As the warmer weather is coming, my interest in cycling more as started to grow. I’ve had a very very lazy winter. All I’ve done fitness wise is play some squash, action cricket and a bit of hockey. Did a couple of very short rides, and 1 race.
I did the race at Avianto a few weeks back, and wasn’t expecting to do anything spectacular since I worked till all hours the night before. I think I managed 1 hours sleep, before getting up to get ready for the race. I was so not interested in racing that I decided to start right at the back. Started riding and got into a vey good grove and started overtaking people. After about 5km’s I got a phone call from work so stopped on the side to help, and lost almost all the positions I had gained. Finished my call and started again. Found my grove again, and was feeling good. Caught upto someone I know from hockey with about 10km’s to go so rode with him for a bit. With about 2km’s to go I decided to push on. Finished the race feeling good, and waited for Doug who was doing the longer race. Checked the results the other day and found out that I ended up 8th in the 30km race. Not too shabby considering.
The route was pretty good. Had a bit of everything. Some tough climbs, some good single track and a bunch of technical parts. All in all a very enjoyable ride.
This past weekend I played hockey and got hit on my right big toe. My toe is looking all kinds of pretty colours at the moment, so not sure how long I am not going to be able to ride. Hopefully it’ll be okay to do the Spring Classic this weekend. Been looking forward to this ride for a while, so I’ll end up going even if my toe is still stuffed.
Burry Stander came 8th in this weekends World Cup race. He was with the lead group until lap 5 when he had a technical which put him down. His form is looking good though having come 3rd in the Marathon World Championships a few weeks back. Let’s hope he goes well at the X-country world champs coming up soon.
Hope everyone is good.
So another week of NO cycling has come and gone, and with it the World Cup too. Not sure if I am happy or sad that the World Cup is over though. It’s been awesome to see how well South Africa did at hosting the event, but in a way it will be good to have things back to normal. Hopefully with that I’ll actually get on my bike again and start getting that fitness up. I played squash again last week, and I can feel that it is helping me with my base fitness, and also with working other muscles that I don’t normally work when riding. Hopefully it’ll make me a better cyclist.
I think the race that I am going to start training for is the Spring Classic. I did it last year, and it was quite enjoyable except for the fact that I forgot to take any hydration with me. 
This year I won’t forget it, and will try to get a better finish than I did in last years race.
Finally a HUGE congrats to Spain who won their FIRST Soccer World Cup.
Happy riding peeps. 
So since I haven’t been doing much riding the past few weeks I figured I need to do something to try keep fit. Yeah, I still play action cricket, but that doesn’t really do much for ones fitness.
So I’ve decided that I am going to start playing squash again. I really enjoy squash, and it’s a nice way to get more flexible (which I am sure will help my cycling in some way), as well as very fit. If you play squash against someone on the same level, or just a little better than yourself, you tend to get fit very quickly as there is a lot of running around done. The one thing I am not looking forward to is the sore muscles. I always find I work muscles that haven’t been worked in a while when I play squash for the first few times after a long time away from playing.
I will try keep the squash up, even when I start cycling again. On the cycling note, I might be going for a little bit of a ride this weekend. Not sure where it’ll be, as I think I’ve lost a lot of my fitness, so don’t want to go on a long ride, only to really suffer. Especially since I’ve just got over the flu.
Have a goodie.
Before I forget.
A while back I posted that I was looking at going the 2×10 route, and was trying to decide what to do. Well, not long after that post my crank started giving me real problems, so it needed to be changed. I went to my LBS to replace it with a 3×10 crank, and told the guy there that I was looking at going 2×10 later in the year. He then asked me why I don’t just go 2×9 now. I was like WTF, can I do that with my setup? He said it was easy, and that I wouldn’t need to buy anything other than a new crank (which I was going to do anyway). So I went ahead and did it.
The 2×9 has taken a bit of getting used to, and with my lack of riding during winter, it is obviously taking a bit longer than it should. I did the Magalies Monster 70km (where the Horndog did really well) using my 2×9 setup, and it went well considering it was only my 2nd ride with the setup. The first being a short 40km ride.
I am looking forward to warmer weather so that I can get some more km’s in, and master the 2×9. I will be going to 2×9 later in the year still, I just won’t need to get a new crank. Gives me a change to save up, and on the plus side… I should be a lot stronger when I do switch from 2×9 to 2×10.
Sjoe. 2 posts in 1 day.
So we are having our Winter here in South Africa, and I have to say it has caused me to lose most of my motivation to ride. Well to do any kind of activity really. It’s just TOO cold in the mornings. I suppose I could do something in the afternoon when it is a bit warmer, but by that time I am enjoying a lazy day, or one of the World Cup Soccer matches going on.
