[mountain_lion]

The 2007 Stellenbosch MTB Challenge was held in perfect sunny winter weather, preceded by days of pouring rain: Mud fest!!

Hard work, but I enjoyed it.
Well done to Meurant & Dirtopia  team, who managed their various challenges well.

Here is my recording of the 60km route in .kmz format. (old GPS; lost
signal in a few places. I just joined the sections end to end).

uploads/20070805_082755_Stel_Chal_2007.zip


The racing forum does not allow file uploads, so I could not post in the existing thread there.
Admin: any reason for this?



mountain_lion2007-08-05 16:42:05

[mountain_lion]

Here is the profile:

Total ascent: approx 1250m
Average ascent gradient:   4.55%
Average descent gradient: 3.90%
Max ascent gradient:   20.8%
Max descent gradient: 18.5%
(Note that there are some discontinuities in the data; all the above is approximate)


mountain_lion2007-08-05 16:36:08

[Velouria]

Meurant made us work for every km of that ride - if we wanted some nice downhill, we had to sweat blood on the uphill to earn it.

All in all a great race - just how MTBing should be.

[RodTi]

Glad to hear that you guys had fun - what was the river crossing at the Hangbrug like?

[CVANC]

too many downhills though

[Dick]

No problem by the time we got there.

[CaptainDura]

 

here's my profile from my Polar:

Ascent: 1579

Descent: 1585

 

Was a damn hard race.  "ek het wimblikke gek@k"

[RodTi]

Quote

too many downhills though

 

 

Huh?

What??!

 

You must be a roadie....

[CVANC]

Quote

Quote

too many downhills though

 

 

Huh?

What??!

 

You must be a roadie....

 

just downhill challenged on any bike...

[Velouria]

Where were you CVANC? Didn't see you at all. I kept waiting for you to come flying past me on an uphill.

I was particularly "uphill challenged" on Saturday.

The river crossing was no problem - but I played it safe and rode in the slip stream of another rider while crossing it. Was a little disappointed that it was so easy, but that all changed quite as soon as we started going up.

[CVANC]

Quote

Where were you CVANC? Didn't see you at all. I kept waiting for you to come flying past me on an uphill.

I was particularly "uphill challenged" on Saturday.

The river crossing was no problem - but I played it safe and rode in the slip stream of another rider while crossing it. Was a little disappointed that it was so easy, but that all changed quite as soon as we started going up.

 

I started with the AB bunch

[HomerSimpson]

A little over 1020 m ascent on the 35 (40) km route:

[mountain_lion]

Quote

Quote

Where were you CVANC? Didn't see you at all. I kept waiting for you to come flying past me on an uphill.

 

I started with the AB bunch

OK, that must explain why I was slow too, I also started in AB!

mountain_lion2007-08-06 05:34:07

[Marius]

Aggg I had a kak ride of note!! Nothing worked on the damn ride, the only hting that worked was my new CamelBak:-D I'm taking my bike in today, hopefully not to many things needs replacing! Nice Riding CVANC!! Velouria, hope you get on form soon, you making it to easy now, ps. how's the wife doing??

 

[Dick]

Marius, I think I had similar problems. I had to stop 4 times to refit my cranks. The bloody skrew kept comming loose ande with all the mud i could ne ver get them tied tight enough for it to stay on.

 

Plenty of chainsuck as well due to the mud. It was amaising to see how many people did not have lube with them knowing how wet it was going to be.

 

If you don't lube your chain and you ride in mud for a while, you will get chainsuck for sure!!

[Ratty]

It was an awesome day and a really fun route, but I must say I was really disappointed that the longest downhill was on tar?????!!!!!  I felt like all the effort climbing was for nothing.  The only thing that gets me to the top of the uphills is the tought of the downhills.   I'd much rather be on my road bike on the tar, at least then I can go really fast.  It also meant I got really cold and shortly afterwards my knee went and I spent the rest of the ride in pain.  And where was all the single track they spoke about? 

 

I don't know if I was on a different ride to everyone else because I heard a lot of people say the 35km (40km) route was a lot harder than the Knysna 50km.  I found it a lot easier, strange.

 

That all said, I thought it was a fantastic race and the organisation was superb.  With 1700+ riders I was amazed at how little congestion there was.  Just ignore my moans above, I'm just a singletrack / technical downhill junkie!!!

 

Oh and I LOVE MY BIKE!!!  I saw so many people stuck because of gear / chain problems.  For once I wasn't one of them, my bike worked like a dream (even though it hadn't been cleaned after a muddy ride at Jonkers the week before).  She got a full treatment after Sat cause I was so proud of her.

 

[Marius]

Chainsuck, I wonder if that is what I had, G#d it sucked! My chain kept on getting stuck, then had to back pedal, got stuck again, so small blade was not a optioin afte rmy 10km fall, also got of and waisted what felt like hours swearing at the bike, kicking it and swearing some more...damn I was pissed off!!!

 

I cleaned /  lubed everyhting and still it don't want to change gears.

[HomerSimpson]

My bike made the weirdest groaning noise when I went up that hill just the other side of the Koelenhof road (R3something).  Strange thing is I had chain drag on the front der when I was in the big ring in front and the samll gears at the back (high gear ratio) before and during the ride..after I cleaned and relubed the chain, everything works perfectly.

[mountain_lion]

Sounds like Marius is "technically challenged"... 

Ratty - the single track was on the 60km route (Delheim section), but being so muddy, you did not miss much.
I have ridden those tracks a few times in the dry - good fun, but with all the mud and the front tyre I had on, it was just a case of getting through without sliding into the bushes (some people did ).
And the one section we did wrong way round - uphill!!

My chain held out well until the last uphill. I had lube with me, but with only about 10km to go, it was too much effort to stop and do something about it. Just nursed it home (was fine in most gears) and back pedalled the moment I felt any chain suck. Did scratch the frame though from one bad chain lockup.

[nitsckie]

The ride was a good one. After my chain broke the first time in one of the single track sections and walk almost 10km for the day, I just had to finish no matter what. I chain snapped about 3 times during the 2nd half of the race. From the last water point's downhill section I managed to make it to the bottom of the last climb then walked/ran the rest of the way home....

Next time I WILL take a chain breaker along.....