Kigali Southern Challenge | Rwanda | 25.6 miles | 2,408 ft. of climbing!
ROUVY SAYS: Tackle one of the longer segments of the Rwanda World Championships course. This southern loop stretches past the airport and rural edges of Kigali before returning to city climbs – a dynamic mix of open roads and technical ascents.
WE SAY: Time for a proper Muckers tough race route!!!! Also time for the regulars to get some good points on the board as this route won’t be for everyone! How wrong was that last statement.😂. All was going as per the “norm” for a long and tough championship race with the earlier races, just a few riders turning up for those and after 6 early races we only had 15 riders who had set a time. times ranging from 1:09 all the way to 2:01. Well done to all those riders as most of you won’t have had much company so to finish this.
So as i join the warm up for the main race, with around 7mins to go, its looking quite ok at around 40 riders on the line. “we might get to 50” i thought….. 114 as we set off!!! WTF!! Another Mucker even asked in the chat did all these riders know what was coming?? Well, considering we had over 100 riders finish this main race, the vast majority did! I’ll report in the comments how my own ride actually went but lets just say, even battling down in the 80s part, was great! We’ve always said that all you need is 1 or 2 riders around you and you have a race on your hands! Just the high number of entries we are lucky to get, means we all have a much greater chance of that happening all the way through the field. Thank you all!
ok, so now lets check the numbers, apply our 3 rules and see how many we have left. 127 riders set a time. 109 after the no hr riders removed, no one averaged over 5.0w/kg and 106 after the males under 60kgs removed. Lets see how that’s affected all the tables.
looks like a few riders really need to look at there stats on NITEOR. We re-learn the cats after race 1 of the month and you can clearly see the ones that weren’t here for the 1st race. The problem we have is we cant just change 1 rider, or if we can its a long process and really pointless. This is why we will only be giving the bonus points and category mentions next year to those that were here for the 1st race of the month. if you just take a look at the leaderboard, you can clearly see the riders that have the strange categories.
We now have another tight fight for this months winner, top 3, top 10 and top 50! We feel this is great as all we want to do keep you motivated to push as hard as you can and then see where you are in the table. The fact you don’t know exactly whos going to do well at a certain race and what exact ballast they are running means you can’t run the calculated risks you normally could. Its gotta be flat out and let the cards fall where they fall.
We have 6 riders who have done all 3 races so far who are still just outside the top 50, and now only have 2 riders inside the top 10 who are ballast free, I wonder if we will have the same amount after race 4?? its all to play for at the last race which is a 23.6 mile route but with only 702ft of climbing. It’ll be a fast one!! (And as always, a current challenge route!)
Please pop a few words in the comment section on how the race went for yourselves, its always great to read how the race was from your personal perspective!
Also, Please remember the shop is packed full of Muckers Worldwide merch that when you make any purchase, the profit from the items is what we use to keep this thing going. We really dislike having to push ourselves out there like this but just to let you know that when you purchase an item, not only are you representing us and helping to spread the word, you are really helping to keep this thing running. We are dead against subscriptions or private races and all that stuff so that’s not ever going to come, it’ll just all end when the final 50p is put in the meter and it runs out. (wonder if that example translates across the world……)
Thanks everyone for racing with us, and as per usual, a special thanks to all of you that read this blog to the end. appreciate it
co-founder of muckersworldwide.com and race organizer! Been into cycling since a kid and spent most of the time on BMX and mountain bikes. Took me longer than most to get the road cycling bug but I was bitten around 5 years ago when I finally got a fully fledged road bike that fitted and I let the flat handled road bike go...
OMG! what a tough race. loved it, but my god, that was tough. I took the risk of running the lightweights as 2400ft of climbing didn’t appeal on the 4 spokes. I messed this up at the start! kinda built up speed instead of a rocket start so i was 95th at the top of that first climb into the first little downhill. I need the draft of others on the downhills for the lightweights to work so although i was quite decent up the first long climb, and caught stelvio as we crested into the downhill, progress up the table was hard going. But we did well together down the hill, then i was solo up the next climb, but still 3.0 and quite fast. caught a rider, we crested together (result!!) but he was done! (poo) so the 2nd long downhill was solo and those behind were closing.
do i wait? or can i just open the gap again once we hit the climbs? chose to try to keep the pace high but near the end, the pursuing Ste and LinV got me! But what a challenge it was trying to hold them off! 82nd in the race and 3 personal achievements recorded as well. What happened to top 50!!?? I really wish i had rocket started though as i reckon I’d have held onto those groups up front, but it was too hard to close up to them later on my own. hey, we are always learning aren’t we……..
