2022 Virgin Active Ride Joburg

[silkman]

Mayfair

[Frosty]

12 minutes ago, MudLark said:

As die karre jou nie donders platry nie. I ride JHB roads a lot... as do many others... Jan Smuts isn't a great choice on a bike if you can avoid it. Too narrow on the edges in places, too many taxis, too fast. Better to go do a few circuits of the Cradle maybe. Dunno. YMMV.

I ride Jan Smuts, Homestead, R55 and Main once or twice per year; no need to train the route but rather the gradients.

I don’t have a problem on the hills because I know that for x-watts for y-minutes, it will be tolerable. Here in the south, we have Glenvista, Mulbarton and Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, but Zwift/Rouvy can do the same (simulate the effort required).

Training doesn’t have to be on the exact route, but rather on similar terrain and duration. One needs to learn to feel how hard it needs to be, and a little bit more.

[madmarc]

20 hours ago, SundayCycler said:

This was my first 947 and it could not have been any more miserable.
It all started with a puncture in the first 10km. Changed tubes but not even 5km down the road I got a another puncture. After using my spare tube I had no more tubes left. Thankfully another rider also stopped to fix a slow puncture and he offered his slow punctured tube (Top man). So I just used the tube with a slow puncture to just keep going.

By the time I hit Grayston, that tube also gave out. I made my way to the waterpoint close by and after some kind advice from another rider (what a champ), I got a bottle of foam from Liqui Molly that managed to plug the puncture. That is until after the waterpoint in Fourways. I stopped on the side of the road ready to give up but then a kind family sitting on the side waiting for the friends to come by, offered to ask their friends for a spare tube and without prompt, they sorted me out and sent me on my way (A big thank you to Rikus and Daan and their family and friends, legends!).

After getting to Bryanston and those never ending hills my legs started to cramp up, but after all the help from the best of people I was not going to be stopped. I soldiered on and made my way to the line, not before stopping and helping as many as I could along the way, to pay it forward.

It may have been a miserable race but in terms of the cycling community this was an amazing race. If it weren't for the kindness of strangers I would have given up long before even getting close to finishing.

Will gladly do it again. But I'll be packing at least 4 spare tubes, next time.

Always check where the puncture is in the tube and then check the tire in that place to remove whatever caused the puncture in the 1st place - I remember one of my first races i got 5 punctures in 10km - lucky i was carrying a patch kit and then a more experienced rider stopped and helped me out checked my tire and found an industrial staple was the cause. Now i remove the tube but leave the valve in the rim and pump it - find the leak and then check the tire in that area

[Opc_danny]

2 hours ago, Mongoose! said:

vets racing is not about time

vets racing is all about making people cramp

attack - stop peddling attack - stop peddling attack - stop peddling - people start cramping

attack - stop peddling attack - stop peddling attack - stop peddling - another one cramping

attack - stop peddling attack - stop peddling attack - stop peddling ....okay we are 4 left with 1km to go

sprint !!!😜

Thank You.

Spot On

[Red Robin]

Did the 35km with my children, really nice experience for them and they really enjoyed it but they were fit, trained  and more than ready, think I slowed them down to be honest.... Riding on the highways was a highlight for them.  

Well organized in general,  parking was easy, access was easy, followed the app and got there earlier than expected. 

I told 'car guards' to go away as was not giving them any money so they were wasting their own time.  One lingered and tried to engage, I just totally  ignored him and he then wandered away. 

All  in all a very  good day albeit different to doing the full race. 

 

[madmarc]

1 hour ago, silkman said:

I am a pretty weak rider and all I can say is the climbs are DAMN HARD!

I walked up a few. I just couldn't manage. I had a great day out -but I suffered

Are there any exercises that I can do to aid my hill climbing?

Like me you probably suck at climbing - I'm on  mission now to suck less - lots of leg work in the gym and ride serious hills every week - like Suikerbosrand at least twice a month.

Also core strength is critical in climbing so throw in 3 sessions of core a week.

Hills also put me in a very dark place mentally - I absolutely hate and try avoid them, this doesn't help in races - so I now ride them and the improvements i see improves my kop to view them as challenges rather than hills.

