WIN: Entries to the 2014 Trans Karoo up for grabs

[NixM]

Trying again: this didn't happen to me but a friend (team entry would be great)

 

Start of the Argus a few years ago, we have parked in Greenpoint, getting kit on in the dark and discovered she had not packed her road gloves. No problem put on a pair of full finger gloves and heads off to the start.

 

In the start chute feels helmet doesn't quite feel right - takes it off to readjust, guy next to her asks if she always keeps a set of gloves on her head!

[Scott2luvit]

Dont buy China ripp off kits, or check your bib and check it again before going on a ride!!!

 

the stitching on bib started to come loose while on a training ride, needles to say I felt the air coming in from the front, looked down and saw the gaping hole. I had to quickly tuck "it" to the left and leave the group and rode in aero position all the way home, bad thing is I had to ride across town to get to my home, every time we get together now, someone will ask hows it hanging,

 

very thankful that it didn't happen in a race as I did the Karoo2Coast with the same kit

[Jacques Herselman]

My most embarrassing moment on my mountain bike was when my buddy tested his new GoPro and after sitting most of his ride behind me, the only thing we watched when playing it the next day at the office, was my fat backside.

[TeresaC]

Every once in a while I'm forced to train on my own, but I really don't mind, because I put my iPod on (I know its not that safe, but I have some of those lekker new earphones that works through your jaw bone so you can still hear what's going on around you) and I value those training days as quality me-time.

 

So there I was in the Cradle of Human Mankind very early one Monday morning and for literally kilometers I didn't see a car, a cyclist or any other human being for that matter. Even the baboons that we sometimes see on the road were still asleep. It was only me and the soft humming of my knobblies on the tar ...

I make a point of changing the playlist on my iPod every once in a while and for some reason, "Ek lewe!" from the well-known Afrikaans singer Annelie van Rooyen started playing on my iPod.

And right there and then I was in the mood. Annelie did it for me. So much so, that in fact, I started to become Annelie at that moment and I sang as if I was standing on the stage of the Royal Opera House, on the top of my voice.

I still don't know why, but something told me a should look back and when i did, I realized that a whole fleet of cyclists were behind me. The moment I stopped singing, they started cheering me. I literally contemplated suicide at that moment!

All the guys past me and everyone had something to say about my singing. But the last guy was the cherrie on the cake with his:

"Geez dollface, you are a much better cyclist than a singer!"

[Matt]

That's it! Entries are closed.

 

We've just received "the envelope" from the Trans Karoo team and it's time to announce the week 2 winners...

 

Solo Entry Winner: Rata Del Spruit

 

I was 16, full of hormones and spots in equal measure and a girl had just moved into the house next door. She was beautiful enough to make me nervous. The kind of girl that makes you run through conversations in your head just to make sure you don’t stuff it up when she talks to you. Something that guarantees you’ll stuff it up when she talks to you.

 

I didn’t yet have a motorbike on which to embrace my teenage freedom so I had to make do with my bicycle, a purple Diamondback Topanga. In an ill fated attempt to look cool while riding it, I had spray painted my SABC TopSport helmet a matching purple a few years earlier. The helmet was enormous to match my awkwardly sized teenage head and TopSport hadn’t spared the cushioning in this thing either. The net result was that when I wore it I looked like a penis. I even noticed my friend’s mom blush when I arrived at their house. Being a teenager, not looking like a giant pork sword in front of girls was more important than my safety so the helmet got left in the back of the cupboard.

 

Someone who didn’t care about my image as much as my wellbeing was my mom. Maybe she just didn’t realise that I looked like a weiner on wheels when I wore it but if she was around she would insist that I ride with my helmet on. The Hub would have loved her. So as I was sneaking out the drive on my bike (sans lid) one day I heard her voice from the top of the garden, “HELMET!” (The Hub would have really loved her). I tried protesting but it was pointless, I was going to have to wear it, or pretend to at least. I reluctantly walked back up the drive, took my helmet from her and stuck it on my head. I left the straps unfastened, ready to take the replica bell end off the moment I turned the corner.

 

As I was pedalling away I felt I was nearly far enough to be able to safely remove the purple mushroom without being spotted. At exactly that moment the neighbour turned into our street in his convertible. An electric shock ran down my body as I saw who was sitting in the front passenger seat: hot-girl-next-door. And they were approaching the pedalling winky rapidly. I couldn’t afford to be seen like this. In a moment of panic I flicked my head back hoping to eject the helmet and save some face. Unfortunately the straps, despite being loose, were still over my ears and my ears were coming second only to my head in my body’s race for dimensions. The straps caught on my wingnuts and instead of flying off the back of my head the helmet flew forward and covered my entire face. I was blind, in every sense of the word.

 

If the occupants of the car hadn’t noticed the gangly kid on the bike earlier they sure as hell noticed him when he started weaving all over the road with what looked like a todger tip covering his face. And they definitely noticed it when he crossed right in front of their bonnet and rode into the ditch.

 

When I pulled the willy cap off my face I found that they had pulled up next to me. It was clear that they wanted to see if I was okay, and I sensed that her dad was trying especially hard to ask but just couldn’t get a word out between laughing, apologising for laughing and laughing even harder. And she could barely look at me she was laughing so uncontrollably.

 

I mumbled something and rode off. The helmet stayed in the ditch along with my dignity and any shred of a chance I’d ever had of kissing that girl (or any of her friends as it turned out).

 

 

Team Entry Winner: Squier

 

Pitching up at a race with an empty bike rack. I had everything... but my bike. The question "where is your bike?" saw me backtrack through the entire parking area to the amusement of many. Got home, walked past my bike still waiting for me in the kitchen ready to be loaded, and got back in bed!

 

Congrats to this week's winners and again to the winners from last week!

 

If you missed out on these entries you can still hop over to www.transkaroomtb.co.za to get all the race and entry details.

 

Thanks all for the entertaining contributions!

[Sarnicoview]

[ajbotes]

The first time I attempted to do more than 20km that took me almost 2 hours.... I could not walk for 4 days.

[Rata Del Spruit]

Thanks for the prize, guys. Wow, it might have been prudent for me to check what the race was before entering! 240km is quite a distance for a lowly dirt jumper who's idea of a distance ride is a quick pedal along the Spruit…

 

Should be interesting

[Ringmaster]

When a cycling buddy got dressed in the dark not wanting to wake his wife, he did the entire race with pants I side out