Racing up cobbles
There are no heartbeats left
Time to pop a GU
addendum #1. chocolate/caffinated
addendum #2. Niteor had me at 97+% zone 7 for the entire race. This is not a typo or anomaly. check out racer #37 (cest moi)..I am basically slow and weak, but can go all out for a long time.
Addendum 3: As Neil says, a lot of racing within the racing. Many tx to Yumile, Chorus, and many others for the all out fight today. At the end RaTim was coming up with blazing speed. 500 meters more and he would have mopped up.
lol, excellent comments Paul! Seems you are realizing who your regular rivals are now and who can give you a little scare when you see them pop up in your nearby list!
Paul Bernstein’s comment is a tough act to follow. What can I say? Other than that I kept seeing him ahead of me on my Nearby List and he didn’t seem to be getting any closer. Actually, I was ahead of him at one time, but it didn’t last (I guess because I was only 49% in Zone 7). But, yeah, Muckers races are definitely attracting the strong riders, and it seems everyone racing regularly is getting stronger. I’m looking at the guys I’m with in my group: RaTim, rouvy1byron, stfmgr_65, wolli.d, Pan.Rorisi; these are strong riders, why are we only in the 50s? Not for lack of effort, surely. And the finish climb, the last three km, did it seem more chaotic that usual? Folk blowing up, others zooming away (hi, Tomas!); I’m just glad I survived. Kudos to all that finished that toughie!
yep tough race indeed and felt like all the top riders who’ve been outside for the summer all came back at once lol!!! Thanks for comments. great to read how you got on
Longest race in recent weeks, not feeling too keen at the start as I have a bit of a cold, but I knew this races could benefit me if I can to keep up the pace.
In the end, that’s how it went. After the start, I joined groups and picked up stragglers who had fallen behind the leading groups. I finished below 40th place, which isn’t bad.
Thanks to the riders that helped me in the race.
I had to work hard last night on this one. I have been playing catch up since week one when i had to stop mid race and fix my front mech. Luckily had a strong group around me to share the work with. Thanks guys 🙂 (bates1980)
Another difficult race the last, but as ever I want to do with positive approach.
A different of other friends I choose 4 spoken wheels, sweat for sweat what want to change 🤣. Good start and work well with Ratim and Mike, but when the kicker will be dark red… I said goodbye 👋. Work a long alone, and try to stay in front of other friends but Mich_michel catch me before the end, I resist from the continuous attack from other Duckman2. Hard work for only one 65th, our Championship it is just very very hard and competitive… but we are Muckers 🫶🏻🤟🏻.
Thanks for all who ride with me and see you all to the next round 💪👋🦈
glad to see it wasn’t just me riding hard and quite a while solo for a place outside the top 50! All we can do is celebrate like its a win when we finally see sub 50th on our finishing screen!!
Its been a long time since I properly raced with my fellow Muckers, but yesterday the planets aligned so I decided to jump in.
Coming out of a 3 week hard build block, and this week is all about recovery (doesnt mean no riding!) and keeping intensity low. I failed that, atleast yesterday!
Chose to go with Rouvy Analyzer suggestion, SL8 Tarmac and 4-spokes and joined the start pen.
Hot start with a hard sharp burst of power, in 2nd place but of course immideately people started to surge past me. I think I was down to 80th something before the first main climb. Held almost 4w/kg to the top which is above my FTP, praying for some relief on the descent. My weight (89kg) + 4 spokes did wonders on the descents, we were a group of about 8 riders and I was able to recover well. So it all came down to pacing (aka not blowing up) on the various climbs. Group did eventually split up and I was able to remain with the forward 3-4guys.
On the final little climb we were three, but one was slowly surging away up front and the other slowly falling back, with me in the middle. I was not able to push harder, balancing a tight rope! Crested the final peak solo and was not in striking distance to the next rider, nor threathened from the rear so eased off and rolled over the finish line.
Crossed as 31th in the main race, ending up in 30th place once the list had been washed.
