99er Cycle Tour 2024

[waveduke]

Is the 99er result now automatically evaluated for your CTCT seeding or do we still have to send an individual request?
Does anyone know?

[Bub Marley]

28 minutes ago, NicholasH said:

Thanks Rudii! I rode the route about 5 times over the last 2 months to check and recheck. We are certainly expecting huge growth on what is a unique event on the SA calender

Would it not be possible to have the gravel race on the Sunday? That way people can do the 100km race as well as the gravel race. 

[tinmug]

8 minutes ago, Bub Marley said:

Would it not be possible to have the gravel race on the Sunday? That way people can do the 100km race as well as the gravel race. 

... or an autumn 99er gravel race? 🙌

[NicholasH]

10 minutes ago, Bub Marley said:

Would it not be possible to have the gravel race on the Sunday? That way people can do the 100km race as well as the gravel race. 

Hehehe... there is NO WAY we can run 2 days of this... Logistics, costs, etc just does not make it possible. Many years ago we split an MTB race and the road races over 2 weekends and it just about broke people (volunteers, remember). We have learned our lessons and now we focus on what we do well.

[NicholasH]

5 minutes ago, tinmug said:

... or an autumn 99er gravel race? 🙌

I am a big fan of the Old Hermon gravel race. Did both of those mudfests since inception. We don't want to compete or "steal" from other races. Also, as I said, resources to pull off one event is hard enough to come by. A 2nd race would just not work... sorry man!

[throttles]

Well done @NicholasH great event.

Entered on Monday to appease the misses and ride with her group. Great day on the bike except for the wind 🫣🥹

Wrt e-bikes, I’m not sure how I passed 1500 (can’t remember the number) in the first 20min of the race and we started in the N group. He probably couldn’t keep the pace of +40km/h of the bunch he started in 🤣🤷🏻‍♂️

Were ebikes  not supposed to start last? A group of E-bikes passed us in the last 20km which I thought was normal. It was great that they were together and minimal analogue riders on there wheel.

I don’t think  the policing at the start is to be blamed. it’s the skelm people being dishonest. But riders in the bunches should call them out.

Halaal options would be great, you should consider Teledega grill. 👌🏻 https://www.instagram.com/talladegagrill/?hl=en

 

[BuffsVintageBikes]

I normally enter the  Long route but gave it up this year to race the inaugural Trilogy Challenge (my first gravel race nogals). A bonus was winning 2 free entry tickets for the missus and myself (Thanks Tygerberg MTB Club). Sadly she was told she wasn’t able to use her ebike on the Trilogy so she had to do the short course, which she ended up loving.

Needless to say, I was pretty pissed off to find ebikes racing with us and have some of them reflecting in the results ahead of me as well 😠. Not ayoba and that’s something that needs to be addressed next year plz.

 

The race itself was simply bloody awesome… and fast. Gees it was balls to the wall from the gun. Yeah, I agree that a neutral zone through the burbs is a great idea as well, for safety reasons. Guys were taking silly risks not to lose the front bunch there. Thankfully we rode 11km’s to the start so I was prepared for the fast start and it allowed me to hang with the front bunch right up to the left turn onto the gravel halfway up Fisantekraal. My strava shows splits where we were averaging 43km/h 😲 Here it pretty much split up quite dramatically and small groups were left chasing all over the route.

 

The route itself was a good balance but more gravel would obviously have been great. The sections of the Klipheuwel mountain bike course that were added were perfect and well suited to a gravel bike. When I rocked up at the start and saw so many MTBs,  I was rather concerned that they knew something I didn’t but my fear proved unfounded, the gravel bike performed great. The trickiest part was getting the tire pressure perfect for such a large sections of tar but also not bone jarring for the mountain bike section. The wind worked us over as well but luckily with the route winding through the wheat fields, it helped somewhat. I hope the woman that ramped the first A-frame and knocked herself out is okay? I’m not sure how many more times the organizers need to mention that riders should be aware of the A-frames before riders catch a wake up.

My HR stats for the race were rather eye watering; Z4 & Z5 the whole race. I raced the whole XCM series last year and never saw figures like this 🙄. It just shows that the route never had much place to rest and recover, flat and fast all the way. Excluding the ebikes, I should have placed top 25 which I’m pretty chuffed about… Not that my name is showing in the results, Finishtime haven’t got that right yet either.

Well done to the organizers, it was a superbly organized event, from registration right through to prize giving. Thank you to every single helper and marshal out there, your assistance and friendly cheers were most appreciated. The kids screaming and shouting on Odendal were incredible as well.

Th Bonus on the day... I won a Lucky Draw prize… Yup, 2 Free Tickets to next years race and some goodies from D’ville Cycles…. See you on the Trilogy start line 😁🤙

[alleyne]

Great race, well done team.

My one request would be to have more bar staff on duty. The time in the queue to get a drink was close to my race time!

