[Event] Ride Joburg Road

[Guest Mike Dewing]

50 minutes ago, KyleDurh said:

I had a great first Ride Joburg and enjoyed the closed roads and vibe. I will definitely do another one. 
 

I did unfortunately have an unfortunate experience with a guest in the car park that was “helping” park cars and got quite aggressive because I had parked in his area.
 

I did unfortunately have to pay something to get him to leave me alone. I genuinely was worried about my vehicle and personal safety. 

The “aggressive non official parking officials” is a topic that comes up every year.. 

my wife dropped me this year and picked me up.. she was taking no chances since we share a car.. and actually I enjoyed not having the worry..

Edited October 27, 2025 by Mike Dewing

[RobynE 🚵‍♀️]

On the subject of moving to the side - trust me, it’s pretty tough to do when people are passing you on both sides at the same time and essentially giving you the finger. Some people could really do a little better in terms of etiquette. I don’t think too many people *want* to be basically track-standing trying to move over. I agree in terms of people who just STOP but if you look ahead and see someone struggling, shouting at them doesn’t really help. Keep left, pass right and all is well!

We had a couple of moments yesterday where our tandem momentum just wasn’t, and being passed left and right at the same time while being told off is a little hairy (and we were left already). 

[Tothehills]

Was no 19 for me.

A ride a love to participate in. Loved every km of it.

To all the countless number of people offering up their free time to work/assist at this race, Thank you.

To all the stronger riders whos wheels I could suck onto that pulled me along, Thank you

The Chamberlain's waterpoint after Kyalami giving out 750mm water bottles, Thank you

To the water tankers spraying as down, Thank you

G20 Exercise on Saturday closing up most of the entrances gets a thumb down

Having the Wall of fame so close the registration area made for crampy conditions

Queuing to park on Sunday at 4:40am with 3 lanes turning into 1 circle was DOF!

 

Some historical data from my rides over the years. Not sure in earlier years if the number of entrants and numbers of finishers was the same figure

 

	Year	Finishers	Time
1	2001		03:32:17
2	2002	15 786,00	05:08:34
3	2003	16 319,00	03:13:56
4	2005	18 960,00	03:25:41
5	2007	16 817,00	03:07:38
6	2008	17 010,00	02:47:00
7	2010	15 944,00	03:08:43
8	2011	17 563,00	03:31:31
9	2013	20 798,00	03:15:54
10	2014	21 722,00	03:07:58
11	2015	21 535,00	03:07:25
12	2016	20 349,00	03:20:18
13	2017	19 991,00	03:06:21
14	2018	18 378,00	03:08:59
15	2019	15 829,00	03:15:06
16	2022		03:44:07
17	2023	8 710,00	03:15:40
18	2024	8 060,00	03:13:02
19	2025	8 045,00	03:11:29

[Danger Dassie]

6 hours ago, The Ouzo said:

yeah, how about making it safer, both from cars and crime , first. Aint no way people are going to want to ride in JHB currently unless its closed roads.

 

 

B.T.W. speaking of crime, did anyone gets harassed like previous years in the car parks ? Seemed to me that things were kept under control this year w.r.t. unwanted guests.

Yeah this the posturing bs that irks me no end, and they’re ALL the fkn same at the end of the day.

The lanes weren’t not being used, they actually were being utilised, including by students in the Braam precinct. Metro were even fining/removing vehicles parking in them.

It started to go pear when the lanes were used as political football when Mashaba came in and canned the entire thing. To quote “maybe when all the roads are tarred” 

Brain dead and disconnected.

Rant off. 

[NotSoBigBen]

11 hours ago, love2fly said:

This is the reason I no longer do road races. I did Ride for Sight, 947 and Argus about 6 years ago and have been doing most races since 1999. The standard of bunch riding scares me sh1tless with riders hitting brakes, swerving etc. what's caused the change In wonder.

Hope our support up the climb on Alexander Ave in Fourways didn't go unnoticed?

PS, those that were walking up that gentle incline, you guys were in for a long day.😬 Well done to all.

Me? I might do #10 or 11 next year...

At the risk of repeating myself, ja ja I have mentioned it before ....

To a certain extent, 'WhatBiking' and virtual training when used as the primary training tool as opposed to for bad weather or specific focused work has had an influence on bunch riding skills and etiquette.

You end up with pretty strong riders that can keep up but at the expense of safety, maar nou ja hier sit ons!

[The Ouzo]

12 hours ago, RobynE 🚵‍♀️ said:

On the subject of moving to the side - trust me, it’s pretty tough to do when people are passing you on both sides at the same time and essentially giving you the finger. Some people could really do a little better in terms of etiquette. I don’t think too many people *want* to be basically track-standing trying to move over. I agree in terms of people who just STOP but if you look ahead and see someone struggling, shouting at them doesn’t really help. Keep left, pass right and all is well!

We had a couple of moments yesterday where our tandem momentum just wasn’t, and being passed left and right at the same time while being told off is a little hairy (and we were left already). 

