Wednesday, December 30, 2015

And so 2015 waves goodbye...

Wow, hard to believe that 2015 is already finished, the year has flown and I'm not sure that I am ready to usher in another year just yet. It has yet again been another great year of cycling and spending time out in the wide open spaces that makes my soul smile. 

I managed to surpass my 2014 stats by some margin - this year being relatively injury/major accident free. I notched up over 8,200kms, spending a whopping 409 hours in the saddle. It has been a fantastic year with some really great experiences that I have shared with a variety of awesome riding friends. I notched up my longest training ride on a mountain bike 121km and my longest race 110km (Beilie Meilie). I also skipped Sani this year and did the 3 day Berg to Bush stage race with Pierre and Wayne instead, which was an amazing experience. 

I did a couple of races with my son and my first 40km race with my wife Linda, which was really incredible. The Benoni Rough Rider mountain biking group are an amazing bunch of cyclists and a wonderful motivation to carry on riding even when the weather or conditions suggest otherwise. We have shared some wonderful experiences and laughs on our many training rides and I am privileged to be associated with most of them :-)

This is my last Blog post for 2015 and the main story would have to be the 105km Heidleberg - 2 Towers ride we did last Sunday.  This was a new route to Heidelberg and involved climbing to the Telkom tower and the the Radio mast tower with a Wimpy coffee in between. There was a nice group - 12 in total (including my mates Pierre and Graeme made the journey to the East Rand to do the pace making in the front). Enjoyable yet hot and tough ride. I wasn't feeling the strongest after straining my back over Christmas so the slog home was tougher then it should have been. Below are a few photos of this epic ride:

Yes they were first up the hill...
Pierre, me and Graeme at the Telkom Tower
The group at the top of the Radio Mast Tower hill
Becky's bike getting some attention from Ian and Sean
Sean's fat bike with a temporary increase in horse power by George :-)
Tower selfie photo bomb
Finally a few pics of our early morning rides with the Benoni Rough Riders: 
No barriers for us Rough Riders
Always a couple of fatties on the ride
Customary coffee stop on most rides

Sunday, December 20, 2015

WOW 2015 is almost done...

As the year winds down this is the best time to ride mountain bike in Gauteng. December is coffee month and filled with great social 'coffee rides'. I have had some great rides since the 94.7 madness. Sometimes it is just great to ride and feel the freedom of the great outdoors instead of chasing training targets or Strava segments. The tracks are not too muddy or overgrown yet because of the late rains leading to flowing and stress free rides.  Below are a few photos from some of the rides, hopefully there will be another blog post before the year end :-)

A few minute stop to appreciate the incredible sunrise
Group ride out to Irene market for muffins and coffee
Irene bunch 
December is coffee month with a Hava Java Platkop