Another day another sunrise

Great rides last weekend to the Broodblik and back on Saturday and Monument single track on Sunday. Legs were pretty heavy after spending 10 days overseas in Spain and England with plenty of over eating and drinking. Nice sunrises with the winter chill knocking at the door. 

Sunrise before off to eat pancakes and drink crap coffee

Mr Epic (Ashley), Becky and me selfie

Sean fixing a puncture in the crops

Banting breakfast at Hava Java after churning up the single track at Monument

2017 bring it on....

So 2017 is in full force and here's hoping it will be bigger and better then 2016. We had some lekker rides at the end of 2016 - I did over 300km in the last week and finished off the year on 8914km. Nice time in the saddle - almost 9000km in 445 hours. That is an extra 18.5 days of life I scored getting up early riding with my mates.

Becky followed by Greg and Claire on the tandem behind

Group ride for Jess near Serengeti 

Jess now living in the USA joined us for a morning ride :-)

I had a dumb fall earlier this week and came down really hard on my hip and ribs. Pretty sore and left with some bruising and a fractured rib. Plenty of TLC and strapping from the Chiropractor.

Stopping to celebrate Becky's 10,000km PA milestone 

Pancake ride on the last day of 2016 - Greg is guarding them from Claire

Looking forward to more time in the saddle for 2017 with some awesome people. We have entered a new stage race in May called the Trail and Trout (Bronkhorspruit to Dullstroom) which will be incredible. Hopefully I will remain injury free and be able to enjoy the experience. 

 

First ride of 2017 at BCC - my wife was nervous of the new bridge

Customary selfie by the forest stop sign

Great ride today, followed by a breakfast at Hava Java. Benoni Rough Riders is expanding and we are getting new people joining every week. Awesome to meet different people and share our new and past mountain biking experiences. 

Action photo I took today after our  breakfast/coffee stop

Still pedalling...

So it has been a few weeks since my last Blog post and yes I have been riding and not succumbed to an early winter slumber like some people. The early morning rides before work are getting difficult I must admit, it is starting to get really cold and is dark for most of the ride. I have been doing a few spins out to the Broodblik on Saturday morning with the CycleLab group. Below is a picture courtesy of Hansie from one of the rides:

In the same breath I have also had a few longer rides on a Sunday that have been incredible routes with good company. Below is a sunrise from 2 Sundays ago when I went out with Greg and Paul.

I have also entered a new era in my life and have the absolute joy of having my 13 year old son ride with me at the Benoni Country Club mountain bike trails. It is awesome to be able to share this experience with him and see his eagerness to ride and then we can share a coke and have a chat after the ride. Below is a pic that I took last Saturday of some of the wildlife we encountered on the route - and I am not talking about the golfer in the background ;-)

And just to remind me that mountain biking is not for sissies below is a graphic picture (apologies) of my run in with a fence a few weeks ago, leaving a nice cut on my leg. Yes I was late for a ride and should have been more careful but hey s*^t happens.

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

Longest ride take 2

Ok so my last post was about my longest mountain bike ride - well yesterday I went one up and went on a 121km ride to Irene market and beyond. Strava activity link

Fantastic group consisting of some of our regular morning 'Rough Riders' - Greg, Wayne, Paul, Mark, Becky, Sean, Anton, Juan and a mate from my work, Graeme joining us as well (Hansie and Aiden joined us for the beginning of the ride - at least until my KOM was lost on the Jess segment - thanks Hansie....).  

Awesome route to Irene with a great stop at the Irene market where we ordered cappuccinos and demolished the best muffins in the world - well worth the slog to get there. The route back was around the Cornwall Estate, along outskirts of the Rietvlei Nature Reserve and then along the power lines until the train tracks. Then the real slog started with a 10km lung burner along the railway lines until the welcome stop at the legendary Broodblik for a refreshing coke. 

Becky, Graeme and I in front of the incredible muffin man...

Group photo at the Irene Market

Graeme, Mark and Anton in front of the Broodblik