The long one....

Sunday the 28th of Feb was a memorable ride. We started off in a big group 25+ riders with a support vehicle. We had a great opportunity to join the beginning of this ride by some crazy nutters that do a 200km mountain bike ride to Loskop dam (2 of them being Rebecca and Sean from our group). I was definitely not that brave (or fit enough) to take on this massive challenge, so a five of us (Mark, Wayne, Michael, Michelle and me) rode the first 50km with them and then did some route exploring.  

The first 50km was really crazy as it was a large group of really strong riders so the pace was hectic, we averaged 30km per hour. Once we hit Oxbow resort (where we were hoping to stop for coffee) we parted ways and had a chance to catch our breath. This ended up being my longest ride on a mountain bike 121km and was incredible on all fronts. The weather was perfect (overcast) and the company of my fellow Rough Riders was on top form as usual.  Here are the stats of my ride 

Action selfie - Wayne and Michael hard as steel

Long district roads - one of the few times I could ride in front of Mark

Not sure why Michelle is showing the peace sign, she takes no prisoners

Group photo after stopping for a drink at a 'local' shop

Wayne and Mike

Train tracks from hell

Great view and a well deserved breather..

Safety in numbers...

Great ride last Sunday organized by George, there were 11 other passionate mountain bike riders and I had the esteemed opportunity to lead them on some of the routes that Greg, Mark, Adam and I had pioneered before. It was great to be riding in such a big group for the first time, especially after hearing about another bike jacking near the R21 highway on the previous day (close to where we rode).

 

We met at the BP garage and then headed out past Dunblane, past the quarry, brick works and back via Serengeti. My Strava stats for the ride are on this link. Another highlight was the brief coffee stop at the end of the ride, great to spend time with like minded souls intertwined with the fantastic sport of cycling.  The group was a great fit as all of the riders were at the same level and we never really had to wait for people to catch up. What a fantastic experience to meet new people and to also be given that mantle of route director - thanks George for you efforts in organizing these group rides - they are a lot safer and social.

The group dazzled by the early morning sun..

Christi wondering why the pace is so slow...

 

Beautiful parts of the East Rand where a house can not be seen anywhere

Time for a quick stop to fuel up.

 

Coffee stop pic 1 - spot Gary's racing strips on his forehead

Coffee stop pic2

 

Beware of the Dam

Awesome ride yesterday, Greg and I met up with Adam and Mark and we headed out towards Irene on a similar route to last Sunday. 

The riding was fantastic we managed to do around 90km at an average of 21.5km/h which was pretty good going in my books. Only downfall is that the terrain was relatively flat compared to what we are going to encounter at Sani2C with the total ascent on this ride of only 558m. Click on the link and you can view my Garmin stats for the ride (you may have to change the settings to Metric from Statute in the top right hand side of the page) Sunday 18-03-2012 Outride Stats

It was really great that we could ride with new like minded guys that have the same goals as us, it really made the ride more enjoyable. I had to take a photo of this sign below, taken just near a quarry near Dunblane Estate. Here is Adam holding up the damn sign..... 

2  minute respite for the boys as I take a photo of this classic warning sign.

Group Mountain Bike Ride 4th June 2011

Brrrr cold start to an early Saturday morning ride, I left home at 06:20 to meet Greg at the gym at 06:35. My Garmin was showing me it was 2 degrees Celsius, my new gloves and inners were doing their job, but my face was freezing (being the only exposed area). I picked up Greg and headed off to the BP to meet Clint and the gang. Greg sent me loads of SMSs and a missed call trying to try bail out of the ride (his week in Kenya left him with a Delhi belly), fortunately these were ignored and he joined us anyway.

Was a nice group ride, 7 of us in total and from home and back it was just under 50km. Below is a short video of parts of the ride.