Monday 31 December 2012

Closer to home... or at least it felt like it

In December my aunt & uncle came to visit, she treated me with these. They brought all  nine of us much joy over New Years on our cottage breakaway in Dorset. It made us miss the motherland a little bit less on the cold, wet miserable island.

Thank you for such amazing magazines. Thank you Rheta for using your baggage allowance on these.

#proudlysouthafrica #tread #bicycling #ride #sarie #rooirose



Albert, Gerhard van Niekerk, Christiaan, Zelda & Rochelle

Monday 24 December 2012

2nd Roadbike exploration...

My ma se woorde sou wees, "My kind wat het jou besiel?"

Well that is what I felt like on my 2nd ride, I was a little bit to keen to quickly, but on Christmas eve sommer the day after my first roadride I went for another ride. There was nothing wrong with the ride, but I should've maybe discerned a little bit more with who I was going to ride with.

Jason & I met Dawie at Robin Hood Gate... Boy oh boy, these guys just wanted to go FAST, sadly for them I was on cruise control, so they had to slow down.

I had the privilage to sit in the diamond, thats what I'm told it is called UNTIL we went round a corner with a strong wind from the front... & I realised this is where the chaf is being seperated from the wheat and what a privilage it was to sit in that diamond. I begged them to just go & leave me so that I could go at my own pace, but they insisted to hang around...

Did I mention that roadriding is constant & consistent all the time... No time to play around or stop to even smell the roses.

We did a few laps of the park & went to Richmond Hill Bakery for coffee & awesome cake. #highly recommended.

If you know me well, I'm not known to sit still for to long or take afternoon naps, I was so exhausted from 2 days riding in a row that I HAD to just lie in my bed that afternoon before I headed out again.

Lessons learned from the day:

1. Choose your company wisely :-) (ride at your level of competance)
2. Always finish a lap... the start of overcoming some mental issues

Dawie, J & TC @ Richmond Hill Bakery

Sunday 23 December 2012

Joining the "Darkside..."

Like my ouma said, never say never as never is a very long time.

On 23rd December 2012 I did my first ever roadride.

I don't really know why I decided to do it, but seeing that I've been rebelling for a long time, I've not been out riding for a long time & probably mostly because one after the other of my friends started to break the trust & joined the darkside, so I had to see for myself. Lets blame #FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)!

Lindie Gericke kindly borrowed her bike to me & with the help of Jason we put on some clip in pedals the night before.

It was with great fear that I embarked on this very first ride as the panic levels were high as I didn't know how to change the gears & couldn't reach the gears... PANIC!!!

Thankfully on the day of the ride I didn't have a handbag swinging around obstructing the front wheel.

I asked Christiaan along to be a witness of the spectacle & he agreed straight away. If only I knew earlier that it will take me on a roadbike to get him back on his bike. His suprize was big when he found out that we were planning to go to Windsor & back. :-)  Thankfully pride has its time & place & he went with us all the way. Cecilia also thought we were just going to Richmond Park so joined the spectacle to Hampton Bridge & back. Steph & Gerhard joined us from Hampton Bridge onwards.

Paula nearly fell over when she realised I was on a roadbike, I'm not sure whether it was the fact that I was on a roadbike or the fact that she now knew she will be running out of excuses to join us on our mountainbikes.

I've been asked how many times during the ride how is it? Are you enjoying it? I managed to avoid the question by pulling faces, but here is the honest answer.

1. It was definately not love at first sight
2. It was a good workout
3. It was great to to ride again - regardless of the discipline
4. It gets boring
5. It is not as sociable whilst you are riding
6. It is scary & fast - I don't like the cars
7. It is polite i.e. you have to handle the bike politely, no room for error :(

I'm grateful for:

1. The set-up tweaks (also known as phaffing) to the saddle by Gerhard and even wearing full gloves after the halfway mark helped as the frame of the bike is definately to big for me & my index fingers got sore. It was good to go through that as I was able to feel the diffence after each tweak especially as I didn't know how it should feel on a roadbike.
2. Lindi's commuter brakes on the handlebar, maybe not acceptable for proper roadies, but a blessing when you can't reach the brakes in the drops. :)

How was the pace for you?
Mmm, a few more rides & we would be able to keep up a bit better

What did I miss the most on the ride?
My camelbak

Will I do it again?
Yes, I will. Well technically I've been out again since that day.

Will I buy a roadbike?
Maybe...

Quote of the day
Talk less & pedal more - Jason Wentzel

We clocked 80k's and 2 coffee stops. Thank you for your patience guys & giving us some slip. See I even know some of the lingo. :)

Spot the Mountainbikers in their camouflage
FLTR: Paula, Jason, ?, Stephné, Gerhard & Christiaan
Photo taken by: Stranger in Great Park, Windsor





Big Ring Chicks
Hampton Court Café