Cradle trailseeker, bottlenecks?

[love2fly]

3 minutes ago, Pandatron said:

Heard it went well and was quite a hard race for the full marathon 

Just saw a Facebook conversation where a good few riders complained of hot or no water at water points ...I was out there on my road bike, it was a hot day.

[Pandatron]

3 hours ago, love2fly said:

Just saw a Facebook conversation where a good few riders complained of hot or no water at water points ...I was out there on my road bike, it was a hot day.

You aren't letting this go right? 

[love2fly]

16 minutes ago, Pandatron said:

You aren't letting this go right? 

Not really even though I might have skin in the game. I was keen to do this ride and mailed the organiser twice asking for the route. I didn't like this route for a race as there are better route options out in that region - ask Route 66 if that's what they're still called.

I'm just repeating what I've seen mentioned by quite a few on FB and the organiser has denied....

 

[OVERDRIVE]

I hate Cradle Moon. I shouldn't be commenting. 

[Sandro]

Didn't enjoy it at all, only did the half marathon. I don't understand people constantly pushing bikes uphill or over the slightest obstacle. I'm not that technically proficient but if you can't ride a bike up the slightest incline then you should be training more before you attempt even these fun rides. 80% singletrack with stopping before most uphills. The seeding for MTB rides seems to be even worse than road. I won't be doing another one of these. There did seem to be water though. maybe they ran out later because it was ridiculously hot.

Edited March 11 by Sandro

[Mountain Bru]

On 3/10/2024 at 11:54 AM, love2fly said:

I saw quite a queue of cars waiting to enter Cradle Moon -Did everyone get to the start on time? How was the race?

I had a disaster getting into the place. I should have been 30 minutes early, but ended up starting 4 minutes after the last batch had already left for the marathon, and spent the day passing 100s of people, many of whom should definitely not have been doing the marathon given the amount of suffering they were enduring. 

It felt like a really hard day though, even though it was only 58km. Apart from it getting really hot (max temp on the garmin was 37deg), I think that what makes the route tough is that there are very limited "straight" stretches of road where you can get into a rhythm and do a few km without braking, especially in the first half. The trail constantly turns back and forth, so you have to brake and accelerate constantly, which is pretty hard on the legs. There are also loads of short steep climbs, which are often pretty rocky, that need a burst of power to get up which also means spiking your power and draining your legs over and over. Overall - a pretty hard day. 

[Mountain Bru]

For future reference, I'll leave this here in case anyone ever needs it:

Trailseeker_Cradle_Moon.gpx

[Mountain Bru]

2 minutes ago, Mountain Bru said:

I had a disaster getting into the place. I should have been 30 minutes early, but ended up starting 4 minutes after the last batch had already left for the marathon, and spent the day passing 100s of people, many of whom should definitely not have been doing the marathon given the amount of suffering they were enduring. 

It felt like a really hard day though, even though it was only 58km. Apart from it getting really hot (max temp on the garmin was 37deg), I think that what makes the route tough is that there are very limited "straight" stretches of road where you can get into a rhythm and do a few km without braking, especially in the first half. The trail constantly turns back and forth, so you have to brake and accelerate constantly, which is pretty hard on the legs. There are also loads of short steep climbs, which are often pretty rocky, that need a burst of power to get up which also means spiking your power and draining your legs over and over. Overall - a pretty hard day. 

For reference on the nature of the trail, here's a pic of the Cradle Moon Trail (59km, 1326m elevation on strava):

And here's a pic of the Van Gaalens Trailseeker (70km, 1112m of elevation):

I definitely much prefer the VG route where you can get into a rhythm and pedal away rather than spending your day making 100s of tight turns while riding around an uninspiring grass field. There are some nice parts of the Cradle Moon trail though, but large sections are pretty dull and left me wishing for the end. 

[love2fly]

18 hours ago, Mamil said:

The narrowing at hospital bend is a good idea. I still don't like the cones. 

 

17 minutes ago, Mountain Bru said:

For reference on the nature of the trail, here's a pic of the Cradle Moon Trail (59km, 1326m elevation on strava):

And here's a pic of the Van Gaalens Trailseeker (70km, 1112m of elevation):

I definitely much prefer the VG route where you can get into a rhythm and pedal away rather than spending your day making 100s of tight turns while riding around an uninspiring grass field. There are some nice parts of the Cradle Moon trail though, but large sections are pretty dull and left me wishing for the end. 

I second that re the VG trails. For the Cradle ones singletrack choices are really limited and I got the feeling that the venue was confirmed and made to fit in. I did the (Nissan sponsored) Cowsheds and Cullinan Trailseekers and they were both very nice. 

[love2fly]

31 minutes ago, Mountain Bru said:

I had a disaster getting into the place. I should have been 30 minutes early, but ended up starting 4 minutes after the last batch had already left for the marathon, and spent the day passing 100s of people, many of whom should definitely not have been doing the marathon given the amount of suffering they were enduring. 

