The ARGUS 2025 Thread (AKA CTCT)

[DieselnDust]

1 hour ago, SUPERMANTRI said:

Anyone know how to search results by start group on Finishtime? I'm so far back I'm getting a blister on my finger clicking >>

start group is not a search criteria on the CTCT results page yet. Might be by tomorrow after they sort out all the DQ's

[zeerpuD1]

Thanks for uploading all those photo’s. That is what the “Argus” was about before all these new tech. People were actually having fun. Nowadays it seems like a moan brigade. Also say a VERY VERY big thanks to all those guys that were riding at the front pulling the bunches so most of the riders in the bunch can have a “free” ride. They are actual heroes 💪🏻💪🏻👏🏻so that the rest can “brag” about what their time was. Like someone mentioned previously by disqualifying someone for staring earlier or whatever to gain 1 or 2 or 50 places what’s the point. To move from 7 600 - 7 100 makes no difference at all. Maybe I’m wrong (sorry if I am) and things have changed since I started riding the Argus 20+ years ago but it seems we missed the whole point of not having fun. Give it your best shot may it be to try for a sub 3 or for most people just be able to get to the finish, every body is a winner

 

[MintSauce]

1 hour ago, Me rida my bicycle said:

We are planning next year's ride already. Some changes to the buggy for a little less wind resistance without compromising the safety for the little warrior inside.

This will be on me so I'm thinking to "auction" off the bar used on the buggy this year and use those funds to improve it for next year. Glad I added it last minute because it made it so much easier to push the buggy. 

We want to get closer to the Ebike powered/supported buggies. 😁

 

I hate to break it to you, but having been part of the winning buggy team, we were not at any point in time assisted by any e-bike.

We received many offers, but all were politely declined. 

We just wanted it more 😉

 

[Me rida my bicycle]

1 minute ago, MintSauce said:

I hate to break it to you, but having been part of the winning buggy team, we were not at any point in time assisted by any e-bike.

We received many offers, but all were politely declined. 

We just wanted it more 😉

 

I know you guys didn't use any Ebikes but you are next level that's why our aim is the Ebike buggies 😁 

Sure that carbon buggy doesn't hurt so bad 😜

[HdB]

1 hour ago, Gr3mlin131 said:

And what are the options for the people outside the republic of the Western Cape? The official seeding list is looking a bit thin for the rest of the country

The Pedal Power seeding shows that they used my recent Herald result, not sure if it is officially a seeding event.

[TitusTi]

1 minute ago, Me rida my bicycle said:

I know you guys didn't use any Ebikes but you are next level that's why our aim is the Ebike buggies 😁 

Sure that carbon buggy doesn't hurt so bad 😜

That carbon bath tub is awesome! Such a cool day out for the most part, cool spirit, so much vaaaaaaaibs, awesome nice to be able to help where we can.

[MintSauce]

1 minute ago, Me rida my bicycle said:

I know you guys didn't use any Ebikes but you are next level that's why our aim is the Ebike buggies 😁 

Sure that carbon buggy doesn't hurt so bad 😜

It's fondly referred to by its master as "The Carbon Fibre Bathtub" 😁

[Me rida my bicycle]

Just now, TitusTi said:

That carbon bath tub is awesome! Such a cool day out for the most part, cool spirit, so much vaaaaaaaibs, awesome nice to be able to help where we can.

It was a lekker vibe and day. 

 

[TitusTi]

Just now, TitusTi said:

That carbon bath tub is awesome! Such a cool day out for the most part, cool spirit, so much vaaaaaaaibs, awesome nice to be able to help where we can.

Our guy in the buggy (Davey Klinkraad) was shouting "faster, faster" from the on-ramp, hard not to disappoint him.

[Me rida my bicycle]

Just now, TitusTi said:

Our guy in the buggy (Davey Klinkraad) was shouting "faster, faster" from the on-ramp, hard not to disappoint him.

It's easy to know when we where going to slow cause Levi would sleep on the long climbs but as soon as the wind started rushing over him I could hear him laughing. He's the main reason I did the 109 last year we did the short one and he just wanted more. 

[TitusTi]

4 minutes ago, Me rida my bicycle said:

It's easy to know when we where going to slow cause Levi would sleep on the long climbs but as soon as the wind started rushing over him I could hear him laughing. He's the main reason I did the 109 last year we did the short one and he just wanted more. 

