Why? Well I did say previously I wanted to ride my bike more – 900km more? Maybe not in a week per se, but c’est la vie – you have to squeeze in the rides where you can sometimes.

So what is the Joberg2C? Its an mtb race/ride/mind/body altering experience which takes you from the outskirts of Johannesburg to the KZN coast – 900kms in 9 days – the maths on that being fairly simple to work out. But rather than the district road slogs some are used to the guys behind this race – Farmer Glen & Wappo et al are all about the ride.

And after  number of successful years of event organisation – the Wild Ride and then Sani2C, they have instilled a fierce competition amongst landowners along the route – some 100 farms in total i believe – to generate the best singletrack experience! And there’s nothing wrong with a bit of healthy competition, right?

But thats not where the rivalry ends … the farmers wives’ take it upon themselves to make sure that you don’t shed any weight along the route with water points that you physically have to be dragged away from by your race partner or lunches on arrival that stretch all the way to supper!

But its the ride these guys are focused on … trying to remove as much of the slog sections that they can every few months with new & improved sections of singletrack and doubletrack to ease the pain of the 100km plus days. And despite this almost selfish need for singletrack – their efforts have a humanitarian purpose – everyone who works on the route is paid and the monies raised from entries are ploughed into to the communities that the race passes through. I’ve seen this in action a few year years back where Greg Minnaar, Steve Peat and myself bore witness to the work these guys do in helping the local school at the bottom of Nick’s Pass that heads into the amazing Umkomaas Valley.

Greg Minnaar & Steve Peat March 2008 in the Umkomaas Valley

Enough history back to the Joberg2C … its going to be tough no doubt about that – especially given the fact that in the time I’d set aside for training has been overrun by work – Cape Epic, PMB World Cup and 7 weeks shooting in Santa Cruz, California. Don’t get me wrong i’ve ridden my bike a fair amount and Strava’d the shit out some singletrack. But nothing can really prepare you for 900km in a touch over a week.

And as its a team race – i’m doing it with long time riding buddy Tom Southwood – aka @schmoose_za … and he has been putting in “lank” miles as he would say. Basically every six months i am on the road he is hammering out the miles – while i was shooting the world cups etc. He’s going to need some patience and sense of humour next week! And given his dress sense he already half way there!

Schmoose

Given the miles I have done, i know the bike is up for it. The big wheels are growing on me and the Santa Cruz Tallboy C is proving me wrong on a lot of assumptions and preconceived notions I had about 29ers. And it is specced to the 9s to continue the theme – SRAM XX & XO mix throughout! Boosh.

My Santa Cruz Tallboy C

But preparation wasn’t without some interesting moments – rim stripping and sealing my Industry Nine/Stans wheels from Rush Sports in Schmoose’s car on the way to Vermaaklikheid for a weekend of family, training and a break!

Cramped confines for tubeless setup

We’re in the final throes of preparation this weekend – a 40th birthday party tonight and a missed ride today … so its all going to plan! Tomorrow is another day and while a ride missed today is a bit of a downer … i’m more than confident next week’s adventures will more than make up for it! We’ll keep you updated on my suffer score through the week!  But in the meantime i leave you with the view we’ll see on the second last day entering the Umkomaas Valley!

Umkomaas Valley

cheers

g

For the past 6 years I have been pretty much the only photographer to travel to all the MTB World Cups and World Championships – Marathons included. And while it does sound like the dream job (it is) – it takes it’s toll. Home life becomes a series of transitional stops with a semi-packed bag at the foot of the bed for about a week at a time before the next month-long trip. Family time becomes a seemingly endless series of re-acquaintances and goodbyes from March through to September every year. Friendships on and off the circuit follow a similar cyclical flow. Time is fleeting, measured in the blink of an eye – like the difference between 1st and 2nd this weekend in Pietermaritzburg. And I feel it is passing all too quickly for my relationship with my wife and daughter.

What’s really put that in perspective is the fact that just one day after 4 days flat out work at the Pietermaritzburg World Cup – Molly turned 5 today. And of those 1826 days of her life I have been away for at least 900 of them. and that, my friends, is just not fair on any of us.

World Cup photography has given me everything – highs, lows, friendships, creative expression, a career, a reputation – you name it I am defined by the sights, sounds and people of the MTB World Cup. I have made friendships that I hope will endure forever. Take this weekend, for instance, I walked through the pits for 3 days straight saying hello to friends catching up on off-season gossip, tall tales and experiences. It’s my other family, it’s a dual-existence. One on this side of the world, home, and the other living out of a bag in far flung corners of the world. And sometimes it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Or which one superior and which inferior.

