The ARGUS 2025 Thread (AKA CTCT)

[Tiny K]

54 minutes ago, NotSoBigBen said:

I have this theory about the Zwifters (or take your pick of indoor poison) and Wattbikers .... Often very strong but no or very little bunch/race skills

But don't mind me, just the opinion of a 'timer 🙄

Same about development riders. The okes can pedal, but fork all bunch riding skills. 

And this coming from a part-time Zwifter (during the week).

[babse]

Pretty amped for my next 1 in 2028 

[Musashi]

My son had pretty much the perfect first CTCT.  We were seeded in 2C but I decided to drop to 2F as they're probably more our pace. 

We took it fairly easy at the start and he knows his job is to help on the climbs - I'll do the rest.  And then of course enjoy the spectacular scenery.  His young age (he's 10) drew a lot of attention and he felt obliged to wave at everyone that showed some support.  He was waving more than the queen.

Some sections of the route seriously needs a resurface but we kept a good pace while enjoying every moment.  Chappies we grinded it out at a solid pace.  When I told him on Suikerbossie it's the final climb, he really started to put down some power and I had to go right to start passing people.  And then on the last 15km run to the line people starting jumping on the back - I was wondering whether they realise they're being towed by a 10 year old :).  

I was betting on a sub-5 with a 4:30 possible.  I did not expect the 3:48 we did.  Daniel is very chuffed having beaten the time I did with Oupa (then 72) on the tandem last year by 2 minutes.  And of course I'm super proud of him, not complaining once and just enjoying every moment.

Now to find out whether he was the youngest finisher on the 109km route...

 

Thanks @ChrisF for the photo.

 

[ChrisF]

Any 2E group tandems on the Hub ?

 

Nice little action between the tandems ....

 

Unedited .... only a few might want to watch this ....

 

https://youtu.be/GamzvhRq8AQ?feature=shared

[DieselnDust]

1 hour ago, Me rida my bicycle said:

I've seen the carbon tub of the winners. Think the father/pilot is Mark correct me if I'm wrong. 

We’ve built a similar one. 

[Heina13]

Did my 6th CTCC and third on a tandem called the Drommedaris with my wife. Must say this is my and her favourite race of the year. Also saying that this is her only cycling race every year.

After a taking our tandem out of the garage for the first time since 2024 CTCT, we did a nice 17km bike check on Friday. 

Sunday my wife was a beast and we finished in our PB time of 3:46 out of 2C. We love the highway to Muizenberg, only time I would ever be able to pull a bunch 😅 Really love the camaderie between the tandems. Kudos to all the dads with kids. Especially the 3 dads with 3 tandems and 3 kids doing it together. Think I saw you should have started in # and rather did the ride with your kids.  Thats the dream and why I will keep the tandem. Maybe without the squeky duck on the front for 109km

And if you were ever wondering, a tandem does fit on the roof of a Jimny. Well sort of.

 

 

[Prince Albert Cycles]

20 minutes ago, Musashi said:

My son had pretty much the perfect first CTCT.  We were seeded in 2C but I decided to drop to 2F as they're probably more our pace. 

We took it fairly easy at the start and he knows his job is to help on the climbs - I'll do the rest.  And then of course enjoy the spectacular scenery.  His young age (he's 10) drew a lot of attention and he felt obliged to wave at everyone that showed some support.  He was waving more than the queen.

Some sections of the route seriously needs a resurface but we kept a good pace while enjoying every moment.  Chappies we grinded it out at a solid pace.  When I told him on Suikerbossie it's the final climb, he really started to put down some power and I had to go right to start passing people.  And then on the last 15km run to the line people starting jumping on the back - I was wondering whether they realise they're being towed by a 10 year old :).  

I was betting on a sub-5 with a 4:30 possible.  I did not expect the 3:48 we did.  Daniel is very chuffed having beaten the time I did with Oupa (then 72) on the tandem last year by 2 minutes.  And of course I'm super proud of him, not complaining once and just enjoying every moment.

Now to find out whether he was the youngest finisher on the 109km route...

 

Thanks @ChrisF for the photo.

 

Saw a father and son in skeloton kit boy must also be around 10

[Pure Savage]

4 hours ago, Shebeen said:

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dean is LANK average...

Look, he had to grab this random 75 year olds jersey up suikerbosie on the second lap..

Jokes, it was a LPC uncle we were helping!

Edited 1 hour ago by Pure Savage