So thanks to Tom, Jackie, Jasper, Charlotte, Andre, Timiny and of course Karen and Molly for a new year’s to remember … even though we only made it to 1030pm after 3 days of epic bundu-bashing mtb rides.

4x4 only to the destination

Skids really are for kids!

Big sky country

Schmoosza and Jacx

The obligatory silhouette

Epic rides just like the old days

Stormy skies

Santa Cruz Blur TRc in repose

Rolling hills

Last Duvel of 2011

Before and after the Berg trip Karen and myself been riding all the good stuff that the Pietermaritzburg and environs have to offer … Hilton, Karkloof, Ferncliffe and we’ve been joined by a couple of friends from way back in the earliest days of MTB in SA – Patrick Morewood and Mike Van Zyl. Plus i’ve been able to squeeze in the local road loops early in the morning with my dad.

Fabulous Cedara

Riding reward

World Cup singletrack

And then on the 2nd of January, we completed another edition of the Karen Dallimore birthday ride … something we’ve managed to do for about 10 years now i think. Mike joined us again for this – the Karkloof edition.

Karen & Mike @ Karkloof Falls

Karen & Mike @ Karkloof Falls

Mike @ Karkloof

So thanks to all that made 2011 all it could be and as much fun as is possible when standing up to your knees in mud at the side of some hill in a far-flung land. Here’s to 2012 – may all your rides be fulfilling and soul-enriching. Be it to the corner shop, the other side of the world or between the tape against yourself and the clock!

Xmas day ride with Molly

I also snuck in a quick 1 hour burn just after the present unwrapping frenzy on Xmas day while everyone at home had a pre-feast sleep. Another go up Polly Shortts and Little Pollys. It was pretty warm – 33C or so but stood me in good stead for the feasting that followed.

Little Pollys looms

Mad dogs & englishmen

Boxing Day followed, and perhaps after too much food and cheer the day before, my Dad – Chris – & I had agreed to go on a early morning ride with cousin Ryan – the muscles from Maritzburg. This would be his second proper bike ride – the first – from Durban to Pietermaritzburg – ended with a forlorn phone call about 25km from home after he misjudged the effort needed to ride a single speed from sea level to 880 m over 90km! So we kitted him out and at 550am we set off for the Lion Park. 40km later and he had learnt a few lessons on pacing – or how to go slow from me, and some un-cleating fundamentals from Chris. We saw zebra en route and some impala – always a thrill on a road ride.

Chris on the front

Ryan @ Lion Park

Zebra en route

Next up was family time at my brothers for the cousins to catch up. So Karen & I just managed to squeeze in a late afternoon MTB ride with Patrick Morewood of PYGA Industries. We all know Patrick has been building a new bike … but what we weren’t to know was that this would be its maiden voyage! In the glorious singletrack of the Hiton/Cedara forests Pat took his first pedal strokes on his new baby! And I got to have a couple of goes myself! While I can’t take specifics at this stage I can tell it looks good, rides great and has big wheels! Its always a privilege to see a first time ride of a new bike … and to see the guy who built it go for that first ride is even sweeter!

Patrick's first ride on his new ride

A few brandy and ginger beers followed back at Patrick’s and in the spirit of the spirits, I agreed to do a long ride in the morning with my Dad. 51km around the Dardanelles with an extra little loop down to the Lion Park again. Its always great to ride with my Dad … he’s the one who got me into cycling and his love for riding a bike has not diminished after all these years. And what’s best is at 68 he can still drop me on the rollers around the back of the loop … big ring Chris!

Big ring Chris

King of the Mountains ... not likely

So another few days have passed on the challenge, I’ve had good family time, great riding time, with 6 rides in 4 days – and even caught up with an old mate as he dives headlong into a new revitalised career. Fun times.

More to come …

G

With Cape Town in the rear view mirror we head off ...

Sunset rope swings

Marshmallows for dessert

I, however, ended up being tethered to the toilet with a virulent, but thankfully 24 hour, bug! Not a great start. But thankfully it passed … literally and figuratively! Anyway, 3am Friday we’re back on the road for the long haul north to PMB. Taking the back roads makes the journey so much better – you see so much more of the country and even fewer cars!

Back on the road

Molly stickers up the FunBus

Pietermaritzburg is where i grew up, sort of attended high school and fell in love with bike riding. The combination of rolling hills of tarmac and forest tracks as far as the eye can see make this the place to be for avid riders. It never fails to thrill me to head back on old trails or asphalt routes and see the formative bumps, roots and twists and turns that only familiarty can breed. No contempt here … just super fond memories.

I’m trying to take part in an online festive season challenge called the Rapha Festive 500 - basically you have to ride 500 kilometres from the 23 to 31 December. Well day 1 was spent driving the FunBus to PMB – 14 hours and some change with stops. So day 2 would be tough but had to be done or else i’d lose another day – best thing for it – two rides! One tar, one dirt.

The Dardanelles is a fairly well known loop heading out towards Richmond then back to Cato Ridge and finishing up Polly Shorts – made famous by the Comrades Marathon. I think i rode this loop for the first time somewhere around 1990 … back when Giro Air Attack helmets were the rage. 44 kilometres of rolling hills make it a great loosener and i really needed it.

