Winelands Cycle Race in September

[Arrie]

2 hours ago, KingZA said:

Wait till they tell you that the field was too small and there wasn't enough climbing so they wont use it for CTCT seeding after all. ???? 

This is what they did with the Langebaan race even though it was a "Premier Seeding Event"

But lots of people bailed, doesn't that automatically push up the beta ????

[bleedToWin]

Team VanDM Music race report.

Three optimistic riders in black and blue rolled up to the cold and wet start of the A-group at the Winelands Cycle Race 2021. The game-plan was simple: Be vigilant and reactive to strong moves, but mostly conserve energy until the climb and only take wind if necessary to stay safe.

Jan-Harm suffered some early difficulties with chest constrictions and breathing problems and lost contact with the main bunch. He soldiered on and finished well, partly to get the mental toughness training in the bag, but also in part because he didn’t have keys to the car…

The bunch took all the early corners gingerly but certainly did not soft pedal to the climb. Some moves were given some leeway up the road, but none were ever let out of sight. Soon enough a bridge attempt would be made and eventually the whole peloton would accelerate en masse. Louis and Wilco raced as planned and were well position when the pace was lifted with attacks and counter-attacks on the climb.

The climb:
Following some initial tempo riding a few short surges above 5W/kg were made to test the field. Then came the first proper attack. 20s requiring well over 7W/kg to respond to. As soon as things slowed down slightly the counter-attack went and managed to get separation. With cold and aching legs and burning lungs everyone settled into their climbing rhythms and the situation on the road looked as follows: Two groups of climbers, roughly 5 or 6 riders in each, went over the top with mere seconds separating them. Wilco was within sight, but was isolated, and Louis crested the climb in the first chasing group.

The chase was on, but the front of the race was not letting up and were actively attacking each other. The pace was hard enough to periodically shed riders from that group that were all picked up by the chasing pack of about 15 riders, now containing both Wilco and Louis. Getting the chase organised was going nowhere and Louis was in difficulty after having his core body temperature drop on the descent. Eventually Wilco and 4 others made contact with the front group of 10 at the base of yet another rolling hill, and immediately another brutal attack went off the front.

 

With many riders in the front pack of 15 not backing themselves in a sprint finish the attacks went one after the other all the way to the finish, but none would be decisive. Wilco eventually ran out of matches to burn to respond to attacks (or maybe the matchbox got wet?) and lost contact on one of the rolling hills. He did however have enough stamina to settle into a good pace and kept the front of the race within sight, finishing 11^th, 1’05 behind race winner, Alex Heward. Louis secured another top 20 for the team, after regaining some control of his frozen body.

Thanks to the organisers and all the racers who did their part to make this one a safe experience and one for the books.

[Lucas Swart]

5 hours ago, bleedToWin said:

Super congratulations on that ride man. Seriously. Some seasoned riders sat in their cars in Wellington and decided not to even start, so a massive well done to you. I can understand that a medal might have been worth it to you, but trust me, this memory will be with you for all your cycling days, while the medal would just be left somewhere in a cupboard. 

One day, years from now, you'll get caught in a freak December rainstorm and while sharing war stories with your buddies after that race you'll bring up Winelands 2021 with a big grin on your face. ✊

Thanks so much! It did feel a bit like I was being thrown in the deep end, in more ways than one, but I am happy to have the memories and I do feel pretty proud to have pulled it off. I also learnt quite a bit about the value of having the right gear. The only thing I was really lacking was waterproof socks, and I definitely won't make that mistake again. 

I was wondering, are we supposed to receive some kind of statistic/rank from racetec based on what they tracked with the chip? I was hoping so since my strava didn't do it's job. 

[bleedToWin]

3 minutes ago, Lucas Swart said:

Thanks so much! It did feel a bit like I was being thrown in the deep end, in more ways than one, but I am happy to have the memories and I do feel pretty proud to have pulled it off. I also learnt quite a bit about the value of having the right gear. The only thing I was really lacking was waterproof socks, and I definitely won't make that mistake again. 

I was wondering, are we supposed to receive some kind of statistic/rank from racetec based on what they tracked with the chip? I was hoping so since my strava didn't do it's job. 

Results are here:  http://results.racetec.co.za/results.aspx

Seeding (ranking system across many races) will come later in the week.

[bleedToWin]

I saw a few brave folks snapping photo's, but I assume they were just trying to get shots of their riders?
I haven't seen any galleries up anywhere... ????

[milky4130]

On 9/6/2021 at 7:46 AM, Jbr said:

Damn right, we want races, well marked and as safe as can be ! I don't give a f*** about medals or mojitos at the end, if you can provide parking it's even better, but I don't mind parking a bit further away, most days (except yesterday) I'll warmup for 15mins anyways !

The only thing outside of the race I really want is toilets, and if possible without guys from the E batch sitting in there reading a book when you must go line up on the start line in 15 mins ????

Hahahaha that was really very funny but so true.

[Chingy182]

On 9/6/2021 at 7:50 AM, Jbr said:

I drive a duster and I was starting early so I took the risk but I did consider moving my car, if I had the sandero I would definitely have parked on the road ????

Hi, Sandero here.

I parked at the bottom fields and managed to approach the exit with a bit of an angle and gave some foot at the right moment, trying to avoid spinning out.

Boer maak 'n plan.

[bleedToWin]

They're really struggling to make up their minds on that beta... ????

[Shebeen]

On 9/1/2021 at 12:52 PM, Shebeen said:

 

as a sailor/windsurfer i have been monitoring weather forecasts for a long time now.

i'm not sure which app you're following, but I'm pretty confident there will be quite a big storm on friday and a more minor one on sunday morning. prepared to get wet, if I'm wrong, then bonus

so this one nailed it!

I'm taking pre orders for Argus weather forecasting now too

[KingZA]

Kudos to the organisers for doing the survey. They care about this event and want to make it better.

Just wonder how many parking comments they're getting now ????

[Jbr]

1 minute ago, KingZA said:

Kudos to the organisers for doing the survey. They care about this event and want to make it better.

Just wonder how many parking comments they're getting now ????

thought the same thing ???? so I felt I had to give them the best possible review to balance things.

I wonder if we only got the couple of angry Karens or if it was actually a big mess and lots of people got stuck. Anyways it was predictable so not the organiser's fault.

[MDJ]

Hey overall, I was happy to just have an event that actually happened, kudos to them for not pulling the weather card ????

In terms of the event overall my ride was good, marshals indicated the major potholes by the time B-group came through ... only so much they can control.

[bleedToWin]

Apparently they're only calculating the index with the next seeding run. Wonder why they started doing it this way...

[Arrie]

17 minutes ago, bleedToWin said:

Apparently they're only calculating the index with the next seeding run. Wonder why they started doing it this way...

yeah i heard its sometime close to CTCT, so much for promoting its a Premier Seeding event but yet the seeding takes so long. I know previously, seeding use to happen every Wednesday

[bleedToWin]

It makes much more sense to grade the race soon after the event in order to field queries while everything is still fresh.

[Arrie]

7 minutes ago, bleedToWin said:

It makes much more sense to grade the race soon after the event in order to field queries while everything is still fresh.

thats why WP Cycling should run with all the events, they are much more efficient