Saturday, December 26, 2009

25th of December 2009.

Went for a short ride with my son. Got told that my mountain bike is very hard to ride with. Right pedal is bend and wheels is out of allighnment I never noticed it. Have to start training again, picked up wheight and need to work and regain better vo max. All the beer and wine did not help. Try to get up early and go for along ride tomorrow.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

New GT

 
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The Bike.

Armstrong wrote it is not about the bike but I can tell you going from a mountain bike to a road bike is one hell of a change. Mountain bike 13 kgs roadbike 7 kgs. My son took it for a ride and told me that it takes no effort to ride. Then I set it up for myself and off I go. What a differance no effort and no work to get up to 30 kms an hour. Man this bike is a gem. One O five components all over racing wheels carbon seat stay, carbon handle bars and lightweight tyres. What more do you want. Dont forget about the seat, a wing flex. Aluminium frame with carbon fork. Nine speed 105 Shimano. It's going to be fun to ride with the group again.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

New bike.

Bought myself a road bike today. I am a GT fan and got this secondhand GT with really good components for hopefully a good price. It only weighs 7 kgs. What a pleasure after a 13kg mountain bike. A 6061 aluminium frame and a carbon fork with 105 components and some good wheels. I am picking it up tomorrow. Haven't ever ridden a decent roadbike. Don't like the thin wheels. But like the weight. Will tell you about it soon.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Golf day Citrusdal.

 
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This is really something I should not do. It is more difficult than riding 97km on a mountain bike. There should be a health warning to prevent non players playing in a work competition. Nine holes of hell. Temperature 38 degrees C. First hole a par five - what's that on a normal day? I get told: 'Don't look up when you want to hit the ball.' Easier said than done. Luckily we had a cart to drive around with. And luckily we had refreshment every three holes. Helped a bit with the jitters. Then in the end it did not help any more. So the "Bodorp" did not win. At least the after party was fun. Some happy homes were created. And very sad and disturbed people. I am back in Blaauwberg and some serious training needs to be done.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Sunday in Blaauwberg Sands

 
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No riding a screaming south easter.Lovely blue sky but dont try to ride your bicycle. I think riding on your home trainer will be much better. At least no wind. Even trying to go for a walk is testing. At least the birds are trying to fly around. Fifty five km a hour sound not to bad but try it on a mountain bike. Reading Jeremy Clarkson is much better and more fun.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

The past week's training.

Tuesday another day of veldfires and nothing happening in Citrusdal. So I had to go riding. Stiff and slow at first but soon I was sitting at 25 km an hour. This was really easy until I turned around and realised I was riding with the wind. Back it was hard maintaining 20 km an hour. Average speed 21.2 km an hour. Wednesday was a group ride and we also went out at good speed and after turning back the wind was from the front again but this time I could sit behind the road bikes. As always the roadbikes had big attitude but I hung in to until the finish. A hard ride, average speed 23.4 km an hour. Good ride and last ride in Citrusdal for this year.

Forklift

 
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Monday, December 7, 2009

Bubbly in Franschhoek.




What a weekend. To start off my car broke down before Piketberg and I had get towed in. Lucky for me a friend's wife stopped while I was stuck on the roadside and offered to give me a lift to Cape Town. Drove to Franschhoek and slept in the most stunning little cottage. Up early and had a lovely breakfast in town. Within an hour it turned from a little town to a madhouse, hundreds of cars, motorbikes and people and no parking. At eleven we arrived at the bubbly tasting. What a treat. Hundreds of different types of French Champagne and South African MCC. It made my head spin without drinking it. So little time and so much to taste. We eventually walked out at three o'clock in the afternoon giving away tasting and food tickets. What a day. The closest I got to a bicycle was looking at the Rabobank team riding past up the mountain.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

December in Citrusdal

Lovely cool morning and very hot midday. Sorry did not ride. Did some spray painting at work. Turned a forklift first grey and then yellow. Ended up with yellow paint dust everywhere. Got home and sat down with a beer. Great training. Feel a lot better now. Only two weeks before my work holiday starts. Motivation not big. Has got some thing to really look forward too, a bubbly weekend in Franschhoek with accommodation that my partner organised. What a weekend to look forward to.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Three days of rest.

Another evening without a ride. At least I have removed my bicycle from my car. My left foot is still sore. At my age recovery is very slow. We had a fire again last night the whole fire team was called out and the fire stopped in minutes. Big excitement for everybody. That's about the most exciting thing happening in Citrusdal. At work we are very busy. Shutdown maintenance. Ten years of neglect to repair in four months. I am trying to motivate myself to go for a ride tomorrow night. It was cool here this morning with some good cloud cover but at two it really cleared up and became warm.