AmaShovaShova 2002

Lab_Rat

Probably the same reason why guys are scared to license. You have to accept that you're entering a different league of riding and need to believe that you are now in the elite of your category.<br /><br />It can be pretty daunting. I've toyed with the idea of licensing, but must admit that I'm not confident of my ability to race against these guys, even if I do train with many of them.<br /><br />I would imagine that this young lass needs someone with experience to take her under their wing and develop the talent. Perhaps someone should get her to join a club and start the interclub racing as this is a perfect way to become accustomed to actual racing and not just fun rides. Hell, Jaco, perhaps we should try recruit her for our club.<br /><br />I can introduce her to the ladies' racing captain.

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Despite all my rage, I'm still just a rat in a cage

Jaco

Good idea LR - I'm sure you'll be more than willing to help her develop her talents ;D Just kidding ... seriously, I think she can really benefit from joining a club like ours.

Lab_Rat

You make me sound like a dirty old man. Problem is, I'm not that old yet. As nice as 16yr old girls look, even I won't stoop to those levels. <br /><br />Jaco, didn't see you at Kyalami yesterday. Spoke to your lady friend though. But I had already had a few drinks so I was feeling a little light-headed. hehe ;D<br /><br />(That happens when you ride hard, suffer from low-blood sugar and then have a few smirnoffs)

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Despite all my rage, I'm still just a rat in a cage

Rhodent

Dianne, I wasn't commenting unfavourably on the licensed women, I fully understand why they are slower with just the ladies around, we're all faster when we can sit on someone stronger's wheel. One of the reasons I commented though was beacause I read an article stating that the women's racing seemed to be very much a case of taking it easy through until a massed sprint (they were talking about the new generation of girls coming through who were changing this). From their time, this certainly seems to be the case, it didn't seem that fast. I was cycling with a girl for a lot of the time and she was putting in her share of the work, she must have done it in about 3h05, and she was certainly nowhere near professional status. If an amateur riding a lot on her own (she was taking a friend through his first race) can do it in that time I would certainly expect the licensed women to go a lot faster than 2h47.<br /><br />Well done on the time OT, I think just about everyone went faster than they expected, Hmm now how many post 70 year old riders did it in 3h48? my detective skills are coming to the fore, who is OT?

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What do you mean there's no granny gear? How do you go up hills? Ahh, I see, you don't have hills.

Jaco

Ahhhaaa the lady on the blue bike...she's quite strong on her bike for a lady don't you think?<br /><br />Know the light headed feeling ... also had it after some beers after the Amashova on Sun ;D ... had to make up for the fact that I had to watch the rugby with some softdrinks.<br /><br />Didn't trust the weather yesterday and went spinning ... yawn... Got up at 4:35 this morning to go ride with the club and it was raini ng &amp;gt; Will be @ Kyalami tomorrow.

Lab_Rat

Glen said that the track will be closed tomorrow. <br /><br />Have not seen your lady friend riding yet. and with the weather being as bad as it is at the moment, I think I'm going to watch my TDF video and ride on the stat trainer.

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Despite all my rage, I'm still just a rat in a cage

Jaco

Noooooooo ... and today it wil probably rain LR, remember the club talk tomorrow night.<br />

Lab_Rat

I'll be there.

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Despite all my rage, I'm still just a rat in a cage

Vo2

[quote author=Old Timer link=board=15;threadid=2528;start=15#21960 date=1035919775]<br />Great ride, just got back. Did 3:48 which satisfied me. HR was 84% of max for the overall course. Felt good all the way and also at the end so maybe I should have pushed it more? :P I usually fade over the last half hour. : Anyhow I had time to take in the scenery down Drummond. ;D Really great area. My right hip started to give some grief around the Cato Ridge area but apart from the ache it didn't affect my riding. I'm sure it's from my broken pelvis when I got hit by a car in the Westcon last year as I went down heavy on the hip, but the ortho guy says it's coming from my back. ??? Have to see him again on 8 Nov with an MRI.<br />Yeah, I feel for those guys whose bikes were shunted at the toll.<br /> <br />[/quote]<br /><br />Well done on your time OT!

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Pain is inevitable...suffering is optional

Dianne

Ok, rodent i fully understand what you meant then. Sorry if i seemed to take offence :-\. <br /><br />So Lab_rat what club do you ride for?<br />Please do Speak to that girl again if you see her. The more talented woman we have the better the racing will be.<br /><br />Anyone racing this weekend? If not whats the next event for everybody?

Jaco

This weekend it's the Westcon classic starting from the Roodepoort athletic stadium and the OFM classic - both are qualifiers for the Argus cycle tour 2003 ... and I can't do any of the two :'(<br /><br />

Eldron

<br />I agree with the idea of expanding ladies racing in SA - there seems to be an 'old boys' club in ladies racing (please excuse the horrible pun....<br /><br />I rode this year's Tour of Durban on my mountain bike and had the misfortune of catching the licensed ladies after 30km or so. Based on the fact that we took 5 minutes out of them in 30km we should have gone screaming past them and finished about 12 minutes ahead of them right? Wrong! They sat on our wheels as we passed them and started yelling at us to get out of the way, then they went hauling up the hills only to sit up on the flats, jump back on our wheels and start yelling at us to get out of the way again....explain the logic?<br /><br />The abuse I took was wonderful too - one lady told me I should be ashamed to be sitting on a ladies wheel (she was behind me when she told me this....). Another told me I rode dangersously because I was half wheeling (the idea of echelons and side winds was completely beyond her).<br /><br />That said - the majority of the abuse came from a small number of ladies - most of the ladies just wanted to get on with the racing.<br /><br />I reckon starting the ladies quite far down the field is the right way to go - that way they won't be caught by large groups of men and the groups they pass will be quite fragmented and not get in the way.<br /><br />We need more licensed ladies - it's really difficult to form breakaways and tactical racing when there are only 15 people in the group. I reckon that's the reason why ladies racing is always 99.5km of soft pedalling and 500m of sprinting.<br /><br />Also race organisers see ladies racing as an inconvenience and I agree - providing a pace car, race officials, seperate category etc for 20 riders is a waste of time.<br /><br />Let's get more ladies racing - they'll be taken more seriously, the prize money will increase, race tactics will improve and we'll see more than 2 female winners in a season.

Rhodent

Funny you should mention the problem with the ladies bunch, I had a mate who was trying to get across to a faster group and the pace car prevented him from getting past the women<br /><br />Does anyone know when these photos they took at the Amashova are likely to get to us. I feel the need to paste my ugly mug on the mugshots, and the only other pictures I have are of me putting in some cross training at raves etc

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What do you mean there's no granny gear? How do you go up hills? Ahh, I see, you don't have hills.

Vo2

The photos take anything between 3 to 4 weeks.

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Pain is inevitable...suffering is optional