Heritage Day weekend rides

What a great way to celebrate South Africa's Heritage Day then a Mountain Bike ride in your own back yard. Greg, Justin (pictured below) and I headed off to Dunblane Equistrian estate in Kempton where the Rotary club was holding a MTB race. This route, we were all very familiar with as we do parts of it almost every weekend. We entered the 50km race and it was quite a pleasant race. The field was not too big and quickly stretched out, racing machines Greg and Justin powered off into the distance leaving me to help the novice lady riders at the back (joys of being a slower rider).

The route wasn't marked out the best and some people may have taken shorter/longer to complete the race. There was a horrible little loop just as you reached the end, they look you back up out for another 4 km stint. My load was shot at this stage and the ladies I was riding with powered away from me, leaving me defeated and deflated. Good race to finish, hopefully they will have more of them in the future. 

Greg fortunately noticed that I had a broken spoke when he was loading my bike onto his carrier before the race. We tied the offending spoke with a zip tie so that it would not get stuck in the chain etc. The next day, I dropped the wheel off at Procylces to get fixed, thus leaving me without a Mountain Bike for the Sunday ride.....

At last my new road bike that has been collecting dust over the last 2 months will see some action. I managed to get a ride with Peter and Victor (pictured below), they are really fantastic guys and it was an absolute pleasure riding with them. We did 70kms at an average speed of 25km/h, great route that we went on past East Mall, through Kempton, Pomona, Petit, Rynfield and then back via Kempton (Atlas road). 

My first experience on a road bike, I couldn't believe how fast and responsive it was (I was averaging over 40km/h along Atlas road). The cars speeding past were a bit of a worry but you seem to get used to them. I really had an awesome ride which totally justified my purchase of the road bike - come on 94.7 I am going to give you carrots this year. 

  

 

Sunday MTB ride 19th Sept

Awesome ride this Sunday, aiming for a 4 hour plus ride we set off from Lakefield, Benoni and headed out towards the Sandpan and then past Dunblane Horse Estate.

Pictured below is a tandem Africa style (taken whilst riding past him) - one rider 2 bikes....

After riding past the Barnstormers model aircraft field and over the sewage pipe, we met up with Paul from Procycles and the owner of Dunblane Equestrian estate (never quite got his name). They were plotting out the route for the Heritage Mountain Bike challenge to be held on the 24th of September starting at Dunblane. We rode most of the route with Paul (I tried my best to keep up with him and Greg), it was really great to find out about the race this Friday and also to do part of the route. 

Eish this farmer pumps sewage into his miellies - remind me not to buy from him...

Greg 'powering up the hill' - my co-ords are getting better, managed to take out my Blackberry and snap a shot without falling off...

Really looking forward to the race this Friday, 50km route that Greg and I have being doing most of in the past few weeks....

Beast of the East route - Sunday 12th Sept

Today Greg and I rode most of the route that was used for the Beast of the East MTB race that was held last year. We parked our car at Barnstomers model aircraft club, so that we did not have to touch any tar at all and could have more time to play in the dirt (the pink tickets that our wives give us, have time limits, so we must make the most of it).

We rode the route counter clockwise to what was raced last year - this was pretty hectic because the first 10kms were uphill from Barnstormers. Greg pretty much sprinted away in the beginning and was averaging 21kms up the long hills before waiting on Sir Mytummy Isbigger Thenyours to catch up. We saw about 10 other MTBs coming the other way on the route - they knew we were tougher.

Below are a few pics take during the ride:

Check out how fast the 'treated' water is flowing out the sewage pipe into the river - Stan where's your boat?