Drafting factor 40.3% so I have a little to work on there, but super happy to properly race again Muckers 😀
awesome report mucker! felt i was with you up that final climb, we’ve all been there on that tightrope! Also love the term “washed” for when i apply the 3 rules (even though most are now complying so I’m not getting the massive jump up we use to get, but also means, more people are trying to be legit which is superb)
A tough course. It turned out it wasn’t my route profile. Halfway through, I felt like Jonas at the European Championships. Respect to everyone, especially to m-forby for finishing.
well that was an, as expected tough race last night.
I went out reasonably hard, but I think ended up in something like 45th position, but that was before the proper climbing started, of which there was a lot.
My w/kg for climbing is not very good, so I went backwards as expected, and finished in 89th place I think it was, but that took a lot of effort, especially towards the end.
I went for the Baldiso and 4 spokes, great on the downhills, but not so good on the ups, but I caught, and passed a few people on the descents so I think for me it was the right choice.
Had a good battle with Lodgo, who took AGES to catch, and managed to claw my way back to stelviobound, but didn’t have quite enough left to get past, and ended up less than 2 seconds behind him.
Looking forwards to next weeks route, less climbing, but the first 7.8km look to be key, and also painful trying to hang on!
thanks for commenting. i think i passed you on one of the climbs where my lightweights helped me alot! “stelvio” is the one i was keeping an eye on as he kept popping into my nearby list and was sometimes pulling more power than me at the end so was a concern… so the fact you were also catching him up as well just out of sight, i feel i did better than my original assessment! lol
But well done for finishing, this was a really tough route on its own, never mind to “race” on as well!!
Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go to backstage. One more race in Rwanda with this one hour effort. Strong group in front after first selective climb. Then Alieno went into small breakaway, followed by Luke. I could join them, but did not want chase teammate and all the best riders were nearby.
Nelson closed the gap in next climb, this was too strong attack for everyone. We were still strong group with Baremi, Erlend, Bebbi, but leading trio as well. Next climbs followed, we stayed with Baremi in between, not sure if wait or not and try close gap to the leaders. Another rider Michael Holm was closing gap fastly at the end, but leaderboard did not change luckily. Very tough, legs were fine, so i have to be happy with the result. Thank you all who joined us!
Sounds like some epic performances happening up there at the sharp end!! Top of the GC as well now! You might just get your first monthly win this year! in October…. with all that ballast!!!! 😏
I had to do 1st race solo and skip 2nd one, so this month will be probably my worst. To motivate myself I set my goal to beat Andy_Up. I knew that it would be tough, because of my slow starts. I bet all in and chose 4 spoke. Despite the choice I was behind 70s and glad that could hold some group under 1st hill. There we started to work together with Mike Byron and few others. We were all on limit (I think) but all worked well, we caught some lonely riders, but no groups. But when we were 10 km to go I firstly remembered where Andy could be and few seconds after he was on the top of my Nearby list. We couldn’t get much closer in descents, but before final climbs it looked doable. I gave all in to catch him in final climb. And as I didn’t want to sprint, after I caught him a stayed with him a few seconds and attack again. From last 2 km I remeber only effort to stay with JiriBTK to have a bit draft from short downhills. Finished totaly exhausted, but the goal was fullfilled. Now I will wait if I can reach at least top 50 in October.
looking at your total score and how strong you are, top 50 might just be reachable for you with only 3 races completed! Knowing my luck, you’ll probably do it bu knocking me out of the top 50 and into 51st lol will be watching to see if you do it!!
Wasn’t prepared for a long hilly Muckers Race more resembling a short Zwift race with everyone speeding out the block … being way overconfident after looking at the route and liking what I saw it actually took me around 15 minutes to warm the engine up this time … did an incredibly slow start that saw me stuck in a group around position 40 with 300 meters up to the front AFTER ONLY 1 KM – thankfully everyone around me also wanted to work so I basically went into an “Old Boys Remco TT-mode” and managed to climb to position 18 in the end (after also experiencing being dropped by my new group on the start of the first climb and then climbing back when I finally got the diesel engine running) – on the first climb I also noticed that my HRM didn’t register correct so had to reset it on the way up – but somehow still a really fun race without the pressure of trying desperately to hang on to the front group – and actually nice to be able to keep the bpm constantly around 166 in TT-mode instead.
