Double Century 2020

[eddy]

I can definitely relate to that.... I only had one +4hr ride this year. No marathon MTB races,

 

Seems my fitness is only going down since the end of lockdown, I haven't done any proper intervals sessions and picked up a bit of weight. My FTP probably dropped 20 to 30 watts from my highest during lockdown.

 

 

Can I cut and paste your post as it describes my situation perfectly?

 

Ironically, during the full lockdown in April, I did my best training ever but it has been steadily downhill since.

[DieselnDust]

I can definitely relate to that.... I only had one +4hr ride this year. No marathon MTB races, my longest road race was slanghoek and it was 120km. I didn't feel strong at any point in the race. Seems my fitness is only going down since the end of lockdown, I haven't done any proper intervals sessions and picked up a bit of weight. My FTP probably dropped 20 to 30 watts from my highest during lockdown.

 

 

i can very strongly relate to your position. same same

 

and then a few of my team mates rely on the events leading up to DC to get fit so they were severely under prepared. Just finishing with 9 was miracle

[Westry]

Was my first. We had 7 DC noobes in our team. Our aim was to get all 10 over the line together no matter what. We had so many issues people bonking at various times. This made for a super super long day in the saddle.

I thought I was well prepared I definitely need to go back to the drawing board and redefine "prepared"

This was by far one of the toughest things I have ever done. Will I be back. ABSOLUTELY!!!!!

[JohanDiv]

This was my first Double Century. A month ago I got invited by an old university mate to join their mixed team, Libra Brokers, from Kimberley. This posed a few challenges from the start, as firstly, I didn't put in the training that I would've if I entered earlier, and secondly, I've never rode with them before and didn't really know what to expect. 

 

My wife and I left Paarl on Friday afternoon and we got to Swellendam at 16h30. Booked in at Arumvale Guesthouse, literally 500m from the finish line, with the most amazing views!!

 

 

 

The rest of my team coming from Kimberley arrived a bit earlier, checked in at the school hostel, and went for a spin through town.

 

 

We decided to get together at The Republic at 18:00 to have a few beers, eat something, and obviously discuss some race tactics. This is where I met the team for the first time. 

 

Having no clue how the others ride, we said we'd start slow in town, get to the N2, and we'll pretty quickly figure out who is the strong riders. But consensus were that we'd try to have 4 strong guys at the front churning, then the three ladies with two men in between them to protect them till the end, and two guys at the back to help close gaps. Climbs we'll do at the slowest rider's pace so that the strong guys can rest uphill where they can't really give any slipstream, and then hammer it on the downhills and flats where we can benefit most from the stronger guys slipstream.

We hoped for a Top 10 mixed team finish, but didn't really set a target time. I quietly hoped for a sub 6hr.

 

 

Our start time was 06:13.30, so not super early, and getting to our chute was pretty effortless. 

The team in front of us, wbhoA, didn't make it to the line in time, so we had a pretty big gap to the team that left before us. 

 

We took off very easy through town, still snapping pics as we go.

 

 

 

Then as we left town we saw that Team Cyberlogic behind us already starting to catch us. A mate of mine was riding for them and I'd never live it down if they caught us that early!

 

Turning onto the N2, I moved to the front with one of the other strong riders in the team to turn up the pace a bit. We got the train going nicely and sat on the front all the way to Tradouws Pass. We caught the first team at the 15km mark just outside Suurbraak. They tried to hang on a bit, but got dropped over the first roller. Second team we caught just before the Suurbraak T towards Tradouws Pass.

 

 

On Tradouws we kept with our plan to climb at the slowest rider's pace, which seemed to be the correct tactic at the time. Here I caught a nice breather.. Snapped some photos,eat, drink, recover..nature break..all at easy pace, and we caught at least another 5 or 6 teams going up Tradouws.

 

 

Turning left at Barrydale, we caught two more teams. Regrouped and got the paceline going again at steady pace. A few minutes later we saw a superpack forming with around 5-7 teams a few kilometers up the road in the distance. We decided to burn a few matches here to try and catch that pack where we'd surely get a bit of a breather if we could join them.

 

Caught the superpack pretty quickly with around 10km to go before Op de Tradouw, then realized these guys are not going very quickly. We didn't sit on, and instead just blew past them carrying on with our pace.

 

This is where two of our guys started to struggle a bit. Reaching Op de Tradouw we once again tapped off and climbed at the slowest rider's pace, eat, drink , recover was the plan.. but this time we took turns pushing one of them. The going was slow here and probably burned a few unnecessary matches pushing him over the climb. One or two of the teams we passed at the foot of the climb overtook us again at the top. So we were really going slow now. Getting over the top, we wanted to drive the pace back up again, but the two guys couldn't hang on anymore. We wasted around 10-15min in discussions of what to do, and finally decided we'll have to leave them behind if they can't even keep up anymore on the downhills. In that period of trying to get them back on, the CoroCruisers team passed us three or four times. When we eventually decided to push on, we caught them and a few other teams again.

