Black (bush) and Whyte (bike)

OK, so the training has finally started in ernest.  Started on Thursday last week and have not missed a beat (Mike?).  Sore ‘bot’ to prove it!  The Delta is scorched – on Friday afternoon we literally rode through flames.  It is that dry time of year when the wind blows and the rain hasn’t started yet.  Swazi Frontier in about 6 weeks -

Allan Laudin – More memorial day photo’s

Kim Ludbrook has kindly passed on the photo’s he took on the day of the Dog Fathers memorial ride on the Spruit.  Al would have loved to see so many people turn out for a bitchin ride this big.  Keep remembering. Woof.

Shiny new bikes – waiting for riders!

In memory of Allan “the dog” Laudin (1956-2010)

The Spruit is not the same without Allan and Goldilocks.  You will be sadly missed dog, woof!

The photo’s below were taken during the memorial ride on Saturday 31 July.  By my estimations over 100 mountain bikers – Swampdogs – showed up for a tribute ride from Fratelli’s to Vida in Greenside.  A fitting sending off to such a great guy.

Father and son. His and his bikes.

This was meant to be a test post reigniting Posterous from my iPone and testing the new blog theme…but I like it.  It’s staying :)  I like it because my son Tom (6) puts his bike against mine unprompted.  When I get back from a ride, he does a short garden ride of his own and then puts his bike against mine.

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Mountain bike brands – left, right and centre!

On close inspection of my bike after Sunday’s ride – I noticed how many brand names appear on the bike.  See if you can spot them all.  Whyte, Stan’s No Tubes, ZTR 355, Sram, XX, Thompson, Fizzik, FSA, Polar, Continental, Rock Shox, Fox, Shimano, XTR, Monkey and of course Hope.  Clearly mountain bike branding and equipment is a big deal and perhaps it also explains where all my pocket money is going.   Brands aside, I like the pictures – bike porn .. sorta.

Slow, dry, lazy non-ride ride

Oh boy!  We are so rusty.  We braved the cold and headed out at 9.  At sunrise it was minus 2 … probably 6 degrees at 9am.  Being the sporting fellows that we are, we pretty much rode straight to Vida Cafe in Greenside and drank coffee.  All things considered, this was the right thing to do.  20km’s is better than doing jack.

The spruit is DRY DRY DRY.  This makes the wet spots all the more suspect.

The Swazi Frontier is our next event – 13 October

98 days to go before the Swazi Frontier 3 Day Stage Race and our bikes and bones have grown cobwebs.  It feels like we need to start training all over again.  All our fitness has gone to the couch. Ouch!

This is about as close as I have been to a bike lately.  Beautiful isn’t it.

Old bike spotted in Swellendam recently.

To see photo’s of last years Swazi Frontier click HERE

Applying my bike blogging skills to Fifa Soccer World Cup reporting

It is definitely the off season.  Not riding very much at the moment and therefore not much blogging going on.  While out for lunch on Sunday, we came across this enterprising dude with Fifa Soccer fan puppets doing a great job of street side entertainment.  I couldn’t resist applying my basic blog posting skills to share the fever a little.  Johannesburg is alive with soccer fever at the moment.  So just this once, it is not about the bike.

Fifa soccer fan puppets

Solo Spruit spin- crisp morning ride – testing MiniDV

Feels like the off-season -- not much riding going on at the moment.  Took a solo spin around Emmerentia and the Delta this morning -- was great to get out.  Loving the new bike…”pretty fly..”  Testing out a handy little mini digital video camera.  The idea is find the right mount spot for future videos on this blog.  Today I clipped it to the front strap of my Camelbak … clearly not ideal.  Thinking either handlebars or helmet next.

Pretty Fly

“Three bicycles and nearly a wedding” by Oliver Burnett

This is a very funny account of day one of the JoBerg2C.  With a bit of encouragement and some commentary from the peanut gallery, Oliver may go on to write about all 9 days.

That is "the" Merlyn in the middle

THE JOBERG2C STORY

DAY ONE

Heidelberg to Frankfort 125km

We set off at 7:45am sharp, this was slightly problematic because the start time was at 7am. Needless to say that when we crossed the start line the spectators, race announcer, music, start banner, portable toilets, organizers, trucks, sweep riders and indeed the participants were all long gone. The great moment of departure had played over in my mind allot during the last week. I had visualized ‘Chariots of Fire’ music, awestruck spectators, tear in the eye, the rush of adrenaline, wind in the hair, a warrior departing on the greatest quest of his life but all we got was the bemused look of a stray dog as we rode away in a general direction of the Free State with dreams of a podium finish in tatters!

My partner, who will remain nameless (Merlyn Jackson), was directly to blame for our late start. His taper period the week before had been filled with romance (possibly good for blood flow) and had included both meeting and getting engaged to Suzzie, whose surname has been withheld to protect the innocent not because, despite popular belief, Merlyn didn’t know it yet. This whirlwind romance had caused the erratic movement of blood through his diminutive body with areas south of the equator taking preference over his brain. This fully explains why he drove directly to Nigel for the race start in Heidelberg.