So , as a rather new Mucker, and wanting to sport the keen hoodie as you urge,, I have a question. What is your experience in sending, or trying to to send this item to the misty northwest corner of our once great nation..you know, tariffs, customs, refusal of shippers to deal with all this cr-p etc…please advise…cheers
i’m best letting @Kyle answer this but usually its all sorted when you pay for the item as we have various places around the world that produce and ship the items out.
No intentions of a fast start on this race. Kept the power maximum to 3w/kg then started to look for allies to join and hopefully form a group on this tough course. Quickly found Neil but other riders seemed to shuffle in and out of the group as we tried to steady the pacing. Ghostrider joined, then LinV, then Neil stretched away on the first climb and bridged nicely to Stelviobound in time for the descent.
The trio of Ghostrider, LinV and myself worked well until half distance, they pulled me up the hills and I pulled them on flats and down. Ghostrider signalled he was ‘done’ on the 2nd climb and dropped off. Lucky for me, LinV stayed with me until the end and we did a great job catching a few riders with the last one being Neil. I elected not to contest the finish with them so rolled down the last descent happy with a great race and being able to contribute with other riders.
felt i’d landed on my feet when were around the same place at the start, but i then felt really good on that first climb and went for Stelvio. But you were just chipping away at me from the half way point that i really should have just backed off and rode with you both rather than try and keep a decent effort going to see if i was going to just stay ahead. I knew the wheels i chose meant i needed draft on the downhills and flats, yet there i was keeping the power on, solo to keep you guys a quarter of a mile behind.
i thought you’d both dropped me on that final climb so i emptied the tank to catch back up and when LinV went, i tried but was 99% spent and just couldnt stay with her. it was a great little route though…
It was a tough race for me, but also a satisfying one. I got off to a fast start and finished in 77th place. Throughout the entire race, I worked longest with Oldhai and 4WorldPeace. We had a really good working relationship and managed to catch and drop a few riders. After a race like that, I feel like I’ve done a job well done. Thank you, Muckers.
when i saw you guys up ahead in the high 70s places, i was hoping I’d catch up, especially on the climbs but you all stayed together so it was impossible to catch on my own! I’d catch those stragglers you’d dropped but they couldn’t help me either so instead of catching you guys up, i was caught at the end by Ste and LinV. if I’d have rocket started, i think I’d have been with you, and more importantly, worked with you all as well. But you guys were the perfect carrots! well done!
Yes, very good carrots 🙂 There was a moment when you were getting really close to us. But I tried to work hard uphill and not lose the guys downhill.
The worst thing is when you catch up with the group in front of you, and then some fast cyclist comes from behind and takes your working group away, leaving you alone 🙂
BTW, this is probably the third time we’ve ridden the same cobblestone street in Kigali. I definitely don’t want to do it again 🙂
I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s easy Sunday hill climb.
yeah, it seems sometimes they use the same bits of the road for different routes doesn’t it… but i felt the a bit of deja-vu going up the climbs and seeing the house at the top before turning left🧐.. but rest assured i never repeat a challenge route on a different Muckers race.(just the various start times for that 24hrs i schedule them) also, how many roundabouts do they have right at the bottom a decent so you loose all your speed onto the climb lol. Won’t be going here for any real world rides any time soon.
This route was actually the mens Time-Trial route (the only difference from the rest being the addition of the two steep climbs before the final cobblestone climb) – the Kigali route around the golf course was the main route for all the races and the last route with Mount Kigali and Mur de Kigali was only part of the mens course. Find them all surprisingly good myself – even with the multiple tank trucks on the roads 😉
cheers Hans. I didn’t mind the routes, wasn’t too keen on the offroad ones with the jerky camera work as they hit the bumps! But at least i now know why some parts looked similar. cheers again!
