Sunday, April 19, 2015

Modders and more

I joined the strong Joburg to Sea boys at 'Modders' bike park today for a short but hard ride. Greg and Paul are embarking on their 9 day, 900km journey in a few days from Heidelberg to Scott-borough. They have been putting in lots of kilometres in training and are ready to take on this amazing feat. Part of their training was to do a double lap at 'Modders' as you can get a fair amount of climbing in 80 odd km. Today we did just one lap (mostly red route) and I struggled to keep up with them as these boys are nice and strong now. It was however a very nice ride and I thoroughly enjoyed it. They have done a lot of work at 'Modders' since I was last there and the tracks now are really awesome with few new bridges etc... 
Wishing the boys best of luck for their race to the sea, this is definitely on my wish list and I would love to do it one year. 
Paul lean and mean
Greg and Dale
Last Sunday Paul, Mark, Michael and I went on a great ride out to SentraRand train switching yard and back. This was the second time I have been there (it was really misty the previous time so I couldn't see much). Incredible to see this place out in the middle of the countryside. Pretty eerie as you don't see many people around, there are hundreds of tracks and train carriages and also 2 big control big towers.  I am still reminded about this ride on a daily basis as I am still treating a nasty gash/roastie on my knee from a fall that I had. I ran out of talent when trying to avoid some water on the jeep track and the middle island collapsed sending me flying (and Paul crashing into to me as he couldn't stop in time). Mark also had a spectacular fall later in the ride after hitting a muddy patch and his from tyre slipped out, sending him into the mealies.  
SentraRand train switching station
Mark, (bloody) me and Michael 



Monday, April 6, 2015

and on the third day he rode again...

Nothing better then to have a few great rides over Easter weekend. Good Friday must be changed to Great Friday as it was an incredible ride out from Benoni to Big Red Barn MTB park and back. Nice big strong group, all very nice guys with the same desire and love for mountain biking. The route there and back was fantastic and the track at the Red Barn was amazing. I finished on 108km for this ride, here are my Strava stats. 
The gang at the Big Red Barn
Saturday I had another coffee ride with Linda, I am really enjoying our Saturday coffee rides - we average about 35km a ride and have a stop for a nice coffee/breakfast. Loverly spending time with her.
Linda waiting for the sheep and goats to finish crossing. 
And on the third riding day of the weekend, we had a great group ride out to Sentrarand and then to the Broodblik for coffee and pancakes. Nice big group of about 16. The pace was great and I finally went through Sentrarand which I have heard a lot about over the years. This a large train switching junction with loads of trains and tracks. Unfortunately it was really misty when we went through so the view was a bit dampened. Fast ride with an average of 23.4km/h for the 84km, here are the Strava stats of the ride.  
Broodblik coffee and pancakes
Group photo outside the Broodblik