Cape Town Cycle Tour 2024

[ChrisF]

3 hours ago, Phillippe Coetzee said:

I should probably add I am on a dual sus mtb with 2.4 tyres 😂

 

A lady started in 1F on her dual suss.

 

She gave the gang a good run for their money ....😋

[mikkelz]

6 minutes ago, ChrisF said:

Kindly do report these individuals.  Rather this, than all ebikers be subjected to even more rules because of a handful of "individuals" ....

Not hating on e-bikes and totally agree on reporting individuals after the fact (assuming you know for a fact, looking at the results).

The problem, in my opinion, is that they're even allowed to start in the non-e-bike groups (or whatever you call us normal plebs).

There probably needs to be stricter checking at the start chutes – do those volunteers even know what to look for? i.e. what an e-bike looks like?

[Jewbacca]

1 minute ago, mikkelz said:

Not hating on e-bikes and totally agree on reporting individuals after the fact (assuming you know for a fact, looking at the results).

The problem, in my opinion, is that they're even allowed to start in the non-e-bike groups (or whatever you call us normal plebs).

There probably needs to be stricter checking at the start chutes – do those volunteers even know what to look for? i.e. what an e-bike looks like?

Ag, no matter what, people will slip through because they are knobs. They know the rules and choose not to follow them.

Those people will find a way to do it regardless. 

The few will always ruin it for the rest. It is the nature of people, and may I say it, especially people who have the time and the money to do sport for fun.

[mikkelz]

2 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

Ag, no matter what, people will slip through because they are knobs. They know the rules and choose not to follow them.

Those people will find a way to do it regardless. 

The few will always ruin it for the rest. It is the nature of people, and may I say it, especially people who have the time and the money to do sport for fun.

Agreed – I couldn't care less if I ride with e-bikes and they "beat" me, I just hate the idea of them using it to benefit regular riders (pulling, drafting, etc.) and then those okes beat me! 🤣

[ChrisF]

2 minutes ago, mikkelz said:

Not hating on e-bikes and totally agree on reporting individuals after the fact (assuming you know for a fact, looking at the results).

The problem, in my opinion, is that they're even allowed to start in the non-e-bike groups (or whatever you call us normal plebs).

There probably needs to be stricter checking at the start chutes – do those volunteers even know what to look for? i.e. what an e-bike looks like?

 

1. We must tick the ebike box when entering (auto filter to A3 or later)

 

2. Big bright sticker on our race numbers

 

 

3. CTCT staff tried to identify ebikes entering before A3 ... realistically, this is near impossible with the shear numbers at play

 

4. Final seeding feedback CLEARLY asked riders to inform CTCT if they changed to an ebike since registration.

 

 

We cant blame the organisation.  These handful of individuals have repeatedly ignored every effort of CTCT to keep the first hour e.bike free.

[ChrisF]

On a better note .....

 

 

 

[Skubarra]

11 minutes ago, mikkelz said:

Not hating on e-bikes and totally agree on reporting individuals after the fact (assuming you know for a fact, looking at the results).

The problem, in my opinion, is that they're even allowed to start in the non-e-bike groups (or whatever you call us normal plebs).

There probably needs to be stricter checking at the start chutes – do those volunteers even know what to look for? i.e. what an e-bike looks like?

The test would be how many e-bike cheaters were caught by the volunteers/marshals? We are talking about the ones that slipped through but how many were caught/prevented from doing nonsense?

[JM_NEL]

2 hours ago, MongooseMan said:

I was just wondering how long we'd have to wait for a box and whisker plot

@JM_NEL did you do the 99er one?

Not too long 😉. Some okes were flying in 1B.

[JM_NEL]

Here is the Boxplot for the faster groups excluding those riding longer than 5 hours.

[NickGM]

25 minutes ago, ChrisF said:

 

Now why were the guys in 1F nasty with the aunty on the dik wiel fiets ..... 😋

Were they? I remember a few people on MTBs but the only nastiness I experienced the whole day was having to pedal down chappies harder than I had to pedal up it. Luckily the wind was there to dry my quiet tears. 

