Absa Cape Epic 2022

[love2fly]

1 hour ago, DieselnDust said:

I think this is BS decision, Dumbing down the requirements is so F***ing woke. 

Enter #theracethatmeasuresall but we'll engineer it so that you can finish and have the bragging rights of being the toughest and greatest. What a woke joke

Agree. The guys who crawled in just before cutoff and earned their place next day deserve the respect.

[DieselnDust]

anyone know if Craig Beech has finished yet? He's one of the last Lions and was looking touch and go for the 6pm cut off

[PhilipV]

1 hour ago, DieselnDust said:

I think this is BS decision, Dumbing down the requirements is so F***ing woke. 

Enter #theracethatmeasuresall but we'll engineer it so that you can finish and have the bragging rights of being the toughest and greatest. What a woke joke

I'm pretty sure the cut-off has been moved out in nearly every edition of epic?

2 hours ago, @grootlem said:

My opinion, yes we all have one, is that the average South African cyclist doing tough events is not as fit as the average European rider but we have the latest equipmen

Agreed. But the euros in the mid pack has even  less skills than Jannie  Corporate. 

 

[PhilipV]

5 hours ago, Headshot said:

.  They accept the risk and sometimes it just doesn't pay off....

Niño has a few epics under his belt, including wins. He knows the risks, and the costs involved on both sides off the trade-off.

[DieselnDust]

15 minutes ago, PhilipV said:

I'm pretty sure the cut-off has been moved out in nearly every edition of epic?

Agreed. But the euros in the mid pack has even  less skills than Jannie  Corporate. 

 

Yes it has been when the too many of the field looks to not make it. I’ve never agreed with it and while you’re out there you didn’t know that it was moved because you’re pacing to the cut off given on the startline.  Now the last water point communicates the revision and those who were not in with a chance of finishing can cruise to the finish. 
how can it be #theracethatmeasuresall ….

Take this case of the last lions

craig beech finished at 18:36, the others respected the event and each others achievements by finishing well within the original time limit. 
 

which then begs the question …why bother with a cut off at all?

[Jewbacca]

I always find the concept of 'motivation' to be so interesting.

Why does it matter if the cut off is moved? At TDF sometimes they allow guys out side of the time cut to continue. It's not uncommon.

I'm not at all emotionally connected to any events. I've done some rad ones, but if they allow dopers or have a bad run or change cut off regulations etc it doesn't impact me at all.

Maybe it comes back to motivation. Why people choose and believe others choose to do these sorts of events. 

If I was out there struggling from yesterday and dedding again today I would be so grateful for an extra 55 minutes. I still need to eat, rest, get up tomorrow and do it all again.

Being hyper critical of someone who has done every single stage of every single version of the race so far. That's already a LOT of dedication to the race. Maybe the oke has had a bad year with health/work/personal stuff to deal with. He is still out there doing the business, albeit slowly.

Realistically, this is not the most difficult 8 day sport race to finish if you're just there to finish. It's tough, but compared to an expedition AR it's a doddle to finish. So if you're just making cut offs, you're not troubling the scorers so why does it matter?

Anyway, I wish them luck. 

I've spent some long days and nights in the saddle doing Freedom Challenge and other 250km non stop stages in an AR and honestly, I don't envy the guys getting in now, trying to eat, recover, sleep, eat, hydrate etc all before 5am tomorrow when they rinse and repeat. 

Again, motivation is a funny thing because that doesn't seem like any sort of fun to me, not type 2, 2,5 or 3, never mind type 1.

Good luck to them

[DieselnDust]

3 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

I always find the concept of 'motivation' to be so interesting.

Why does it matter if the cut off is moved? At TDF sometimes they allow guys out side of the time cut to continue. It's not uncommon.

I'm not at all emotionally connected to any events. I've done some rad ones, but if they allow dopers or have a bad run or change cut off regulations etc it doesn't impact me at all.

Maybe it comes back to motivation. Why people choose and believe others choose to do these sorts of events. 

If I was out there struggling from yesterday and dedding again today I would be so grateful for an extra 55 minutes. I still need to eat, rest, get up tomorrow and do it all again.

Being hyper critical of someone who has done every single stage of every single version of the race so far. That's already a LOT of dedication to the race. Maybe the oke has had a bad year with health/work/personal stuff to deal with. He is still out there doing the business, albeit slowly.

Realistically, this is not the most difficult 8 day sport race to finish if you're just there to finish. It's tough, but compared to an expedition AR it's a doddle to finish. So if you're just making cut offs, you're not troubling the scorers so why does it matter?

Anyway, I wish them luck. 

I've spent some long days and nights in the saddle doing Freedom Challenge and other 250km non stop stages in an AR and honestly, I don't envy the guys getting in now, trying to eat, recover, sleep, eat, hydrate etc all before 5am tomorrow when they rinse and repeat. 

Again, motivation is a funny thing because that doesn't seem like any sort of fun to me, not type 2, 2,5 or 3, never mind type 1.

Good luck to them

good perspective

[Fred van Vlaanderen]

22 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

I always find the concept of 'motivation' to be so interesting.