OMG! what a tough race. loved it, but my god, that was tough. I took the risk of running the lightweights as 2400ft of climbing didn’t appeal on the 4 spokes. I messed this up at the start! kinda built up speed instead of a rocket start so i was 95th at the top of that first climb into the first little downhill. I need the draft of others on the downhills for the lightweights to work so although i was quite decent up the first long climb, and caught stelvio as we crested into the downhill, progress up the table was hard going. But we did well together down the hill, then i was solo up the next climb, but still 3.0 and quite fast. caught a rider, we crested together (result!!) but he was done! (poo) so the 2nd long downhill was solo and those behind were closing.
do i wait? or can i just open the gap again once we hit the climbs? chose to try to keep the pace high but near the end, the pursuing Ste and LinV got me! But what a challenge it was trying to hold them off! 82nd in the race and 3 personal achievements recorded as well. What happened to top 50!!?? I really wish i had rocket started though as i reckon I’d have held onto those groups up front, but it was too hard to close up to them later on my own. hey, we are always learning aren’t we……..
your Mucker October race #3 haiku:
Racing up cobbles
There are no heartbeats left
Time to pop a GU
addendum #1. chocolate/caffinated
addendum #2. Niteor had me at 97+% zone 7 for the entire race. This is not a typo or anomaly. check out racer #37 (cest moi)..I am basically slow and weak, but can go all out for a long time.
Addendum 3: As Neil says, a lot of racing within the racing. Many tx to Yumile, Chorus, and many others for the all out fight today. At the end RaTim was coming up with blazing speed. 500 meters more and he would have mopped up.
cheers
lol, excellent comments Paul! Seems you are realizing who your regular rivals are now and who can give you a little scare when you see them pop up in your nearby list!
Paul Bernstein’s comment is a tough act to follow. What can I say? Other than that I kept seeing him ahead of me on my Nearby List and he didn’t seem to be getting any closer. Actually, I was ahead of him at one time, but it didn’t last (I guess because I was only 49% in Zone 7). But, yeah, Muckers races are definitely attracting the strong riders, and it seems everyone racing regularly is getting stronger. I’m looking at the guys I’m with in my group: RaTim, rouvy1byron, stfmgr_65, wolli.d, Pan.Rorisi; these are strong riders, why are we only in the 50s? Not for lack of effort, surely. And the finish climb, the last three km, did it seem more chaotic that usual? Folk blowing up, others zooming away (hi, Tomas!); I’m just glad I survived. Kudos to all that finished that toughie!
yep tough race indeed and felt like all the top riders who’ve been outside for the summer all came back at once lol!!! Thanks for comments. great to read how you got on
Longest race in recent weeks, not feeling too keen at the start as I have a bit of a cold, but I knew this races could benefit me if I can to keep up the pace.
In the end, that’s how it went. After the start, I joined groups and picked up stragglers who had fallen behind the leading groups. I finished below 40th place, which isn’t bad.
Thanks to the riders that helped me in the race.
Carlos
nice one Carlos. great result!
I had to work hard last night on this one. I have been playing catch up since week one when i had to stop mid race and fix my front mech. Luckily had a strong group around me to share the work with. Thanks guys 🙂 (bates1980)
makes all the difference having a strong group around you! you can’t help but work harder to stay with them
Another difficult race the last, but as ever I want to do with positive approach.
A different of other friends I choose 4 spoken wheels, sweat for sweat what want to change 🤣. Good start and work well with Ratim and Mike, but when the kicker will be dark red… I said goodbye 👋. Work a long alone, and try to stay in front of other friends but Mich_michel catch me before the end, I resist from the continuous attack from other Duckman2. Hard work for only one 65th, our Championship it is just very very hard and competitive… but we are Muckers 🫶🏻🤟🏻.
Thanks for all who ride with me and see you all to the next round 💪👋🦈
glad to see it wasn’t just me riding hard and quite a while solo for a place outside the top 50! All we can do is celebrate like its a win when we finally see sub 50th on our finishing screen!!
Its been a long time since I properly raced with my fellow Muckers, but yesterday the planets aligned so I decided to jump in.
Coming out of a 3 week hard build block, and this week is all about recovery (doesnt mean no riding!) and keeping intensity low. I failed that, atleast yesterday!
Chose to go with Rouvy Analyzer suggestion, SL8 Tarmac and 4-spokes and joined the start pen.
Hot start with a hard sharp burst of power, in 2nd place but of course immideately people started to surge past me. I think I was down to 80th something before the first main climb. Held almost 4w/kg to the top which is above my FTP, praying for some relief on the descent. My weight (89kg) + 4 spokes did wonders on the descents, we were a group of about 8 riders and I was able to recover well. So it all came down to pacing (aka not blowing up) on the various climbs. Group did eventually split up and I was able to remain with the forward 3-4guys.