I also miss the simple act of riding my bike … I got into riding bikes late – I was 8 I think – but in the instant when my dad let go the seat and I pedalled/wobbled off I knew my life had changed forever. Freedom was now just a few pedal strokes away. And i still get that feeling whenever I climb on a bike. And to be brutally honest – I need to do it fairly often otherwise I go mad.

I  know most think just how hard is it to consistently ride a bike while on the road in some of the most beautiful, riding oriented parts of the world that we go to on the circuit? Well its not all VIP parties in luxury chalets in the Alps as some would believe. The work days are never ending with shooting from the early hours till late, daily selections to be made, captions to be written, equipment to be cleaned and prepped, now and then food to be found and sometimes showers to be taken etc etc. For the past few years my work day ends when I am fast asleep on a stairwell trying to poach internets with the laptop on my, well, lap. Many can attest to this … having woken me up on returning from the post race parties. Finding time to ride a bike during a World Cup week – which includes travel to or from an event to the next – is just not possible. And do you know hard it is to watch people ride all day and not be able to ride yourself?

Karen and my life together was pretty much cemented when we rode mountain bikes together a few weeks into our new relationship in ’94 and this has also suffered with our conflicting lifestyles – how can you ride with your partner when they are on the other side of the world? Or you are shattered from jet lag and workload and she has to go teach at 7am? And now with Molly riding bikes the complexity is tripled.

After all that doom and gloom – the plus side, I’m not leaving MTB or photography. How could I? In fact after watching the racing this weekend I was seriously doubting my decision – much as I have for the last 7 or 8 months – thats how long I have been mulling this over – or in the World Cup timeline – since Val di Sole last year . One day this way, one day that. But I know I have made the right decision to work for the good people at Santa Cruz Bicycles.

I have so many people to thank for the friendships, belief & support over the years – without all of you this would have never been possible. There are too many to mention, and if I forget someone or something please don’t take umbrage – I am having a tough time as it is wrestling with all this and a hangover! But I’m going to try – in some semblance of  order from the early days to now:

Greg Minnaar for a friendship that started 25 years ago here in Pietermaritzburg – it seems fitting that your amazing win here was the best way to bow out – One Life;

Martin Whiteley for my first proper press pass and so much more;

Mark Dawson and Malcolm Fearon for teaching me everything I know about World Cup photography which comes nowhere near how much they know;

Bobby Behan & the Specialized crew for years of support, laughs & adventures;

Shawn Spomer for the creative freedom of first littermag and then VitalMTB - other than the actual World Cup races I think i will miss doing the slideshows the most;

Mark Maurissen, Carla and the Genk massive for welcoming me to sunny Belgium like a long lost family member year in, year out;

Sven Martin for being the raging yang to my sober ying – the consummate competitor, hustler, friend, rival, colleague, alter ego;

all my clients over the years: Santa Cruz, Specialized, SRAM, UCI, Fox Racing Shox, Fox, Giant, Trek, GT, Morewood, Scott, Mondraker, Oakley, Iron Horse, Lizard Skins, Michelin, Royal, THE, Sunn and the list goes on;

all the magazine editors who have made my life hell with deadlines minutes after the last rider has crossed the line at what seems to be every World Cup and turning all those errant pixels into a beautiful tangible product;

Victor Lucas – for not only being the most gifted Irishman to take up a camera but also for the tremendous insight that places me in a tradeshow booth in 10 years handing out flyers for event photography or oval 36 inch wheels or the like;

my fellow photographers on the circuit – and there’s a lot you – seeing the quality of work produced each week makes me happy in the knowledge that the sport is in good hands – seeing the shots I missed or would have loved to have taken drives me to try harder each week;

the videographers – those of you driving the amazing new chapter in the coverage of the sport – RED cameras FTW;

all the racers, the mechanics and support staff – how you folks do your job dictates how my images turn out – without your style, passion & belief in this sport none of this would be possible;

the internets, the fans of the sport, fans of photography, the haters, the competitors;

Andres Jaramillo for stepping up to the plate to shoot for flipper this year;

Rob Roskopp & Mick Ferrentino & all at Santa Cruz Bicycles for the next chapter;

and last but definitely not least Karen & Molly for having the love to allow me to follow the sport the I love.

1000 plus words and not one picture … hmmm. Well you’re only as good as your last photo.

Sven & I leaving the press room last night after World Cup #1

To paraphrase Lou Gehrig:

… ” today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been at *World Cups for 11* years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.
Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day?”

cheers

G

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