Flat snake .. size 43 shoes for comparison

The highest point of the Comrades en route to Polly Shorts

Kilos rolling by ... and hopefully off

A splattering of road grit for the Northern hemisphere readers

Next up was a great MTB ride in the forests of Hilton … a place where I started to ride a mountainbike proper. Also the early ’90s but its amazing how the tracks are embedded in your memory. Yes some of the routes have changed, but the overall feel of the place has remained unchanged through all the years. Its amazing … and a thick pea soup mist sure added to the ambience!

Moody trails

Karen in the mist

Feeling like a kid again

So two rides in one day … must be Xmas! Next up the real thing. Happy holidays to you and yours!

G

We all like riding bikes, we all like pushing ourselves on singletrack and unknown trials & we all like to race our mates. So why not combine all those aspects. We’re not doing anything new, just bringing in a few aspects from other types and styles of races and also not limiting ourselves to one discipline. Well actually that’s not true – we are limiting it – to mountain biking! It’s true that the sport has diversified over the years and grown so far from it roots in some respects that its at times maddening to see and at the same hugely gratifying that our little sport is growing up. Its pretty fair to say that at times riding a mountain bike and being a mountain biker are sometimes not one and the same. And maybe cos we’re old skool we all harken back to the those early days where you arrived at a race with one bike and did all disciplines on the same steed – from hill climb, to downhill, XC, bike polo, slalom, you name it. Hence the idea of creating a type of racing that is flexible, varied, challenging and at the top of the list – fun!

Currently its early days – so we are working out the kinks in terms of setup – timing, transitions, liaisons etc. But judging by the grins and whoops at the end of the stages it seems to be working. The idea is get it going nationwide too … but its early days yet.

Sunday’s event had just 2 stages – one from the very top of Jonkershoek – above the saddle and down to the DH and ending near the gate – a 1 hour 45 or so climb and a 10 minute descent! The second stage was a nice technical singletrack on a much gentler slope – so a good mix – not favouring one rider or bike.

Results? Who knows. Someone rode of with our start sheet – but we’ll get them up somewhere soon. But for now the winners are the trails – all the monies raised go straight back into building and maintaining trails.

The view from the top during Monday's route recce

Pre-ride fettling and grandstanding

You can't have 10 minutes of descending without some climbing ...

Or even some pushing ...

The Ace of Spades

View from the top

Another view from the top ... of the way down

Myles' death grip finger after stage 1

Stage 2 with the start of Stage 1 visible at the very top right

Savage sprints for the line

Last turns

Andrew Neethling

MTB Heaven

Pin cushions

Tired but happy ...

* As best as I can translate to Xhosa khwela intaba means ride the mountain. and as best as i can do to come up with a title for this.

Oh well, as they say a pictures worth a few words. So here’s a smattering of the day’s views. Spoiler – it was a peach of day.

Half way ... 2.5 hours in

Misty Cliffs approaching crayfish factory

Chapmans Peak

Second whale of the day off Long Beach in there somewhere

Hout Bay from Chapmans Peak

Saw lots of this view

After the ride we did some family cross training in Newlands forest

All in all a fun day.

With grandparents and babysitters arranged, Karen, Jackie, Tom, Tienie and myself decided to have a weekend away of just adults and bikes – some would say later on the first evening – just bikes. And the ecohuts at Eselfontein are a rad getaway. Daniel and Louise from iRideAfrica joined us for festivities on friday night .. and boy were there some festivities. So much so that somehow come Saturday morning I found myself on the start line of the 70km with all the racing snakes! Thankfully, I’m aware of my limitations, and lack of training and fitness after 6 months on the road following the World Cup circuit. I didn’t have lofty goals – just to finish & not to finish last. 2nd last was perfectly acceptable. Just not last. Tienie took care of that placing!

Off goes the gun and 5 hours 30 minutes later of revelling in singletrack bliss, cursing at the seemingly endless climbs and swearing out loud at the headwind on the last stretch added in to make up distance which is de rigeur for race organisers i crossed the line a happy camper. The Santa Cruz Bicycles Blur TRc never missed a beat … is it possible to fall in love with carbon fibre as opposed to carbon-based life form? Cos we’re getting pretty close.

Anyway, turns out I was better than expected – 5th last … perfectly acceptable!

And whats better – we did all the fun singletrack again the next day! What a weekend.

Here’s a couple of pics i managed to take when I managed to go from oxygen bankruptcy into plain old oxygen debt.

Ready & Waiting

Accommodation & rides for the weekend

Suds, singletrack & sunset!

The village idiot or the village bike?

The best way to wake up

Two kinds of flow

Blur TRc at top of the trail

70km later

Cheers.

G

But hey, i’m over it, no skin lost, no carbon shards protruding and no blue Ford Bantam bakkie CY number plates with blood stains on it.

Here’s a quick pick selection of this mornings view.

Ride Time: 2h10.
Ride: Camps Bay – Hout Bay – over Chapmans and back.

Anticipation

Noordhoek / Long Beach

Chapmans Peak

Reflections of Hout Bay

Sweat it out

60 up Suikerbossie? Not bloody likely

JRA

Lions Head

cheers

g

Been away, internetless … doing this:

Hope it was a good one .. now is the time to sweat off some pounds/kilos/stone what have you.

g