Richard the Lion Heart

Wow reading all these pages on this thread it is amazing what an impact Barry had on so many peoples lives. I will miss my interactions with him on Twitter and the odd visit to Procycles on a Saturday where his sense of humor always cracked me up. I found found a post from my Blog in 2012 where I did a ride that Barry organized in the mine dumps: http://www.mountainbikingdiary.com/2012/06/after-sani.html RIP my friend

Normally 2-4 times a week, we have a Whats App group and confirm who is riding the night before, normally 4 to 5 die hards and as summer comes group expands to over 10. We do about 30km, averaging 22km/h and return at about 6:10. Distances and times will vary if we are training for Sani2C etc..

We have a MTB group that rides most mornings through the plots of Benoni - on and off road. Meeting at 04:50 outside Planet Fitness gym in Lakefield and then 05:00 at the bottom of Mercury street by Homestead Dam.

Spain is awesome, I had the privilege of riding there last month. They have a 50km dedicated dual cycle lane from Madrid to the village we where went mountain biking from into the mountains. It was packed with riders all day long. Nice and safe - which I can relate to after I got taken out by a taxi on last Saturday on Allendale road

Yup with Masterlink1 above - this is the route we do a few times a week, 3 to 4 times early moring rides on the MTB, routes and group sizes vary. Awesome riding, check out some of photos on my blog: http://www.mountainbikingdiary.com/

Great read, you should definitely start a blog to share your experiences and humour

Great race I really enjoyed the route, wind was challenging but I made some friends and we took turns pulling in front. I feel for the guys without chips, I had mine thanks for someone telling me beforehand. Never heard of a MTB race where you must bring your 'road chip'. Don't know what to think of the results, I came 16th in the 66km (awesome result for me) - not sure how many chip less competitors were ahead of me!

That is terrible news, RIP, condolences to the family.

Limited riding to a few times per week, cold weather plays havoc on the sinuses. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-upAYsHodpd8/UA0lYkg3w6I/AAAAAAAAAxs/6_QQR3VGlmA/s400/cold_flu_season_cartoon_print_poster-r8102d6ce5c0f41229efc6df41da437c9_aitcd_400.jpg

Here is my blog post for our Sani2C 2013 Trail. I have some video from Day2 so the guys in the race can see how it could have been going down the valley when it is dry. http://www.mountainbikingdiary.com/

So I dusted off my road bike and did this race yesterday for the first time (as a point of clarity, I prefer to MTB but this event is close to home and I thought it would be a nice training ride). The race started late and the Open AL batch I was in for the 105km, only got away at 08:20 (15 min late). What I can't understand is why they can't shorten the start gaps between the groups in road races (if not combine the smaller groups)? I understand in mountain bike races you want to eliminate bottlenecks at single track etc but why in road races? Surely it does not make too much difference if the groups are dispatched closer (and or bigger in the smaller road races).....just asking P.S. It was sooo windy yesterday I think I just wanted more people to hide behind.

Great race until the bottleneck at the end. I think even if that bridge was fixed,most MTBers would have struggled to get up the steep bank on the other side, it was slippery to even walk up. They should have let the 40km riders come back on the single track next to the river like last year, splitting the route even further.

Somehow I have managed to move up from group F in the last Nissan race (which I did not do because I was sick) to group D in this race, reckon if I skip a few more races I should be in the A batch soon , anyways give me a shout when you ride past...

Hope the chicks will be worth it because your gonna be disapointed with your Nissan D&D goody bag (we got one pair of socks between four of us) P.S. What group are you starting in?

Awesome hopefully see you there, entries are still open and will close when capacity is reached of 2500 (mate entered on the weekend and they were almost on 2000)