Testing the boundaries...

Ok so the previous blog post was called 'the long one', well a week or two later on Human Rights Day (aptly named Human Rides Day) I put that ride to shame. A group of eight of us headed out to Rosemary Hill on the eastern outskirts of Pretoria from Benoni. A bit uncertain about the route we were lucky to have George McPhail riding with us, to point Mark (our ride captain) in the right direction. Incredible riding so nice to do a different route after flogging the routes around Dunblane/Serengeti for so many years. The route was mainly district track with a few small bumps on the way back. We stopped over at Rosemary Hill bike park for a coffee and breakfast roll before heading back. Unfortunately George's bolt in his headset snapped and he had to get a lift back 20km out from our halfway stop (he was hoping to do a 250km ride for the day so this dented his ambitions somewhat). 

Pit stop to check out George's bike 

Sean phoning for backup as Robbie was finished after 100km (Shannon having a welcome breather)

Mark and Robbie 

Michelle and Becky

So this ride ended up being the longest ride that I have ever done - a whopping 143km, click here for Strava stats of the ride. Surprisingly I was feeling ok and not to bushed at the end of the ride, I think it has a lot to do with the great bunch of people that I was riding with. The pace the whole way was perfect and I didn't have to redline to keep up with the group.  Was really great to test the boundaries of my body and do something that is a benchmark for further rides.

Me rolling in home after a 143km ride

Awesome photo capturing the sunrise over Blaauwpan on one of our morning rides before work 

Rough Riders at Blaauwpan 

Mark and I did a ride in the rain one morning, we still had time for a coffee stop. 

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..

Out and about

Rememberable rides in the past few weeks, awesome to be out there with like minded souls and explore the limits of my endurance sorounded by beautiful scenery. Below is a awesome photo taken on our Friday coffee ride with Blouwpan dam in the background.

Rebecca on her fatty can't even block out this beautiful sunrise.

Sunday the 7th of Feb we did a group ride out to Heidelberg. Some of the Benoni Rough Riders -Mark, Rebecca, Michele, Sean, myself and Etienne (honorry member) met up with a group of Brakpan and Boksburg mountain bikers, for a incredible ride to summit the 2 towers around Heidelberg Town. The route was a bit muddy for the first bit after heavy rain the night before but after about 25km we hit dry ground for fast smooth tracks the rest of the ride. 

Signs of drought when you floating bridge doesn't float so much any more..

Summit of Hill 1 - group photo taken by me (yes I was there)

Thorn amongst the roses - Michele, Becky and Sean (Telkom tower in the background)

Joburg to Sea contenders Mark and Etienne

Benoni Rough Riders - Becky, Michelle, me, Sean, Mark and Etienne on Summit of Hill 2

Heidelberg 2 Towers ride is one of my favourite rides, Wimpy stop at half way for a coffee is always a must. I must admit the last 10km was a bit of a slog, we came back via Heidelberg road and it was over 35 degrees celsius. I was pulling amps trying to keep up with the group and even had a slight push from Sean once or twice to get me back up there.  102km mountain bike ride can take its toll on the body at the end, but I survived and I am hopefully a stronger rider for it. Great ride with awesome people and I managed to get a KOM for a Strava segment I created on the single track from Telkom Tower to Heidelberg road (aptly named Rough Riders free flow)

Breather as we wait for riders to catch up after they had mechanicals 

We did another of my favourite rides a week earlier to Big Red Barn bike park and back, this is also over a 100km ride. Nice flowing route there and back, and the track at Big Red Barn is awesome. After riding there and doing about 25km at the bike park we met up for a coffee and breakfast roll at the restuarant there to replenish energy levels for the ride home. Great ride with good company... 

Rough Riders - Michael, Michelle, Wayne, Marco, Mark and me

We had to hop over the railway line because of a sewage puddle blocking the tunnel 

Michelle pulling me home - fatty on the left trying to keep up 

Begin again...

Another year has started and time is flying so fast its seems all down hill. 2016 has been a great year of riding so far, with some fantastic rides in the early mornings with the Benoni Rough Riders (usually involving coffee) and a few longer rides on the weekends. My goals for this year are to emulate last year to stay away from hospitals and spend some quality time in the saddle. Major races for 2016 - at the moment it is Sani2C, Bielie Mielie, 94.7 and to do a few more races hopefully with my wife and/or son.