[cadenceblur]

30 minutes ago, Ncayi said:

I weigh 95kg and did 3h6. 

• Av Power: 224w
• NP: 268w

From the start to the top of Edinburgh drive I averaged 280w  and 325w NP in order to keep up with the bunch.

 

well done, what group were you in and what's your FTP btw?

[ChrisF]

1 minute ago, NickGM said:

Were they? I remember a few people on MTBs but the only nastiness I experienced the whole day was having to pedal down chappies harder than I had to pedal up it. Luckily the wind was there to dry my quiet tears. 

 

Italics .... hahaha ....

 

She spun out as soon as the group sped up ....

 

Next year she is using a gravel bike with the right gearing 👍

 

 

 

 

Maar hoor nou daai storie soos n Noord Kaap tannie dit vertel 👍

[MongooseMan]

37 minutes ago, Cheabb78 said:

Question to those around the 3hr mark, what sort of NP (w/kg)  for the duration does it require to achieve this?

3h02m from &

80kg, with 9kg bike

FTP of about 300W

Avg power 213W, NP of 260W

 

But hugely bursty, dropped over 600W more times than I could count.

30s power: 435W

1min: 427W

5min: 374W

10min: 299W

[Ncayi]

1 minute ago, cadenceblur said:

well done, what group were you in and what's your FTP btw?

Thank you. I was in &. I last checked my FTP in October last year and it was 282w. Im due for another test but doing it is nasty work.

[DieselnDust]

The ride report every body has been waiting for ( except the pure savage one that is)

the 4am wake up weather report revealed a day accuweather and bikehub weather report watchers predicted quite accurately after the 99er, a SE with a dash of humidity. The wind was pumping and my wife mumbled something about taking the car her barely awake barely asleep state. This three out my carefully laid plans to cycle to the start and back home after but since the preparation for this years ctct was basically a 99er and two weeks of training with a dash of a stomach bug in between I was doubting my ability to climb Edinburgh Drive twice. I confess I caved and opted to take the car.

this did throw out my routine substantially since everything that supposed to go into  back pack to hand in now had to be transferred to a bigger bag with more stuff I wasn’t going to use anyway.

i arrived in sea point at 05:40 expecting to park at the virgin active only to encounter a couple of bewildered security guards who refused to let me down the road unless I had a parking pass. I gave up when I realised i was going nowhere near VA without this ticket so found alternative parking outside the sports grounds instead.

it was a bit of a dash to the line but I got there with about 7 minutes to spare.

at 6:23:59 & bunch was off, and I was amazed at how civilised the departure was. Normally there’s a frantic Siri t off the line , hard brakes at the first matt as riders remember their analogue timing chips need to be registered across the matts. And that’s when the first accident happens. Not so that morning, instead we had a pleasant trap onto the on-ramp, no swearing or shouting or….wait yes then it happened, the first timing array . Someone spotted the timing array as we enter the NM blvd and yip we slowed right down with the usual compression, panic braking , swearing followed by unclipping and a mad chase to get back onto the group again. The head wind upfront might have had something to do with it because 2km down the road we had a repeat. Hospital bend was still another 3km up the road.

i had visions of 2007 Hospital Bend playing out again because okes were so edgey fortunately everyone was well behaved and we got through without incident, this is until mosterts mill when the head wind and gradient slows the front down quickly and the guys behind aren’t paying attention. Sinyip you guessed it, more braking swearing , advice on line holding and whatever other tips they felt needed to be shared.

at this point i was quite surprised to be feeling comfortable and still with the main group. My HR hasn’t dipped below 172 since the start so I was expecting a spectacular explosion and invoking of Plan B “waiting for the tandems”. On Edinburgh I found myself matching the pace at the front despite needing 188bpm for 2min to do it (major safety matches burnt there) . I stayed in the group and created with the main group. Heart rate settled nicely on the blue Route despite the usual right side bar trains trying to make it to the front whilst switching and twitching their way along the bunch. 
at this point I asked myself why do people ride 50mm deep wheels in a SE when they don’t have the upper body strength to control the bike with those wheels???

