[Event] B-Well Around The Pot 2022

[MongooseMan]

Well that was... you know, I don't know. I went from wanting to drop at the ferry, to feeling better but having to wait an hour for them to try to fix the broken ferry, to crossing the river on a rubber duck, to feeling great with 10km to go, to hating life and mud and rocks and everyone in the last 10km.

I swear at some points in that last bit I was only peddling because that's what my body was conditioned to do. 

But... got it done, so there's that 😁

[DieselnDust]

Weeeellllll that was expensive……!

[MORNE]

11 hours ago, MongooseMan said:

Well that was... you know, I don't know. I went from wanting to drop at the ferry, to feeling better but having to wait an hour for them to try to fix the broken ferry, to crossing the river on a rubber duck, to feeling great with 10km to go, to hating life and mud and rocks and everyone in the last 10km.

I swear at some points in that last bit I was only peddling because that's what my body was conditioned to do. 

But... got it done, so there's that 😁

I seriously considered jumping onto the road(n2?) that last stretch. At least you could pedal, gearing and gravelkings meant i was literally just spinning the back wheel and going sidewise the whole time. Think i walked a good 3km of it…even some of the downhill parts lol. It was just faster to walk sections of it at that point. 
 

then, i know i have said on here that ill never let anyone pressure wash my bike….

i was grateful they were there. So. Much. Mud. 

Edit: On a positive note, water/feeding points were legit. If it weren't for the slight break the offerend from the mud, i think a lot more people would have just stopped.

ps2: where is the @JohanDiv and his tandem??? Surely not? How? Will he be divorced? 😅

Edited July 24, 2022 by MORNE

[ChrisF]

11 hours ago, MongooseMan said:

Well that was... you know, I don't know. I went from wanting to drop at the ferry, to feeling better but having to wait an hour for them to try to fix the broken ferry, to crossing the river on a rubber duck, to feeling great with 10km to go, to hating life and mud and rocks and everyone in the last 10km.

I swear at some points in that last bit I was only peddling because that's what my body was conditioned to do. 

But... got it done, so there's that 😁

 

Friends waited at the pont ...... apparently they needed a new cably

 

They then took a detour .... turning the 100km into 148km and more than 2 000m elevation

 

Sounds like a hectic day out on the bike.

 

 

The type of day that makes the best memories

[JohanDiv]

2 hours ago, MORNE said:

 

ps2: where is the @JohanDiv and his tandem??? Surely not? How? Will he be divorced? 😅

I don't know what you guys are complaining about? We loved it on the tandem! Flip that thing flew like a rocketship on the descends!! In hindsight we should've attempted the 160km instead of the 100km. We were done in 4h56min, which meant we had too much time on our hands afterwards and afterpartied from 13h00 till 01:00😵‍💫.

But yeah, the bike took some shots - lost the front derailleur 30km into the race, which meant we were stuck in the middle chainring.. climbing sucked from then on, my knees exploded, and we then also couldn't take full advantage on the downhills. Brakes failed somewhere after the pont, so the last 8km were sketchy as hell! I had to brake the front wheel with my foot coming into town.

Slip and slide the last 8km, pulled off a few great drifting moves on the tandem there! We only had to walk the one little hill after the culvert crossing because we kept spinning when we tried getting on the bike.

Awesome day out! 

[RossTopher]

A bunch of us set off back from Malgas and past water point 1. A few climbs between 12-16% and we ended on about 2660m climbing over the 148km. I thought we had a tough one until reading these comments, and seeing people mudslide over the line. 

Did the extend cut-off because of the pont? It must have been a brutal, cold return

[MongooseMan]

1 hour ago, RossTopher said:

A bunch of us set off back from Malgas and past water point 1. A few climbs between 12-16% and we ended on about 2660m climbing over the 148km. I thought we had a tough one until reading these comments, and seeing people mudslide over the line. 

Did the extend cut-off because of the pont? It must have been a brutal, cold return

It actually warmed up. We finished just as it got dark (about 6:15pm)

[MORNE]

1 hour ago, RossTopher said:

A bunch of us set off back from Malgas and past water point 1. A few climbs between 12-16% and we ended on about 2660m climbing over the 148km. I thought we had a tough one until reading these comments, and seeing people mudslide over the line. 

