[Event] Durbie Dash Mountain Bike

[Jbr]

Thanks guys, will decide on friday at registration if I request my entry to be moved from road to MTB (if it's even possible)

It's just that last year a top 10 on the road race was so well rewarded in terms of seeding that I kind of counted on it for CTCT

Edited October 11, 2023 by Jbr

[Bub Marley]

How are they doing seeding now that racetec is gone? Seems like seeding hasn’t been updated for a while now.

 

Can I also just say that FinishTime website is so poor and not intuitive at all. My word. I hope it gets revamped for the Argus or something. Also hope that our historic results gets somehow transferred over.

[ChrisF]

2 hours ago, Bub Marley said:

How are they doing seeding now that racetec is gone? Seems like seeding hasn’t been updated for a while now.

 

Can I also just say that FinishTime website is so poor and not intuitive at all. My word. I hope it gets revamped for the Argus or something. Also hope that our historic results gets somehow transferred over.

 

I spoke to the Finish Time staff at Vines and Views.

 

SAME people as Race Tech ... just a new name on the door.

 

They HAVE all our data.  And they have been doing a couple of seeding races already.

 

 

Let's see how they communicate seeding going forward.

[ChrisF]

MTB RACE BOARDS

 

 

The emails state that may use your old RaceTech board.

 

Worth noting the new board is a significantly smaller,  actually fits on the one half of the handle bar.  The old board is too wide and I had to remove the Garmin front mount when using it.

 

 

Pretty sure that must be about 2,15W for the racing snakes ....

[Jbr]

5 minutes ago, ChrisF said:

MTB RACE BOARDS

 

 

The emails state that may use your old RaceTech board.

 

Worth noting the new board is a significantly smaller,  actually fits on the one half of the handle bar.  The old board is too wide and I had to remove the Garmin front mount when using it.

 

 

Pretty sure that must be about 2,15W for the racing snakes ....

A lot more on the flat and a headwind, that board is the only reason @Sid the Sloth ended up dropping me at Old Hermon 

[MongooseMan]

This has been tested

 

12 whole wattages!

[Skubarra]

18 hours ago, Bub Marley said:

I feel like they missed a trick here. I think many of us would actually like to do both Road and mtb. It’s one of the reasons I loved the knysna race until they changed that also now. Why not have Mtb Saturday and then Road on Sunday? I think there would lots of interest in something like this. 
 

Would actually be a great idea for any event organizer as I don’t recall anything like this in the western cape at least. Road, mtb and gravel all over a long weekend. Would be great. 

Would be interesting how many would do both - not sure if it would be enough to justify the additional costs of hosting the event over 2 days but maybe something the organisers can look into.

There might be a gravel route in future editions of the race, but it is actually surprisingly difficult to put together a proper gravel route from Durbanville that doesn't include a lot of tar.

[Bub Marley]

2 minutes ago, Skubarra said:

Would be interesting how many would do both - not sure if it would be enough to justify the additional costs of hosting the event over 2 days but maybe something the organisers can look into.

There might be a gravel route in future editions of the race, but it is actually surprisingly difficult to put together a proper gravel route from Durbanville that doesn't include a lot of tar.

As long as we have around 60% gravel, I’m cool with that. People tend to complain too much about this but a lot of gravel races actually have a decent amount of tar. The only way to connect A to B is mostly via tar. Durbanville have so much gravel options its more about getting permission from the farms that will be the biggest hurdle.

 

The Swartberg race which is supposed to be our premier gravel event in this country has about 40% tar.

 

But yeah, for me personally i would love to do both options if I had a choice.

[Jbr]

8 minutes ago, Bub Marley said:

As long as we have around 60% gravel, I’m cool with that. People tend to complain too much about this but a lot of gravel races actually have a decent amount of tar. The only way to connect A to B is mostly via tar. Durbanville have so much gravel options its more about getting permission from the farms that will be the biggest hurdle.

 

The Swartberg race which is supposed to be our premier gravel event in this country has about 40% tar.