no time to dwell on such trivialities as the matter of surging now came into contention. Not sure whose domestiques were trying to animate things up front but in the middle of the group is was a case of watching the wheel in front whilst praying someone wouldn’t be doing a Hairy and sniffing  your chamois cream. #Endurobalm for the win.

at the end of the end M3 we have the left onto Steenberg which every year seems to catch some people out since there’s an island in the road. Yet everyone tries to squeeze through from the left. There’s quite a lot of videos on YouTube of the route and even Tacx Training App as an accurate video of the route. Left turn , island in the middle, right side delivers you onto a single lane delivering you to the inside of the next corner. 
 

anyways we made it through without incident as far as the middle of the bunch . What happened behind I don’t know but it’s ones of those spots I hope some one adds to a “hazards of the cycle tour” reel.

Main road was quite uneventful and we cruised through muizenberg onto Kalk bay without incident. The usual zwift passing tactics of pass and squeeze came into play on this narrow section of the route. Despite the number of races people do this passing tactic is now written into the “how to pass and annoy someone handbook”.

by now I’m thinking that if I can stay the course I’ll see how chappies treats me. We’re just through Simon’s town and I’m still feeling good despite my lack of conditioning. When we approached Smits the gloves came off and it was all out war up front. Okes were attacking each other and the overall pace just started to creep upward. I got over smits at the  back of the bunch but now I was thinking “ Jislike this is going to be a hard 50km home!!! As they say in the skop skiet en donner movies,…shot just got real.

we passed perdekraal in a flash. That how we made it down the twisty descent into Scarborough without incident I don’t quite know but it was quite exciting. The road is possibly kn its worst condition in my memory of the CTCT / Argus(t) Cycle Tour. In fact the whole stretch from the top of Smits to ocean view is in desperate need of resurfacing. 
Climbing out of misty cliffs the pace started to wind upward again, by now all the stop start riding was beginning to take its toll as I felt a ping here and s pang there. Riding through it was ok but the hard efforts required to close small gaps started to take hold. On kommetjie road there appeared to be a big accident. All I heard was shouts screeching brakes and then I passed two riders lying on the pavement. There was an island in the road so I suspect okes weren’t watching the road in front and response to late. 
The pace wound back up and the 4 way was dispatched in a flash but again not without incident as again riders trying to squeeze each other out lead to them tripping over one another. From here it was another sprint till Lake Michelle where we had a wide road to start scoping each other out. Yet somehow again  screeching brakes and this time I had to unclip quickly and dab. That action was enough to bring my looming cramp to the fore and hit me like a lightning bolt. Riding that out took some tooth grinding and I managed to vasbyt till the top of little chappies , from that point on I had to back it off to a sensible pressure to get over the top without seizing up completely.

pedalling the descent was harder. With the pressure off the pedals the cramp seemed to intensify so I figured a way to grind the pedals at 60rpm. HR was still good with high variability between 140bpm to 180bpm. I wasn’t tired or unfit, just lacking race conditioning. 
I managed to reel In a few guys on the descent by using the whole road. I always enjoy chappies during the ctct. Makes one feel like a superbike pillock I mean pilot. 
 

then last the astron energy (hopefully they bring new energy there next year) and the left turn to follow the bay to the next right after which suikerbossie awaited. I climbed the monster at my own pace . It wasn’t slow but nowhere near as fast as those now long gone with the main bunch.

i ground it steadily over the top and began the run to the finish. Twenty minutes to spare to get that sub3. A race conditioned me would have made it, but me they hadn’t raced since the last ctct ( oh sorry I did the 99er) I was starting to be realistic about my chances.