Did the extend cut-off because of the pont? It must have been a brutal, cold return

Yes, i was stil waiting in line to get mysekf and my bike washed when they made the announcement that they will be pushing out prizegiving etc because of conditions. I finished just before 2pm. Saw The 200 miler winner cross the line. Legend.

ps: glad i decided to roll straight through the Malgas. It was docking as i arrived so i grabbed some water and nana-bread and boarded. But then, if you asked me yesterday 10km from the end i probably would have agreed to do 50km extra rather than that clusterf@ck of mud.

Edited July 24, 2022 by MORNE

[Herschel]

Well that was all rather interesting, I trained harder for the event this year than when I did it in 2019. I was hoping to improve my time as this would be my first ever event repeated in 5 years of me riding bike.

30KM in, my hardtail started making horrible noises, I mean it sounded like I was riding an E-bike when pedalling…..raaah, raah raah. (foreshadowing, I ended up having many thoughts of e-bikes on this ride). I was too embarrassed to stop at WP1 – ducked and dived all the other people enjoying the refreshments. Luckily I made it through safely without being stoned to death for a noisy bike or riding into a fellow distracted cyclist.

Made it to the ferry crossing 10 minutes later than previous attempt. Skipped the rooster koek and off and over I went (ferry was still running at this point). I still felt relatively strong but little did I know what was waiting for me just ahead.

At some point I noticed that nobody would stay around me long enough to allow me to wheel suck. Every now and then a proper E-bike would pass me and I started to ponder just what an experience it must be to just enjoy the ride, instead of suffering. Between the ferry crossing and water point 3 I started to really hate life. I lost the ability to shift gears properly, it was like my request for a gear change was sent from my shifter via a pigeon and a slow at that, to my derailleur. The sounds coming from my drive train became worse with every passing KM. Was it just me or did water point 3 move a million kilometres away. Looking ahead at the rollers, they looked deeper and steeper than I remember. Try as I might I could never get enough momentum on the downhill to make it to the crest and eventually my super heavy bike will need to be pedalled up the hill. I’m convinced the sticky mud was just attacking me, everyone else around me must have been on smooth and dry gravel. Well that was my mindset at least.

Finally made it to WP3, used some clean water on my cassette and derailleur, it looked like a ton of mud came out. I remember thinking about @Wayne pudding Mol maybe I should get that TrickStuff brakes from him if I make it to the finish line as a treat. Next I grabbed some banana bread and sweets, best tasting things I’ve had in my mouth the whole day thus far. Rinsing the mud from my bottles also ensured I could finally drink without getting mud at the same time.

Then something magical happened, I caught an old Oomie with a noisy bike on one of the rollers. The two of us motored, soon we passed a guy on a gravel bike and he decided to join the train. The Oom and I took pulling turns, Mr Gravel bike refused to pull. At first I was annoyed but then I remembered maybe he was enjoying the music coming from our bikes. Within no time we made it to WP4.

At some point we hit the black stuff, I was so happy to be on tar. Mr Gravel bike came forward and took a pull, which meant we became instant best friends. I would invite him round my house for a braai any day.

My next highlight was when Waldo and Milky came past me like a runaway freight train. I had enough energy to shout "klap it Mr Isaacs" Sensing the end being near but knowing something was waiting ahead I tackled the last of the mud with a lot of enjoyment. Being a child of the 80’s that played Mortal Kombat….all I kept thinking as I took on the remaining mud was…..Finish Him…I mean Finish This Damn Thing!!!!!

Crossing the finish line brought me great enjoyment as I had a roll coaster of emotions throughout the day. 45 mins slower than 2019. I made so many deals with myself just to keep going, it will take me a while to remember it all.

I allowed my bike to be pressure washed and was totally grateful. The journey home was uneventful.

What a day, what a day.

Edited July 24, 2022 by Herschel

[BMCfan]

On 7/24/2022 at 8:54 AM, JohanDiv said:

I don't know what you guys are complaining about? We loved it on the tandem! Flip that thing flew like a rocketship on the descends!! In hindsight we should've attempted the 160km instead of the 100km. We were done in 4h56min, which meant we had too much time on our hands afterwards and afterpartied from 13h00 till 01:00😵‍💫.

