Please can 2014 end already…

I sit here writing this blog post in a lot of pain after yet another painful fall this morning. Wow 2014 has been a year that has left its mark on my body. It started off when I fell on my knee 2 weeks before Sani2C, a smack into the tar when I clipped Greg's wheel on a training ride, of course the big one was when the taxi hit me from behind and now this morning I hit a water covered pothole on a road bike ride. Gee, I really came down hard, my shoulder and hip taking most of the impact (I can hardly walk now and think I have torn a groin or hamstring muscle) and my helmet also took a big impact and is now broken (yay at least I get to buy a new helmet). 

I was doing a road ride (something I normally don't do after the taxi accident) - a farewell ride for Jacques who is a real character of the riding fraternity in the East Rand as he is immigrating to Tanzania  to join Mike. A nice big group considering the wet weather and riding in the middle of the pack, I hit a nasty pothole that was disguised as a puddle. So here I am still hurting from my fall and hoping that 2015 will be a better year for me. 

On the brighter side the past week of December holidays riding has been awesome. Last Sunday we did a ride to Heidelberg radio mast and back. Nice big group that I arranged and led out, including my good mate Pierre all the way from Northcliff. Always nice doing this ride and the pace was pretty quick with a few stronger riders leading the way. Here are my Strava stats of the ride:

Group at the top (less a few stragglers)

Awesome to ride with my good mate Pierre

Becky and Jess provided the entertainment for the ride

Riding at Benoni Country Club - I was really fortunate to have a few rides at the BCC MTB track with my wonderful wife Linda. Really great to be out there with her - we even did a rain soaked ride on the one day. Plenty of falls for both of us, but who is counting (3-2 is the score).

My better half stopping for a mechanical...

No I wasn't waiting for her (she had a few top 10s on some of the Strava segments)

Plenty of wildlife

On Boxing Day I went out with Clint and the roadies (as there is too much mud for MTB), we had a quick 90km ride that definitely burnt off the Christmas excess. Here are my Strava stats of this ride, we were at a fast pace of 32km/h average for most of the ride.

On a closing note here is a photo that sort of rings true for my 2014 year. Wishing you all the best for 2015…..

December time

I love this time of the year, nice relaxed riding and lots of coffee with good mates. We have had some nice early morning rides and longer weekend rides dodging the mud that is so prevalent this time of the year. We have had a few people leave our small riding group as life takes them in different directions - Adam moving to Cape Town and Mike to Tanzania etc.. Others have moved further away from our customary starting point in Benoni and are now pretty scarce (Mark and Marco). Fortunately we still have a great bunch of guys and girls and there is a wonderful spirit in this group, it makes getting up before the birds are awake much easier if there are nice people to ride with. Also we have had a few 'new' people join our group and they also bring a great new dynamic - Hansie, Anton etc…

Incredible 60km ride last Sunday with Jess (on her single speed), Greg, Wayne, Michael, Hansie and Paul (who screams like a girl when he gets a fright). Great ride around Serengeti, mainly off road and then a relaxed coffee at the Mug & Bean on Atlas road. Great to have Hansie as part of our team now - he had his GoPro on and did a fantastic job of filming and editing our ride. Please click here to check it out.

Post 94.7

It has been awesome riding the last few weeks, pressure is off to train for any events, so I can just go out and have fun. We have done a few early morning rides in the forest track that is situated next to the airport. This is a great track to test your tree dodging skills, we manage to get a couple of laps in before work. Rob who rode with us the last 2 times took the picture below and ran into a cobra in a solo ride there last week. Here is a great video taken by Hansie of the ride, click here to view...

Picture courtesy of Rob the racing snake...

We had a nice group ride last Friday (aptly named Dirty Friday) and I led the group up Monument Hill. Great ride and good coffee afterwards. Here is an awesome video that Aiden took with his GoPro (please click on the link for the YouTube clip) Monument Dirty Friday ride

December is here and it is time to wind down (and ride some more). Lekker ride last Sunday, Greg, Paul, Yvonne and myself. I managed to beat Paul at the post and steal a KOM - here are my Strava stats of the ride.

Picture courtesy of Hansie