Nice, this was Brett's 12th (minus one for the cancelled wind year) as the horse and my 11th (minus one for THAT year) as the slave/enforcer. It has been a fun time.

Edited 5 hours ago by TitusTi

[Shebeen]

5 hours ago, Pure Savage said:

https://www.strava.com/activities/13833134834 

There we go...

This guy also stuck with it for a while... https://www.strava.com/activities/13829533196

well that's not some average dude coming from 1D, he probably would have been in the $ batch if he wanted to. Looks like he pulled two more along the way, kudos to them for hanging on to the beeftrain.

Some people take their Argus finish SERIOUSLY, and if you're going to have seeding from races then it's not that hard to police it. If someone jumps ahead of their batch, the software will pick it up, just annul their result. even disqualify them. Make a scene and you will be able to stamp it out.

Comrades takes this pretty seriously, it does of course have qualifiers that get ratified by your club. It is VERY embarrassing for the club to have a cheater exposed.

Last Feb 2024, they said there is ZERO tolerance and we're serious about it.  Did a bit of a cleanup, and banned 58 people for transgressions. Going on memory, I think they even gave you a window to withdraw before they named and shamed your ass so there was probably more initially fingered..

https://www.sabcsport.com/news/comrades-marathon-association-refunds-cheating-runners-due-to-fraudulent-information

Then after the race, they got some tip offs. Some people got notice, those that didn't follow it got publicly named and shamed, don't come back next year!

https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/kwazulu-natal-athletics-names-and-shames-comrades-marathon-cheats/ar-BB1pdXSa

Argus has had similar issues, the Liss story early 2000s involved the ladies race winner not doing the full course. They also got very excited by a Borat outfit. 

I don't think they've ever done anything about batch jumping, or falsifying seeding going into the race. Moving from strict qualifying events only seeding to the whole season index has improved the quality of the batches as it rewards more recent performnce. It used to be that finishing in the top80% of your batch was enough wheelsucking to keep your start group for 2 years.

The Ebike thing seems to have calmed down a bit, and the 3:50 is clearly the stick they use. This sort of thing is never going to be able to be policed, but on the road every knows you're a (read the shirt). Dad on his ebike dragging the kids up the hill, they weren't even pedalling. This is suikerbossie and after the new battery did the business up chappies first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Shebeen]

5 minutes ago, TitusTi said:

Nice, this was Brett's 12th (minus one for the cancelled wind year) as the horse and my 11th (minus one for THAT year) as the slave/enforcer. It has been a fun time.

I sense some competition here, time to get the Buggy comp onto the podium ceremony! (logistically impossible because it's already a long day)

[Me rida my bicycle]

1 minute ago, TitusTi said:

Nice, this was Brett's 12th (minus one for the cancelled wind year) as the horse and my 11th (minus one for THAT year) as the slave. It has been a fun time.

It was our first ever CTCT and doing it with the buggy and Levi just made it so much more fun/special. 

We will train a bit more this year. I only heard in January that Levi wants to do the full CTCT. We enjoyed it and not knowing what to expect decided not to burn any vuurhoutjies  before the top of Chappies. 😁

[Skubarra]

2 hours ago, Bro Derek said:

That is good advice, thank you Johan

I have a road bike and I have 'some' experience racing bikes, but just very out of the loop as to which races focus on in order to jump a group or 7

Thank you all for your input

Just to add to the other answers - official seeding events are on the CTCT website, but basically any event timed by Finishtime can potentially count towards your seeding (Cycle Tour Trust have a habit on tweaking criteria from one year to the next so you can never be 100% sure what the criteria is)

If you just want to move up a few groups then any event mtb or road will do.

If you want to race at the sharper end you need to do a few events, preferably more difficult ones. PPA One Tonner & Double Century as mentioned probably the best recent races to lower your seeding index.

Edited 5 hours ago by Skubarra

[Me rida my bicycle]

2 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

I sense some competition here, time to get the Buggy comp onto the podium ceremony! (logistically impossible because it's already a long day)

These guys who won finished in 4 hours that's next level after them was a Ebike team at 4h35 I think. 

But it's all in good spirits and fun for the children.