 

I noticed at around the 85km mark the headwind picking up quite heavily. Caught another team just before entering the neutral zone. Average speed up to this point was 30kmh and on target for a sub 6hr! Even if we'd tried to average 30kmh through the neutral zone, the headwind would've made it impossible. The heat was also starting to catch me, my drinks were done already 10min before we entered the neutral zone. Time for pics and banter again.

 

 

At the Ashton feeding zone, stocked up on food, downed a bidon on the spot, two new bidons onboard. It was now hot and windy!

Handful of chamois cream (Only got my team kit the night before, and the new bib did not work well for me!!).

We were just on time to leave the feeding zone when our two dropped riders arrived. Had a quick chat with them whether they wanted to join again, clock started ticking again, and we decided to leave them behind for a second time. Left the feeding zone around 5mins after the clock started ticking again.

 

The few kilometers between Ashton and Robertson was undoubtedly the hardest of the race. Team spirits fell. We were still 8 left in the team, but only me and two other guys were able to take turns up front. The girls were struggling to hang on and we had to drop the pace way down and get the bigger guys in between them to shelter them from the headwind.

 

 

Once we turned at Robertson with the tailwind the team spirit lifted immediately! We were cruising back towards Swellendam at 50+ kmh! That was proper fun! 

 

While we were on that segment with tailwind, our support vehicle turned around to go fetch the two dropped guys that called to say they can't continue in that headwind. 

 

We decided to stop at the Rooibrug water table to refill bottles because we were without our support vehicle at that point. Here we caught up with Schmorglebot and his Wannabees team that started 33mins before us. Was nice meeting him in person for the first time! 

 

After the Roobrug waterpoint it was the hottest stretch on the road. I measured 44 degrees at one point..

 

 

 

At the Bonnievale feeding zone it was just a quick grab and go as we saw a Sub 6 is still on the cards, but it will be close! Caught two more teams on the next stretch of road.

 

Then 10km after the feeding zone the bad luck struck! There were lines of stones strewn across the road. Not sure if it was kids being naughty, or from support vehicles pulling back onto the road, but one of our ladies punctured. If it was one of the guys, we could've carried on, but we needed her for a mixed team cat finish. Took two attempts to sort out the puncture.. losing another 15-20min trying to fix it with our support car not with us. Got passed again by the Wannabees and several other teams while we were stationary.

 

 

That was it for us, we knew a sub 6 was out of the window, so we carried on at moderate pace just enjoying the views. Stopped at the Drew waterpoint, took it easy there, and by the time we reached the three sisters I was in complete recovery mode already. The three climbs we did at easy pace I felt, but I think with the heat and the guys from Kimberley not really accustomed to hills, two of them started cramping. They got dropped on the second sister I think.

 

With nothing really left for us to chase, we decided to wait for them just before crossing the finish line. They were two of the stronger guys in the team and did much of the work earlier in the race, so it was nice that they got to go over the line with the rest of us.

 

Our time in the end was 07hrs6min and the 10th Mixed Team across the line!

Very proud of the entire team, and made some good cycling mates this weekend!

 

 

203km and 11 bidons later...still looking fresh!

 

Edited November 23, 2020 by JohanDiv

[dirtypot]

I was riding social this year, which was really tough.  It was my fifth DC and by far the hardest I've done.  We started late and rode for 8h53 total time (haven't looked to see our official time).  We had a head wind from just after Barrydale and it just got stronger and stronger as the day went on.  Brutal conditions with extreme heat.  

It was weird to be riding along mostly alone with no other teams visible in front or behind for very long stretches of road.  It felt like a long training ride rather than a race, and I far prefer the normal format. 

 

Saw a fair amount of cheating going on with riders getting into and out of cars much further down the road or riding on their team cars bumper going into the wind.  I really don't see the point of it - who cares if you come in 90th or 126th? 

 

It was a special one for me though as I rode it with my wife on a tandem (only our third ride on it!) which was a whole new experience for me, and was actually quite a lot of fun apart from the hills which sucked ass. 

 

Overall, a weird event.   

[DieselnDust]

I was riding social this year, which was really tough.  It was my fifth DC and by far the hardest I've done.  We started late and rode for 8h53 total time (haven't looked to see our official time).  We had a head wind from just after Barrydale and it just got stronger and stronger as the day went on.  Brutal conditions with extreme heat.  

It was weird to be riding along mostly alone with no other teams visible in front or behind for very long stretches of road.  It felt like a long training ride rather than a race, and I far prefer the normal format. 

