Lurch the stalker Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 Hi all, I am probably going to ride the Cradle some time over this coming weekend - I have never ridden it before.From what I can gather, there are multiple starting points.What is likely to be the quietest starting point?How busy does it get on an average weekend morning?Are the routes marked?Information seems to vary from site to site that you visit.
shaper Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 Are you riding road or MTB?From Midrand will probably be easier to park at Valverde.Weekend mornings are busy are busy if you are doing road and is just one main loop, just follow the crowd you will not get lost.You can pretty much see the road route on google maps
Lurch the stalker Posted March 30, 2015 Author Posted March 30, 2015 Thanks.This will be road, will check out MTB in the future.
Kranswurm Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 Are you riding road or MTB?From Midrand will probably be easier to park at Valverde.Weekend mornings are busy are busy if you are doing road and is just one main loop, just follow the crowd you will not get lost.You can pretty much see the road route on google mapsValverde is a good place to park.Verry cyclist friendly.There is a bunch cycling from there basically every morning
Flatdog7 Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 You can also try Something Country. Loads of people start there too. Or the Lion Park. Just make sure which side of the fence you ride on...
Paul Ruinaard Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 Lots of starting points - Valverde costs R20 redeemable. Something Country, Rhino and Lion are good as well depending on how fit you are and what sort of distance you want. All are circular or out and back routes. Anything from 30 km to 90 km available with lost of climbing and descending. Not much that is flat (out near caves is about the flattest. Have a look on Strava for routes....
Lurch the stalker Posted March 30, 2015 Author Posted March 30, 2015 Lots of starting points - Valverde costs R20 redeemable. Cash or card or do they take both? Lots of starting points - Valverde costs R20 redeemable. Something Country, Rhino and Lion are good as well depending on how fit you are and what sort of distance you want. I'll have my sister with me who has never done road riding, so will probably go for the 30km sort of distance. I see Valverde to the Lion Park is about 14/15km one way.Is it possible to ride that as a loop?
rudi-h Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 i'm not a fan of the beyers naude stretch, there's more traffic on that leg and also the stretch between the N14 and the Kloofzicht circle is quite bad from a traffic and shoulder perspective. my preference (from a pure safety point of view) is to start from something country and to ride the back stretch (caves to malibongwe). kloofzicht circle to caves to malibongwe to kloofzicht circle is just shy of 60. if you add another trip to the caves on the way back then you get cose to 80. For more distance stuff starts to get repetitive, but IMO its the safest option and no payment needed for parking. Edit: see you want to do 30ish... Kloofzicht circle to caves, pass the lion park, turn around at the second circle and come back. that should be close to 30 with no major hills
Lurch the stalker Posted March 30, 2015 Author Posted March 30, 2015 Thanks Rudi, I see Something Country - Lion Park - Caves - Something Country is 28.5km.We'll probably give that a go...maybe add some distance if she hasn't dropped dead by then https://www.google.co.za/maps/dir/Something+Country,+Plot+19,+Driefontein+road,+Muldersdrift,+1747/Kloofzicht+Lodge,+Muldersdrift/Lion+and+Rhino+Park,+Sterkfontein+DMA,+Gauteng/Sterkfontein+Caves,+Johannesburg/Something+Country,+Muldersdrift/@-25.9945884,27.7372865,13z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m32!4m31!1m5!1m1!1s0x1e959b4533f35aa5:0xb6b59ecbe69aba0d!2m2!1d27.818638!2d-25.996672!1m5!1m1!1s0x1e826ba443fbdeef:0x7e8b21ed1efbe611!2m2!1d27.818756!2d-25.987366!1m5!1m1!1s0x1e9584ddebdd719b:0xc3ef0df14f7c3f94!2m2!1d27.791245!2d-25.970584!1m5!1m1!1s0x1e959008f64901bf:0xab6deba5ea2befef!2m2!1d27.733573!2d-26.016754!1m5!1m1!1s0x1e959b4533f35aa5:0xb6b59ecbe69aba0d!2m2!1d27.818638!2d-25.996672!3e0
Paul Ruinaard Posted March 30, 2015 Posted March 30, 2015 Cash or card or do they take both? I'll have my sister with me who has never done road riding, so will probably go for the 30km sort of distance. I see Valverde to the Lion Park is about 14/15km one way.Is it possible to ride that as a loop?I would recommend park at Valverde and do the inside loop. Go out the gate and then down the hill in to the cradle. Carry on turning left and you will do about 30 kms.
Lurch the stalker Posted April 5, 2015 Author Posted April 5, 2015 I would recommend park at Valverde and do the inside loop. Go out the gate and then down the hill in to the cradle. Carry on turning left and you will do about 30 kms.Thanks for all the suggestions.We landed up doing the above, 28.9km total.Was a lekker ride, will definitely be back.
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