 

Then came the crosswinds. And also that horrible sound as someone went down behind me. Rainer I think is his name.

 

I don't know what it's like in A batch but in the mass of lycra stretched over Dadbods and grizzled hoary hair sticking out of the vents of 4 thousand buck helmets that is F batch, most of us know we want to be in an echelon but none of us realises that we'd all be better off if we rotated position in said echelon. What happens then is that one guy wears himself out completely and gets slower and slower while the guy at the back of the line feels strong and then overtakes on the outside of the second last man. He gets 20 meters into the wind and slows down considerably, but not before the people in the middle of the group have tried to catch his wheel which completely destroys any benefit that anyone might be enjoying.

 

We're like drunk geese with no hope of making it south for the winter. 

 

Anyway, crosswinds ensured that a group roughly the same as the first break rode away, we tried to catch but we couldn't and after the 4 way stop the group splintered into ones and twos and we all limped home. 13th position in the group for this mamil, which would have been middle of the pack in C-E and probably top 40% of the field overall which I'm not too unhappy with.

 

Will I be fit enough in time for Attakwas. Is anyone ever?

 

Cool writing @Mamil

 

All the best as you aspire to do well at Atta'

[FootballingCyclist]

and for the riders with deep section wheels

I had a set of 40mm clinchers, I knew going from Malmesbury till the turn at the Fruit sellers I would get a bit of a headwind(it ended up more than just a bit) and I should be ok but I dreaded the left turn as I knew it would come off the right quite hecticly, we caught an elderly gentleman on a Specialized Venge with 60mm Rovals on and I knew to steer clear of him because it was going to be chaos, we were about 100m onto that road which is left at the Fruit sellers and he already took a small wobble and I dreaded what's to come, so, suffering as I was and pulling my mate along who I had agreed to ride with, we passed the gentleman but I knew my turn would soon come, on the long downhill drag I was going about 60km/h and got smacked by a gust just before the little bridge with that rugby field on the left, Not sure how I managed to stay up to be honest, But I did, Needless to say the rest of that road was ridden with extreme caution..

 

I checked the wind before I left aswell as on my way there and it predicted 10-15km/h ESE winds So I left my Carbon wheels on.. It's the last time I trust that app!!

[Jbr]

mamil what was your time ?

[Thomo]

I checked the wind before I left aswell as on my way there and it predicted 10-15km/h ESE winds So I left my Carbon wheels on.. It's the last time I trust that app!!

I think all apps/forecasts got it wrong on Sun.

The one I checked had wind @ 25kmh with 35kmh gusts.

I think one could add at 10-15km to each of those numbers.

 

PS: I wasn't at Sportive but getting blown about around the peninsula where Chappies management felt it best to close the road.

[Mamil]

3:16 ...

 

 

mamil what was your time ?

[MDJ]

Getting to Perdeberg for a 6am start from the southern suburbs means stumbling about in the dark searching for clean bib shorts in the mass of black and lumo that is my lycra shelf while muttering expletives about Eskom with my cycling lght clenched between my teeth. 

 

The gate motor fortunately has a new battery so it opened easily and with my brand new Emonda on the roof rack (courtesy an insurance payout and an end of line special from trek) I drove off into what still felt like the middle of the night. My spirits lifted as dawn broke and by the time I had sipped the last of my overnight oats, peanut, banana and almond milk smoothie I was in a good mood.

 

Bike racing in C-E batch!  Yes please!

 

I arrived with 40 minutes to spare - strolled over to the portaloos and after waiting in the queue just long enough for the oats to provoke the inevitable peristaltic urgency, was able to restore comfort without undue stress. 

 

As an aside I had collected my number and sticker on Friday from the PPA offices as part of my day-off ride and so felt organised and superior and as I mooched to the portaloos I was approached by two very attractive young women (yeah I wish) who offered me a sticker in exchange for a peep at my SMS. Great idea PPA! Do that more, it will alleviate the nightmare that registration can become when the event is busier.

 

I strolled King Edomondo (the new bike, who has entered the pantheon of mamilian bikes as an old war buddy of Captain Trek - RIP after nasty top tube incident - and ex boyfriend of Princess Merida) to the start line and he attracted many admiring glances, including from MDJ whose exploits I observe with admiration and envy on Strava. 

 

I lined up with C-E and then thinking about a tactic BillyGoat has advised, elected to drop back to F-H. In the end, I think this was a good move.