 

Saw a fair amount of cheating going on with riders getting into and out of cars much further down the road or riding on their team cars bumper going into the wind.  I really don't see the point of it - who cares if you come in 90th or 126th? 

 

It was a special one for me though as I rode it with my wife on a tandem (only our third ride on it!) which was a whole new experience for me, and was actually quite a lot of fun apart from the hills which sucked ass. 

 

Overall, a weird event.   

 

 

 

were you okes the tandem team?

[Jbr]

 

It was a special one for me though as I rode it with my wife on a tandem 

brave man   

 

I think if I ended up on a tandem with my wife this weekend we probably wouldn't be married anymore today   

[Karman de Lange]

Some stats: Seeing I simply don't have energy to code now.

 

27 Teams finished with all 10 within 10 minutes ..

37 finished all 10, some have 2hrs  difference between team and last member.

 

21 was Open Teams, 6 was Mixed of the 10/10 teams.

 

Fasted 10/10 team; 05:27:12 .. slowest .. 09:37:15

 

Only 1 female team and 1 tandem team finished....??

 

Average Race time for everyone : 7:01:13 .

 

119 Females, 960 Males finished.

 

 

 

General DC stats. (according to racetec data).. more or less..(All events with DOuble century in the name)

 

Most DC's finished for a rider/s . 21 (2 off)

 

20 or more DC's finished => 3

15  or more  => 55

10 or more  =>335

5 or more => 2181 

Edited November 23, 2020 by Karman de Lange

[dirtypot]

were you okes the tandem team?

 

There were only two tandems in our team.

[K20Champ]

1st DC completed   6h40mins

 

The Time reflecting on Racetec, is that the official times, or do the times need to be adjusted?

[Pure Savage]

1st DC completed   6h40mins

 

The Time reflecting on Racetec, is that the official times, or do the times need to be adjusted?

Correct, they take out the stops in that calc. 

 

Unless there is a chip missed thats need to be added to the team time etc.

[DieselnDust]

There were only two tandems in our team.

 

 

ah ok. We hoped onto a Tandem team on the R62 after I had to stop to sort out a mechanical. a Hub thank you would have been in order

[Velouria]

Most DC's finished for a rider/s . 21 (2 off)

One of those is @crashtestdummy - our team Captain.

 

 

15  or more  => 55

Was my 17th DC 

[The Crazy German]

 

 

Then 10km after the feeding zone the bad luck struck! There were lines of stones strewn across the road. Not sure if it was kids being naughty, or from support vehicles pulling back onto the road, but one of our ladies punctured. If it was one of the guys, we could've carried on, but we needed her for a mixed team cat finish. Took two attempts to sort out the puncture.. losing another 15-20min trying to fix it with our support car not with us. Got passed again by the Wannabees and several other teams while we were stationary.

 

WhatsApp Image 2020-11-21 at 14.34.10 (1).jpeg

 

That was it for us, we knew a sub 6 was out of the window, so we carried on at moderate pace just enjoying the views. Stopped at the Drew waterpoint, took it easy there, and by the time we reached the three sisters I was in complete recovery mode already. The three climbs we did at easy pace I felt, but I think with the heat and the guys from Kimberley not really accustomed to hills, two of them started cramping. They got dropped on the second sister I think.

 

 

Why didn't you guys swap wheels with one of the male riders?

 

Must admit I only rode DC once with a rather competitve team. We agreed beforehand that a puncture would mean you where left behind unless below a certain number of riders left at a certain distances out. When I punctured 10 to 15 k's from the last climb(old ceres route). I shouted puncture bye good luck thinking I got off easily .

 

But I forgot rule n°2 if you hear puncture and you are k@king badly or haven't pulled for a while you stop and give a wheel(was before disc brakes so rather easy). I got short changed by Stuart who gave me his wheel. But then I was promised before the start I could quit at the last climb as long as I rode myself moertoe between the climbs. So I continued to ride at the front at 40 or so, then at the bottom I got short changed again by good old David Garret. Who told me dude look we are only 7 left and the little kid is f"cked. So I got to do the climb as well as the new last man standing.

 

Got short changed on the downhill again as the bloody borrowed wheel only had a 12 sproket on it. Did take some revenge on the ride into town. Best memory of my cycling days.

[JohanDiv]

Why didn't you guys swap wheels with one of the male riders?

 

 

Doh!! Funny that thought didn't even come up at any of us at that point.. Friggin amateurs!

[Pure Savage]

Now that the event is officially going ahead, think a 2020 thread is appropriate!

 

Going to be interesting seeing the vibe at the race this year.

 

A few less teams, smaller teams, no picnics and fastest starting first.

 

Now to get some new threads made in time

 

fav s.JPG

 

Similar spot a few years later.

 

Chris hitchcock