[Event] Tour du Cap Road Stage Race

[ChrisF]

34 minutes ago, Mamil said:

There are 2 people on e-bikes there .... #justsaying

 

Racing, or camera bikes ?

 

 

Distances per day ?

 

 

Average speeds for the slow riders ?

[Mamil]

1 minute ago, ChrisF said:

 

Racing, or camera bikes ?

 

 

Distances per day ?

 

 

Average speeds for the slow riders ?

They are racing. They tag along at the back of the open group. Have their own category in daily results. There's one guy and one girl, the guy told me he did stage 1 (102km) in 3.15 ish I think. 

[ChrisF]

2 minutes ago, Mamil said:

They are racing. They tag along at the back of the open group. Have their own category in daily results. There's one guy and one girl, the guy told me he did stage 1 (102km) in 3.15 ish I think. 

 

Thats my 99er time of 2023.  Similar for Winelands this year.

 

 

But thats me putting it all on the line ..  burning tomorrows matches ... 🤣🤣

 

 

Would need to seriously up my game to do this day after day ....

 

 

30 months ago the thought of doing a 100km ride scared me .... slowly realising our bodies are capable of SO much more !!

 

 

 

Please keep us posted as the event continues 👍

[Jewbacca]

One day when I'm big..... Give it horns @Mamil!

[BuffsVintageBikes]

Thanks for the updates Mamil 🤙 I was keen to give it a dig in Masters this year until my fall in Oct derailed my preparation plans. Hopefully I can join you there in 2025. All the best for the next few days 🤙

[peetwindhoek]

I'm sure another report is due

This race is also on my bucket list to do! 

[Mamil]

Stage 3 and the open group took off like jewbacca was threatening to overtake them on his BMX. The hooligans at the front only settled down once we were well on the way to Hermon. A glance at the Garmin said we had averaged a whisker under 42kmph for 20 km. There was damage.

Then they all sat up. The drag up to the base of bothmas was the slowest I've ever seen any peleton take it and it's only 5 or 6 years since I was in group W for the PPA fun rides so that tells you something.

And here I made a mistake and I didn't even know it until this morning when we did the post mortem on yesterday's ride on the start line of today's. Unbeknownst to me, the oke just in front of me on GC went up the road and got about a 500 meter head start on the yellow jersey group when eventually they accelerated. He's a strong climber this chap and apparently he was just able to hang on over the top and then got a free ride with the leading group to put minutes into me.

You live and learn.

As it was, I did my PR for the main bothmas climb acting as a 91kg climbing domestique for the second group and we time trialed at a gentle pace to the finish.

No sense in blazing the legs before the Queen's stage today.

The queen had a bit of setback, helshoogte taken out of the parcours because of roadworks and so we were routed around stellies to the road past Val de vie and on to dutoits.

The racing was epic today. An easy start before the GC podium battle got underway. I pulled up next to the pure savage who was in 3rd at that point and asked him what he was planning back here in mid pack. To my surprise he told me "momentum into the rollers and force the leader and 2nd place to chase". 5km later he launched it and pre warned (unlike in stage 1) I saw it coming AND had the legs to hold on. Only by a shaved leg hair's width but when they sit up they sit up and then there you are... One MAMIL very excited to have escaped the zoo.

Of course you only get 5 minutes to stuff a celebratory jelly baby down the maw before they attack again and this time me and my campadres from stage 1, including the sneaky bothmas guy from stage 3 got shelled. 

The tactics of the battle for podium were however such that we caught them on the R44 which was a mixed blessing because that meant that we were going to be subjected to more torture as they tried to rip each other's legs off. 

I almost forgot to mention another highlight, being part of the bunch sitting up while the yellow jersey took a "comfort break". That's another mamil first calling for another celebratory jelly baby.

We proceeded towards the climb with pure savage riding off the front to try throw the gauntlet down to the other leaders who would responded by periodically thrashing us. Me and one or two others tried to persuade our little bunch of hangers on that this wasn't our fight but they were having none of it. Presumably they saw through the ploy of trying to save something for dutoits and correctly backed themselves to be able to wear out us bigger and slightly older okes and discard us like used wet wipes.

Which is of course what happened. The leaders went off at about 90km. I had to let the little grupetto go about 300m into the climb and I zone twod my way to the top, telling myself that this was character building and muttering cliches about today's pain being tomorrow's strength.

Tomorrow is the last day. 129km to Malmesbury and back, the usual route with the little sting in the tail back to the start.

I'm loving it. I'm pleased to be fit enough to stay close enough to the action to be learning more about the sport first hand. The slower guys like me are still experienced enough to know how to ride in an echelon and are able and willing to roll turns when it's required. Very different to the C and B batches at the other local rides.

In short it's a blast and if there are early bird entries offered again I'm in for sure. The future of the event seems fragile though. Someone told me it runs at a loss which is sad to hear.

 

 

[BuffsVintageBikes]

You almost make the suffering sound like fun 😄 Well done 🤙

[Spinnaroonie]

I love your style of writing @Mamil. Thanks for the entertaining updates and well done! 

