Absa Cape Epic 2021 thread

[Hairy]

1 hour ago, DieselnDust said:

Jordan Sarrou and Specialized,...making hydration packs cool again

WHAT, DO THEY NOT HAVE ENOUGH WATER BOTTLE CAGES

[Hairy]

[DieselnDust]

Mariske and Candice still going but Robyn and Arianne are in 2nd now

 

[Eldron]

55 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

not sure, it looks like he's dealing with a deflating tyre that appears to have settled at a pressure thats rideable.  Lets see how they go at the last WP

Turns out he had grass in his RD and couldn't use the last two gears!

[DieselnDust]

11 minutes ago, Eldron said:

Turns out he had grass in his RD and couldn't use the last two gears!

Yeah he covered that in the interview. His back tyre did look to be more bouncy that Jordans and the other guys around him but the bigger issue would be the loss of his two top end gears. The irritation of wide range derailleurs is that they pick up a lot of crud and deposit that on the cassette and pulley wheels. I'm alwsy pulling grass out of my cassette and pulley wheels

Babse is doing well. Projected finish time an hour down on the leading times is flippen flying!

[DieselnDust]

Robyn and Arianne finish 5min after LauraSina

[Shebeen]

19 minutes ago, Mike Mac said:

I agree. 
 

As they race together, the producers do need to focus on where the action is, no question. However quite often, and in most sports, the focus remains on the men’s lead and often ignore very interesting developments in the women’s race. 
 

Thus far in the coverage I have watched this morning (since making my comment) has IMO, been a pretty good split between men’s and women’s race with them focussing on the critical aspects of both races. 

it was not that long ago that the women's field was given a totally separate start group, it seems that has made the racing more tactical there than rather just being in the ~1A sub vets group.

This TV coverage is expensive to make and it needs to work long term to sell the race to the masses. the ebikes they are using is groundbreaking stuff really too. The women's race is unfortunately very unlikely to be exciting. just because of what it is and the depth of the field. Boring coverage will help no one, the field needs to grow first (this is not a chicken or egg scenario).

eg. looking at the prologue results.

there are only 12 womens teams in the race with 8 within 10mins of the stage winners, i'm not sure if all 12 are starting in the womens elite group, or if any are masters too.

there are 109 teams in the mens cat (ie. not masters/GM). 29 were within 10mins of the stage winners.

 

so my answer here really, EPIC/UCI needs to find a way to get more elite ladies racing here. That is the only way to improve the racing

 

 

 

[ChrisF]

What a special stage 

 

Made extra special by having ridden the Eslefontein trails a week ago.  Super to watch these racers go through, recognising the trails, and for once actually having a real understanding. 

 

Seeing them flying around a blind bend and struggling with some of those water crossings brought back memories.  The heli-view does not do justice to what you experience on the bike .... seeing some of those riders get caught in the wrong gear after some of these blind turns and struggling to get on pace again hints at the reality ....

 

 

RESPECT to all the riders.

 

And thanks to Epic for the Live stream.

Edited October 18, 2021 by ChrisF

[Stephan]

51 minutes ago, Eldron said:

Turns out he had grass in his RD and couldn't use the last two gears!

Exactly the same happened to me twice in one day on these trails during Eselfontein race last weekend. I would have sacrificed the 15secs to stop and pull it out. Anyway, all in all a good day for Matt & Sarriou, despite not staying away after they were in the lead after the climbs. 

I thought the coverage is good. I noticed only 3k people tuned in to watch live on YouTube (about 5k nearing the end of the stage). For all effort / money spent on live streaming, its not much? I assume the big viewership numbers lie in highlights package, which I guess is distributed all around the world?

[Spafsack]

That water drift they had to go near the end was deeper than anyone expected, i think the footage is good, the extreme close ups by the camera man with some interviews is epic ????. Going to be an interesting few days ahead.

[Hairy]

19 minutes ago, Stephan said:

Exactly the same happened to me twice in one day on these trails during Eselfontein race last weekend. I would have sacrificed the 15secs to stop and pull it out. Anyway, all in all a good day for Matt & Sarriou, despite not staying away after they were in the lead after the climbs. 

I thought the coverage is good. I noticed only 3k people tuned in to watch live on YouTube (about 5k nearing the end of the stage). For all effort / money spent on live streaming, its not much? I assume the big viewership numbers lie in highlights package, which I guess is distributed all around the world?

Maybe they are not marketing their YouTube channel properly

[ChrisF]

24 minutes ago, Stephan said:

Exactly the same happened to me twice in one day on these trails during Eselfontein race last weekend. I would have sacrificed the 15secs to stop and pull it out. Anyway, all in all a good day for Matt & Sarriou, despite not staying away after they were in the lead after the climbs. 

I thought the coverage is good. I noticed only 3k people tuned in to watch live on YouTube (about 5k nearing the end of the stage). For all effort / money spent on live streaming, its not much? I assume the big viewership numbers lie in highlights package, which I guess is distributed all around the world?

 

I got a twig into the gears ... STOPPED the chain .... was next to one of the orchards, some of the pruned twigs on the ground.  Thankfully happened just after a turn, so I was not pedalling at the time.  Took a second to figure out what it was.  Quick to get going again.

 

Saw at least one other rider with some of that long grass in the jockey wheels during the Eselfontein ride.  It was just dangling along at that point.

 

 

Stephan I am sure you must have enjoyed this broadcast. 

 

 

As much as I wanted to watch more if it .... work had to get done ....

[Headshot]

30 minutes ago, Stephan said:

Exactly the same happened to me twice in one day on these trails during Eselfontein race last weekend. I would have sacrificed the 15secs to stop and pull it out. Anyway, all in all a good day for Matt & Sarriou, despite not staying away after they were in the lead after the climbs. 

I thought the coverage is good. I noticed only 3k people tuned in to watch live on YouTube (about 5k nearing the end of the stage). For all effort / money spent on live streaming, its not much? I assume the big viewership numbers lie in highlights package, which I guess is distributed all around the world?

What we tend to forget is that marathon stage racing is a fringe sport in the rest of the world. MTB in general has a lower viewership than many other 'mainstream" sports. The Redbull Rampage had about 50k people watching the live stream and now has nearly 650k views on the rerun. The Epic will never reach those numbers.

[Headshot]

1 hour ago, Hairy said:

Ya funny name hey - you think he is having a few cold ones as we type?

[bolt67]

4 hours ago, splat said:

Does anyone know if there is a live tracker option rather than a live YouTube feed?
Keen to follow the race, but can't actually watch it live.
Apparently, I have to actually do some work...

live tracking

on the Epic Series app

[@grootlem]

2 hours ago, Jbr said:

is there bonus points for the stage win ? is there an actual point burning matches in a sprint when you could just chill and give up on 1 or 2 secs ?

A stage win is pretty big business. You also don't know maybe your race is over tomorrow, or you will not win GC. Maybe a Green jersey will be cool. Good to see my pre race favorites Canyon Northwave up there. Im not sure Beers and his partner had the correct tactics today by breaking away for most of the day and then got caught. I think he needs to look after the xco man on this long week. Bulls with 2 teams can decide a lot on what happens and tactics