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[Event] Cape Town Cycle Tour 2023


FootballingCyclist

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Geez... Riding Argus on a BMX is for stupid people neh.....

We had a fantastic day. Stopped in Kalk Bay for a coffee and ham and cheese croissant from Olympia, stopped to meet family, kids etc in Lakeside, Muizenberg, Fish hoek, Simonstown, LLundudno and Camps Bay, stopped for more coffee in Hout bay. 

What a jol. 

Closed roads, easy pace, soaking up the gees... Best one I can remember in a super quick time of 5:08.

Absolutely smashed it

Ebikes, all sorts of bikes, all sorts of people having a blast. The relaxed atmosphere and enjoyment of riding in weather like that on closed roads was the sweetest treat

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1 hour ago, dexterdent said:

Just about 516 sub-3's - much better than last year I think (~350), but not quite the ~1100 odd from 2020 if I recall correctly

Last year was an anomaly with the rain so I would exclude it.

 

But only 3 sub 3’s in 1B probably points to the wind playing a much bigger part. I was in 1F and i felt everything was just disaorganised. No real big bunch or anything. Everything just felt scattered.

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3 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

Geez... Riding Argus on a BMX is for stupid people neh.....

We had a fantastic day. Stopped in Kalk Bay for a coffee and ham and cheese croissant from Olympia, stopped to meet family, kids etc in Lakeside, Muizenberg, Fish hoek, Simonstown, LLundudno and Camps Bay, stopped for more coffee in Hout bay. 

What a jol. 

Closed roads, easy pace, soaking up the gees... Best one I can remember in a super quick time of 5:08.

Absolutely smashed it

Ebikes, all sorts of bikes, all sorts of people having a blast. The relaxed atmosphere and enjoyment of riding in weather like that on closed roads was the sweetest treat

That's alotta family LOL.

On another note, Those ham & cheese croissants at Olympia are a major reason why I cannot fight off the urge from gravity to pull me backwards on any incline above 0.01%

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5 minutes ago, Bub Marley said:

Last year was an anomaly with the rain so I would exclude it.

 

But only 3 sub 3’s in 1B probably points to the wind playing a much bigger part. I was in 1F and i felt everything was just disaorganised. No real big bunch or anything. Everything just felt scattered.

Everyone saying the wind was "non existent" either only started after 8:30am because then by the time they hit Lakeside it had dropped completely all the way through to Smits, or they never sat on the front. I learned very quickly just how tough it was on the front with the wind..

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1 hour ago, Long Wheel Base said:

I wonder if the increase of accidents comes down to the fact that a lot of us are racing less than we used to and also a lot of new blood to the sport that, while they are strong riders, have very little bunch riding experience. 

A lot of the time, the guys are also just not concentrating, it's like they texting while riding.

I don't think that there is a way of checking the amount of accidents or incidents, but I would say that its the same every year.
The Argust thread has been full of those comments since the beginning of the Interwebs.

The front groups are full of 'idiot racing snakes' while rest of the groups are full of 'inexperienced newbies with no group skills'.

A crash in 1 or more groups coming down hospital hill is common practice, if not some kind of tradition. 
 

 

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3 minutes ago, FootballingCyclist said:

That's alotta family LOL.

On another note, Those ham & cheese croissants at Olympia are a major reason why I cannot fight off the urge from gravity to pull me backwards on any incline above 0.01%

There were four of us in the blue train yesterday! Parents, wives, kids etc were all treated to a sweaty hug and banter!

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3 minutes ago, splat said:

I don't think that there is a way of checking the amount of accidents or incidents, but I would say that its the same every year.
The Argust thread has been full of those comments since the beginning of the Interwebs.

The front groups are full of 'idiot racing snakes' while rest of the groups are full of 'inexperienced newbies with no group skills'.

A crash in 1 or more groups coming down hospital hill is common practice, if not some kind of tradition. 
 

 

Looks like the rider hit a cateye, front wheel burst and that was that.... 

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13 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

Geez... Riding Argus on a BMX is for stupid people neh.....

We had a fantastic day. Stopped in Kalk Bay for a coffee and ham and cheese croissant from Olympia, stopped to meet family, kids etc in Lakeside, Muizenberg, Fish hoek, Simonstown, LLundudno and Camps Bay, stopped for more coffee in Hout bay. 

What a jol. 

Closed roads, easy pace, soaking up the gees... Best one I can remember in a super quick time of 5:08.

Absolutely smashed it

Ebikes, all sorts of bikes, all sorts of people having a blast. The relaxed atmosphere and enjoyment of riding in weather like that on closed roads was the sweetest treat

Love it - I think I may have seen you at the bottom of Wynberg Hill on the M3 while spectating with my son.

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11 minutes ago, splat said:

I don't think that there is a way of checking the amount of accidents or incidents, but I would say that its the same every year.
The Argust thread has been full of those comments since the beginning of the Interwebs.

The front groups are full of 'idiot racing snakes' while rest of the groups are full of 'inexperienced newbies with no group skills'.

A crash in 1 or more groups coming down hospital hill is common practice, if not some kind of tradition. 
 

 

It sommer hurts just watching this. Shame we saw those guys still lying there when we cam passed in 1B.

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My wife rode with a friend of hers and did it in around ehr ballpark time considering her 5-6 ride mostly flat training. That said, some bad riding from a rider caused another rider to klap into her and she and her riding partner were taken down damaging her bike and bruising her left hand. Considering the conditions were pretty good its bizarre that there were so many incidents....  

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Just now, Long Wheel Base said:

It sommer hurts just watching this. Shame we saw those guys still lying there when we cam passed in 1B.

and then our group crashed another km further down the road.

 

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Chatting to a mate of mine in racing tandems. They(not him luckily, the group) crashed on the onramp going onto the highway after like 1km!!!!! and that was a small group of 30 tandems.

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7 minutes ago, FootballingCyclist said:

Looks like the rider hit a cateye, front wheel burst and that was that.... 

He was already going down at that point, hitting the cateye underneath blueman's front wheel...
He came from one rank back so probably didn't pay attention to the slow down you can see and hear happening right before the crash...

image.png.47e79b82a90e64429b15ca3f7f91fdf3.png

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1 hour ago, FootballingCyclist said:

Weather was ALOT better though

I wouldn't say ALOT... Last year the first few kilos were tricky with the rain & wet roads but after Edinburgh it was easy going as long as you didn't puncture or slip on a drain or painted line somewhere.

Last year & this year's winning times in $ and @ are pretty close.

This year though the group did have to work hard in the headwinds until Smits if you wanted to be in line for a sub-3 - it seems in the racing groups this year there were more working bees willing to burn some matches upfront than in 1B upwards. 

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1 hour ago, dirtypot said:

I had a fun ride this year on a BMX.  I don't ever ride BMX's and this was my first ride on this borrowed bike.  I had a jol!  It was a challenging ride with cramps from my legs starting in Smits and getting progressively worse as the ride went on.  I'm just not used to using my leg muscles in this way and I think that's what caused them to set in so early.  Gearing on it meant that I had to stand up on every incline and stay standing until over the crest - hard work, but it meant I over took hundreds of people on every hill.
I got loads of comments and encouragement along the way, and also had a silly hooter which sounded like a dying duck which I used all the time.

Finished the race in 4h03 which I think for a single speed BMX that I'm not used to isn't too bad.  This is the only photo which I have of me, but lots of other people were snapping pics of me as they went past so if anyone has any please share them :thumbup:

image.jpeg

 

CTCT23-1.jpg

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