[DieselnDust]

16 minutes ago, BuffsVintageBikes said:

I normally enter the  Long route but gave it up this year to race the inaugural Trilogy Challenge (my first gravel race nogals). A bonus was winning 2 free entry tickets for the missus and myself (Thanks Tygerberg MTB Club). Sadly she was told she wasn’t able to use her ebike on the Trilogy so she had to do the short course, which she ended up loving.

 

Needless to say, I was pretty pissed off to find ebikes racing with us and have some of them reflecting in the results ahead of me as well 😠. Not ayoba and that’s something that needs to be addressed next year plz.

 

 

 

The race itself was simply bloody awesome… and fast. Gees it was balls to the wall from the gun. Yeah, I agree that a neutral zone through the burbs is a great idea as well, for safety reasons. Guys were taking silly risks not to lose the front bunch there. Thankfully we rode 11km’s to the start so I was prepared for the fast start and it allowed me to hang with the front bunch right up to the left turn onto the gravel halfway up Fisantekraal. My strava shows splits where we were averaging 43km/h 😲 Here it pretty much split up quite dramatically and small groups were left chasing all over the route.

 

 

 

The route itself was a good balance but more gravel would obviously have been great. The sections of the Klipheuwel mountain bike course that were added were perfect and well suited to a gravel bike. When I rocked up at the start and saw so many MTBs,  I was rather concerned that they knew something I didn’t but my fear proved unfounded, the gravel bike performed great. The trickiest part was getting the tire pressure perfect for such a large sections of tar but also not bone jarring for the mountain bike section. The wind worked us over as well but luckily with the route winding through the wheat fields, it helped somewhat. I hope the woman that ramped the first A-frame and knocked herself out is okay? I’m not sure how many more times the organizers need to mention that riders should be aware of the A-frames before riders catch a wake up.

 

My HR stats for the race were rather eye watering; Z4 & Z5 the whole race. I raced the whole XCM series last year and never saw figures like this 🙄. It just shows that the route never had much place to rest and recover, flat and fast all the way. Excluding the ebikes, I should have placed top 25 which I’m pretty chuffed about… Not that my name is showing in the results, Finishtime haven’t got that right yet either.

 

Well done to the organizers, it was a superbly organized event, from registration right through to prize giving. Thank you to every single helper and marshal out there, your assistance and friendly cheers were most appreciated. The kids screaming and shouting on Odendal were incredible as well.

 

Th Bonus on the day... I won a Lucky Draw prize… Yup, 2 Free Tickets to next years race and some goodies from D’ville Cycles…. See you on the Trilogy start line 😁🤙

 

Finishtime is seeming to be a bit of a disaster based on comments. Teething trouble or cost cutting resulting in a drastic drop in product quality?

[BuffsVintageBikes]

Initially my result wasn't reflecting at all but I never had the energy to mail them over the weekend. This morning I see my race number is now reflecting but there's no name linked to it. That just looks like incompetence to me, how come my permanent board suddenly doesn't have my name linked to it? I see there's plenty like that as well so their database might have glitched.

Anyway, I never won the race so it's no biggy, just a bit irritating.

[Skubarra]

Speaking of lazy bunches, % was lazy as hell for the first 25km. We were only averaging something like 37km/h with a proper tailwind and I was worried A would catch us soon (did not know at the time that A was as lazy as us and all the working bees were in B). Then luckily on the drag after the Klipheuwel silos few guys upfront upped the pace, the elastic stretched and when it snapped it we were about 10 peeps with a small gap over the rest. Break-away guys made a paceline, all worked together and there was just no chance a bunch of wheelsuckers and 2 or 3 working were ever going to close the gap, what a lekker feeling to look behind you a few kilos later and not see anyone 😀

[NicholasH]

8 minutes ago, BuffsVintageBikes said:

I normally enter the  Long route but gave it up this year to race the inaugural Trilogy Challenge (my first gravel race nogals). A bonus was winning 2 free entry tickets for the missus and myself (Thanks Tygerberg MTB Club). Sadly she was told she wasn’t able to use her ebike on the Trilogy so she had to do the short course, which she ended up loving.

 

Needless to say, I was pretty pissed off to find ebikes racing with us and have some of them reflecting in the results ahead of me as well 😠. Not ayoba and that’s something that needs to be addressed next year plz.

 

 

 

The race itself was simply bloody awesome… and fast. Gees it was balls to the wall from the gun. Yeah, I agree that a neutral zone through the burbs is a great idea as well, for safety reasons. Guys were taking silly risks not to lose the front bunch there. Thankfully we rode 11km’s to the start so I was prepared for the fast start and it allowed me to hang with the front bunch right up to the left turn onto the gravel halfway up Fisantekraal. My strava shows splits where we were averaging 43km/h 😲 Here it pretty much split up quite dramatically and small groups were left chasing all over the route.