But yeah, the bike took some shots - lost the front derailleur 30km into the race, which meant we were stuck in the middle chainring.. climbing sucked from then on, my knees exploded, and we then also couldn't take full advantage on the downhills. Brakes failed somewhere after the pont, so the last 8km were sketchy as hell! I had to brake the front wheel with my foot coming into town.

Slip and slide the last 8km, pulled off a few great drifting moves on the tandem there! We only had to walk the one little hill after the culvert crossing because we kept spinning when we tried getting on the bike.

Awesome day out! 

Whahaaaaa. That aged well 😉

[BuffsVintageBikes]

On 7/21/2022 at 2:38 PM, DieselnDust said:

How muddy will these muddy roads be?

maxxis aspen or ardent sort of question

Right, so I guess that question has been answered 😆

[Shebeen]

On 7/24/2022 at 6:25 AM, MORNE said:

I seriously considered jumping onto the road(n2?) that last stretch. At least you could pedal, gearing and gravelkings meant i was literally just spinning the back wheel and going sidewise the whole time. Think i walked a good 3km of it…even some of the downhill parts lol. It was just faster to walk sections of it at that point. 
 

then, i know i have said on here that ill never let anyone pressure wash my bike….

i was grateful they were there. So. Much. Mud. 

Edit: On a positive note, water/feeding points were legit. If it weren't for the slight break the offerend from the mud, i think a lot more people would have just stopped.

ps2: where is the @JohanDiv and his tandem??? Surely not? How? Will he be divorced? 😅

 

The guy on the far left has the 2nd spot on the strava segment you're moaning about with those skinny tyres. Took me a bit longer!

 

https://www.strava.com/activities/7516040980/segments/2985990382318200578

[Shebeen]

Two things that really surprised me:

* hardly any cyclists had any spare chain lube on them. it's a muddy race, come prepared! Unfortunately no way was I sparing the little squirt bottle I had, despite plenty of requests. It would be gone in a jiffy, and I did need it myself.

*the amount of energy gel sachets on the road. wtf people? you bring it, take it home damnit. 

On 7/23/2022 at 7:28 PM, MongooseMan said:

Well that was... you know, I don't know. I went from wanting to drop at the ferry, to feeling better but having to wait an hour for them to try to fix the broken ferry, to crossing the river on a rubber duck, to feeling great with 10km to go, to hating life and mud and rocks and everyone in the last 10km.

I swear at some points in that last bit I was only peddling because that's what my body was conditioned to do. 

But... got it done, so there's that 😁

I got over on that speedboat...trip #3 i think it was. what did the going rate get up to, once i left people were offering R500 from the crowd!  I was so close to being on the last working ferry, it was only half-full damnit and then they closed the gate and went! In the end my 45min stop was 1:50, and i really enjoyed my ITT for the last 60km.

I'm sure there will be a big debrief by the organisers on the pont plan B, and a fix will be in order going forward. Little bit surprised there was seemingly no contingency for it not working, as chatting to volunteers they had already negotiated the max person capacity from 9 pax to 50 and looked at a boat transport option just incase. It would be a pity to take this portion out the route.

 

That final N2 section was obviously very different without the mud, but it's not gravel fun. just glad i had the power left to get through it, in hindsight that would have been worthwhile dropping tyre pressure. On strava i see plenty of people walked.

[Shebeen]

49 minutes ago, BuffsVintageBikes said:

Right, so I guess that question has been answered 😆

[DieselnDust]

Most of that mud on her was the last 200m!!!

[MORNE]

1 hour ago, Shebeen said:

 

The guy on the far left has the 2nd spot on the strava segment you're moaning about with those skinny tyres. Took me a bit longer!

 

https://www.strava.com/activities/7516040980/segments/2985990382318200578

he's obviously infinitely better than me😅 DUH. 

...or he ran up it lol.

either way would have been faster. Also...the argument is kind of moot because he would have done that part probably n few hours before me (since he's awesome) and definitely a few 100 ebikes, mtbs, and DHF's and the sorts before met too. By the time we got there i was wondering where the "singletrack" was everybody mentioned haha. It was a 6m wide mud pit.

And like i said...my bike was also way over geared for those conditions. 1-1 was not enough. you needed more granny in the rear or front to spin up a lot of that late mud. even some of the mtb's around me on rekons but 10-52T struggled pedalling up it.