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.