Adventures of an Ordinary Cyclist

A journal of my Freedom Challenge mountain bike adventures, 2007, 2009(tandem)2011, 2012(solo) and 2014. Race to Rhodes and the 2300km Race Across South Africa. The race starts in Pietermaritzburg and ends in Wellington close to Cape Town, with a 26 day cut-off. The Ride to Rhodes(2008-unblogged and 2010) is a shortened version that starts in Pietermaritzburg and ends 6 days later in Rhodes.

Monday, 21 December 2020

My Year in Sport Stats

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Each December Strava sends its members an email extolling their sporting achievements for the year. It's pretty cool to see the number o...

Tuesday, 17 November 2020

Race to Cradock 2020

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For those who like to crunch data I've listed my times for this years race. The time in brackets (...) are the times I posted before th...

Sunday, 25 October 2020

RASA 2020 the Final Night

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I had finally made it out of Stettynskloof. It hadn't been easy. With only 13 minutes sleep in the last 42 hours my thinking had become ...

3 comments:

Friday, 9 October 2020

Ultra Endurance Cycling - The What, How and Why

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The sleet stings my exposed fingers which is odd as I've lost most of the feeling in my hands. I crouch over the handlebars sheltering t...

1 comment:

Tuesday, 6 October 2020

The cockerel didn’t crow this year

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If I said it was a weird year I'm fairly sure there wouldn't be any dissenting opinions. 2020 is a year that will go down as a wate...

3 comments:

Thursday, 5 March 2020

Atlas Mountain Race - Registration

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Registration for the race takes place at the Mogador Kasbah Hotel and Spa. That's 5km's from our accommodation. Practically speaking...

2 comments:

Tuesday, 3 March 2020

Atlas Mountain Race - Mystical Marrakech

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Our Riad is exactly that—a townhouse with a central courtyard and a fountain. In pride of place in the centre of the courtyard is an orange ...

Sunday, 1 March 2020

Atlas Mountain Race - Welcome to Marrakech

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The wing dips as we make our final turn into Marrakech Ménara Airport in Morocco. I've got a window seat and all I can see is an endless...

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Wednesday, 5 February 2020

The HeidelBay 545 - Part 5

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It's 2am. We've eaten our toasted sandwiches and had coffee awful enough to ward off the most resilient of sleep monsters. The ride ...

Monday, 3 February 2020

The HeidelBay 545 - Part 4

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The ride to Vryheid takes us away from the train track which has been our lodestar. We'll be riding district roads for this leg. We'...

Saturday, 1 February 2020

The HeidelBay 545 - Part 3

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With our bikes liberated of most of the mud we continue down the road. I'm aware of the grinding of brake rotors as we slosh through pud...

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About Me

Mike: Johannesburg, South Africa; Just an ordinary guy who started riding in 2005 at the age of 45. I started with the ambition of completing the local 94.7 Cycle Challenge (94.7km). This is an annual road cycle race in and around Johanesburg. Some where along the way it become a race and not merely a completion excercise. I clocked a 2h54 in my first attempt only 6 months from my first trundle down the road and back. I was hooked and then discovered the magic of MTB. While my efforts on the road were credible, MTBing humbled me. Having said that, over the last 24 months I have competed in 9 multi-day events. I'm a very middle of the field rider, but I enjoy every minute of it.

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