We did a awesome ride out to SentraRand earlier this month check out the ride filmed and edited by Hansie click on the YouTube link here: Benoni Rough Riders Sentrarand MTB

Below are a few photos of the ride, on the route, we came across a deserted track cycling stadium, sad to see but interesting to ride around. 

Sunrise over the highway on the way to meet the group

Paul the winner of his own race..

Rough Riders checking out the track

Blauwpan dam on route to pre work coffee

Rebecca's action shot of some of the Benoni Rough Riders

Sunday the 17th of January we went for a fantastic group ride out to Rosemary Hill bike park on the outskirts of Pretoria East. Nice big group starting off with around 20 mountain bikers (some riders peeled off early or were scared off by Alistair :-). The route to Rosemary Hill was fast and very flat with more downhill than uphill. It was only 75km there, so it was a lot shorter then originally planned and I also did a 20km loop there on the trail, finishing on 95km total ride. Nice track at Rosemary Hill and looks like a awesome venue to go and ride with up to 56km of trails. Wayne, Micheal and me were joined at Rosemary Hill by - Greg, Paul, Hansie and Juan, so we had a lift back whilst the rest of the group Becky, Sean, Alistair, Ashley, Michele, Ross, Anton, Milton etc...rode back to Benoni (finishing on between 150-170km ride). Next time I will get a return ticket instead of only a one way.

Sunrise on the way to Rosemary Hill

Nice big group on a great ride

Railway bridge group photo

Babelas Becky

Mike and I 

January is my birth month and that normally involves a MTB related present, this year my wonderful wife bought me a professional bike set up with Cyclefit. One of the best things I have done, this involves the optimum setting of the three points of contact on your bike: the pedals and shoes, the saddle and the handlebars. I spent over an hour and 15min with Richard Baxter (ex professional cyclist) checking and correcting my bike set up. My cleats in my shoes had to move right forward, my saddle up by 2.5cm, my handlebars brought forward and shortened by a 1cm on each side. My rear shock was 60PSi too soft and my from shock 5psi too hard (bike was sagging). The before and after videos show a remarkable difference - my back is much straighter now and I am not slouching over the bike. I have had a few rides already and the difference is amazing it is like riding a new bike. Well worth it.

Richard cutting my handle bars

Testing after changes have been made

January = lots of rain = lots of mud. We had to resort to urban MTB one Sunday which involved finding all the hills in Befordview and Bruma. Almost 1000m climbing in 80km, great new routes up and down Sylvia's Pass, cobbles and switch backs up to the tower by Linksfield etc...

Top of Sylvia's Pass 

View from the cell tower and beyond

And so 2015 waves goodbye...

Wow, hard to believe that 2015 is already finished, the year has flown and I'm not sure that I am ready to usher in another year just yet. It has yet again been another great year of cycling and spending time out in the wide open spaces that makes my soul smile. 

I managed to surpass my 2014 stats by some margin - this year being relatively injury/major accident free. I notched up over 8,200kms, spending a whopping 409 hours in the saddle. It has been a fantastic year with some really great experiences that I have shared with a variety of awesome riding friends. I notched up my longest training ride on a mountain bike 121km and my longest race 110km (Beilie Meilie). I also skipped Sani this year and did the 3 day Berg to Bush stage race with Pierre and Wayne instead, which was an amazing experience. 

I did a couple of races with my son and my first 40km race with my wife Linda, which was really incredible. The Benoni Rough Rider mountain biking group are an amazing bunch of cyclists and a wonderful motivation to carry on riding even when the weather or conditions suggest otherwise. We have shared some wonderful experiences and laughs on our many training rides and I am privileged to be associated with most of them :-)

This is my last Blog post for 2015 and the main story would have to be the 105km Heidleberg - 2 Towers ride we did last Sunday.  This was a new route to Heidelberg and involved climbing to the Telkom tower and the the Radio mast tower with a Wimpy coffee in between. There was a nice group - 12 in total (including my mates Pierre and Graeme made the journey to the East Rand to do the pace making in the front). Enjoyable yet hot and tough ride. I wasn't feeling the strongest after straining my back over Christmas so the slog home was tougher then it should have been. Below are a few photos of this epic ride:

Yes they were first up the hill...

