My 94.7 last year was also pretty interesting.
I think I mentioned somewhere in a race preparation thread about realising I didn't have my race number and transpondent with 45 minutes to go until my start time. Got a friend to drive to Kyalami but he was stuck in the traffic jam so I had to ride back to the N1 (nice flat ride that... NOT ;D ) and get it from him.
I got back just in time to sneak past the officials into my group 'D' at the start with 2 minutes to go. Fortunately I was nicely warmed up from my long excursion but was right at the back of the group. It took me 4kms to catch the front of the D guys who had broken away. I'd stayed in my big chain ring up those first 3 hills and when I caught them on the 3rd hill going up to the stop street, they were going quite slowly in comparison so I dumped it into the small ring. Well, the chain didn't exactly go into the intended small ring. :

It preferred to wedge itself between my bb and the inside of the spider (the five pronged effort that holds the chain rings and crank).
Swearing profusely, I sat for about 3 minutes trying to disslodge the chain. It finally came out and I was on my way again but the group was long gone. There were a few stragglers around but no one strong to ride with. So I went as hard as i could but on the climb just after "Teasers" ;D on the old Jhb Rd, the chain did the same thing. This time not so bad and I got going in about a minute or so. It had started to rain quite nicely now which meant that I caught some reasonably strong groups going slower than usual. I sort of formed a small chasing bunch with some of the stronger riders but they all sat behind me and refused to work, except for one small guy who towed me up the hills.
We eventually caught the main D group just before the Indaba hotel and I rode with them the rest of the way. I was quite buggered after chasing for half the race and not being able to use the small chain ring. All went well (apart from the gear hassles, they sort of came right eventually after i played with the cable tension) until the climb up Catherine 15kms from the finish when I realised I had a slow puncture in my front wheel. Instead of replacing the tube I decided to stick it out (because my back muscles tend to seize) but that meant I couldn't get out of the saddle anymore.
I rode the last 4kms around the track with a completely flat tyre but still ended up with a 3:12 time, about 9 minutes behind the leaders of the D group.
Lets just pray for a better race this Sunday.
