Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Route 42 and some more

It has been a great few weeks of riding, I have had some really awesome rides and I am starting to feel fit enough to tackle my fourth Sani to Sea mountain bike stage race in two weeks time. 
On the 17th of April, Wayne, Michael, myself (and a few others) did the Route 42 MTB race just outside Nigel. It was an awesome race and was pretty testing at times, with rocky climbs and push your bike up hills. Michael did the race on his fat bike and Wayne and I spent the first 60km trying to catch him. This was the first race that Wayne and I rode together as a pair and it was good prep for Sani2C. The good news is that we are evenly matched and ride well together. It is going to be an awesome race and I am really forward to it. 
Me dodging the rocks
Nice shot of me followed by Mike and Wayne - in 3rd and 4th place :-)
Last weekend whilst a lot of the Benoni Rough Rider gang (7 in total) are doing the Joburg to Sea MTB stage race, Michael and I joined Rebecca, Sean, Pierre and Robyn for a great ride. Mike and I had time constraints, so we turned back early (the others were going to Rosemary Hill east of  Pretoria) - but I still managed to do 100km ride at a good pace. Becky and Sean were doing a 'recovery ride' after their valiant effort at the 360 One MTB race the weekend before. They cycled a whopping 283km in one day on some treacherous terrain, before sanity prevailed.  
Playing chicken
Train spotting 
Today was a public holiday in South Africa and it was a great time for an awesome social breakfast ride with fellow like minded souls. There were 12 of us that rode out to Duanblane, Cell Tower, Brick Yard, Motor Cross Track and then stopping for great coffee and breakfast at Hava Java Cafe. It was an awesome 75km ride which I really enjoyed (I spent most of the time chasing Ian - phew he is riding strong). Below are a few photos from the ride:
Crossing the train tracks to avoid the mud...
Welcome breather...
Rebecca (with a train in the distance)
Quickie breakfast (for R20) with an awesome group of people
I even managed to play waiter and went and fetched Sean's food that was taking too long