she’s a lovely new fresh breath to the top tear.
going to enjoy following her the season.
G
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miss those Beers with Chad, think that weekly online more casual sessions with TR was lekker.
G
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what you do to be working today Bernard
G
think I’ve heard he holds the highest W/Kg number in SA.
He’s got a proper diesel engine.
G
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Paediatrician, on duty this weekend. 
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AWESOME, Sofia and partner won…
G
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NOTE, neither of the GC winners are trade teams this year!!!
G
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F$%K Yeah! Sofia and Haley!!! What a Week!!
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Sofia and Haley are riding for Specialized factory supported team no? They have additional sponsors, but I think they’re still the trade team.
Either way so stoked to see Sofia on top! She is a star. I hope this gives her a huge launching pad.
Wonder if Johnathan has already messaged her to book in a “successful athlete” podcast? I’d like to hear her take on the whole thing. Gear, prep, each stage etc.
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Agreed.
I assume she’ll be on the pod one way or the other soon.
Must be some major up’s and down’s when you’re pushing that hard that long.
What struck me with Sofia and Haley though was just how consistent they were each and everyday. Just super steady with no major missteps. Really impressive over an event that long.
Glad to see Keegan and Maxime make the podium today. I really thought they would be more of a threat as the week wore on. I didn’t watch the full daily coverage, but it sounds like Maxime was the limiting factor. If so, would be great to see Keegan take another crack at this again in the future.
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Completely agree, they seemed really in tune with each other. Haley seemed to know just the right moment to push the pace and when to back it off, and they utilised Sofia’s strength when she was firing to great effect.
Hopefully Keegan will be on the Pod at some stage too so we can hear how it went for him. I so think that Maxime was the limiting factor in their team. They had some really unfortunate mechanicals, but that didn’t really have a huge impact. It may have been that Keegan also struggled, but if so I guess it must have been off camera when they were out the back.
Maxime looked strong and motivated last night. Massive shame that they (and Scott-SRAM) flatted and dropped off from SCR.
Obviously awesome for SCR to win the way they did, but it would have been cool to see the race for the stage to go all the way to the line.
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some questions I didn’t follow the race close enough to work out:
- Were the specialized riders on Epic Evo or standard or a mix? (Sofia on some Epic that is not a Evo or regular?)
- Were the Santa Cruz riders on Blur TR’s or regular or something else (didn’t they release a new super light?)
- Is there any info on if the riders put on wider or heavier rims, more spokes etc or any other upgrades to last the longer distances compared to an xc race? It did feel like a mechanical could have changed the podium pretty easily in both the mens and women’s categories.
- someone mentioned special tires? Is that standard that Maxxis etc make some tougher tires for this, or is it likely all off the shelf stuff?
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LOOKING Forward to it myself, if they paying attention, we’d love to have a session like this.
G
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I don’t know for certain, but it appears the Spesh team were on the normal Factory Racing Epic’s. Sofia’s looked steeper, and had Fox suspension. My guess is that her one is the prior model, but it would seem weird that they wouldn’t equip her with a current one - unless there’s no way of making her Fox stuff work with the new Epic (she’s sponsored by Fox)
The Santa Cruz team were on the TR according to Keegan. That would make sense considering it appears to be the bike he’s opted to for racing of late.
As far as the Maxxis tyres go, Frischi posted on IG that they were the same tyres the team always run. They do make a special super high TPI one for the Scott-SRAM team, but I highly doubt they’d run that. Someone had a picture of the 120TPI ST lettering on the side of their tyres. I have absolutely no idea what that means though.
None of that is fact, only what I believe I’ve observed, or what some of the involved parties mentioned on Social.
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Congrats to Sofia and Haley!
Impressive to see how positive they are on top of their strength. Whenever i watch Sofia I have a big smile on my face.
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It looked like Nino and Lars had more punctures than any of the leading men’s teams. I’d be looking for a better tire if they come back again in the future. Those Renegades certainly held up well for big Matt Beers and Blevins. What tires were the winners using?
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Thanks, that’s really interesting stuff.
Hopefully they do a podcast and can ask Sofia about rims/tires and what bike she had.
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Looks like both Haley and Sofia are on normal current gen S Works Epics. Sofia is running a Fox 32SC up front but still has the normal RS Brain shock in the rear.
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