I had a premonition regarding my partner’s ability to get himself to the start on time so I organized my own way there. I  arrived in good time did my admin and then with a slight sinking feeling in my stomach I waved some 600 cyclists, the sweepers and the entire race organization goodbye. To my understandable alarm I began to realized this sinking feeling was actually the previous nights carbo loading falling victim to gravitational pull, no problem I had time and the porta loo’s were just behind me. The sight as I turned to quick march towards the toilets did not fill me with joy, the toilets were on the back of a truck heading for Frankfort. My first bos kak and we hadn’t even crossed the start line yet! This was not the start I had dreamed of. It was going to be a long nine days!

Once Merlyn arrived and had been surgically separated from Suzzie we set about the task at hand, Scottburgh or bust. Billy, as a result of innocently accepting a lift from Merlyn, was riding with us and as of yet had not laid eyes on his partner. The three of us rode hard only taking a break after nearly missing a turn 3.5 km’s from the start. Mercifully there was a dragon boat crossing of the Vaal which allowed us to catch up to the field. Andrew was there, he and his partner had ridden from Emerentia dam at 3am that morning reasoning that they had signed up for Joberg2c not Heidleberg2c! Merlyn took the opportunity to have breakfast and a poo while we waited for our turn to paddle across. The paddle was fun accept for the guy in front of us whose stroke needed some amending, he constantly splashed Merlyn on every follow through, on reflection I hope this had nothing to do with Merl’s paperless toilet visit just prior to embarkation.

The riding itself was reasonably uneventful. Some muddy bog like stuff, soft sand, mielie fields, one puncture and a fall and oh yes there was quite allot of tuffty grass, not great on a hard tail but I dismissed this tuffty grass as simply peculiar to the first day and reassured myself that it would not persist. I must say that I am not normally into self punishment so the riding of a hard tail was not through choice. My regular steed, a 5 inch travel soft tail had died and the timeous arrival of its warranty replacement had been thwarted by an Icelandic volcano with an unpronounceable name. So I now hate tuffty grass because of a volcano in a freezing country with a broken banking system 8000km’s away, we do live in strange times. Billy, whom I knew from a past life at boarding school,  kept us entertained as we rode next to the Vaal river with stories of teenage sexual conquests on these very banks during school holidays, with every story ending with him being bitten by a dog ‘tied loose’ on him by the recipient of his affections mother. Who said riding in the Free State was boring. The other noteworthy observation of the riding on the first day (and a theme that was to persist) was that once we had a sniff of the finish, about 30km’s out, and despite this being a neutral (non race) day little Merl put the hammer down and bolted for home and all this in spite of, or maybe a direct result of, his erratic blood flow. You see the lovely Suzzie had taken a week off to follow the race and she was waiting at the finish. I now know why Lance always has his current girlfriend waiting at the finish of every stage, it keeps blood flow out of the brain and below the waist just were an ailing cyclist needs it!

The welcome in Frankfurt was a chorus of “Oom kan ek jou fiets skoonmaak, oom” (in this town if you own a mountain bike and are older that eight you are an Oom!)and a barrage of fish from the Wilge Rivier. Those okes caught and fed us every fish that has ever swum, thought about swimming, has a relative or friend that has swum in the Wile Rivier or any other fish that vaguely knows another fish that fits into the aforementioned categories. I tell you when this race comes back next year there will be allot of fish going into hiding! Having a beer watching the sunset over the Free State with a tired happy body surrounded by equally tired happy riders this lark was starting to make sense. Please note none of this paragraph is applicable to my riding partner who I suspect was watching the sunset from his B&B nearby trying to make sense of his erratic blood flow.

Swampdogs Sunny Social Saturday Spruit (S)ride

Very chilled – totally social – everybody out to get some exercise and fresh air.  Four of us on brand new Whytes – loving them.

3 of the 4 new Whyte's - Alberts Farm

New and new new. Ibis cracked Whyte arrived :)

The universe is funny.  I got a call from the bike shop this morning to say that my Ibis frame had cracked and that the warranty process had started – damn no bike!  Not two hours later I got call to say that our long awaited new bikes –  Whytes E-120 XX Works had arrived – ah new bike!  Needless to say I couldn’t wait long before I piled into the shop for an excited collection.  Whyte is home, been for a spin around the hood – details and more pics to follow after a weekend or riding.

Getting a new bike is as exciting when you are 7, 12 or 40 years old.

Mike couldn't leave the bikes alone - we asked him to put them down but he wouldn't :)

Fun movie clips from the JoBerg2C

On day one, we came across Rhys who had a crank problem and was busy riding 40km with one leg.

On day nine, Mike’s riding style seemed to change to accomodate for his quad injury … he was renamed “bob” for obvious reasons.

One legged riding

JoBerg2C Photo’s

Here are some of my favourite photo’s from JoBerg2C – this truly amazing, once in a lifetime experience.  You can also see the full gallery on the JoBerg2C photo page if you follow this link.

Chilling on the beach deck after JoBerg2c with Swampdogs

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Proof. The sea. Photos of JoBerg2c to follow tomorrow

Look out for a big upload of hundreds of photos when I get home and can download.

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We made it. On the beach at the end of JoBerg2c

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