[Event] Boland Gravel Monster

[peetwindhoek]

17 minutes ago, Mamil said:

Agreed ... it's overpriced. Mind you I think I just paid 1750 for swarrberg.

Anyone seen results for yesterday?

https://www.great-time.co.za/mobile/ 

[Bub Marley]

14 hours ago, Frosty said:

How much was the entry fee?

Entry was way overpriced. That’s my biggest gripe of everything. For R1150 i got a cheap cap with Boland gravel monster printed on. I can literally peel off the branding from the cap. 

 

As much as I enjoyed the event, i won’t do it at that price again. There were just over 100 starters for the long race which is pretty poor considering they said the event was 80% full at the beginning of the month. This was more expensive than K2C and Race to the sea. 

[BuffsVintageBikes]

I was very keen to race the event as well but sadly it was also the price that put me off, mostly because it also wasn't the only race I was doing this month.

To pitch a fairly new gravel race at a price higher than the Cape Town Cycle Tour entry (that includes full road closure) is being very optimistic IMHO.

[no calves]

1 hour ago, BuffsVintageBikes said:

I was very keen to race the event as well but sadly it was also the price that put me off, mostly because it also wasn't the only race I was doing this month.

To pitch a fairly new gravel race at a price higher than the Cape Town Cycle Tour entry (that includes full road closure) is being very optimistic IMHO.

It was a hard few weeks with the Old Hermon, Race2theSea and Boland Gravel Monster.

 

Wat was really alarming was that 3 waterpoints was manned by the same guys, they kept leapfrogging us on the road, so if the faster guys had waterpoints i dont know. I finished close to the back but by no means last and almost 2 hours from cutoff. when I finished they was not even a bear... the portaloos was already loaded and on its way out(truck broke down just outside the estate but still..

 

The coffee truck was not up and running at start time...

 

It was completely the opposite for the Old hermon at the same venue just 3 weeks prior

[Bub Marley]

22 minutes ago, no calves said:

It was a hard few weeks with the Old Hermon, Race2theSea and Boland Gravel Monster.

 

Wat was really alarming was that 3 waterpoints was manned by the same guys, they kept leapfrogging us on the road, so if the faster guys had waterpoints i dont know. I finished close to the back but by no means last and almost 2 hours from cutoff. when I finished they was not even a bear... the portaloos was already loaded and on its way out(truck broke down just outside the estate but still..

 

The coffee truck was not up and running at start time...

 

It was completely the opposite for the Old hermon at the same venue just 3 weeks prior

I had the same experience when I finished. There was no vibe at all. No food anywhere. No coffee or anything. Suppose when you only have 100 entrants that’s to be expected. They need to drop that entry fee as I’m certain that’s the reason for the poor turnout. Old Hermon’s weather was far far worse and people still pitched up.

[Vaultboy]

19 hours ago, Bub Marley said:

First experience at a gravel race this distance and sjoe was a toughie. I was good for about 125km. Then felt a twitch in my legs just before last waterpoint. Decided not to stop as I was worried I’m gonna cramp up if I stop and also figured after Bains it’ll be nice and easy downhill to the finish🤣. Safe to say that was a mistake. Ran out of food and drink and the last 10km was just excruciating. By far the hardest section of the race especially with fatigue in the legs. 
 

Was a great event though. For all of us worrying about the mud, there was hardly anything. Pretty much perfect conditions start to finish. 

That was my experience last year. Took me an hour to do the last 10km. Cramped both hammies, twice. Limped over the finish line. 

[cadenceblur]

3 hours ago, Bub Marley said:

I had the same experience when I finished. There was no vibe at all. No food anywhere. No coffee or anything. Suppose when you only have 100 entrants that’s to be expected. They need to drop that entry fee as I’m certain that’s the reason for the poor turnout. Old Hermon’s weather was far far worse and people still pitched up.

I was intent on doing the shorter version, but the additional R400 for the vehicle transfer was off-putting for me.

[Vaultboy]

4 hours ago, Bub Marley said:

I had the same experience when I finished. There was no vibe at all. No food anywhere. No coffee or anything. Suppose when you only have 100 entrants that’s to be expected. They need to drop that entry fee as I’m certain that’s the reason for the poor turnout. Old Hermon’s weather was far far worse and people still pitched up.

They asked for feedback after the race last year, and I actually complained about the lack of food at the finish. Ended up driving to Paarl to get something decent. Wynand replied to me apologising for the food truck leaving early and said they'll address it this year. Clearly not. 

Were the waterpoints at least good? I commended them last year for having a better selection of fuel at the waterpoints than most other events I've done. (It made the steep entry fee a bit more palatable.)

[Bub Marley]

12 minutes ago, Vaultboy said:

They asked for feedback after the race last year, and I actually complained about the lack of food at the finish. Ended up driving to Paarl to get something decent. Wynand replied to me apologising for the food truck leaving early and said they'll address it this year. Clearly not. 

Were the waterpoints at least good? I commended them last year for having a better selection of fuel at the waterpoints than most other events I've done. (It made the steep entry fee a bit more palatable.)

WP1 was basically just liquids. They had water, coke, energy drink etc.

WP2 they had the same liquids as WP1 as well as banana bread and hot dogs.

WP3 they had all the liquids again as well as baby potatoes, bananas, sandwiches, sweets.

I never stopped at WP4 but from a quick glance it looked the same as WP3.

 

So yeah, pretty decent selection there. No complaints in terms of what they had available.

[stringbean]

Was keen to do event this year.Tried phoning the organisers a few times(cell number on website) but no answer.

Eventually sent WhatsApp because I was looking for information on the car shuttle.Eventually got a reply “everything is on website “.Still couldn’t find info so just laughed it off.Entry fee for me and wife including car shuttle would have been 2k.We ended doing our own gravel ride on Sunday (Wellington way)for free.

‘Went out for a Lekker lunch and saved a lot of money.Decided not to do race not only because of price but because of disinterest shown by organisers.

[The Ouzo]

2 hours ago, cadenceblur said:

I was intent on doing the shorter version, but the additional R400 for the vehicle transfer was off-putting for me.

FYI for my ride last week, shuttle back to the start (+/- 100km) was R250. 

[cadenceblur]

12 minutes ago, The Ouzo said:

FYI for my ride last week, shuttle back to the start (+/- 100km) was R250. 

Yeah , the R400 did sound steep,

Wondering about this one for next year, sounds like quite a small event and maybe they need to find their feet..

[Jbr]

20 hours ago, stringbean said:

Was keen to do event this year.Tried phoning the organisers a few times

So it was you that inundated them !

 

for anyone into gravel but not so much into long distance stuff, out of the two I would definitely recommend Old Hermon over Gravel monster, the vibe pre and post race was great at old hermon despite the conditions, I did not feel like the race was too short at the end (but long distance isn't really my thing) and I absolutely loved doing bain's more at the begining

Edited September 19, 2023 by Jbr

[stringbean]

Wahaha 

Staying in Blouberg my wife and I will often do a gravel ride Bains/slang hoek way.

‘It’s beautiful and FREE

No need to spend 2k.

I expect I’ll start getting emails from organisers next week that early bird entries are open😂😂😂😂

[Frosty]

17 minutes ago, stringbean said:

I expect I’ll start getting emails from organisers next week that early bird entries are open😂😂😂😂

And that entries are selling out fast.

[Bub Marley]

The guys actually lied. They said entries limited to 500 for the full race and that 80% were sold out in the first week of September. There is no way 300 people didn’t pitch.  

 

These organisers need to do better with marketing. You’re charging over a grand and there was no marketing at all on this race which is baffling given social media etc.