Pierre, me and Graeme at the Telkom Tower

The group at the top of the Radio Mast Tower hill

Becky's bike getting some attention from Ian and Sean

Sean's fat bike with a temporary increase in horse power by George :-)

Tower selfie photo bomb

Finally a few pics of our early morning rides with the Benoni Rough Riders: 

No barriers for us Rough Riders

Always a couple of fatties on the ride

Customary coffee stop on most rides

WOW 2015 is almost done...

As the year winds down this is the best time to ride mountain bike in Gauteng. December is coffee month and filled with great social 'coffee rides'. I have had some great rides since the 94.7 madness. Sometimes it is just great to ride and feel the freedom of the great outdoors instead of chasing training targets or Strava segments. The tracks are not too muddy or overgrown yet because of the late rains leading to flowing and stress free rides.  Below are a few photos from some of the rides, hopefully there will be another blog post before the year end :-)

A few minute stop to appreciate the incredible sunrise

Group ride out to Irene market for muffins and coffee

Irene bunch 

December is coffee month with a Hava Java Platkop

94.7 x 2 for the Apricot Tree

2015 is a milestone year for me as I have raced in some awesome new races and also not been in hospital once :-) It was also the first time that I also did the double in the 94.7 race - doing the mountain bike race and then the road race in 2 consecutive weekends. It was my first 94.7 MTB race, as I have normally avoid this  race because of the bottlenecks and bad routes etc... This is one case, when the organisers have learnt from their previous mistakes (unlike the Nissan series) and this event was extremely well run and the route was awesome. There were 2 completely different routes for the 30km and the 55km distances so you never had to worry about other slower riders not doing the same distance. I was pleasantly surprised by the route and the amount of purpose built single track that was in the 55km route. 

Me kicking up some dust followed by Hansie

I did the race with Hansie one of my fellow Benoni Rough Riders which was a great experience. Below is a video he took on his Garmin of a me following a female rider and stopping when she fell down a short drop off. She really came down hard and landed on her face. We stopped to help her until her boyfriend came back to assist her and wait for the medics. There were quite a few nasty falls in the race, given the hot, dry conditions and all the loose soil. 

I also had the misfortune of wiping out. I rode into some thick river sand and my bike came to a sudden halt ejecting me over the handle bars. Unfortunately I landed on my front wheel buckling it so badly that it couldn't rotate anymore. I thought my race was over when this happened 15km before the end  of the race. Fortunately, Hansie came to my rescue and took the wheel off my bike and managed to sort of straighten it on a tree stump so I could finish the rest of the race. This worked out to be quite costly as I had to buy a new DT Swiss rim as it was impossible to straighten out my old one. I enjoyed the race even though there were plenty of hills and it was very hot and dusty.   

Hansie and I at the end of the race, trying to cool down...

The next Sunday, I finished my 7th Momentum 94.7 road race. I once again did the race on my mountain bike which is a lot more fun (and safer) but just a bit slower. I also did the race with a friend (and fellow Rough Rider) Wayne and it was great sharing this experience with him and to have someone to chat to for the 95km route. I rode for The Apricot Tree  which is a Public Beneficiary Organisation (PBO) and is involved in the stimulation and development of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It was a privilege riding for them once again, as it really is a great organisation with some incredible people involved in running it and raising money. I managed to raise R25,000 after getting sponsorships for the 94.7 race from my friends, family, work colleagues and the company that I work for MultiChoice. I was pretty chuffed with the money that I raised and happy to see that it be put to good use to offer more to the children that they help. 

Selfie with Wayne and I shortly before we set off on the race

Start of the Momentum 94.7 road race

Benchwarmers get out in the cold and wind. Today I managed to get Paul and Greg out for a chilly and windy ride. They have been warming the bench on the sidelines whilst the rest of us have been riding. It was great to have them back out there and hopefully we will see more of them as winter is long gone and the excuses have run out ;-)

Greg and Paul on a cold and windy 'summers day'