I hear you, but you can generally tell if a rider is conscious of being in the way and just can’t move over, vs those that don’t care/dont know any better. 
 

I try not to shout at anyone to keep left, it’s usually just quicker to simply just pass, I did ask one youngster who was pushing his bike to move to the side, but hopefully how and what I said came out politely as my intention was to guide rather than scold. 

[RobynE 🚵‍♀️]

15 minutes ago, The Ouzo said:

I hear you, but you can generally tell if a rider is conscious of being in the way and just can’t move over, vs those that don’t care/dont know any better. 
 

I try not to shout at anyone to keep left, it’s usually just quicker to simply just pass, I did ask one youngster who was pushing his bike to move to the side, but hopefully how and what I said came out politely as my intention was to guide rather than scold. 

No don’t get me wrong, plenty people are really kind about it, but there are a few who just add stress to an already super stressful situation and one of those huge stressors is passing left of someone who is in trouble. 

[Sandro]

15 hours ago, Mike Dewing said:

The “aggressive non official parking officials” is a topic that comes up every year.. 

my wife dropped me this year and picked me up.. she was taking no chances since we share a car.. and actually I enjoyed not having the worry..

This is what I should have done, I sat on the Randshow Road offramp for an hour because everyone wants to drive past and cut in at the last minute so I missed my batch by 30 minutes. Also if you're starting at 8:00 then you don't need to be there at 6:00, it just slows down everyone else who needs to be there at 6:00. Logistics FML.

[Ispeed_V]

What should have been my 16th trip ended with the puncture gods not being on my side.

Early beer and boerie roll in Bryanston.

We go again next year. At least now I can aim for my 20th trip to coincide with my 60th Bday.

['Kaze Pete]

5 hours ago, NotSoBigBen said:

At the risk of repeating myself, ja ja I have mentioned it before ....

To a certain extent, 'WhatBiking' and virtual training when used as the primary training tool as opposed to for bad weather or specific focused work has had an influence on bunch riding skills and etiquette.

You end up with pretty strong riders that can keep up but at the expense of safety, maar nou ja hier sit ons!

Ag nee man.

"I" can balance my Kickr on tennis balls, whilst doing a virtual e-group ride, and now you want to tell me that "I" don't have skillz ...  

Seriously, yes it is very true, not only for the e-cycling crowd!
Even for those of us stuck in the 'platteland', where a "group ride" involves 3-6 mountain bikes on a gravel road with gaps wide enough  to make u-turns with an Atos.

[JJDT]

2 hours ago, Sandro said:

This is what I should have done, I sat on the Randshow Road offramp for an hour because everyone wants to drive past and cut in at the last minute so I missed my batch by 30 minutes. Also if you're starting at 8:00 then you don't need to be there at 6:00, it just slows down everyone else who needs to be there at 6:00. Logistics FML.

Add to the above people standing at the entrance to the holding pens when they only would start later. I was in E but made a quick pit stop prior going into the pens and when I wanted to enter saw a few riders in M and also later waiting and getting through these guys needed some careful weaving with myself and the bike.

[The Ouzo]

3 minutes ago, JJDT said:

Add to the above people standing at the entrance to the holding pens when they only would start later. I was in E but made a quick pit stop prior going into the pens and when I wanted to enter saw a few riders in M and also later waiting and getting through these guys needed some careful weaving with myself and the bike.

I blame the organisers for this, CTCT does a better job with holding areas for waiting cyclists (not perfect though).

But its always going to be like this with this many riders not wanting to miss their batch as well as trying to start at the front of their batch so they want to be first in.

[JJDT]

Another observation was the amount of E-Bikes in the batches. There were two guys which were next to me and had some interesting mods to have two batteries which seems to be permanently mounted on the bike and then connected to the wiring. Did not look further but suspect that they might have a switch over mechanism to the second battery without the need to stop and change batteries.

Another interesting observation was the number of riders with extra batteries on their backpacks.

[RobynE 🚵‍♀️]

I know it’s on me and only on me but my word it’s soul-crushing when you’re fighting for your life on a hill and someone ziiings past you on e-bike having a nice Sunday outing 😂 😭 

[NotSoBigBen]

53 minutes ago, RobynE 🚵‍♀️ said:

I know it’s on me and only on me but my word it’s soul-crushing when you’re fighting for your life on a hill and someone ziiings past you on e-bike having a nice Sunday outing 😂 😭 

Is not only you 😉 ... I also know its a subject best held amongst your mates at a braai at your house than on any public forum 🤪

[The Ouzo]

56 minutes ago, RobynE 🚵‍♀️ said:

I know it’s on me and only on me but my word it’s soul-crushing when you’re fighting for your life on a hill and someone ziiings past you on e-bike having a nice Sunday outing 😂 😭 

part of my cycling group is a guy who rides an e-bike for medical reasons, he did not start with us as there was apparently an e-bike start batch, even he was saying how he did not like the fact that these unrestricted e-bikes with spare batteries were passing him with ease whilst he put the work in.