DieVlieg

Completely F'ed up my RD this weekend. I hope I can get a new one before the race. If anyone has something second hand. I'll pay cash and fetch in Gauteng.

Anyone know a route to commute from PTA Airforce base to Kempton/Edenvale.

My dad stays that side and I visit from time to time. It is definitely worth it taking a bike. Just take a partner as you sometimes might find yourself in the middle of nowhere. Definitely something of everything out there. Only one rock garden though. Yipeee As I suggested cycle out to Grootgewagt dam cycle around a bit and follow the bike tracks. Then soon you will find some arrows and wooden poles in the ground leading you inside the forests. There are tracks right around the dam and beyond.

The cold makes my nose runny. What works for this? I spend so much enegy sniffing and trying to breath that it definitely affects my riding a snotskoot . I have not tried covering my face yet but am scared that affects the breathing too. Other option is the blowhole trick... not pretty.

Lets hope it is not as cold as today. My only decent training ride left is tomorrow morning. Groenkloof is going to wonder if I'm there to cycle or ski.

I hope this works http://www.strava.com/activities/132881120

Hi I do not know how to send you the route that I recorded but will figure it out and will send. Just ask anyone in town to show you how to get to Grootgewagt Dam. For a no admission trail I think that trail is the best in the country. And you can just continue to ride through plantations next to the actual trail as everything around there is not fenced.

With 80 you probably wear one once a year. Normal folk can only buy one and expect it to last a lifetime.

Get the bike out of the bag and go ride on Saturday. I did my first Marathon in the Magalies a wef weeks ago and was pissed at myself for not riding enough before the time.

It is only by pure luck I got to go next weekend. This weekend it is me and Groenkloof and Klapperkop unfortunately no propper recovery as I am having a party afterwards. The wifes due date is the 20th so +- the next month except for the race it is Groenkloof as I stay right next to it.

Agnee. I thought I was done with this notorious sections. Now you guys are dropping names that sound pretty much like I need to bring a bullet proof vest with. Then all my effort will go into technical riding this weekend combined with some distance.

Make notes of exactly where in the course you cursed the most. When you hit the sections where you feel this is inhumane just think of us and cut the corner... lol

Nice! I'm glad there is interest. On Saturday I am riding at Groenkloof from 07:00 the morning. Unfortunately it wont be much fun as I am on search for loose rocky climbs but will do the nicer single tracks in between. I will also head out to nearby Klapperkop afterwards. I hope to do at least 3 hours of riding but feel free to join me any time during this time I'll be willing to ride to the entrance to meat. I am power training for a marathon next week at Van Gaalens however I'm not even close to being even a top 40% finisher. Send me an IM

Pretoria Croup Rides I had some success personally in another thread meeting some riders in the Pretoria area to go Mountain Biking with. Therefore I'd like to start a new thread for Pretoria MTB riders to post their needs for riding partners. Weather it be Morning Rides, Night Rides, Weekend Rides post it here together with some of your requirements use the list belof as guidance. 1. Starting area 2. Staring time 3. Intended route description. 4. Riding distance 5. Pace 6. Also state if you are in it for fun or if you want to do serious training Mountain biking takes us to places we rarely get to see otherwise and sometimes to remote places where there is nobody around. Mountain Biking is also more enjoyable with others. Riding in numbers ensures safety, you learn new routes and areas and you may even pick up some skills. Post your next ride in this thread and ask someone to join. Always have fun no matter what!!!

I have been eating below recipe as quik to make snack before I started reading on LCHF. I have a book on order from oorlede Kalahari on the subject and will soon start experimenting. But through what I have read Coconut Cream or milk seem to be a good source of fat in a diet. Can anyone score my recipe or effectiveness not taste and give me advice to improve it. 1. Steam chicken (even if frozen) in a steam pot untill it falls off the bone. (+-30 to 45 mins) 2. Take out the bones and but chicken back in the water remaining in the pot. 3. Add 1 can of tomatoes 4. Add one can of coconut cream or milk 5. Add tai green curry paste (Or other Asian curry paste), black pepper and other spices you like 6. Boil the lot for 15 mins 7. Blend the lot until a creamy soup Eat warm with a knob of butter and vinegar if the taste is still to sweet for you.

I only have one problem and that is they made road following the perimeter fence too smooth. Otherwise I think Groenkloof is a perfect venue. The long weekends I rode past the campsites and it seemed very popular with decent folks camping there. You can also easaly cycle to the Voortreker Monument which is cycle vriendly or Fort Klapperkop. And if you want an adventure do all 3. I stay next to Klapperkop and it is a 5 min cycle to the entrance. You'd think I'd be a local by now but for some reason I'm not.

