94.7 - General Discussion

[Guest]

My apologies about the multiple posts guys. :-[

The connection is still extremely slow so it's taken nearly 2 hrs to remove them all. Yesterday the connection failed completely and I had to rush off at 3 to get to the expo (I was collecting stuff for half my corporate team). "Rush" is the wrong word to use here because the motor vehicle traffic moved along much like the net traffic had done. So many accidents on the highway and there were so many people trying to get to the area around Kyalami. Hardly anyone going to the expo though which was great and allowed me to get all the stuff done quickly.

I guess trying to refresh to see whether I posted was a bad idea ;D Admin, moderators - if it happens again feel free to delete them. Thanks.

It seems the onlty sites working well are SA based ones. Everything else it up to Sh%t.

 

[Guest]

Vo2 are you trying to tell us that you believe the weather forcast? ;D

They've been wrong 50% of the time in the last month. I should know I've been watching to determine whether I should ride to work on any particular day.

 

[Guest]

Guys... this wil be my last post before the race. Going hectic at the office today. To all the members here, have a good ride. I wish you a windless, punctureless breakdownless ride. Have fun and I'll see you all at the races (And next week on this board for some follow ups.) GO FOR IT!!!!
;D

 

[Vo2]

My apologies about the multiple posts guys.  :-[

The connection is still extremely slow so it's taken nearly 2 hrs to remove them all. Yesterday the connection failed completely and I had to rush off at 3 to get to the expo (I was collecting stuff for half my corporate team). "Rush" is the wrong word to use here because the motor vehicle traffic moved along much like the net traffic had done. So many accidents on the highway and there were so many people trying to get to the area around Kyalami. Hardly anyone going to the expo though which was great and allowed me to get all the stuff done quickly.

I guess trying to refresh to see whether I posted was a bad idea  ;D Admin, moderators - if it happens again feel free to delete them. Thanks.

It seems the onlty sites working well are SA based ones. Everything else it up to Sh%t.

No problemo, Sean. We all thought you were trying to make sure we get your point ;D
Thanks for the clean-up.
Yip, all international lines are slow. Timeouts all the time , but it seems to be getting better.

Regarding the weather, as long as they are right about Sunday, I'm happy. Goh, last year's race was freezing!

 

[Vo2]

Yip, godspeed and may the wind be at your back!

Sean, is the meeting after the race still on? Where can we find you?

 

[Guest]

Yeah good luck Acid. If you read this come and meet at our corporate marquee.

Behind the pits are a whole row of carports backing onto that steep grass bank. Look out for the Anglo American marquee. THe banners are white with "Anglo Technical Division" and the red/blue Anglo American logo printed on them. Might be difficult to spot unfortunately because I couldn't get the 3 metre banners to print in time to be laminated. So 4 A0 ones will have to do.
Just ask for me - I hope to see you all there

Vo2, so did you get the point then? ;D

 

[Vo2]

Just ask for me - I hope to see you all there
Vo2, so did you get the point then?  ;D

Yip, sure did! ;D

 

[Guest]

 Hi All.  Hercules bicycles used to be made in S.A.
Do you still have any major bicycle industry over there?

I've got a custom made Exocet as my 2nd bike. (thinking of selling it though). John Freeman has been making them for years. Gotty Hansen still makes frames (can't recall the name now). Produx is manufactured in Cape Town and there are a couple of others that I know of. I need to go do some research because the memory is failing me a bit at present

 

[Guest]

Thanks Sean. We too have some frame builders, doing mostly
custom-built frames. And four or five recumbent manufacturers
including Greenspeed. 'Velocity' up in Queensland produce
wheel rims, bidon cages etc. Plus I think there is some cycle
industry in South Australia. There is a list, very interesting,
[email protected] ,and very professional.

There are at two rides on today, Sunday, but it looks like
rain and thunderstorms :-( A pity, because the rail trail to
Warburton is a good ride. No hills, just some gentle gradients.
Don't need 21 gears for these trails, 3 is plenty. I might even
take my single speed road bike on it one day.