 

But yeah, for me personally i would love to do both options if I had a choice.

we had that chat before, I can't remember who here was involved with organisation and was working on the feasability. I ride a lot in that area, and to be honest, if you exclude the MTB network, there's isn't much gravel that is interesting to ride (for sure there are nice gravel roads but I wouldn't enter an event to to spes bona and occultdale. If you start including some of the bloemendal traverses, fair cape and that nice part at the end of spes bona then why not, it can become a pretty epic ride, but then it's a bit of a headache to have everyone racing roads, trails and traverses without running into each other

Edited October 11, 2023 by Jbr

[Bub Marley]

1 minute ago, Jbr said:

we had that chat before, I can't remember who here was involved with organisation and was working on the feasability. I ride a lot in that area, and to be honest, if you exclude the MTB network, there's isn't much gravel that is interesting to ride (for sure there are nice gravel roads but I wouldn't enter an event to to spes bona and occultdale. If you start including some of the bloemendal traverses, fair cape and that nice part at the end of spes bona then why not, it can become a pretty epic ride, but then it's a bit of a headache to have everyone racing roads, trails and traverses without running into each other

This is a fair point and actually makes a lot of sense as there will probably be some overlap of the Mtb & Gravel. But if we just stick to Road and Off Road then, the point i was trying to make was to have them on a separate day so we can actually do both. Again I understand that there will obviously be additional costs, but how do we actually gauge the interest of having them on separate days to see if it’s actually feasible?

[Jbr]

1 minute ago, Bub Marley said:

This is a fair point and actually makes a lot of sense as there will probably be some overlap of the Mtb & Gravel. But if we just stick to Road and Off Road then, the point i was trying to make was to have them on a separate day so we can actually do both. Again I understand that there will obviously be additional costs, but how do we actually gauge the interest of having them on separate days to see if it’s actually feasible?

I wouldn't mind paying full entry price for 3 separate events personnaly. We don't have that many events this side, I'd love to have 3 races 20mins away from home in the middle of my racing calendar that only has races between paarl and wellington. I'm sure lots of weekend riders would love to do the gravel + MTB, especially if the gravel has a little bit of challenge with some of the tygerberg MTB network and not just flat gravel roads.

Also, going on the gravel bike quite often on the network, I only ever see Mountainbikers there, it could possibly bring more gravel riders into the Tygerberg club

[Skubarra]

8 minutes ago, Jbr said:

we had that chat before, I can't remember who here was involved with organisation and was working on the feasability. I ride a lot in that area, and to be honest, if you exclude the MTB network, there's isn't much gravel that is interesting to ride (for sure there are nice gravel roads but I wouldn't enter an event to to spes bona and occultdale. If you start including some of the bloemendal traverses, fair cape and that nice part at the end of spes bona then why not, it can become a pretty epic ride, but then it's a bit of a headache to have everyone racing roads, trails and traverses without running into each other

Yes its a bit of a head-ache to do a road race and gravel race on the same day where routes will overlap and cross. The school does have good relationships with the farm owners so there are a few interesting options like for example to use some of the Klipheuwel trails to connect Occultdale and Spes Bona. 

Ultimately the powers that be were not entirely sold on a gravel race but I'm hoping we will be able to do it in the future.

[Jbr]

4 minutes ago, Skubarra said:

like for example to use some of the Klipheuwel trails to connect Occultdale and Spes Bona. 

ah that's the one I was looking for, yes, this would be great, but the route would also need some vert, and for that the traverse between hillcrest and the racecourse (and/or odendal) is absolutely amaizing, would be great if it could somehow be on the route

[Rouxenator]

I find the registration process to be a bit less eco-friendly the past two years. Why should I drive their twice? Not to mention the petrol cost.

Thankfully I figured out last year that just entering and starting at the right time will still get you results - just remember your racetec board. 

[MaMc]

Anyone done the MTB event before that can comment on water points in previous editions? Haven't seen anything online on how many etc.

[Rouxenator]

I have done this each year since 2014. The waterpoints I remember are next to the Vissershok/Malanshoogte crossing, another about 1km up Malanshoogte when coming back. I think one at Meerendal and Signal Gun before the final climb.