On the final little climb we were three, but one was slowly surging away up front and the other slowly falling back, with me in the middle. I was not able to push harder, balancing a tight rope! Crested the final peak solo and was not in striking distance to the next rider, nor threathened from the rear so eased off and rolled over the finish line.
Crossed as 31th in the main race, ending up in 30th place once the list had been washed.
Drafting factor 40.3% so I have a little to work on there, but super happy to properly race again Muckers 😀
awesome report mucker! felt i was with you up that final climb, we’ve all been there on that tightrope! Also love the term “washed” for when i apply the 3 rules (even though most are now complying so I’m not getting the massive jump up we use to get, but also means, more people are trying to be legit which is superb)
A tough course. It turned out it wasn’t my route profile. Halfway through, I felt like Jonas at the European Championships. Respect to everyone, especially to m-forby for finishing.
still top of the A4 leaderboard though! Nice little battle there for the last race! good luck!
Morning all,
well that was an, as expected tough race last night.
I went out reasonably hard, but I think ended up in something like 45th position, but that was before the proper climbing started, of which there was a lot.
My w/kg for climbing is not very good, so I went backwards as expected, and finished in 89th place I think it was, but that took a lot of effort, especially towards the end.
I went for the Baldiso and 4 spokes, great on the downhills, but not so good on the ups, but I caught, and passed a few people on the descents so I think for me it was the right choice.
Had a good battle with Lodgo, who took AGES to catch, and managed to claw my way back to stelviobound, but didn’t have quite enough left to get past, and ended up less than 2 seconds behind him.
Looking forwards to next weeks route, less climbing, but the first 7.8km look to be key, and also painful trying to hang on!
thanks for commenting. i think i passed you on one of the climbs where my lightweights helped me alot! “stelvio” is the one i was keeping an eye on as he kept popping into my nearby list and was sometimes pulling more power than me at the end so was a concern… so the fact you were also catching him up as well just out of sight, i feel i did better than my original assessment! lol
But well done for finishing, this was a really tough route on its own, never mind to “race” on as well!!
Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go to backstage. One more race in Rwanda with this one hour effort. Strong group in front after first selective climb. Then Alieno went into small breakaway, followed by Luke. I could join them, but did not want chase teammate and all the best riders were nearby.
Nelson closed the gap in next climb, this was too strong attack for everyone. We were still strong group with Baremi, Erlend, Bebbi, but leading trio as well. Next climbs followed, we stayed with Baremi in between, not sure if wait or not and try close gap to the leaders. Another rider Michael Holm was closing gap fastly at the end, but leaderboard did not change luckily. Very tough, legs were fine, so i have to be happy with the result. Thank you all who joined us!
Sounds like some epic performances happening up there at the sharp end!! Top of the GC as well now! You might just get your first monthly win this year! in October…. with all that ballast!!!! 😏
I had to do 1st race solo and skip 2nd one, so this month will be probably my worst. To motivate myself I set my goal to beat Andy_Up. I knew that it would be tough, because of my slow starts. I bet all in and chose 4 spoke. Despite the choice I was behind 70s and glad that could hold some group under 1st hill. There we started to work together with Mike Byron and few others. We were all on limit (I think) but all worked well, we caught some lonely riders, but no groups. But when we were 10 km to go I firstly remembered where Andy could be and few seconds after he was on the top of my Nearby list. We couldn’t get much closer in descents, but before final climbs it looked doable. I gave all in to catch him in final climb. And as I didn’t want to sprint, after I caught him a stayed with him a few seconds and attack again. From last 2 km I remeber only effort to stay with JiriBTK to have a bit draft from short downhills. Finished totaly exhausted, but the goal was fullfilled. Now I will wait if I can reach at least top 50 in October.
looking at your total score and how strong you are, top 50 might just be reachable for you with only 3 races completed! Knowing my luck, you’ll probably do it bu knocking me out of the top 50 and into 51st lol will be watching to see if you do it!!
