Friday 17th Dec ride

First ride with my new Garmin Edge 500 (early xmas present from my wife). Really awesome little gadget (thx to Greg for helping set it up). Now I can monitor amongst others my heart rate, cadence, ascent, calories burnt etc really love it.

Greg and me did a dirty 48km ride, after a few days of rain the paths and roads were very muddy. We had to wash them off in the river at once stage as the mud was really ruining our chains and cassettes. This was where the horse flies struck, I got bitten 5 times and Greg once.

Some of the roads were completely flooded and were not ride able as pictured below.

 No more bling on the new 29er

Back home a lot dirtier then I started.

First 100km up on the 29er

I did a few rides this last week on my new Giant Anthem X1 29er, wow what an awesome ride. I had a few early morning rides before work with Greg (just under 30km each) and a longer ride on Saturday with the Procycles team.

The Saturday ride was very memorable, we met at 05:30 at Procycles at Northmead, Benoni totalling 9 riders (including Paul, Ian and Glen from Procycles) and ventured out towards the mine dumps. Paul was the leader and really took us on an incredible route that I had never been on before. Some parts were technical and I struggled initially but the open single track and drop offs were incredible.  My sense of direction was really confused and I am not sure I would be able to assimilate the route that Paul took us on, when I thought we were almost back at Benoni we somehow ended up in Brakpan.

I had one classic fall - head over heals over my handlebars. I only realised at the end of the ride after Greg alerted me that my brakes were on different sides to what I was used to on my Trek MTB i.e. I thought I was putting on the back brake and instead pulled hard on the front causing the fall. These have now been swapped around and I won't be able to use this as a excuse anymore. It was really cool to ride with a big group of riders I think I will be doing this often in the future.

The Country Challenge - Walkerville Sunday 1st August

Greg and me had a great race at Walkerville, the route was completely different to the races we had both done here previously, it was pretty fast not too technical, with a few hills thrown in for fun.

There was a small field (compared to the Nissan series at least), over 50 for the 60km and over 80 for the 37km races. Greg did really well, finishing in 22nd position in a time of 1:55 and I came in half an hour later at 2:25 (without falling once). The week before at Cullinan really made us tougher and more resilient to any mountain bilking terrain and conditions - the tougher it gets the easier it gets.

Now to get back to those morning rides - summer is around the corner, Stan you better get ready buddy cause I ain't going away.

Nissan Series - Diamond Rush MTB Race

Two words can adequately describe this race - hills and rocks. It a really awesome ride very well organised and attended. The route itself was really tough - longest 40kms I have ever done. I only fell a few times so at least this was a step in the right direction.

Greg and me before the start.

First hiccup of the race was even before the start, as you can see from the picture above, I had left my gloves in the car. I only noticed this when we were lining up for the start (as pictured below). Fortunately a good looking angel came to my rescue and lent me her spare gloves for the race. Thank you Marita, you are an absolute lifesaver.

Most of the 40km race was held in game reserves, the scenery was spectacular - I saw a few buck running in front of us and Greg also saw a herd of giraffes going for a run. The race was very eventfull with loads of falls and accidents - I think there were a few visits to the emergency ward after the race. Greg witnessed a bad one when a herd of buck ran into the girl riding in front of him knocking her off her bike (she should have listened to the race organizers and not rode with her Ipod on and maybe she would have heard them coming - but hey this is Africa), being the good Samaritan he is, he stayed with her for awhile to make sure she was ok.

It was really great to be riding out there with like minded people, the spirit of everybody around me was incredible during our collective suffering. Pictured below was one of the hardest hills I have yet to climb (thank god me Greg and me did Rooiberg so this did not phase us too much). It was not only very steep but there was loose gravel so your footing was very tricky.

All and all it was an incredible journey that I am really glad I completed, the tougher they get the tougher you get.....