Wednesday, 29 June 2011

Work to be done

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Although my race is over I still have some unfinished business. The Freedom Challenge Scholarship Fund is a cause that is very close to my h...
Tuesday, 14 June 2011

Supernova

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Day 2 Ntsikeni to Masakala. On what is supposed to be day 3 of my race I am sitting in the sun pecking out this blog. My left leg is useles...

Day 1 - Wow!

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Day 1. Wow what fun! The press release for the day tells the story: "Leaving Pietermaritzburg on Sunday morning, current tandem record...
Saturday, 11 June 2011

One more big sleep

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Game on!. Have arrived in Pietermaritzburg ready to start tomorrow at 6am. We are staying at Aintree Lodge as I have done on 4 previous occa...
Wednesday, 8 June 2011

Rain, rain and more snow

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Woke up this morning and turned the telly on just to see a picture that reminded me of why this race is a bad idea! The whole country covere...
Saturday, 4 June 2011

One week. One weak!

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7 days from now I travel down to Pietermaritzburg to start the race. The question in my mind now is - have I done enough to adequately prepa...
Tuesday, 24 May 2011

Another year, another race

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New Year, Easter and Christmas - the milestones that mark the passing of the year for most folk. For a small band of mountain bikers there i...
Friday, 18 June 2010

Finally at Rhodes

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Today was the last stretch for the Rough Ride to Rhodes bunch. Knowing that it was a short day (if a 7 to 9 hour day can be considered short...
Wednesday, 16 June 2010

Ride into a frozen Vuvu

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Really cold night at Malaghalonyane last night made it difficult to sleep. Got going just after 6 to be faced with an icy wind blowing off t...
Tuesday, 15 June 2010

First Snow

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We had a lie in today due to the short section. Only about 60km. We hopped out of bed at 6 for a 7 o'clock breakfast to start at 8. At 7...
Monday, 14 June 2010

Days 2 and 3

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Today was much like yesterday in one respect and in another the complete opposite. Yesterday I had no fun on the trail and today was just th...
Saturday, 12 June 2010

When walking is a great idea

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At first glance this concrete "road" looks like the perfect option for descending into the Umkomaas valley. The only problem being...
Friday, 11 June 2010

So not ready!

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7 hours till the start of the ride and I have only just finished packing my backpack - to be fair I only started on it an hour ago. Have b...
Friday, 4 June 2010

2010 and on the trail again

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Fifty, Fat and Fantastically under trained I have just over a week until the start of Ride 2 Rhodes 2010. To be fair I did ride the inaugura...
Saturday, 11 July 2009

Looking back, I can only smile...

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As you have probably deduced from Mike’s blog, things got pretty nasty out there and the race ended up being a lot harder than we were e...
5 comments:
Friday, 10 July 2009

Last Word

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Back at work going through my email - doesn't compare to being on the trail. As hard as the ride was this year I have not been traumatis...
Wednesday, 8 July 2009

Final Day

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Today all we had to do was get through Stettynskloof and then make our way through to Wellington to cross the finish line. For those of you ...
3 comments:
Monday, 6 July 2009

Day 20 - Montagu, McGregor, Kasra, Trouthaven

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Just over15 hours today, 165km. Leaving Montagu this morning I was stuck by the number of lit dwellings on the farmlands. We have become acc...
2 comments:
Sunday, 5 July 2009

Day 19 - Finally some sleep in Montegu

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By the time we arrived in Montagu at 11h30 this morning we had been on the road for over 30 hours. We had only covered 220km since leaving D...
3 comments:

Day 18 - Die Hell, Rouxpos, Anysberg

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It is now 3 in the morning. We have been moving since 5 yesterday morning. We are sitting around the table debating the merits of pushing on...
Saturday, 4 July 2009

Day 17 - Prince Albert to Die Hell.

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Took us 10 hours to cover about 65km today. That did include 1 hour of parking off in the sun drinking tea and later stopping to make a snow...