"If you want to get to the top of the mountain, you need to go to the top of the mountain"

[Ads]

Race was perfect even the wind was ok.

Only negative is the double timing boards for some of the elite and u23 riders. Could the timing board fiasco be the reasons for the very low completion rate?

Hope they fix it for next year.

Think CSA must hold a big brain storm session to do away with number collection before races. Your CSA number must be valid for all races and timekeeping.

[DanMan]

6 minutes ago, Ads said:

Race was perfect even the wind was ok.

Only negative is the double timing boards for some of the elite and u23 riders. Could the timing board fiasco be the reasons for the very low completion rate?

Hope they fix it for next year.

Think CSA must hold a big brain storm session to do away with number collection before races. Your CSA number must be valid for all races and timekeeping.

I don't think CSA can force organizers to use one number. Lots of money are being made by timing companies selling their boards and seeding data.  I think organizers would prefer to work with professional timing companies than using a CSA system permanently. Just my opinion. 

[Spinnekop]

2 hours ago, Mongoose! said:

vets racing is not about time

vets racing is all about making people cramp

attack - stop peddling attack - stop peddling attack - stop peddling - people start cramping

attack - stop peddling attack - stop peddling attack - stop peddling - another one cramping

attack - stop peddling attack - stop peddling attack - stop peddling ....okay we are 4 left with 1km to go

sprint !!!😜

Well............you say that.........

I've done 14x 94.7 in the Vets bunches.
And with the 94.7, the prize money for the A is just as much as any Vets bunch.
It's not about time.  It's about who crosses the line first.

With A bunch this year........racing was just fast.

The only difference I could see between open seeded and Vets racing was that with the Vets you have a LOT of negative tactics with teams who try and control tactics and then the rest of the guys without teams just give up trying to do something about it.

Edited November 21, 2022 by Spinnekop

[RocknRolla]

I decided, at the last minute, being coaxed by the wife to join the ride as part of the AA Angels.

Started in between the last 3 batches of the long route with the aim to assist riders along the way. We helped our first lady with 2 flat tires who was sent down the BRT lane, and had to make it over the rumble strips (ok, slightly bigger that rumble strips) when a bus approached from the front which resulted in two impact punctures. (this was about 3km in.)

Then a participant at 9km, with cramping legs, who only made it to the water point.

 

Then it was the missus and I on our own all the way to Woodmead ( I ran out of gears as soon as we hit the highway, I had to take it easy there, as I knew this is what causes cramps later on.... Pretty eerie hitting the M1 on a bicycle in the opposite way of normal flow with no traffic! Started picking up stragglers after Kyalami, we were motivating, giving advice to make the cut-offs at the water points.

Hitting the main road climbs, and after monte, it was cramp city. People walking, riding, walking. Was it not for some residents (a sports massage therapist) who voluntarily assisted riders with the worst cramps, I think there would have been many more "casualties)

The motivation carried on till jan smuts, I was reading 34 going up through craighall. The Blue Bottle beers stop was awesome, had a castle lite going up the hill while motivating walkers/riders (probably not the best image to portray)

At the zoo, we had a regroup, where the AA Angels banded together to get the last riders to the finish.

Let's just say, people at the back end of the ride, had some serious determination and grit. I salute every one of them, I don't know if I would have pushed through all that pain for a medal and a coke light. It was humbling.

Had a great day out, lots of laughs, lots of motivation, exposure to selfless people standing on the side of the road, cheering perfect strangers along till late in the afternoon.

My Day: 6:55 total time, 102.5km 1400 odd meters.

Special Shout out to Vered properties who had a draught machine at the entrance to lonehill. Got stuck there for a couple, as well as the blue bottle beer stop at the bottom of craighall, beer shots and a castle light made me feel like I was almost at SS champs.

Shout out as well to all the AA Angels, some joining us after their race lap, some strong mofo's that seemed to be able to push people up the hills ad nausea. It was a great day out.

Well done to all who rachieved their goals, weather it was to just finish, or break a personal best, or surpassed their planned race time.

Live in the moment.

 

[Spinnekop]

Quick boring analysis between this year and last year on the same route.