 

[Vo2]

Awesome race - awesome weather!
Although I missed my target time by 5 minutes, overall I'm happy.

Time: 3hr20
Avg. HR: 170
Max HR: 186
Max Speed: 79 km/h

Speak to youz later, going for lotsa creamy pasta and drinks now!

PS: Hey, Sean, nice meeting you, mate. I honestly envy the awesome time you did.
Sorry I could'nt meet the other guys and gals.

 

[Guest]

Hey Guys,

What a race!

This was my best time ever 3hr00min51sec  ;D ;D ;D ;D
Had an awful start, got stuck in traffic and had to ride in from Allandale Offramp (+-5km), got in just in time to use a portaloo   and latch on to the back of the "F" group as they started . Heart rate at the start before the race had begun was sitting at 80%. Starting at the back of the group proved difficult, I spent the first 20 mins weaving like a maniac between the back markers who seemed to be out for a long training ride!! There was no decent bunch to be had on the entire group out of the "F's", a lot of braking-accelerating-braking-accelerating, which was beginning to play havoc on my nerves... So I decided to go into Time Trial Mode to find the next bunch up front..... I never did... Spent my whole race Time Trialling past individuals. Developed some bad nausea just after Hyde Park Hill (Dunno why ???) the nausea came and went until after I had got home that afternoon. The last piece on Western Service was good, I hooked up with a "G" rider on a MTB and we hammered the last stretch from the Garage on Western Service. On the finishing straight we were screaming at each other GO GO GO GO!!

After the race, got picked up by my wife and went and sat on Hyde Park hill to cheer on the other riders, that was quite a bit of fun I must say

Time: 3hr00min51sec
Average Speed 31.57kph
Max speed 80kph (Damn!)
Avg Hr: 90%
Max Hr: 99%

Yesterday evening, I felt good, but today I feel as if I have spent a day on the rack
I'm gonna take it easy for a while, promised my wife I would give her two weeks without the bike. Then its time for Hyper to Hyper and Argus (PS anyone wanna give a poor cyclist a lift to CT for the Argus?).

Thanks for all the tips guys, Sean sorry I didn't get to meet you and all the others but at the end of the race all  wanted to do was find somewhere to sit down and something to vomit into :-/

Well done on your time VO2 - see y'all at the next one!!

 

[Guest]

Did not have a good race. Right from the start I did not even have the energy to latch on to any groups. I was generaly feeling weak and drained. I think I would have done a better time had I been able to latch onto a group. Still happy with my time though

time: 3h27m
AvgHr 90%
MaxHr : 104%
Max Speed : 75
Avg Speed : +/- 28km.h

By the way guys, what distance did you measure, I got 98km.

I found that there werent enough watering points and got very dehydrated.

My legs felt good up the hills and did not take strain at all, even up Hyde Puke, however my heart rate was sky high and I was finding it difficult to breath at times. Had to stop just before Hyde Puke and take a breather.

Acid, I was probably one of the guys you past that were taking a training ride.

All in all, I'm happy with the result and will be going into some speed training now for the Hyper to Hyper.


Sean, I saw your stand but did not feel to well so did not stop to look for you.

 

[Vo2]

Well done guys! ;D Great times both of you! Wait till Sean puts up his time
I started cramping the last 30 k's or so. Each time I got out of the saddle, the legs would cease up!
Isn't it a great feeling when you see Kyalami? It's like an instant energy boost!

Here's an image gallery for our friends across the oceans:

Race photos!

 

[Guest]

Just checked Highvelds website. Results are only out on Wednesday.

 

[Guest]

Hi Guys

Great meeting you and your wife Vo2

I had a reasonable ride and felt my performance was about par for the course. Not good or bad and I had a bit of mechanical difficulty...

