[Event] Old Mutual Wealth Double Century

[Jbr]

1 hour ago, Bub Marley said:

I dont really care about the top 5 cheating.

No cheating in the top4 bud 😜

[Meezo]

7 minutes ago, Jbr said:

No cheating in the top4 bud 😜

so that's 3rd place and up 👀

[bleedToWin]

11 minutes ago, Meezo said:

so that's 3rd place and up 👀

Okay fine, I'll team up with @Jbr next year, get on the podium, and then no one can accuse me of being salty!

[Jbr]

8 minutes ago, bleedToWin said:

Okay fine, I'll team up with @Jbr next year, get on the podium, and then no one can accuse me of being salty!

Having you with us would've definitely helped in the chase for podium bro 🤗

['Dale]

5 hours ago, Johnny82 said:

 

It was good meeting and chatting to you en-route. We had a lekker time rolling with your group between the support zones 😃

 

The other angle, @Johnny82

Can see you in the mix there at the back

[Kom]

Anyone know where the pre-start team pics from the stage are being kept? Been looking at Jetline but doesnt seem like part of their coverage.

[DieselnDust]

the event will send you that photo with your team stats at various checkpoints, official time etc

Edited Tuesday at 08:09 PM by DieselnDust

[DieselnDust]

Team 14X Ride Report: Building Character 

The short version , there’s not a lot to say. It was a total disaster

the Detail:

team objective: sub 7 Charles Milner mixed team with 3ladies and 9 men.

structure: 

Me, captain

6horses including myself 

2 strong ladies and one diesel lady who was nursing a bruised hip and buttocks after a hard fall the weekend prior and I expected I’d be looking after her for most of the ride

3 undertrained and over weight who I’ll refer to as the silent assassin group but consisted of the team sponsor and two of his close mates.

no names will be mentioned to protect the innocent.

How jt played out:

by the Friday 15th November I had subbed nearly half my team with recruits all capable of sub 7. The challenge of course is they’re largely unknown factors, except for one who I am coaching. Teams rides boiled down to a couple of rides with the Cape Town based folk and even then not all pitched up.

So despite assurances of “I’m training”, muscle tone tells a lot on a man, especially when it’s covered with layers of pudding and my co captain looked like he fell into the custard as a child.

the plan was start slow, get over Tradouws, steady up Op de Tradouw and speed up to Ashton. Except, by the time we turned to Suurbrak we had dropped two, one lady and my co captain. So down came the speed. At  this stage I realised my co captains attempts to water down the objectives over the past months were largely down to his lack of something that did not fuel a desire to train. “Going to be a long day” I thought . Worse, I knew I was going to face a mutiny at some point….

Tradouws was executed more than 20min slower than our previous best. Regroup point was the R62 outside Barrydale. From here on it was hands on backs and push push push.

a few of my team mates said “no, not pushing, the hours weren’t even attempted and now we’re sacrificing what we trained for”. There was not going to be pleasing anyone today. I let the front guys, not pushing, go and told them to stop the clock and dropped back to help the slow and untrained that included our sponsor and my co capt. I’m no sooner back pushing when they have time for a debate on bringing the others back. At this point my internal Safety&Arming Device released one safe guard. SAD’s usually only have two that need to be triggered before the warhead is armed.

Out voted I head off to gather up the flock and bring them back to the fold. I now have 12 grumpy riders as no one is having fun or getting what they want. 
outside Montague the warhead is armed and I decide to send 6 across the line. They pulled 10min on us in 10km between montague and Ashton. 
back in the FZ 1 there were some salty comments about team work which I allowed to play out so they could get things off their chests. The co capt then wants to make announcement and tell the team he is going to withdraw and get in the van. There were huge sighs of relief but then the sponsor convinces him to continue. Grumpy faces again… the pushing would continue. 
 

and so it continued onto Robertson, down van Loveren Road when I told the 6 to go ahead and set a time into Bonnievale again. This annoyed the slower riders again who felt those guys should be helping them not chasing time. That rest stop was a quiet one. We exited with 5min remaining before a supposed cut off would be imposed. We now had one of the broom wagons on our tails when one of my team mates came to me and said , “ the cut off is 16:10, we have a 1hr 40 to get to the line and at this pace we won’t make it and you need to push our third lady Capt because you’re the only one with enough reserve . I’ll help you.”

then the decision to drop the others was clear, cut off was at stake, enough is enough. Salvage something for the team so mission accepted. 
we left the 3 with one of the fitter riders who was willing to pull them through.