a group formed but only two others in this group did any work. I knew how this was going to end …

we picked up a few others and pushed through the swirling winds down suikerbossie, past the 12Apostles and into Bakoven. Legs were clearly tired as we hit the last bump at maidens cove. Years ago , a lifetime almost, we used to finish the race here but not today, we had 4 km to go and 5 min to do it in.

that last km is when idealistic you thinks these guys that have been sitting on for the past 20min will do a turn in the front. Realistic you had his bubble popped when they sprint off to take 600yh place glory and tell their story about how hard they worked and that next year they’re going to win it. Ya well whatever I just sat up waiting for the line stopped my garmin and completed number 26. Four more for my 30th and red jersey. 
 

Will I get a sub3 next year? I don’t know. I do plan to be better race conditioned for ctct 2025. I do plan to finish #27 but theres also another special number and another start line I desire to be on that’s calling 

 

 

[DieselnDust]

2 hours ago, PygaSchmyga said:

I was supporting riders in Noordhoek this year, at the base of Chappies and heard such a ridiculous story from the marshals.  Apparently there was a chap on an e-bike pushing riders up some of the climbs to book faster times.  They flagged him because it seemed like there was some sort of arrangement where he would come back to a specific spot and meet riders who I guess must have prearranged this.  Sounds like he did a bunch of trips for several riders.  Not sure of what the outcome was, but they were certainly looking for him

That’s entrepreneurial 😂…

sort of like the oke who helps you count cards during a poker game

2 hours ago, PygaSchmyga said:

quite sad, really, but thats what bitcoin trading and crossfit will do to you - rots the brain!

😂

1 hour ago, WaynejG said:

That 1st place guy is my daughter's boss.

And there’s a “ fine upstanding “ bike shop owner in that mix , one who can do no wrong….😂

54 minutes ago, Cheabb78 said:

Question to those around the 3hr mark, what sort of NP (w/kg)  for the duration does it require to achieve this?

To finish under 3 hrs with a degree of comfort a 20min of roughly 3.8W/kg will get you there. 
you can get there with less but then you have to be smart with your ride and pick your battles wisely. Many use wisdom and years of practising wheel surfing to get to sub3 even if just barely 

51 minutes ago, capediver said:

Guess it was all for nought...results have been updated and no-one under 3h50 is listed🤣

 

We should be patient and wait for the "Deactivated" list to be populated?

Looking forward to the name and shame list

49 minutes ago, Ncayi said:

I weigh 95kg and did 3h6. 

• Av Power: 224w
• NP: 268w

From the start to the top of Edinburgh drive I averaged 280w  and 325w NP in order to keep up with the bunch.

 

The Matt bit is the most useful. Overall average power isn’t really that useful since you’re weren’t pedalling all of the time. NP is sort of useful. The data from the key features in the race are most helpful thanks

29 minutes ago, ChrisF said:

 

1. We must tick the ebike box when entering (auto filter to A3 or later)

 

2. Big bright sticker on our race numbers

 

 

3. CTCT staff tried to identify ebikes entering before A3 ... realistically, this is near impossible with the shear numbers at play

 

4. Final seeding feedback CLEARLY asked riders to inform CTCT if they changed to an ebike since registration.

 

 

We cant blame the organisation.  These handful of individuals have repeatedly ignored every effort of CTCT to keep the first hour e.bike free.

A Marshall at the start wanted to check my bike for a motor because the bb shell is so big 😂

23 minutes ago, JM_NEL said:

Here is the Boxplot for the faster groups excluding those riding longer than 5 hours.

Shot for this !!

14 minutes ago, MongooseMan said:

3h02m from &

80kg, with 9kg bike

FTP of about 300W

Avg power 213W, NP of 260W

 

But hugely bursty, dropped over 600W more times than I could count.

30s power: 435W

1min: 427W

5min: 374W

10min: 299W

Thanks , good numbers . Your 10min power number is revealing. You definitely rode with a lot of smarts so kudos on your effort💪🏼👏🏼