It felt like a really hard day though, even though it was only 58km. Apart from it getting really hot (max temp on the garmin was 37deg), I think that what makes the route tough is that there are very limited "straight" stretches of road where you can get into a rhythm and do a few km without braking, especially in the first half. The trail constantly turns back and forth, so you have to brake and accelerate constantly, which is pretty hard on the legs. There are also loads of short steep climbs, which are often pretty rocky, that need a burst of power to get up which also means spiking your power and draining your legs over and over. Overall - a pretty hard day. 

I felt for the cars queuing to get in, particularly those from the Northern side. It's stressful sitting in a queue watching the clock count down....

Some of the sections at Cradle Moon will get your attention, particularly if you ride from the dam walluptowards the North East, ie away from the hotel....that is a steep sob.

We'll done to all that rode, it was a hot day!

[Mountain Bru]

4 hours ago, Sandro said:

Didn't enjoy it at all, only did the half marathon. I don't understand people constantly pushing bikes uphill or over the slightest obstacle. I'm not that technically proficient but if you can't ride a bike up the slightest incline then you should be training more before you attempt even these fun rides. 80% singletrack with stopping before most uphills. The seeding for MTB rides seems to be even worse than road. I won't be doing another one of these. There did seem to be water though. maybe they ran out later because it was ridiculously hot.

I'd recommend doing the Van Gaalens Trailseeker later in the year. Probably one of my favorite MTB races around Gauteng. 

Firstly - It's in June (I think), so it's not so hot. 
Secondly, the route is far more inspiring and interesting. The route also has numerous short gravel road sections which allow the bunches to spread out a bit, and for faster riders to easily overtake slower riders, so there's less bottlenecking and getting stuck behind people who get off their bike and block the trail every time there's a rock or an uphill or a butterfly anywhere near them. 

[Sandro]

8 minutes ago, Mountain Bru said:

I'd recommend doing the Van Gaalens Trailseeker later in the year. Probably one of my favorite MTB races around Gauteng. 

Firstly - It's in June (I think), so it's not so hot. 
Secondly, the route is far more inspiring and interesting. The route also has numerous short gravel road sections which allow the bunches to spread out a bit, and for faster riders to easily overtake slower riders, so there's less bottlenecking and getting stuck behind people who get off their bike and block the trail every time there's a rock or an uphill or a butterfly anywhere near them. 

Awesome, I'll check it out - thanks!

[PregoRoll]

5 hours ago, Sandro said:

Didn't enjoy it at all, only did the half marathon. I don't understand people constantly pushing bikes uphill or over the slightest obstacle. I'm not that technically proficient but if you can't ride a bike up the slightest incline then you should be training more before you attempt even these fun rides. 80% singletrack with stopping before most uphills. The seeding for MTB rides seems to be even worse than road. I won't be doing another one of these. There did seem to be water though. maybe they ran out later because it was ridiculously hot.

This is exactly why I dont participate in Marathon MTB events anymore. People who are fit get seeded higher but the second there is a rock in the trail, the train of riders comes to a grinding halt. 

Seeding should be a mix of fitness and skill ability, but hey, Dream world I guess 

[BigToe]

I started in B batch for the half marathon. I only got stuck behind a few riders on the single track and only for a few seconds at a time before a gap was found. Everyone was pretty aware of each other i thought.

Maybe I was just lucky but the riders hitting an incline in the wrong gear and having to jump off also got off to the left and I could go around. 

The previous post was spot on...no free miles at cradle moon and the heat made it tough. But still a good training day! VG will be a good one as well. I like both tracks coz I love to ride my MTB 😎

[Avo]

Did the half marathon with my wife. Was her first race in a long time after giving birth 4 months ago. I dropped from my seeded batch C to her I batch which was the last batch for the half marathon. We knew we would be doing plenty of passing. It was carnage out there!  On most of the climbs there was a line of people walking their bikes. Generally, everyone was very good at keeping left and allowing us to pass. 

Like mentioned above, not a lot of free Km's. Had to work for that medal. We liked that the venue was very close to home. Overall, we really enjoyed the race and will be back. The hot weather and climbing made it tough but a good day out.

[BigToe]

29 minutes ago, Avo said:

Did the half marathon with my wife. Was her first race in a long time after giving birth 4 months ago. I dropped from my seeded batch C to her I batch which was the last batch for the half marathon. We knew we would be doing plenty of passing. It was carnage out there!  On most of the climbs there was a line of people walking their bikes. Generally, everyone was very good at keeping left and allowing us to pass. 

Like mentioned above, not a lot of free Km's. Had to work for that medal. We liked that the venue was very close to home. Overall, we really enjoyed the race and will be back. The hot weather and climbing made it tough but a good day out.

And the beers were ice cold!!!