8 of us crossed the finish line at 15:59, just over 10min to spare. 
the next 2 finished 10 min later about 15sec ahead of the published cut off with the two last team members losing a further 23min in just 30km.

we didn’t cover ourselves in glory. Even more so if it were not for the fact that the main anchor chain was dishonest about form and training for months but is protected by the sponsor left an incredibly bitter taste with most. Post race dinner had a tension in the air that didn’t need a knife to cut it. All someone had to do was drop the pin and it would have exploded. 
over dinner the sponsor thanks our Co Capt for his grit and determination despite hardly turning a pedal stroke of his own all day. Everyone just looked at each other then  stared at me to say something. I bit my tongue till it bled.

how much is free kit and great accommodation actually worth if honesty isn’t present?

how many good years does one sacrifice for people who don’t respect or appreciate the contribution?

shift the paradigm and just accept go with the flow?

 

the journal pages are filling up 
 

[karma]

When can we expect the KOAS race report?

[DieselnDust]

48 minutes ago, karma said:

When can we expect the KOAS race report?

KoTAS

they’re quite sensitive about the spelling

[HdB]

1 hour ago, DieselnDust said:

Team 14X Ride Report: Building Character 

The short version , there’s not a lot to say. It was a total disaster

 

I feel a bit better about ours now 🤣

We went quite a bit slower than expected as well. Turns out the rider who was always going to be our slowest up the bigger climbs, picked up some virus the week or so before the race, and even the smaller rises had him struggling.
We also had 4 riders that pretty much never rode with us before the race, who all need rear view mirrors for Christmas.

At the Bonnievale stop the ill rider pulled the plug, knowing the witches etc that lay ahead.
By the first witch, one rider had to stop with cramp, and another a spell of dizziness (maybe due to the heat).
The team captain suggested I take the rest and go and set a time for the team; that was not what I signed up for, so we let the magnificent 6 go ahead, while myself and one lady helped the rider with cramps up the climbs to the finish, and the team captain helped the other rider.

Just over 9 hours for the first six, a further 9 minutes for the next three, and the last two followed about 10 minutes later.

Lessons learnt.

Edited Wednesday at 09:25 AM by HdB

[DieselnDust]

Make sure you have a good debrief after the event. Maybe not within 24 hrs but certainly within 120hr before painted memories take over.

Also consult with each rider individually and remember, the road always tells the truth. Then you know who to invite back and who to pass along. 
internally , team management sorted their shyte over G&T till 01:00 Sunday morning so by breakfast we were still friends. 
one of the lesson is that highly strung race horses aren’t always a good fit when things don’t go according to plan

Edited Wednesday at 09:55 AM by DieselnDust

['Dale]

53 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

Make sure you have a good debrief after the event. Maybe not within 24 hrs but certainly within 120hr before painted memories take over.

Also consult with each rider individually and remember, the road always tells the truth. Then you know who to invite back and who to pass along. 
internally , team management sorted their shyte over G&T till 01:00 Sunday morning so by breakfast we were still friends. 
one of the lesson is that highly strung race horses aren’t always a good fit when things don’t go according to plan

One of the several performance memo pointers I gave to the team that I was part of. My role was to guide the team with performance DNA, culture, standards and alignment.

Thank you for sharing your experience, man. Eina, eina.

Edited Wednesday at 10:40 AM by 'Dale

[Bub Marley]

20 hours ago, 'Dale said:

The other angle, @Johnny82

Can see you in the mix there at the back

I rode with the mediclinic guys this year. I think our teams past each other a few times close to the end.

[peetwindhoek]

21 hours ago, 'Dale said:

 

For the life of me, I can't figure out what's going on in this picture - my brain just can't compute. It seems you are on the wrong side of the road.

[DieselnDust]

39 minutes ago, 'Dale said:

One of the several performance memo pointers I gave to the team that I was part of. My role was to guide the team with performance DNA, culture, standards and alignment.

Thank you for sharing your experience, man. Eina, eina.

Spot on and I totally concur. Yet it still happens.