Close to my house and a good excuse to get the legs stretched. Does anyone have any info on the fibe there for none riders. I want to lure the wife there. Alex

Agnee, I was hoping for a breather after the Monster. Now it seems I'm in for it again. Luckily I learnt a ton from the Monster and I will come better prepared. Would have done much more training by that time. I am also getting the bike properly fixed tomorrow. It seems like I need to find myself some loose rocks and ride them up and down all day long.

Myself and a fellow hubber will be going on a MTB ride this Sunday. We will start from the Hazeldean Square shopping center and ride 120km on the district roads to the east of Pretoria. The pace will be 20km/h which should give us 6 hours riding time. The ride will start at 08:00AM if not maybe earlier. Anyone interested please IM me.

Try these mail addresses. Just include your tracking number. They take a day to respond. Corli Steyn <Corli.Steyn@postoffice.co.za> JIMCCustomerServices@postoffice.co.za

Yup thanks pics are up at R63.60 for the download of one picture one has to choose wisely. Thank god I did not have to stand in the velt for 8 hours or so. Nice job guys but I'd like a sliding scale on quantity of items bought.

I must have gone past 50 water bottles on the side of the track. Mostly on the fast rocky downhills. I bought a camel back insulated BOTTLE not backpack and that saved my life. After leaving home there were still ice in the bottle at the start. Also it ensured that my water stayed cold from water point to water point as I also took some ice from the buckets. The squirt nipple is the best. No huffing and puffing from breathlessness after taking sips on bottles where you need to suck like a piglet just for a mouth full.

Just another thing about this race. I see this thread has attracted fairly more posts than most other races on this forum.

Next up the 70km at Van Gaalens on the 14 June. Hope to see some of you there. BTW I've bee looking for photos of the race and saw some posts on the subject but I have not managed to find the official web space for them yet.

Someone asked I report back after the race to get a noobs response to the race. I would also like to ask you all to quote from this whenever a noob ever asks you what the race is like. This was my first ever race and by default also my first Monster. Firstly I am a noob, I only started cycling regularly in December last year and I am riding a hard tail that cost me R10 000 which is a good enough bike to not allow me any excuses. I got to the race early at 06:10 as I expected ques and chaos but soon realized that this race and I hope every other race I enter was well organised. After I parked I was done receiving my number and entering for the buffalo category within 15 minutes. The rest of the time I spent calming myself down. I seeded myself on what I thought my ability was but from my results I was mmm... a bit over confident. The race started and I was ampt and never felt better. For those that want to put a face to myself, I was the guy who walked back to the starting line with my chain in my hand 2km into the race. I got told to fix my bike and enter the 45km by everyone passing me but once the chain was fixed by Specialized I restarted just before the 45Km guys got to start. I felt like a winner and a loser at the same time. For roughly 15km I was alone. I then overtook the last guy and was shortly overtaken by the 45Km front runners. I then hit the small monster and was able to pass some walkers but soon realised that this race was a back and forth cat and mouse game of passing. I do want to say more about the monster but my memory of it is contained in segments of meters of progression and it will take some therapy to puzzle it together in one long climb. The week before I did 100km on the bike and thought I relatively prepared myself but at the top of the monster I felt worse than than I would have dong 150km. So for those who want to attempt the monster first achieve some serious goals in cycling and stop asking if training at your local spot will prepare you in any way as it most likely wont. Also at the top of the monster I realized that now I have only completed about half of the race and if this was me on a Sunday afternoon ride I would have phoned home for backup. The second thing I realized was that I was on top of a mountain with no back brake. On the second half of the race I started to identify people who I made turns with to overtake each other and started to have the odd conversation every now and then. I think these conversations inspired me to continue and finish as I wanted to see these okes at the finish and show them I made it too. Coming home was also not easy at all as there were still some climbs and I still only had a front brake and many downhills to navigate safely. And then it happened, I got to the top of the radio tower cement climb feeling like my end is near when on the downhill between a loose rock and a squeeze on the front brake I went over handlebars while desperately ejecting my feet from my pedals and tumbled a few meters frther than my bike. I then sat there a while and assessed my knee which took the hardest knock. It was to close to bail out so I continued and soon started to feel the stiffness in the knee. I could not enjoy some of the nice drops closer to the finish as my brake situation would not allow me going down steep embankments with tight corners. I did pedal through the river for my last photo and then wondered how I would react on finishing. I heard my name called out and felt like a champion putting on that medal. Personally I felt like I have achieved something although my clock reading was 7:18 I know what I just finished and that it was no small achievement. I heard there were a serious head injury and I hope that person managed to recover. I also take my hat off to those that finished the race in the top positions. You are true athletes and deserve to be called champions. Thank you also to everyone participating and thank you for those organizing the race. Alex