Winter rides 2018

Winter time is chunky time - less riding and more eating. It has been a colder winter than 2017 which has resulted in fewer mid week rides and shorter weekend rides. I have also been traveling for work again with a trip to Holland in June (at least I managed to hire a really small bike and go for a 35km ride in the country side). We also went for a family holiday to the Kruger National Park in July where I managed to managed to jump off a cliff on the Big Swing at Graskop, I know it is not mountain biking but it is at least extreme adrenaline provoking. 

Early morning rides before work where it reached a low of -4

Dark cold mornings and moonsets

Me and my crazy son and daughter before we leaped off the cliff

Weekend ride selfie with Becky, Wayne, Warren and Mike

The Rough Riders taking a well deserved break 

Ride in Holland with my mate Werner on a small bike called Delilah

What is riding in Holland without a photo of a Wind Mill

Jaaging in the mielies

So it has been a month since our epic Sani adventure. Before Sani I think I was the fittest I have ever been and it is amazing how quickly you lose that edge. Coming back home it has been difficult to get back into training again, as we have no events in the near future. Not to mention that winter has descended on our fair lands and it is extremely difficult to dress up like a Michelin man and go out in the freezing cold. I seem to only manage maybe one or two early morning rides during the week and our valiant group of 10 mountain bikers has now been reduced to Mark and I (and sometimes  Greg2). Mark and I have found a good incentive to brave the freezing cold we stop for a nice coffee at the new Mug and Bean outlet situated at the Total garage on Altas road.

Mark at our coffee stop, average temp for this ride was under 2 degrees

Jack Frost has added a bit of nip in the air

After a few weekends of very limited riding I really had to get out there and test the boundaries of my declining fitness. I joined the group of like minded mountain bikers at the BP garage on chilly Sunday morning. There were about 20 riders, some were doing a long ride to Big Red Barn mountain bike track, near Irene and a few other doing a shorter dash in the mielie fields. I decided to stick to the shorter route because of time restraints (and BRB route would be over 100km ride for me and I am not sure I was up for that just yet). We had an awesome ride out into the mielie fields, initially there were 6 of us but Ryan turned back after awhile as his legs were shot from the ride the day before. Renier, Jess, Dee and Adriaan ended up dashing (Jaaging) in the mielie (corn) fields, nice fast exhilarating tempo. Was really great to be out there and riding in the wide open spaces with great company. I ended up doing over 70km here are the stats from my Garmin.

Great way to finish a winter ride is to have a nice warm cappuccino

Polar bear ride 07-08-2012

It's not often that we have snow in South Africa, in fact I have only seen it 3 times in my life. Little did I know that later this day we would have a fair share of it. With plummeting temperatures forecast we decided to hit the roads for our normal early morning cycle. I left home at 04:30 AM and met up with (young) Greg and Denzel for a ride to Bedfordview and back. It was pretty damn cold my Garmin showed that the temp was never over 1 degree Celsius the whole ride. I am sure my runny nose turned to stalactites by the end of the ride. Wow it was a freezing but rewarding experience.