Sunday 15th August ride

What a great day for a ride - the weather has warmed up, yeah sumer is almost here. I was fortunate enough to be able to ride with Gerry today, it was great to get him back on the bike. We went for a pleasant ride out to the sandpan and then past Dunblain, into the open veld.

It is on days like this that you can really appreciate living in South Africa and be blessed with the opportunity to have mountain bike rides into the great outdoors. 

We did over 40km at a comfortable pace, there was a nasty headwind at the end of the ride that really tested the legs. Below is a photo of Gerry successfully navigating crossing the stream near Seringetti golf estate, marvelous engineering design of these rudimentary bridges used by the locals to not get their feet wet.

It must be noted that I noticed another way over that entailed only one short hope over a single tyre - sorry Gerry I should have given you more warning of the alternative (but I did enjoy watching you traverse this obstacle).

Sunday ride 08-08-2010

Awesome ride today, over 60km of tough riding but a really great route and company. I first met up with Greg and his racing snake friend (rode to Clarens just for fun) - Gary. Next we went to Justin's house (fresh from World BMX championships) - eish riding with these guys could only mean one thing - tired sore body.

We went out past Dunblain horse estate and into the farmlands. A few short hills to get the heart rate up and plenty of sandy roads, with some water crossings thrown in. Pictured below are the 3 'strong' boys after 30 odd kms - hardly worked up a sweat yet.

Really great to be in wide open spaces, we rode past a game farm that had loads of buck and antelope. The legs were starting to hurt, but fortunately the guys slowed down at times to let me catch up.

The last 10 odd kms to Justin's house were really tough but I made it - thanks boys for waiting for me.

The light at the end of the tunnel:

New road bike

No I haven't gone to the other side and I am not about to shave my legs. I got a real bargain on a road bike that I can use for the 94.7 this year. Makes a nice picture hanging in my garage whilst my first love Trek MTB gets all my attention.

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.