I didn't get a good warm up ride like I usually do and had to be in the A pen 20 minutes before the start so it wouldn't have helped much anyway. Fortunately (and surprisingly) the guys didn't attack in the first 7kms so got a bit of a warm up. Then after Teasers strip club the attacking started up that longishish hill. That reduced the bunch from 200 to about 50 in one blow and also where I recorded my maxHR for the race of 182. It was just as well that I was in the break because I heard there was a 30 bike crash in the main A bunch somewhere on the route.

I was feeling good and managed to stay with the attacks but my chain wouldn't stay on the big ring whenever I really powered hard or got out of the saddle. (I may have inadvertantly bumped the front derailleur when I packed the bike in the car or something... I dunno). At one point I got out of the saddle to power up a climb with an attack and the chain slipped off the big ring onto the small one causing my right foot pulled out of the pedal. I would've landed with the nads on the top tube but "fortunately" my knee hit the pedal and I regained my balance.

Anyway, I still managed to hang in pretty well with the break group and even survived the attacks up the hills to the halfway point. But the gear problem haunted me all the way and I chose to not change gears much and generally rode in a heavier ratio than I should've.

But during another massive attack going past Montecasino. Actually more on the dowhill bit just before you turn right onto Main Rd I struggled to find a gear for about 5 seconds and in that time they opened about 50 metres on me. I put in a real big effort up Main and got back onto the back of the breakgroup just as they were starting another attack.

Those boys were extremely strong (and light :'( ) and staying with them up William Nichol and Jan Smuts was not going to be possible given my comparative lack of training in the last month or so. I was already pretty fatigued and gave up without much of a fight so I got shelled well before the top at the Crossing.

After that I rode on my own with hardly anyone else in sight apart from a few licensed Vets who'd also been shelled until I got caught by a strong tandem (a father with his 10 yo son ) towing a couple of other riders. This seemed to help get my motivation back in gear and I went pretty well up all the hills up to Hyde Park and around the zoo leaving the tandem behind in the process. But after turning into the wind down Oxford I was caught by the flying tandem again so I jumped in behind and mostly stayed with them until the last hill up to Kyalami. Thanks to that I only finished a couple of minutes behind the leading A guys and licenced Vets in 2:33.

It was great to cross the line at about 08h45 with only about 200 riders (all the pros and licensed Vets) hanging about chatting. I found a few of my licensed friends and exchanged stories for while before enjoying a relaxing breakfast at our corporate marquee. All in all an enjoyable day.

 

[Vo2]

All that trouble and you still rack in a 2:33? AWESOME!
I can only dream...

my bike computer showed 94.78 kms?

 

[Guest]

All that trouble and you still rack in a 2:33? AWESOME!
I can only dream...

Yeah, damned fine time. Just read that the pros whent out and rode it again for charity. this only 20 minutes after they finished. : crazy crazy crazy.

my bike computer showed 94.78 kms?

That why it took me so long, I rode 4 km more than the rest of you.

Guess I need to recalibrate both my HR monitor and Cateye.

That will bring my avg speed down to 27 km/h.

 

[Guest]

Thanks

Problems are all part of cycling. I don't think there's more than a couple of races I've done (total possibly over 100 ) which have gone perfectly smoothly or to plan.

I had 93.66kms on the bike 'puter...

 

[Guest]

...Just read that the pros whent out and rode it again for charity. this only 20 minutes after they finished.  :  crazy crazy crazy...

It was only the HSBC team and they did it for charity. I chatted with them briefly before they went to ride it again. All of the riders who came in under 2hr30 have enough base training to ride another 100kms after a race.

 

[Guest]

Also had a great ride, although the time was not what I wanted it to be. Did it in 3H28min09sec. Luckily I had not mechanical problems and wasn't the weather just great! Especialy after that storm we had on Friday night. When I got home after the race, I slept most of the day and night. Just got up for a light supper and went right back to sleep. Feel really refreshed today. When's the next BIG one??? Would like to do the Hyper to Hyper, but got no details.