[bleedToWin]

On 3/5/2024 at 7:50 PM, Mamil said:

At Tulbagh they had 3.40 on us when we picked up one of the racing group who had had a mechanical and he soon had us strung out in a straight stripe. He thinned the herd and those of us left in the bunch at the bottom of Bains agreed that we'd enjoyed having him and please could he come again in stage 3. 

Hey, I made the Mamil highlight reel!

Was very disappointing to see my vets title defence go up in smoke with 30min spent next to the road with a sidewall cut. Luckily a kind rider saved my ride with some extensive tools from his saddle bag (I believe that's what it's called... 🤔) and I didn't have to DNF.

I chased onto Mamil's group (HR ramp early in the below chart) then sat in a bit contemplating my options (and feeling sorry for myself). I decided to pay back the kindness of the stranger that saved me towards the larger cycling community by pulling the group I now found myself in and waiting whenever they dropped the wheel. At Bain's one gent was climbing well and we could see the open cat front riders so I gave him the help he needed to bridge.

Nice zone 2 ride to prep for my TT the next day... 😉

[Mamil]

9 minutes ago, bleedToWin said:

Hey, I made the Mamil highlight reel!

Was very disappointing to see my vets title defence go up in smoke with 30min spent next to the road with a sidewall cut. Luckily a kind rider saved my ride with some extensive tools from his saddle bag (I believe that's what it's called... 🤔) and I didn't have to DNF.

I chased onto Mamil's group (HR ramp early in the below chart) then sat in a bit contemplating my options (and feeling sorry for myself). I decided to pay back the kindness of the stranger that saved me towards the larger cycling community by pulling the group I now found myself in and waiting whenever they dropped the wheel. At Bain's one gent was climbing well and we could see the open cat front riders so I gave him the help he needed to bridge.

Nice zone 2 ride to prep for my TT the next day... 😉

Ha Ha - We could have used your services in Stage 3 and in Stage 5 too!!

For context - Zone 2 upper limit for this mamil is 245 and I weigh 92kg

[Spinnekop]

Myself has done this event only once in the past and loved it.
I see there were around 200 riders every day spread over various categories?  Not bad.

So question:  (And I take my own issues here in consideration)
Will the event attract more riders if they did a 3 day (4 stage) approach?
Less leave.  Cheaper on accommodation.

Wed:  Stage 1 - TT hill climb AM.  Stage 2 short 50km? PM.
Thur:  Stage 3
Fri:  Stage 4

Also a suggestion would be to have less categories. 

• Elites (Male + Female)
• Licensed 30-60 (One group, one jersey, once prize pot, one set following vehicles)
•  Open 

Just spitballing here as I would love to do this event again but being away that long from home just seems unnecessary and it doesn't look like the Cape crowds are flocking to the event either?

 

[Jbr]

11 minutes ago, Spinnekop said:

 

Wed:  Stage 1 - TT hill climb AM.  Stage 2 short 50km? PM.
Thur:  Stage 3
Fri:  Stage 4

Also a suggestion would be to have less categories. 

• Elites (Male + Female)
• Licensed 30-60 (One group, one jersey, once prize pot, one set following vehicles)
• Open 

 

Ooookay so, Stage 1 and two the same day, in my opinion, I wouldn't like it, because then it's two high intensity efforts the same day to start with. I must say the usual prologue or TT on day 2 is quite nice actually. I liked it when stage 1 was a sprint stage, then TT, then hill top finishes.

Mixing male and women elites, eish. Actually how did they organise it this year ?

Losts of 30+ (even many 40+) are stronger than half the elite field, so separating them from the Elite field but mixing the men and women, I don't really see the point of it.

Having separate groups is nice because it gives you more chances to 1st : win something, 2nd : have an interesting race. It's less fun when you spend 4 days on the elite train trying to spot if one of your fellow vets isn't checking out among 6 elites, and that you end up only racing on the TT and on the final climb. But that only works when there are enough vets to fill those age cat groups.

I would personnally just force any licenced rider to race in their age cat or 1 down if they want to, but no licenced riders in open. And fill the open cat with 1 day licence holders, to make it a proper group where your weekend riders can win something, and not getting smashed by a team of guys who decided they didn't want competition.

[Mamil]

The event is perfect as is I feel - yes it's a commitment but if you treat it as a holiday you're spending on your bike then ...

The problem is the marketing - poorly advertised and de villiers cycling is using it's mailing list to spam me with stuff for other events which speaks volumes about the marketing - it needs a proper social media presence and a "brand" to appeal to more riders.

It's an important event I think - GC racing for age groups (there was a 17yr old young lady racing) - elites and for ordinary B and C batchers like me.

I bumped into the crew from the open group at the CTCT finish and we had a reunion photo - good fun and a lekker gees.

Here's some of the little bunch that finished stage 5 together at the end - that's me hiding in the back with my bike in the air.!