Waking at a time usually reserved for red eye flights or South African road races, Charlie and I loaded his Polo, and I mean loaded with two 29ers, a big gazebo and make up bags, and then were on our way to the Welvenpas Trails in Wellington for the Club Cannondale ride that morning.

 

There was talk of a ride with the pros, free donuts and coffee and I was sold! A few minutes later, screeching up the first climb, with my heart rate hitting a 180 beats. I thought this wasn’t quite what I had signed up for. A certain Manuel Fumic had joined the ride, with him cruising along at a ‘medio’ pace, add a few local youngsters keen to show him how strong they were and the result was me doing an unplanned threshold session!

 

I came to my senses a short while later and cruised along at my own pace, enjoying the rad trails on the new Welvanpas black route. One of the great things about base riding is that with no races on, we are able to go and explore new trails which we are not always able to do in the full on race season. The new route is a tough one, but the climbing is rewarded with flowing, fun trails. In places it can get tricky and when combining the loop with the existing white loop, you are in for quite a tough day’s worth of riding. If you’re busy training for the Cape Epic or any similar such races I would suggest venturing out there for a day.

 

A week later, at a slightly more reasonable hour I was again off to explore some ‘fresh’ trails. Perhaps not truly ‘fresh’ in that I lived in Stellenbosch for 5 years and Jonkershoek was an old hunting ground, but it was great to get out to the Boland again, and have a refreshing change from the usual Cape Town trails. Team Bosal and I rode the Jonkershoek Valley flat, headed through Coetzenburg to the old G-Spot trails, railed some berms and then smashed a delicious brunch along with a couple of green slugs!

 

All in all it was a great two weekends worth of riding awesome trails that I really should make the effort to get out to more often.

 

Riding the rock in Jonkershoek. 

 

                           The Pinner is back, smashing rides around the Point                                and samosas, simultaneously!

 

Efforts of the road have faced some stiff challenges from the Cape Doctor who has been out in full force much more often than I would like it too. Nonetheless with Chappies finally open again, we have cruised a good couple of rides around the point. With less need to do intervals at this time of the year, the riding affords the opportunity to re-connect with some old riding buddies who I haven’t managed to see in some time.

 

As I head home for the festive season to visit the family, I’ll trade the gusting South Easter for the mist and drizzle I believe Natal has been experiencing over the past few weeks. I can’t decide which is better but I’ll get on with the job regardless.

 

With this most likely being my last blog post of 2013 I would like to say thanks to all those that have read my writings over the past year. It has been great to find that I have some ‘fans’ amongst you. Enjoy the festive season, log up some miles on your steed and sleep in to avoid those red eyes!

 

Ciao

 

Chris

 

Cape Town showing off.

 

With a couple of rides in my legs I thought I would cap off the season with one last jaunt. The Chas Everitt Pro Criterium in Stellenbosch over the past weekend. I was taking Oli’s advice to heart, fake it till you make it. I was going to need to do a lot of faking it, with the rest of the Cape crew coming towards the end of their summer season and my only form being my round belly.

 

I was saved by the bell so to speak with the event unfortunately being called off due to road closure issues. A real pity as I would have liked to have raced a real crit on home tarmac. I was however saved a serious trip to the pain cave, something I should probably be grateful for as I may have overestimated my abilities and under estimated how hard the race may have been!

 

Late afternoon beer and motivational chat from the O-man.

 

Nonetheless, training is back into full swing. I enjoy the base rides, it’s great to get out and knock off a couple of hours each day with Charlie (Keey), without having to worry too much about how many watts you’re doing or what intervals you have to suffer through. Cape Town is finally; touch wood, starting to show real signs of summer. The disappearance of the rain has been made up for by the howling South Easter.

 

Coffee stops have been made more pleasurable by the easily available croissants. It was a challenge to find them in the USA this year. Being back on the programme though, means that these are consumed in lesser quantities than what I would like. I have however decided that Tribeca Bakery now serves the best almond croissant in Cape Town! If anyone has any other suggestions to this department, hit me up.

 

Besides racking up some miles I’m still playing the sponsorship game in my free time, attempting to find that elusive ‘big deal’. Wish me luck on that front.

 

Till next time then, I’m sure the South Easter will keep me honest and I’ll play out how the race would have gone in my mind.