2021 Vets racing (VC) 2:38 - Top 10 finish
2022 Open seeded A 2:29 - Top 10 finish

 

On the power graph, 2022 (purple) the accelerations in A were harder (more watts).  Mainly I think it's because you race against young guys.
As for the time.  You can see that the first half, the speed in the A group this year were MUCH faster than last year's Vets.  So the time was made up there.  Second half the speeds correlate plus minus with the Vets climbing the hills a little faster.

The once BIG difference I saw was that last year's avg temp was 14 degrees and this years 20

	Matches	TSS	Kj	NP	Avg Watts	Avg HR	Avg Cadence
2021	43	287	2334	299	245	153	86
2022	44	250	2161	299	238	153	84

[W@nted]

10 minutes ago, Spinnekop said:

Quick boring analysis between this year and last year on the same route.

2021 Vets racing (VC) 2:38 - Top 10 finish
2022 Open seeded A 2:29 - Top 10 finish

 

On the power graph, 2022 (purple) the accelerations in A were harder (more watts).  Mainly I think it's because you race against young guys.
As for the time.  You can see that the first half, the speed in the A group this year were MUCH faster than last year's Vets.  So the time was made up there.  Second half the speeds correlate plus minus with the Vets climbing the hills a little faster.

The once BIG difference I saw was that last year's avg temp was 14 degrees and this years 20

	Matches	TSS	Kj	NP	Avg Watts	Avg HR	Avg Cadence
2021	43	287	2334	299	245	153	86
2022	44	250	2161	299	238	153	84

How dit the final placements of the open A group work? Photo finish? I know the young lad with orange clothes got away as we exited kyalami and we did not see him again. On the timing results, there is almost a 30s difference between the guys in the bunch sprint for second, probably due to when exactly they went through the starting mats?

[Karooryder]

So I did two things yesterday that I have never done before: 

-    Rode my 8th 94.7 with literally zero training or prep (the last time I was on a bike was 2021 and the last time I was on a spinning bike was at some jolly Spinnathon in September, sponsored by Heineken). 
-    (to add insult to injury) Rode the race with a dikwiel (wat het ek gedink…?). 

It was brutal. The first half fooled me into thinking that the day would be forgiving on my untrained legs but the second half slapped me right into reality. My riding buddy saved the day and his rear wheel pulled my ragged bones along the last bit of highway and over the finish line after 4:15 . Flip it was hard! Great event, superb planning but I would change 2 things. 

-    That darn “walk of victory” thing inside the stadium. In my condition it felt like I was taking my Final Walk and it just went on and on! Nice idea, horrible after a day’s torture on a bike.
-    Like many said – a good old Vet Coke and water at the finish. All that Coke Zero aspartame will send your Fastbar+Rehidrate mix right out the window after a hot day...

On a serious note. Somewhere  - in all the torture -  deep in the heart of Jozi I looked right and saw a line of elderly in their wheelchairs outside an Old Age Home – spectating, clapping, admiring. I flippin' teared up right there and a deep sense of gratitude for all that we have and all we are still able to do sent me onwards to finish what I have started. This was a moment. 
 

Edited November 21, 2022 by Karooryder

[FondTF2]

Looks like the timing results are a bit screwed.

A number of finish times that way inside of the Elites finish time.

Some with avg speed > 200KMH eish.

On a more serious note, see that so far there are only 8900 odd finishers. That seems way down on the supposed 15000 odd entrants?

[Spinnekop]

13 minutes ago, W@nted said:

How dit the final placements of the open A group work? Photo finish? I know the young lad with orange clothes got away as we exited kyalami and we did not see him again. On the timing results, there is almost a 30s difference between the guys in the bunch sprint for second, probably due to when exactly they went through the starting mats?

Jared got away at Kyalami.  Super stong!
I got a gap 8km to go.  Held the bunch off.  Just.  
Photo looks 5 seconds?  Think at the speeds we were going it was like 1 second.

[Ian-Kilwa]

Oh Dear, Give me Racetech any time. No bunch results. Don't be over 70 you get lumped in with the 60+ results I could expand but try harder next year. Maybe just ask what we Cyclists need or just check the competition.