 

Now - King Edomondo is more bike than my ability warrants and I think LeChatNoir is probably correct when he tells me that the placebo effect is real, but man he is a pleasure to ride (King Edomondo that is, not LeChat) and there's something about this bike that rewards the pain that I put myself through in such a way that it encourages me to hurt myself even more. This is how I managed to keep up with these mid packers - that and finally mastering the art of moving up on the downhills and dropping back on the ups.

 

On the long hill before Malmesbury I just managed to hang on over the top but saw that there were 2 other smaller breaks ahead of the main body. We worked well together and by the time we were through Malmesbury we had all merged back together and I was feeling like a proper racer. A mate from the MTB Goats asked me where the battery was on my new E-bike.

 

Then came the crosswinds. And also that horrible sound as someone went down behind me. Rainer I think is his name.

 

I don't know what it's like in A batch but in the mass of lycra stretched over Dadbods and grizzled hoary hair sticking out of the vents of 4 thousand buck helmets that is F batch, most of us know we want to be in an echelon but none of us realises that we'd all be better off if we rotated position in said echelon. What happens then is that one guy wears himself out completely and gets slower and slower while the guy at the back of the line feels strong and then overtakes on the outside of the second last man. He gets 20 meters into the wind and slows down considerably, but not before the people in the middle of the group have tried to catch his wheel which completely destroys any benefit that anyone might be enjoying.

 

We're like drunk geese with no hope of making it south for the winter. 

 

Anyway, crosswinds ensured that a group roughly the same as the first break rode away, we tried to catch but we couldn't and after the 4 way stop the group splintered into ones and twos and we all limped home. 13th position in the group for this mamil, which would have been middle of the pack in C-E and probably top 40% of the field overall which I'm not too unhappy with.

 

Will I be fit enough in time for Attakwas. Is anyone ever?

 

The new bike really looks awesome, congrats again . I love your write ups - thank you!

 

I still get dropped, just have a slightly higher average speed most of the time  . The A-B group was hectic as mentioned, nice to see the breaks and chase downs up-front in person. Not so nice to have to pick between going over the line or suffering in the wind. Its a race I guess so guys push hard and don't want to give anything away, if they kept left there would have been so much more space. At least when the bunch split at around 70kms our little group of 6 worked well in the wind, rode a better formation - much more sensible for a 'funride'.

 

I feel sorry for the bike marshalls - they did an awesome job as always and really tried to keep everyone safe  . Cars passing on left, oncoming traffic - some serious thinking about why it has to be like that, guess I'm not cut our for the racing group ... 

[Karman de Lange]

From PPA facebookpage

 

 

Hi Nazmie, unfortunately, we will not be having the Sportive events this year. Please take a look at our website and you can see what events will be happing over the next few months. Thanks so much.

 

 

o well, was fun while it lasted.   Sad to see all event disappear...  

[Skubarra]

From PPA facebookpage

 

 

 

o well, was fun while it lasted.   Sad to see all event disappear...  

 

Disappointing!

[Pure Savage]

THis is sad, but they organizing the one tonner, buger and DC this year, even less events.

[Karman de Lange]

Seeding gonna be interesting this year........

[milky4130]

well if only a hand full of people rock up then its inevitable to what the end result will be. Spells disaster price wise for the other remaining events.

[Wannabe]

Pity.

I joined the party quite late, but quite enjoyed the few events I did.

[Skubarra]

Seeding gonna be interesting this year........

 

If you add Durbie Dash, WCE & Langebaan to that PPA calendar on the website + the new Worcester event there are an "ok" number of events during the year.

 

The big gap is middle Nov to mid Dec where there is only the DC

Edited January 10, 2020 by Skubarra

[Karman de Lange]

If you add Durbie Dash, WCE & Langebaan to that PPA calendar on the website + the new Worcester event there are an "ok" number of events during the year.

 

The big gap is middle Nov to mid Dec where there is only the DC

those are notorious for bad seeding results...  maybe thats a good thing.....  lets see what 2020 brings, 

[Mamil]

Disappointed that these will be no more. 8 in a year was too ambitious perhaps but why not have 4. One per season.

 

I enjoyed them.

[MDJ]

Sad news, it went from 5 to 6 then 8 - now zero. It was really cool to have so many additional 'safe' road event options - I managed to do most of them, but the numbers last year at a few sportives were very low, so I can understand that it was not sustainable to have 8.

 

In my opinion it would be great if there was series of 5 sportive events spread over August to December. There are quite a few guys I ride with who are just getting into cycling and these were great events to get used to 'larger' bunches, have a good race workout and get into the seeding system.

 

Guess I'm gonna have to try some of the WP Cycling events now