Ride with the beasts

We had a great ride at Groenkloof Nature Reserve this morning. Andrew joined Greg and me for the first time at "Groenies" to get his taste of real mountain biking with some technical tracks and a few heart pounding climbs. It is always great riding here and fortunately after all the rain it was not muddy as the water runs off pretty well. We saw some game in the reserve - Giraffe, Wildebeest, Zebra and the herd of Sable antelopes that weren't too perturbed my us riding past.  





December time again

2011 is coming to an end and it has been an incredible year. Greg and me have competed in our first stage race, we have upped our game to riding the 70km races instead of the 40kms, I beat my 94.7 time by an hour, my kids did 3 races, I did over 6000kms (300 odd hours) on the bike and the list goes on and on......

Well I am on leave for 3 weeks and I intend to see out the old year like I brought it in - on my bike (anyone who mentions this to my wife will be shot on sight). This is how my first week of holiday has gone so far:

Day 1 - kids did a race a Babas Lodge (14km), I was the roving mechanic and had to fix two flat tyres (there were some mean thorn trees out there).



My daughter Erin with a flat front tyre



Eager beavers before the start of the race

Andrew and the kids



Had to stop for this fellow taking his crap across the road..

Day 3 - Yes I did it again - another blind MTB Internet date. Greg and me rode with a guy I met on the Hub website - Pierre, he was pretty new to mountain biking and we took him on an introductory flirt with the dirt. He managed really well and kept up with us the the 40 odd kms ride that we did.

Day 4 - Great early evening ride with Andrew - we did 33kms before the sun set beat us back home. 

 Day 5 - Greg and me had a fantastic ride, we did just under 70kms and had some serious water hazards to walk around (and both got attacked by horse flies - ouch the bites itch for days)

Day 7 - What fun was this ride, a heavy down pour made the route we did a few days earlier almost unrideable. There was so much mud and water we slid all over the place and our bikes took a real hammering and clogged up real good. At one stage we passed a van stuck in the mud the man inside said he had been stuck since the day before and was waiting to be towed out.





Bike just a little heavier then when I started with all the mud attached to the wheels.



We rode on the railway tracks for awhile the sleepers were easier then the mud.

Greg you need some water wings there bud?

So much mud and water such little time....

We ended up doing 63kms and even with all the mud we managed to have and average moving speed of 22km/h which was pretty impressive given the conditions. OK week 1 done - can't wait for next week to ride off all that Christmas cheer. 



Last day of work

How cool is it to go on a 2 hour ride on your last day of work - need to get ready for my 3 week break where hopefully I will ride myself silly. Unfortunately on one of the routes that we have been using for years they are building a big wall blocking the way to the veld below Serengeti Golf Estate.



This will cause an inconvenience to a lot of Mountain Bikers that use this route...:(



Greg taking a rest while I moan about the new wall



Ok I think I need a shower after the morning's ride



Riding stats for 2011

It was almost a year ago that my beautiful wife bought me a Garmin Edge 500 GPS for Christmas. Although my MTB riding has been the topic of many a heated conversation in this household, I know that she really supports my new found passion for the fabulous sport. The stats below however are top secret and she must never know that I spent over 314 hours of my free time (that is over 13 whole days) away from her beloved presence with my trusty mountain bike. And please don't tell her that next year is going to be even bigger, with our entry into the Sani2C we have to really stretch the legs and do some really big rides before May next year.....

Count: 177 Activities

Distance: 6,126.35 km

Time: 314:37:53 h:m:s

Elevation Gain: 41,701 m

Avg Speed: 19.5 km/h

Calories: 228,994 C

Nancy Drew ride

Yes we were a bunch of Nancy Drew's this morning, after a few days of rain we tendered stay away from the mud. It is not so much about getting dirty but about not messing up your drive chain and rear cassette as they get caked in the grimy muck that can do so much damage. It was however a pleasant ride this morning with Greg and Justin (who has just conquered the Roof of Africa), we did just over 60kms at 21km/h average. I am looking forward to the holidays so we can do some serious longish out rides.  

Justin and Greg scouting ahead for some mud less tar....

Early Mountain Biker catches the sunrise

Nothing better then getting up at 04:30, going for a mountain bike ride with your mate in the outback of Benoni  and to experience the thrill as the morning shakes off the shackles of the night.