Sunday, December 4, 2016

Guilty blog from the lame blogger..

So after 7 odd years later after my first blog post in February 2009 I have become a blog slacker. Life has overtaken me and the time to reflect on my MTB memoirs is sadly reduced. Never a less lots has happened since my last blog post. I have had some fantastic rides (most of them involving a voluntary coffee stop) and witnessed some incredible feats in this wonderful sport of mountain biking. 

Everest challenge 2016 - I went and supported Becky and Sean on their amazing feat of riding the same ascent as it would be to climb Mount Everest. They chose a hill in Linksfield over a 30 hour period (against adverse weather conditions) they climbed almost 9000 meters. They did 113 laps up the hill to get the 9000m which was incredibly tough and resilient. I did 10 laps with them and really admire their determination to complete this feat. They are amazing athletes and we are proud to have them as members of the Benoni Rough Riders MTB group. 

Mini Everest that had to be claimed 133 times
Sean, Becky and Rene the Everest conquerors
Everest route was drawn on their car to plot their progress 
Tired Champs after 30 hours slogging uphill
November was 94.7 road race month and I had a few rides to train for this. Not as many as I should of and I was a little under prepared once again. We had a great group ride out at Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve with the Apricot Tree charity group. Pretty hot ride with temps hitting 40 degrees Celsius - always a tough ride with loads of climbing. Sean was not riding after his Everest challenge the weekend before and brought the trailer and gas cooker to provide refreshments for the riders once they completed the route. Was really awesome - the nose cone of his trailer was filled with ice and packed with beers and cold drinks - these went down extremely well. 

One of the many 'training' rides followed by coffee and breakfast (Marco and Mark with no cash to pay the bill) 
94.7 road race 2016 was another awesome race. Once again I did this race with Wayne on our mountain bikes. We started at 7 o'clock and had a great chilled ride. Wayne had to wait for me on a few of the hills as my body had not yet recovered from the few days of drinking an eating I had subjected it to in Cape Town a few days before. The route this year was a lot better with us going around Kyalami race track instead of the inner city. Great ride once again representing the Apricot Tree school charity. Awesome support from the school with refreshments and massages once we crossed the finish line. 
Me and Wayne at the start of the race
At the finish - just over 4hours in the saddle
OK this is the end of the blog post - hoping for some long rides in December and will post more I promise. 

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