They couldn't hold Sabastian Sawe's marathon pace for more than 300 metres. That's where this one starts.

From there, Episode 16 gets into how good women's cycling actually is, whether Cape Epic made the right call shortening the elite women's route to match TSS rather than distance (the feedback from the elite ladies themselves is unanimous), and why the Femme Series matters to what The Active Hobo is building.

Then we get into gravel bikes. A YouTube poll. That opens a conversation about what R90k really buys you in 2026, who the premium market actually serves, and why every rand you spend at a proper bike shop is doing more for the sport than you might think.

But the heart of this episode belongs to Timo. A viral Instagram video. A gravel bike from D'VILLE CYCLERY and TITAN RACING. A friend who entered him while he wasn't looking. And in two weeks, the 36ONE — 361km, 5,500m of climbing, riding through the night to the finish. Timo's been training 20 hours a week, up at 4:30am, coached by André Hubert from Training Lab in Durbanville, fuelling on 80–90g of carbs per hour with 226ERS.

# === CHAPTERS ===================================

0:00 Could you hold sub-2 marathon pace? We tried.

1:35 What we're covering today

2:27 La Vuelta Femenina Stage 3: Noemi Rüegg out, crashes dominating

6:00 How good female cycling actually is — and why people miss it

11:53 Cape Epic's call to shorten the elite women's route to match TSS

15:18* The Femme Series: KZN's XCO superstars, aged 16 to 18

18:08* Compete vs complete — why the distinction matters

22:08 YouTube poll results: what actually drives a gravel bike purchase

23:41 Inside the Titan Gen2 Switch MX Pro

26:12 Is R90k "good value"? Unpacking gravel bike pricing in SA

29:00* Why every rand spent at a bike shop matters for the whole sport