 

 

 

The route itself was a good balance but more gravel would obviously have been great. The sections of the Klipheuwel mountain bike course that were added were perfect and well suited to a gravel bike. When I rocked up at the start and saw so many MTBs,  I was rather concerned that they knew something I didn’t but my fear proved unfounded, the gravel bike performed great. The trickiest part was getting the tire pressure perfect for such a large sections of tar but also not bone jarring for the mountain bike section. The wind worked us over as well but luckily with the route winding through the wheat fields, it helped somewhat. I hope the woman that ramped the first A-frame and knocked herself out is okay? I’m not sure how many more times the organizers need to mention that riders should be aware of the A-frames before riders catch a wake up.

 

My HR stats for the race were rather eye watering; Z4 & Z5 the whole race. I raced the whole XCM series last year and never saw figures like this 🙄. It just shows that the route never had much place to rest and recover, flat and fast all the way. Excluding the ebikes, I should have placed top 25 which I’m pretty chuffed about… Not that my name is showing in the results, Finishtime haven’t got that right yet either.

 

Well done to the organizers, it was a superbly organized event, from registration right through to prize giving. Thank you to every single helper and marshal out there, your assistance and friendly cheers were most appreciated. The kids screaming and shouting on Odendal were incredible as well.

 

Th Bonus on the day... I won a Lucky Draw prize… Yup, 2 Free Tickets to next years race and some goodies from D’ville Cycles…. See you on the Trilogy start line 😁🤙

 

Again, you have my apologies wrt eBikes. I have explained the situation in other threads but fully understand the frustration (esp in your case when your wife wanted to join!) I was at the start line and I had to hide my visible horror when I saw about 10 eBikes in the AG group.... Definitely will be resolved next year.....I am trying to work in more gravel but we are reliant on the farms in the areas and while some are very happy to play along, others do not want bikes on their land...

Yes, the A-Frames.... Initially I was going to have 14 marshals on the route - 1 at EACH A-Frame. The MTB club guys said that "was overkill" as MTB riders know what an A-Frame is. Apparently not.... I'm glad it was announced repeatedly so we can say that we did our best to make it safe

We will definitely market this as a gravel race next year and try and decrease the % of tar vs % off-road....

And, yes, you certainly are a lucky man! Free entry this year and next!

See at the start 🙂

[NicholasH]

12 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

Finishtime is seeming to be a bit of a disaster based on comments. Teething trouble or cost cutting resulting in a drastic drop in product quality?

Teething troubles... I am in contact with them but unfortunately it does reflect badly on US even though it is totally out of our control. By the next 99er I am sure it will be sorted

[NicholasH]

27 minutes ago, alleyne said:

Great race, well done team.

My one request would be to have more bar staff on duty. The time in the queue to get a drink was close to my race time!

I hear you! Unfortunately, we hire the venue from Cape Racing who are the license holders for vending. We have ZERO control (and get ZERO revenue) from vending. However, a valid point you make and I will bring this up too at our committee debrief. Thanks for constructive feedback! 

[NicholasH]

36 minutes ago, throttles said:

Well done @NicholasH great event.

Entered on Monday to appease the misses and ride with her group. Great day on the bike except for the wind 🫣🥹

Wrt e-bikes, I’m not sure how I passed 1500 (can’t remember the number) in the first 20min of the race and we started in the N group. He probably couldn’t keep the pace of +40km/h of the bunch he started in 🤣🤷🏻‍♂️

Were ebikes  not supposed to start last? A group of E-bikes passed us in the last 20km which I thought was normal. It was great that they were together and minimal analogue riders on there wheel.

I don’t think  the policing at the start is to be blamed. it’s the skelm people being dishonest. But riders in the bunches should call them out.

Halaal options would be great, you should consider Teledega grill. 👌🏻 https://www.instagram.com/talladegagrill/?hl=en

 

Thanks for your input! We are addressing the eBike issue as a whole and will definitely attempt to get it sorted (road race and Trilogy). Also, we will try and secure Halal vendors for next year. Very good suggestion. Thanks!

[bleedToWin]

On 2/10/2024 at 2:39 PM, NicholasH said:

Hi

I was in direct communication with commissaires Shumeez Dollie at the time. She felt the entire peleton was at fault and thus her actions. She said she gave repeated warnings and has video footage. I am waiting for her race report. Unfortunately we are subject to them WP cycling and thus complaints or objections have to go straight to them. I can only apologize if you feel it was unfair. Sorry 😕

If you don't mind giving them some more feedback, they were sitting way to close to the front of the $ bunch in the first 30km and for sure interfered with the break formation phase of the race. Not sure which Comm it was, but felt like they were very inexperienced w.r.t the distance required to not offer some slipstream advantage to riders behind you.
I say this as one of the 4 riders who most likely got the biggest benefit from their actions...