Musing from atop a mountain pass

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10h30 Tuesday 30th June. Here we sit on top of the Swartberg Pass drinking coffee. It it amazing how your race can suddenly change. 24 hours...
Friday, 3 July 2009

Day 16 - Willowmore to Prince Albert

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172 km day in 14 hours. Better than the nearly 20 hours it took us to do a similar distance yesterday. Given the terrain and weather conditi...
3 comments:
Thursday, 2 July 2009

Day 15 - Cambria to Willowmore

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19 hours 45 mins! Today we started at 04h30 with the objective of getting to Willowmore which is the support station beyond Damsedrif. It is...
3 comments:
Wednesday, 1 July 2009

Day 14 - Bucklands to Cambria

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12 hours today. Battled to get going but finished feeling strong. Weather was great today. In places it was hot enough to have just a short ...

Day 13 - Toekomst to Bucklands

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Today was in total contrast to yesterday. We were on the road for 11 hours today which included a 45 minute lunch stop as well as a 45 minut...
Saturday, 27 June 2009

Day 12 - Van de Venterskraal to Toekomst

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Soft day today. Too much wind, too much mud and too much cold rain to be fun. To add to our misery we sustained a side wall gash of the fron...

Day 11 - Stuttgard to Van der Venterskraal

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Yesterday was a miserable day with leg problems. Last night I spoke to Doc Rudi who explained that the recommended treatment for acute ITB w...
1 comment:
Thursday, 25 June 2009

Day 10 - Elandsberg to Stuttgardt

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Today was horrible! Early in the ride my right knee started hurting. Pedalling was impossible without experiencing intense pain. To add to o...
3 comments:

Day 9 - Romansfontein to Elandsberg

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13h30. Owing to a professional foul committed the previous day ( we diverted around a portion of the route due to thunder storms ) we were o...
1 comment:
Wednesday, 24 June 2009

Day 8 - Vaalbank to Romansfontein

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A day to remember; a day to forget! Thunderstorms, rain, sleet, wind, mud and freezing conditions all combined to make today a hard miserabl...
3 comments:
Saturday, 20 June 2009

Day 7 - Slaapkranz to Vaalbank

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11h30 today. Day started with back to back mountain portages. The first 20km's took us 4h15 by which time we were clear of both mountain...
Friday, 19 June 2009

Day 6 - Chesneywold to Slaapkrantz

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Short day. We took 5 hours to cover 36km today with one portage. Started out with minus 3 degrees this morning. The ground blanketed in fros...

Day 5 - Vuvu to Chesneywold

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15 hour day. We started the day by scuttling up Lehana ahead of everyone else. We did start about 10 mins ahead of the next couple of riders...
2 comments:
Wednesday, 17 June 2009

Day 4 - Malekhalonyane to Vuvu

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12 hours today. Day started at 05h10 with 8 of the riders from Batch A who we have caught up with. Getting out of the support station was tr...
1 comment:

Day 3 - Banchory to Malekhalonyane

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14 hour day today. We arrived at Masakala at 12h30 after a good ride through the Taylorville single track and left again 20 mins later and r...
Tuesday, 16 June 2009

Day 2. Centacow to Banchory.

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Hard day. Only covered 86km in 14 hours. Climbed some big stuff today. Legs are tired. Lack of sleep is showing. Only had 4h30 sleep in the ...
Monday, 15 June 2009

Coffee time in the mountains

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It is now 07h30. We have been on the go for 3 hours so far. Most of it uphill. Our method for hauling the Beast up the mountains is to tie a...
1 comment:
Sunday, 14 June 2009

Day 1

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Today was really tough. 156km in 16h20. The tandem is really hard to keep moving. With two human passengers loaded with trail luggage the to...
1 comment:

Great way to start the race

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Shoulder still not is good shape. Have patches and drugs so hope it gets better quickly. Now at the start about to set off. Hard day ahead ...
Saturday, 13 June 2009

And the final weight of the Beast is. . . .

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27.4kg ! Oh my greatness this thing is a monster! This is the weight without water in the bottles. I am hoping all the fences and gates alon...