Wasn’t prepared for a long hilly Muckers Race more resembling a short Zwift race with everyone speeding out the block … being way overconfident after looking at the route and liking what I saw it actually took me around 15 minutes to warm the engine up this time … did an incredibly slow start that saw me stuck in a group around position 40 with 300 meters up to the front AFTER ONLY 1 KM – thankfully everyone around me also wanted to work so I basically went into an “Old Boys Remco TT-mode” and managed to climb to position 18 in the end (after also experiencing being dropped by my new group on the start of the first climb and then climbing back when I finally got the diesel engine running) – on the first climb I also noticed that my HRM didn’t register correct so had to reset it on the way up – but somehow still a really fun race without the pressure of trying desperately to hang on to the front group – and actually nice to be able to keep the bpm constantly around 166 in TT-mode instead.
great to read that mucker! its honestly so good to read how everyone else experiences these races and what is going through there mind! cheers.
So , as a rather new Mucker, and wanting to sport the keen hoodie as you urge,, I have a question. What is your experience in sending, or trying to to send this item to the misty northwest corner of our once great nation..you know, tariffs, customs, refusal of shippers to deal with all this cr-p etc…please advise…cheers
i’m best letting @Kyle answer this but usually its all sorted when you pay for the item as we have various places around the world that produce and ship the items out.
No intentions of a fast start on this race. Kept the power maximum to 3w/kg then started to look for allies to join and hopefully form a group on this tough course. Quickly found Neil but other riders seemed to shuffle in and out of the group as we tried to steady the pacing. Ghostrider joined, then LinV, then Neil stretched away on the first climb and bridged nicely to Stelviobound in time for the descent.
The trio of Ghostrider, LinV and myself worked well until half distance, they pulled me up the hills and I pulled them on flats and down. Ghostrider signalled he was ‘done’ on the 2nd climb and dropped off. Lucky for me, LinV stayed with me until the end and we did a great job catching a few riders with the last one being Neil. I elected not to contest the finish with them so rolled down the last descent happy with a great race and being able to contribute with other riders.
felt i’d landed on my feet when were around the same place at the start, but i then felt really good on that first climb and went for Stelvio. But you were just chipping away at me from the half way point that i really should have just backed off and rode with you both rather than try and keep a decent effort going to see if i was going to just stay ahead. I knew the wheels i chose meant i needed draft on the downhills and flats, yet there i was keeping the power on, solo to keep you guys a quarter of a mile behind.
i thought you’d both dropped me on that final climb so i emptied the tank to catch back up and when LinV went, i tried but was 99% spent and just couldnt stay with her. it was a great little route though…
It was a tough race for me, but also a satisfying one. I got off to a fast start and finished in 77th place. Throughout the entire race, I worked longest with Oldhai and 4WorldPeace. We had a really good working relationship and managed to catch and drop a few riders. After a race like that, I feel like I’ve done a job well done. Thank you, Muckers.
when i saw you guys up ahead in the high 70s places, i was hoping I’d catch up, especially on the climbs but you all stayed together so it was impossible to catch on my own! I’d catch those stragglers you’d dropped but they couldn’t help me either so instead of catching you guys up, i was caught at the end by Ste and LinV. if I’d have rocket started, i think I’d have been with you, and more importantly, worked with you all as well. But you guys were the perfect carrots! well done!
Yes, very good carrots 🙂 There was a moment when you were getting really close to us. But I tried to work hard uphill and not lose the guys downhill.
The worst thing is when you catch up with the group in front of you, and then some fast cyclist comes from behind and takes your working group away, leaving you alone 🙂
BTW, this is probably the third time we’ve ridden the same cobblestone street in Kigali. I definitely don’t want to do it again 🙂
I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s easy Sunday hill climb.
yeah, it seems sometimes they use the same bits of the road for different routes doesn’t it… but i felt the a bit of deja-vu going up the climbs and seeing the house at the top before turning left🧐.. but rest assured i never repeat a challenge route on a different Muckers race.(just the various start times for that 24hrs i schedule them) also, how many roundabouts do they have right at the bottom a decent so you loose all your speed onto the climb lol. Won’t be going here for any real world rides any time soon.
This route was actually the mens Time-Trial route (the only difference from the rest being the addition of the two steep climbs before the final cobblestone climb) – the Kigali route around the golf course was the main route for all the races and the last route with Mount Kigali and Mur de Kigali was only part of the mens course. Find them all surprisingly good myself – even with the multiple tank trucks on the roads 😉
cheers Hans. I didn’t mind the routes, wasn’t too keen on the offroad ones with the jerky camera work as they hit the bumps! But at least i now know why some parts looked similar. cheers again!