Why does it matter if the cut off is moved? At TDF sometimes they allow guys out side of the time cut to continue. It's not uncommon.

I'm not at all emotionally connected to any events. I've done some rad ones, but if they allow dopers or have a bad run or change cut off regulations etc it doesn't impact me at all.

Maybe it comes back to motivation. Why people choose and believe others choose to do these sorts of events. 

If I was out there struggling from yesterday and dedding again today I would be so grateful for an extra 55 minutes. I still need to eat, rest, get up tomorrow and do it all again.

Being hyper critical of someone who has done every single stage of every single version of the race so far. That's already a LOT of dedication to the race. Maybe the oke has had a bad year with health/work/personal stuff to deal with. He is still out there doing the business, albeit slowly.

Realistically, this is not the most difficult 8 day sport race to finish if you're just there to finish. It's tough, but compared to an expedition AR it's a doddle to finish. So if you're just making cut offs, you're not troubling the scorers so why does it matter?

Anyway, I wish them luck. 

I've spent some long days and nights in the saddle doing Freedom Challenge and other 250km non stop stages in an AR and honestly, I don't envy the guys getting in now, trying to eat, recover, sleep, eat, hydrate etc all before 5am tomorrow when they rinse and repeat. 

Again, motivation is a funny thing because that doesn't seem like any sort of fun to me, not type 2, 2,5 or 3, never mind type 1.

Good luck to them

Ja, well said! 

[Patchelicious]

30 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

I always find the concept of 'motivation' to be so interesting.

Why does it matter if the cut off is moved? At TDF sometimes they allow guys out side of the time cut to continue. It's not uncommon.

I'm not at all emotionally connected to any events. I've done some rad ones, but if they allow dopers or have a bad run or change cut off regulations etc it doesn't impact me at all.

Maybe it comes back to motivation. Why people choose and believe others choose to do these sorts of events. 

If I was out there struggling from yesterday and dedding again today I would be so grateful for an extra 55 minutes. I still need to eat, rest, get up tomorrow and do it all again.

Being hyper critical of someone who has done every single stage of every single version of the race so far. That's already a LOT of dedication to the race. Maybe the oke has had a bad year with health/work/personal stuff to deal with. He is still out there doing the business, albeit slowly.

Realistically, this is not the most difficult 8 day sport race to finish if you're just there to finish. It's tough, but compared to an expedition AR it's a doddle to finish. So if you're just making cut offs, you're not troubling the scorers so why does it matter?

Anyway, I wish them luck. 

I've spent some long days and nights in the saddle doing Freedom Challenge and other 250km non stop stages in an AR and honestly, I don't envy the guys getting in now, trying to eat, recover, sleep, eat, hydrate etc all before 5am tomorrow when they rinse and repeat. 

Again, motivation is a funny thing because that doesn't seem like any sort of fun to me, not type 2, 2,5 or 3, never mind type 1.

Good luck to them

You lost me at “rad”.

[Mamil]

7 minutes ago, Patchelicious said:

You lost me at “rad”.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/rad

['Dale]

A picture tells a thousand words

[OVERDRIVE]

Am now "live" with 31km to go. Nino punishing so hard, even Lars is feeling it. 

[Eldron]

Back in my day the Epic was all uphill, on lumpy grass fields, with rocks and torrential rain and dust, lots of dust from all the torrential rain. It was 48 degrees every day and they made the altitude for the entire event over 2,000m specifically for my Epic.

The hipster posers of today are obviously way softer than me, the older guy who was faster and faster the older he gets.

Gotta love people comparing Epics. Unless you rode the course today you have no idea of conditions and cut off times.

[OVERDRIVE]

Just now, Eldron said:

Back in my day the Epic was all uphill, on lumpy grass fields, with rocks and torrential rain and dust, lots of dust from all the torrential rain. It was 48 degrees every day and they made the altitude for the entire event over 2,000m specifically for my Epic.

The hipster posers of today are obviously way softer than me, the older guy who was faster and faster the older he gets.

Gotta love people comparing Epics. Unless you rode the course today you have no idea of conditions and cut off times.

I am questioning noone and nothing. Watching Lars has made me make a shake just to stay upright watching him. 😭

[Eldron]

7 minutes ago, OVERDRIVE said:

I am questioning noone and nothing. Watching Lars has made me make a shake just to stay upright watching him. 😭

I feel sorry for all of Ninos partners!

[ChrisF]

11 minutes ago, Eldron said:

Back in my day the Epic was all uphill, on lumpy grass fields, with rocks and torrential rain and dust, lots of dust from all the torrential rain. It was 48 degrees every day and they made the altitude for the entire event over 2,000m specifically for my Epic.

The hipster posers of today are obviously way softer than me, the older guy who was faster and faster the older he gets.

Gotta love people comparing Epics. Unless you rode the course today you have no idea of conditions and cut off times.

 

Work took me out past Caledon today.

 

By 8.00 the wind was BLOWING !!  Lost about 2km/l in the car .... must have been hectic on a bike.

 

At least the temperatures were from 22 to 28 degrees.

 

Those hills must have been pure torture ....

 

 

Absolute respect to each and every rider 👍