Tour du cap 2025

[bleedToWin]

On 11/18/2024 at 10:08 AM, spano said:

Does anyone know if this race is taking place next year?

We're a group of 4 that registered and will be traveling from Germany to take part. The riders list has not been updated in many months - it still does not show our entries.

I've emailed the organizers twice already but no response.

The rider list only gets published a few days before the first stage, so no need to worry about that. What email did you use, perhaps it's an old one. The race director setup changed a bit this year.

[spano]

Thanks! 
I sent the first one to info@tourdecap.co.za and the second one via the contact form on the website. 
 

[spano]

I saw this. Looks great too! 
however, we are already entered for the race 😐

[bleedToWin]

1 hour ago, spano said:

Thanks! 
I sent the first one to info@tourdecap.co.za and the second one via the contact form on the website. 
 

Their online presence is very poor. I suspect neither is monitored (assuming the spelling mistake was only made here and not when sending the email). Try these instead

Race director (best chance for a response):
denishuman.cycling@outlook.com

Organiser:
devillierscycling@mweb.co.za

[Mamil]

It had better be on. Paid my money and already planning my podium spot in the unseeded open category

#mamilambition

Edited November 20, 2024 by Mamil

[spano]

Thanks! Will do. 
and yes, the spelling mistake was me typing on my phone 🙃

[spano]

Bringing this topic up again... 

Has anyone heard anything about this race? 

Still no response on the emails I've sent 🤔

[Mamil]

Solved

Edited March 1 by Mamil

[Mamil]

My watch says I'm fine.... But I just ate a pizza ... Hoping I can hang onto open group. If there are pure savages in the group I'm bringing drawing pins.

[Mamil]

Time for a mid race gonzo report.

Monday morning was frightful. I slept horribly, plagued by a barking dog and stomach cramps, nausea, bloating and eventually an urgent, toe stubbing, cold sweat stumble towards the bathroom for a series of emergency evacuations that had me lamenting that the guest house only had single ply.

Not a good start.

At 4am I gave up on sleep entirely and chased the 2 immodium, 1 valoid and 20 drops of iberogast cocktail with my usual pre-race oat, peanutbutter and honey smoothie, gingerly got into my lycra, folded a wad of backup singleplay into my phone cover and noodled through the streets of Wellington up to the start at Kleinevallei. 

By the time I got there I was sweating like a Tsumo wrestler in a sauna and to make matters worse the smoothie had worked its way through the plumbing in record time and muttering about Strade Bianca and motivated by the biological emergency in my lower abdomen I risked the 200 meters of loose sand road to the bathroom slightly faster than was comfortable. 

It was locked.

I avoided a solo quest into the pre-dawn vineyard by standing in an 11 minute queue for a 2 berth portapotty trailer that rocked disconcertingly on it's suspension in response to any movement by the occupant of the other toilet.

Ablutions complete and gastric distress settling into an uncomfortable bloated feeling, I popped another Immodium, forced 500 ml of ice water and electrolyte down my unwiliing throat.

-------------------------------------

The open group is smaller than previous years - there are only about 30 of us. However the proper racing groups look a little larger. There's a visiting german team in the women's elite competition and a few other very fast looking people. I think @Jbris here and smashing the juniors (30 to39 is junior to me). (I wouldn't recognise him but I think I recoognise the initials on the results sheet). 

In the opens there are 3 or 4 famiiar faces and we greeted and complimented each other on the year's strava rides since last year's tour. I guiltily shook hands with those who offered their hands. I converted one or 2 into fist bumps. I'm a germophobe myself but the thought of possibly passing on what is obviously a variant of the bug that has plagued cape town in recent weeks to the visitors from PE, Gauteng, Belgium and Germany was on my mind. 

I chugged an expensive but amazing Amacx gel 5 minutes before the start and instructed my stomach to absorb it immediately and to leave nothing behind to put strain on any of my now quite skittish sphincter muscles. 

The Stage was OK - I got dropped on the right turn just before the pass before Tulbagh and then me and 6 others congratulated ourselves for chasing back on just before Tulbagh (turned out the lead group was neutralised as punishment for drafting the ebike that was part of the peleton) but it didn't matter because we all got shelled again as soon as the neutralisation ended.

I didn't mind getting dropped too much. I was just pleased not to have had to stop to fertilise a farmer's field. Nutrition was a challenge. I opted to stick to the drink gel in my water bottles, and other gels over bars. Any sugar that hit my system precipitated more tender bloating ....

agh, all of this is Mamil excuses. I limped up Bain's, reflecting that I felt better the last time I rode it which was in the closing kilomters of the Munga. 

___________________

Tuesday was the Time trial. Stomach still not good, although less distressed than on Monday. 

I told @peetwindhoekwho started 2 places in front of me (How on earth did I finish ahead of him in Stage 1???) that if I caught him I was going to boast about it in a lengthy brag session on Bikehub. 

