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. 

Happy Easter Riding

Easter weekend and it started off by being an awesome good Friday. 8 of us ventured out to Big Red Barn mountain bike park just outside of Irene and yes, we rode there and back from Benoni. Incredible ride with a great bunch of guys - I ended up in doing almost 100km (click here for: Strava stats). I was a bit worried after going to Physio  during the week as my right knee was playing up the previous week - this is too close for comfort as Sani2C is in a few weeks time.

 

Turns out that my knee is out of alignment (joggers knee), my outer quads are doing too much work and pulling my knee cap skew. This may have been caused by my right pedal having some play and my cleat being worn on my shoe - long story short, I replaced my cleats and Greg lent me some new pedals and there seems to be no more discomfort - yay!

 

I was really impressed by Big Red Barn - wow what an amazing track... I do need to go back there as my technical abilities are a bit rusty (scary drop offs and loads of bumps). We only did about 16kms at the bike park as we still had a 40 odd km ride back to Benoni and time was not our friend. Here are some photos of the gang at the coffee shop at BRB.

Paul, Greg, Clint, Mark and Warren

The gang

Easter Monday and what better way to ride off all the excessive chocolate than riding at SuikerBosRand Nature Reserve. Greg, Paul and I headed out for a great hilly ride as the East Rand is soooo flat and we need to do some hill training before Sani next month. I really enjoy SBR because it's so picturesque and the riding is safe but hard.

 

Paul removing his arm warmers (note the hills in the background)

 

 

 

 

At last there is Sun

So after a few weeks of rain we finally managed to get out and ride in the sun today. Riding the past few weeks has been really hard with the continual rain - the only riding I have done is when there was a gap in the clouds (and there were also a few wet rides). Last weekend I managed my quickest ride at Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve with Jessica on her single speed. She is really strong and gave me carrots on the first hill - yes!! without any gears on her bike. Great ride and one of the best places to train, 57km of safe road with 1200m of climbing in a picturesque game reserve. Click here for my Strava stats of the ride. 

Today we went out and tried to avoid the mud, this was not really possible judging by the photos below. Guys on the ride with me were Greg, Paul, George, Mike and Renier (for a few kms at the end). Awesome ride which involved a bit of bush-whacking at one stage as the single track was completely overgrown. It was fun adventuring and we had a bit of a disruptive ride as our route had to keep changing because of the terrain we encountered.  I did 79km - click here for Strava stats of this ride.



Muddy road stopping us from going to Irene

Paul and Greg getting their feet wet looking for a way around

Wise old George giving some suggestions

Not so wise George and Renier choosing mud over the route the rest of us chose

Sani...you are always on my mind

So the last few months we have been building up to one of the greatest mountain bike races in South Africa. Our focus every week is what rides we will do that will help us manage to survive this three day event. Our progress has been relatively good, I reckon Greg and I are stronger then we were last year (even though we have not done 2 big rides in a row) and this time we know what to expect, so it is going to be awesome, I can't wait.

 

Last Sunday Greg and I went to Suikerbosrand Nature reserve after a few days of heavy rain (good to see they kept the rates the same after our social media intervention), click here for the ride stats. The route is all tar so there is no mud and washing of the bikes afterwards. We managed to see loads of game and had the odd jackal run in front of our bikes.

 

After a few rides in the week, we went on an epic ride to Modderfontein Central Park Trails Mountain Bike park and back. This was a great 101km ride with 950m climbing and I did it with Greg, Adam, Mark and Marco. Nice to be out on the saddle for over 5 hours, fantastic ride with some good people. Click here are my stats for the ride.

 

Adam, Mark, Marco and Greg at our 85km refreshment stop..

 

Morning rides normally end with some great views when going round Korsman Pan

Suikerbosrand shocker

So Adam, Mike and I went to Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve on the weekend to get some proper hill training in for Sani2C. We had a great ride beating my best time by 20 minutes. Most of the ride was in the rain and we were very very soaked by the time we got back to the car park. It really is an awesome place to ride, the landscape is challenging for us cyclists (1200m ascent in 57km) and the scenery is out of this world. You can see lots of wild game and occasionally have to dodge a buck dashing across the road. Needless to say I was extremely disappointed to be told as we were leaving that the entrance fees would be going up on the 8th of April. Not that I should be shocked by the fact that companies increase their fees, this is a natural economic activity that occurs every year in order to at least keep up with inflation, but this increase is ridiculous.

 

To put things into perspective it cost Adam and I a total of R50 to ride today (R20 each and R10 for the car).  After the 8th of April it will cost R420 for the 2 of us to ride (R50 each, R150 per bike and R20 for the car).

 

PLEASE assist by signing this online petition to make sure these exorbitant fees are not implemented and ruin a great place bikers, hikers and nature lovers by clicking on this link: http://www.change.org/petitions/gauteng-conservation-environment-and-land-affairs-please-do-not-implement-fee-increase-for-cyclists-at-suikerbosrand-nature-reserve#share

 

New fees that have caused much dissension

 

3 weeks to Sani2c

Time is running out and we seem to have lost some momentum in our training. Greg is tackling the hills on the coast, so it has been a lonely week of training. Today I was fortunate to team up with Adam and birthday boy Mark for a early ride in the mielie fields - 60km with 300m ascent. Tomorrow we are tackling Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve which for the same distance will be 1200m of climbing which is more like the hills we will be doing at Sani2C.

Riding and riding

Yes that is what I should be doing - but (un)fortunately I did a quick business trip to bitterly cold London last week which meant I spent very little time on my bike the last 2 weeks. I did manage to buy some new gloves there at a reasonable discount...

Prior to my bout of inactivity I did the 60km USN mountain bike cup race at Base3 Midrand. Quite an eventful race, I had a snake bite (when the tubeless Tyre is trapped between something hard like a stone and the rim of the wheel) on the 20km mark, which resulted in a flat Tyre. After unsuccessfully attempting to bomb my tubeless Tyre - I flagged down a (30km race) rider who lent me some tools and another CO2 canister (bomb). To cut a long story short I eventually managed to put in a tube and got going again (about 1/2 hour delay). So pretty much I thought I was coming last in the 60km race - because it was a 2 lap race I was very tempted to quit when I reached  the 30km mark and returned the tools to my good Samaritan. My bike was even at the car, but then I saw a pretty overweight guy going for his second lap (if he can do it so can I) - realizing that I would at least have someone behind me in case I had another flat - I decided to carry on. So glad I did - "pain is temporary quitting lasts forever". The second lap was great I managed to catch at least another 8 riders and enjoyed the single track as you did not have someone breathing down your neck wanting to pass you etc. I did however have a lapse of concentration when going through the forest and hit a root I did not see, which sent me sprawling over the handle bars (leaving a nice cut on my leg). But at least I finished the race and chuffed that this medal was hard fought for....

Oh I also did a little hike at Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve the next day with the family (was easier then riding the loop). Pretty awesome place, did some good cross training as my five year old had to be carried on my back most of the 5km route.

There are only hills in Suikerbosrand.....

Youngster catching  free ride during the 5km hike..