I sit here writing this blog post in a lot of pain after yet another painful fall this morning. Wow 2014 has been a year that has left its mark on my body. It started off when I fell on my knee 2 weeks before Sani2C, a smack into the tar when I clipped Greg's wheel on a training ride, of course the big one was when the taxi hit me from behind and now this morning I hit a water covered pothole on a road bike ride. Gee, I really came down hard, my shoulder and hip taking most of the impact (I can hardly walk now and think I have torn a groin or hamstring muscle) and my helmet also took a big impact and is now broken (yay at least I get to buy a new helmet).
I was doing a road ride (something I normally don't do after the taxi accident) - a farewell ride for Jacques who is a real character of the riding fraternity in the East Rand as he is immigrating to Tanzania to join Mike. A nice big group considering the wet weather and riding in the middle of the pack, I hit a nasty pothole that was disguised as a puddle. So here I am still hurting from my fall and hoping that 2015 will be a better year for me.
On the brighter side the past week of December holidays riding has been awesome. Last Sunday we did a ride to Heidelberg radio mast and back. Nice big group that I arranged and led out, including my good mate Pierre all the way from Northcliff. Always nice doing this ride and the pace was pretty quick with a few stronger riders leading the way. Here are my
Strava stats of the ride:
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| Group at the top (less a few stragglers) |
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| Awesome to ride with my good mate Pierre |
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| Becky and Jess provided the entertainment for the ride |
Riding at Benoni Country Club - I was really fortunate to have a few rides at the BCC MTB track with my wonderful wife Linda. Really great to be out there with her - we even did a rain soaked ride on the one day. Plenty of falls for both of us, but who is counting (3-2 is the score).
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| My better half stopping for a mechanical... |
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| No I wasn't waiting for her (she had a few top 10s on some of the Strava segments) |
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| Plenty of wildlife |
On Boxing Day I went out with Clint and the roadies (as there is too much mud for MTB), we had a quick 90km ride that definitely burnt off the Christmas excess. Here are my
Strava stats of this ride, we were at a fast pace of 32km/h average for most of the ride.
On a closing note here is a photo that sort of rings true for my 2014 year. Wishing you all the best for 2015…..