I saw steel in his eye that told me he had decided that wasn't going to happen.

It didn't - he put about 3 minutes into me, finishing 30 seconds faster than my 30 minute PR from last year and I trailed behind that effort by more than 2 minutes.

I struggled along doing Zone 3 watts with Zone 5 HR with every part of my body in rebellious protest. As Wesley, one of last year's riders, who himself is leaner, and stronger than ever said, "Sometimes you're the dog, sometimes you're the tree" and "The check engine light was on".

_____________________________________

And today, stage 3, the only climb was Bothma's.  As usual, the groupetto came together on the downhill and little risers towards Malmesbury and we gunned along to the finish together in a co-operative fashion. 

Tummy still tender and not 100% but at least I could hold vo2 max watts for a reasonable amount of time, and force a few gels and bars in without too much discomfort.

___________________________________

2 more big stages to go - if I transmitted this lergy to anyone else, it might start paying dividends for me in Stages 3 and 4. I thought about giving the yellow jersey in the opens (an English visitor from Singapore) a "soen groet" but to quote the bard ".... thus conscience makes cowards of us all".

 

 

 

[Jbr]

Hey, I'm here  Smashing all but 1, I'm second, 21 secs down ! But same as @bleedToWin, mostly there to help our boys in the elite bunch, so far two wins in 3 stages. Not too bad

Edited March 5 by Jbr

[bleedToWin]

47 minutes ago, Mamil said:

I wouldn't recognise him but I think I recoognise the initials on the results sheet

If you greet a rider in blue ASAP kit you have a 25% chance of it being me or @Jbr 😉

[Mamil]

For the sake of completeness ....

My preoccupation with my abdominal response to anything I put into it continued into Stage 4 - still a bit crampy but much better. There were some machinations in the group to establish that we would just ride along until the bottom of du toits and then let it all kick off - which more or less happened except I got hoofed out the back on the second time past the little kicker that leads up to Windmeul.

I kniew it was coming and was trying to use the mamilian momentum to move up to the front to get some sliding room on the descent past Toeka's but got blocked in by 3 or 4 cars overtaking us and skinny okes freewheeling on close to the white line .... 

Felt like the old days on the PPA sportifs as i was 20 seconds of 450 watt output shy of holding on and noodled along to a finish shortened by the last 6km of du toit's because of mist.

When I woke up on Friday I knew I was finished - full body tiredness - and sure enough I ended in a 3up, Zone 2 time trial (we towed a development junior from Swaziland) for 115 of the 130km stage.

I was disappointed with my ride - I was less fit than I was last year but still backed myself to be close enough to the action in the open GC to watch the faster guys plan their tactics and maybe play a role. The 'lergy put paid to that and the race became an exercise in self management. I did learn that Amacz drink gel and ordinary gels can be digested and relied on for energy when the colon isn't co-operating.

-----------------------------------

Tour du Cap is a fun way to spend a week - the open group racing was more competitive than it has been in previous years. At the start of the last stage a minute separated the top 4 so we knew there would be some thrashings dished out on the steeper and longer rollers. There's a great spirit in the bunch and almost everyone knows how to ride in a group properly. 

The race organisation, particularly communication, is bad. I got my starting position for the time trial after I finished the time trial, I heard from fellow riders where stage results were posted, it wasn't clear that finish time boards were to be used (SO picked mine up and it was a fluke that I discovered it was finish time, some people had to buy new boards).

Motorbike marshalling was good but the young rider from Swaziland was almost taken out by a car that a lackadaisical and clearly untrained pair of marshalls failed to stop on the corner coming off Slent road to head towards Windmeul. 

I don't know what it's like for the elites, perhaps better, and it may be that the organiser is not interested in growing the open group, but they are not doing themselves any favours with poor marketing, poor communication and spamming the email newsletter with adverts for ideologically suspect music artists. If the event can survive as a race only for the elite and age group racers then every strength to them.

On the upside, the entry fee is very reasonable and what's not fun about racing both sides of Bains, a customary burn up Bothmas and the 50/50 chance that the Queen will not lose her head and the stage will actually end at the top of the pass? 

Also putting faces to bikehub names @spano, @peetwindhoek.... nice to meet you both.

I've done 3 in a row now - I don't think I'll do it next year. 

____________________

Edit - would be cool if people in the proper racing groups wrote some race reports. 

Edited Saturday at 07:50 AM by Mamil

[Jbr]

Agreed, the racing was great, but the communication was ***, before and during, we got the results every day for the day before, after the next stage had already happened.

Also a bit *** finishing the race so early on duToitskloof, I paced for a 20 to 30mins effort, and it ended up being a 15 mins climb.

[Andreas_187]

I was trying to enter a few weeks before the start but had no reply to my emails or to phone number??

[andydude]

1 hour ago, Andreas_187 said:

I was trying to enter a few weeks before the start but had no reply to my emails or to phone number??

Unfortunately admin is not their strength.

Marketing on the other hand 😄