Absa Cape Epic 2022

[Tatt]

On 3/27/2022 at 8:57 PM, love2fly said:

My understanding is that some riders, probably Nino etc, skim the tread some and/ride special prototypes even lighter than OEM. Nino is one of the GOATS so you can't right off the Maxxis brand just because of some poor decision making. I won't ride any other tyre and have had to buy my 3rd pack of plugs as they dry out from old age. 

Nino should learn about duct tape 😂😂.. Works a treat with plugs and got me over Rusty Gates and home in 2014...

[Tatt]

On 3/28/2022 at 12:26 PM, eala said:

If stage one was a cool day things would have been very different for many teams .Last year stage one two and three were really technically difficult but the weather was perfect .There were still a lot of riders that did not make cutoff .If those days were really hot like at 2017 Tankwa that use most of the same trails ,things would have been just as bad like at Tankwa day two when the temperature peeked at 46 degrees celsius .One riders also died that day and many riders ,including me did not ride the next day due to exhaustion 

Agreed! Heat played a massive role.

And that 2017 Tankwa was hectic, and a heap of epic teams who were doing the ride pulled out at WP3. I was stupid enough to go to the school at the bottom of the forest climb, and then decided to call it a day and go drink beer!! The 2014 Tankwa was even hotter if I remember correctly..

[Eldron]

1 hour ago, Tatt said:

Nino should learn about duct tape 😂😂.. Works a treat with plugs and got me over Rusty Gates and home in 2014...

The words Rusty and Gate, when combined still make my legs quake and my heart rate hit 300.  My partner that year was nearly 16k lighter than me and climbed like the love child of Michael Rasmussen and a Mountain Goat.

[Shebeen]

19 hours ago, DieselnDust said:

prize money take away for the international riders is a bit of a lottery if paid in ZAR

looking at this.

SCR got R300k for winning GC

R5k for two stage wins each, probably ~R10k for the other stages

so i don't think that's too bad in their case, they can cover the cost of the trip, pay Herr Baum some pocket money for the trip to buy Birkenstocks at the V&A and have some left over for the robben island museum, Boulders and Kirstenbosch tours. They probably even have enough left over to buy strava premium

 

 

 

[DieselnDust]

4 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

looking at this.

SCR got R300k for winning GC

R5k for two stage wins each, probably ~R10k for the other stages

so i don't think that's too bad in their case, they can cover the cost of the trip, pay Herr Baum some pocket money for the trip to buy Birkenstocks at the V&A and have some left over for the robben island museum, Boulders and Kirstenbosch tours. They probably even have enough left over to buy strava premium

 

 

 

They already have Strava Preium

[The Ouzo]

22 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

They already have Strava Preium

but are they bike hub plus members ?

[Ozzie NL]

Drop out percentages based on Epic numbers over the years. Took no of teams finishing event over no of prologue finishers

[TheoG]

Its obvious, this year was simply brutal ...  

[DieselnDust]

19 minutes ago, Ossie NL said:

Drop out percentages based on Epic numbers over the years. Took no of teams finishing event over no of prologue finishers

a massive ryder to consider is that 2006, 2007, 2008 if you were not a UCI team, i yor team mate dropped out you could for a new team with another individual rider. This reduces the number of teams dropping out considerably.

For the 2009 to present races, If you take the number of individual finishers and divide that by 2, then add that number back to the finishing teams list it will normalise the data to be more reflective of true difficulty.

[Ozzie NL]

13 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

a massive ryder to consider is that 2006, 2007, 2008 if you were not a UCI team, i yor team mate dropped out you could for a new team with another individual rider. This reduces the number of teams dropping out considerably.

For the 2009 to present races, If you take the number of individual finishers and divide that by 2, then add that number back to the finishing teams list it will normalise the data to be more reflective of true difficulty.

Good point on the earlier years but  as far as I can see the data for 2099 and beyond is comparable as I did not add the solo finishers back in for any of the years

Edited March 30, 2022 by Ossie NL

[DieselnDust]

11 minutes ago, Ossie NL said:

Good point on the earlier years but  as far as I can see the data for 2099 and beyond is comparable as I did not add the solo finishers back in for any of the years

That’s correct you only would need to normalise 2006 through 2008.

however you don’t know how many teams are reconstituted teams so you can’t separate those for those three years but you can bring the other years into line by creating a number for potential reconstituted teams from the individual finishers and then recalculating the drop out rates

[Jewbacca]

Seems like a lot of effort for something that subjective.

Much like the various GOAT sportser debates, I don't think you can ever actually come to a definitive conclusion.

You might find that people pulled out this year more than any other because the last 2 years had them living closer to breaking point and it didn't take much to push them past their limit. 

I know I'm definitely a lot less robust in nature after the last 2 years of anxiety and uncertainty. 

[Old and Slow]

Perhaps there are just more ex golfers doing the epic now than before...

[DieselnDust]

11 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

Seems like a lot of effort for something that subjective.

Much like the various GOAT sportser debates, I don't think you can ever actually come to a definitive conclusion.

You might find that people pulled out this year more than any other because the last 2 years had them living closer to breaking point and it didn't take much to push them past their limit. 

I know I'm definitely a lot less robust in nature after the last 2 years of anxiety and uncertainty. 

for sure and we're not looking for definitive answers just looking at the story and hows it told in the context of its history. The alternative is say its the hardest of the 2009 to present era.

Its always interesting to look at the data and see what stories jump out at you.

we can also claim its the hardest of the 29er era since that is a handicap in and of itself

[Ozzie NL]

3 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

for sure and we're not looking for definitive answers just looking at the story and hows it told in the context of its history. The alternative is say its the hardest of the 2009 to present era.

Its always interesting to look at the data and see what stories jump out at you.

we can also claim its the hardest of the 29er era since that is a handicap in and of itself

On the back of your comments regarding earlier words I went back to Epic website and seems they have effectively already normalised the data by listing individual finishers and not reconstituted teams. 

[M L]

2 hours ago, TheoG said:

Its obvious, this year was simply brutal ...  

Or we got soft over the years.