So, for this Winter, I am going to hang up the cycling shoes, and support the World Cup. I’m looking forward to the 2nd round because I think there are going to be some cracking games. Germany vs England. Argentina vs Mexico. Tonight I will be supporting Italy. Hopefully they can get the win and progress through.
Once again I must apologize for my lack of posting. I really don’t have an excuse other than being really lazy. Hopefully I can get my A into G now, and post more regularly.
To those of you still riding during winter. Good luck, and enjoy it.
So since the Epic I have only been doing very short rides which had some technical parts to them. Along with that I have been playing some hockey. It is now hockey season, so I tend to ride a little less, but this year I am going to try ride more than in previous years, and still play the hockey.
So having entered the Magalies Monster, and hearing how tough of a race/ride it is, Doug and I decided it was time to do a proper ride. So this weekend we went to our old hunting ground Breedts Nek. Now we haven’t ridden here since Justin and I left for the Epic, and boy was Breedts holding a grudge against us. The wind was howling. Normally you get a head wind on the way back to the car, but this weekend there was a strong head wind for most of the ride. To go with the head wind my legs were feeling a bit tender. Not sure why, but that along with the terrible wind made this the worst Breedts Nek ride I have done in a long time (if not ever).
Will be doing a race at Avianto on Sunday, but still need to get some good kilo’s in so that the Monster isn’t going to be a complete killer, so will most likely ride out at Breedts again this Saturday. Hopefully the wind won’t be blowing so much.
Oh yes, we won our action cricket last night. We’ve had a bit of a bad run lately having lost the last 3 games before that, so it was good to get a win again.
Finally, I’ll be uploading some pictures from the Epic this week. So keep an eye on the http://www.irvine.co.za/Cape-Epic-Journey/?page_id=85
Since the Epic I have not done that much mileage on my MTB….and that is all down to the weather in JHB at the moment. That said I have been doing 3 rides a week on my road bike and I must say I am feeling super strong at the moment! I am down in CPT at the moment for work and I have entered a 50km race in Elgin/Grabouw this weekend (8th May). Epic country!!! I am itching to get out there again!
I am going to get some nice rides in this week in Tokia forest to make sure all is well with the bike! Updates to follow!
So since my crank is ever so slightly damaged from the Epic, I have been trying to decide on what route to go. Do I simply by a replacement crank and carry on as I have, or do I move to a 2×10 groupset (or like SRAM like to call it 2×10 family).
Personally I am thinking of going to a 2×10 setup. Not because I want to lose weight on my bike setup, but simply because “less is more”. By this I mean the chain shouldn’t stretch as much and therefore maybe last longer… Obviously I don’t know if this is the case, but it makes sense to me. I was wondering how on earth I was going to afford the XX setup, but then SRAM went and released a 2×10 setup in X7/9 and X0. I’m sure these will come in at a lower price than the XX since they won’t be carbon. I’ve been looking at them quite a lot online, and I quite like the X9 “family”. So I’ll be riding my bike with the damaged crank for a while (unless I find a cheap crank for now) until the X9 is available. Hopefully it’s pretty soon.
Maybe a new bike with the X9 setup is the way to go…
Happy riding.
It’s been way too long since we updated this site. It’s actually shocking. Wanted to update the site during the race, but just didn’t have the time. Will put up a post soon with a nice run down of the race.
The good news is that we both finished the ABSA CAPE EPIC for 2010.
Played action cricket last week for the first time in ages, and boy did my legs hurt after that. I find it quite amazing how I managed to ride 8 days in a row and my legs didn’t hurt, and then I play 2 action cricket games, and my legs feel like they are being stabbed.
Already looking forward to the next race. I just don’t know which one it is going to be though…
Hope everyone is enjoying their riding.
So we did a new ride this weekend. The ride was called the Mugg and Cheese ride. The reason for the name is because we start at a Mugg and Bean and ended up at Van Gaalen’s Cheese Farm. The overall distance is around 90km’s with around 1100m’s climbing. I still need to get my polar sorted out, so I don’t have the exact details of the ride.
I must say that it was a quite enjoyable ride, with some challenging climbs, but for the most part it is a good, easy going ride. I’m sure some of the guys(and lady) on the ride got a bit irritated with the noise my bike was making. It turns out my BB is totally shot, so my bike is in the shop this week to get sorted out. I’m looking forward to quiet rides this weekend, as I am sure the guys I will be riding with are also.
As for the Action cricket last week, I am happy to report that we won GOLD!
Can’t believe that there are only 25 days until the start of the Epic 2010. Man the excitement is building!!
Happy riding.