DJR

There will DEFINITELY be a lot of beer drinking and I promise to put two Eroica medals on your eyes so you can pay the ferryman to take you wherever you want to go.😜

Duringd, nothing at Eroica is a race, it is a ride, even the Nova. A few, maybe 3 guys, will race it, the rest will just go and have a day out on long lonely and very beautiful roads where the legs get tired, but the soul gets stronger by the kilometre!

Morne, it is tough because it is gravel, really long, forever up and down, with some big and long climbs. Most of all, it was picked by Stan ........ and I don't think he ever picked an easy route in his life! Aah, don't listen to me, I don't even have a gravel bike and I've never done the Nova ........ it will be a doddle! Promise!

Entered The Classic for 2022. This time I'm riding with my long standing (please note, not "old") team mate Beattbox. So, I suppose I'll have to dig out the somewhat worn (please note, not "old") team Pain or Shine cycling jersey. I have done it on the old Colnago and the Eddy Merckx in the past, now I'm thinking of riding Davids' technicolour Dreamcoat LeJeune to match Beattboxs' ride. We put that bike together the night before the ride, about 5 years ago, from whatever parts we could lay our hands on and it stayed like that. Oh what a lovely dilemma to have ........ deciding what bike to ride! Looking forward to trying the new format.

My most sneaky plan is that if he ever leaves the country, which is likely, then I'll have to look after it for him. He says he'll get a certificate saying it is Mammoth or Hippo.🤪

After doing it a couple of times, I fully agree with you. Heal well Eddy

😂Indeed

Chris, I hope that you won't mind me pinching one of those very wet pictures for my journal. All my own pictures look way too dry. Yours tell the story of the day much better. It is not for publication or distribution, but one day my children or grand children? may be impressed with what a hardcore guy I was..............😜

My hope was that D would actually USE the folder and for that reason we kept it as plain as we could. For instance, it has no decorative filing of the liners on the spine and everything is highly corrosion resistant. It is a valuable thing, and something that can last for generations, but I would find it sad if it only ever lives in a safe, so I'll keep encouraging him to bring it along on some of our adventures..

I had a horrid time deciding what to give my youngest D for his 21st. I built the older one a special ss art bike, that went down extremely well, and that set a pretty high standard. Luckily for me, Covid prevented my favourite no.1 knife maker, Des Horn, from traveling overseas and that gave him the time to make D a very special knife. The design is by Des and the combination of materials, is what my wife and I came up with for a unique knife for D. It is a small pocket locker folder from Damasteel (a modern stainless damaskus). The ball release and folding mechanism is more like a swiss watch than a knife. The liners are blue anodised titanium and the scales recycled old 1930s piano key ivory (yes, yes, I know, but I think it honours the elephant better than throwing it in a bin). The pouch is buffalo leather. To say that D was over the moon is a serious understatement.

With the great weather we have during March and April in the Cape, if it wasn't for those early mornings, it is so easy to miss the reality that we are already halfway between the summer and winter solstice.

We have one or two good ones a year

I found Assos excellent and very good value...............as long as my sponsor kept buying it without a peep (Like most Assos fans it is "sponsored by yourself") Then my sponsor got sponsored by Kraft and he started thinking (got wise) that maybe Assos wasn't quite such good value..............but I still have a pair of Assos socks that has now outlasted every other piece of cycling kit I own.

That's what they now call Port Elizabeth.

That's the new thing I learnt today Ben, thank you.

Hy't amper 'n kat in die sak gekoop😜

Yes it is. If I remember correctly they download at around 1.5 MB and print A4 size perfectly.

Could it be that Civil Aviation itself is a bigger problem that any specific SA airline? Or is that a question I am not allowed to ask?

Sanparks fixed the roads quite nicely after the last fires and after winter, that's why they are fine for a gravel bike at the moment. It will probably stay like that until we have some heavy winter rains again, then it will become more Mtb like terrain again. Enjoy while it lasts.

Coolest story of the week by 680 miles.

I would put it another way: Every morning, coffee makes life possible on an otherwise alien and hostile planet.

OK, so now I have another good excuse for why I never made it to the TdF, or the front of the CTCT, for that matter ............. it is because I cannot go on the go! (It's got nothing to do with genetic shortcomings or laziness ek se!)🤪

Pity there isn't a "like it a LOT" button

I think the City of Cape Town is trying to create this little "storm on the prominade" as a distraction from MUCH bigger issues in the area. Much better to have the Sea Point residents and ratepayers distracted and foaming from the mouth about those pesky little cyclists in lycra and flannel, than to actually LOOK and DO SOMETHING about the near raw sewerage that they are pumping into the ocean, or the explosion of street people, the totally unsanitary mess that causes, not to talk about the security problems and a rat plague. The City can do a LOT better spending their energy on REAL issues that can improve things for their ratepayers and residents, even the homeless!! Damn, I AM grumpy today! Guilty as charged!

I think it is perfectly possible for pedestrians and cyclists to co-exist and share places like the promenade. All it will take is a bit of common sense, good manners and consideration for others. Oh, wait, that is out of stock in Sea Point, uh, I mean, the World!