In our home at Christmas I usually cook the starter and always try do something new and a bit different. This year I got the idea of asparagus spears wrapped in bacon from a Jamie Oliver recipe I saw and thought how I could create my own spin on the dish and what I could add to it.

 

The quantities needed of the ingredients varies greatly depending on how many people you’re cooking for but you would need:

 

Bacon

Asparagus spears (fresh)

Cherry Tomatoes

Mushrooms

Cream

Butter

Flour

Cheddar

Garlic

Olive Oil

 

You start off by wrapping 3 asparagus spears in a piece of bacon, you should try wrap it in a way in which the bacon is not double layered. I wrapped some string around to hold the bacon while cooking, there is no need to tie a knot and it makes it easier when taking the string off later if you don’t.

I cooked the package in the pan with a bit of olive oil on a medium heat. Naturally you would want the bacon cooked through, I quite like having the asparagus a bit crunchy still on the inside and nice to the different texture when eating. When cooked you can simply unravel the string off your asparagus spear and bacon package.

 

I halved the cherry tomatoes and cooked them in the pan too with a bit of olive oil on a medium to high heat until their skins started to wrinkle a bit. I then displayed them on the plate as shown below.

 

To compliment the meal I made a basic mushroom sauce served in a shot glass. I diced the mushrooms very finely and sauted them on a medium to high heat with a knob of butter. To thicken the sauce a bit I used a teaspoon of flour, this said the sauce needs to be fairly runny to be served from the shot glass as do the mushrooms need to be finely diced. Stir the flour into the mushrooms, there should be a fair amount of liquid being given off by the mushrooms and you shoud cook some of this off. Turn the heat down and then start adding the cream. You would need to “cook the flour taste out of the sauce” and then add cream to make it as thick or thin as you wish. To add a bit of flavour I added a bit of diced garlic, small handful of grated Cheddar, a smattering of barbeque spices and season with salt and pepper.

 

You would need to cook all 3 aspects of the dish at the same time in order for them to all be  hot when served but it’s not particularly difficult to do. The asparagus spears and bacon packages can be pre-made and simply cooked when needed.

“It’s just a social team bru….” That’s what my good mate Carl said when convincing me to ride for the RSA Web “Fun” team for the Coronation Double Century this last weekend. This didn’t look to be the case as we sat around the table on Friday evening discussing feeding strategies, calculating required average speeds and being told every guy in the team had ridden a sub 3 hour Argus.

 

Compliments of RSA Web we stayed in an awesome house on the Breede River surrounded by mountains where it felt as if we were miles away from any form of civilisation. The area looked good for mountain biking and it would be cool to visit it again.

 

Come Saturday morning we had left things a touch late and which resulted in a full on sprint just to get behind the chalk on time. But we were there and ready to rock n roll!

Last minute rush to get ready

The team

The DC is a unique race in that it is a 12 man team time trial over some 202km, not your normal weekend event.

 

We set off all looking very pro in our matching red RSA Web kit and tackled the tough course. The 202km loop starts in Swellendam before tackling the Tradouw and Op de Tradouw passes fairly on. The Tradouw pass must be one of the most beautiful passes in South Africa! Our first feed was at 80km in and here we replenished bottles and food before heading on to Montague and then Ashton.

 

Rob putting the hurt down as we pass another team.

Navigating the traffic through Ashton

 

Leaving the Robertson circle I lost a bottle as it popped out crossing a railway line. It was a tough 50km in the rising heat until our next feed and I couldn’t risk leaving it there, so I went back for it but in turn faced a tough time trial to get back to the team. It was worth it though; ice cold PVM Octane, Citrus flavour! This section of the race also presented us with a bit of a headwind, not exceptionally strong but enough to make you hurt a bit.

 

Our final feed brought us into the last section of the race and the dreaded 3 rollers along the road into Swellendam, although at this stage they felt like category 1 mountain passes!

 

The guys kept it together and pushed through the pain valiantly to cross the line in just over 6hrs and 15 minutes. So much for a social team right? All in all it was a great day out!

 

I really enjoyed the whole weekend and would like to thank RSA Web for having me, especially to Rob and Mark. It was the most fun DC I have ever done. Also thanks to Michael for supplying us with a few bottles of red from Audacia wines, they went down well on Saturday evening.

 

All images compliments Elizna Wiese

Stoked to announce that Sean and I will be riding the ABSA Cape Epic together next year. The route looks like a tough one but then again has there ever been an easy Epic?

 

Our team name will be “Live Life” sponsored by SW Contracts. Ill keep you up to date with more information as to how our training and preparations go.

 

I’ve done the Epic once before but this will be Sean’s first attempt at the race this said he comes into the race with a top 10 result from the Joberg 2 c under his belt!

 

More information on the race can be found on http://www.cape-epic.com

The TV Schedule for the Magalies Adventure 3 day race which Sean and I won is below:

 

Date	Time	Channel
14-Nov-11 14-Nov-11 14-Nov-11 15-Nov-11 15-Nov-11 16-Nov-11 16-Nov-11 16-Nov-11 17-Nov-11 17-Nov-11 19-Nov-11 19-Nov-11	20:30 20:30 20:30 11:30 11:30 14:30 14:30 14:30 18:00 18:00 03:30 03:30	SS5N SS5 SS5A SS2 SS2A SS5 SS5A SS5N SS6A SS6 SS6 SS6A

SuperSport do reserve the right to change this at the last minute, so please consult the TV Guide.

 

The video from the newly released Paradise. Pretty cool in that some of the video was shot in and around Cape Town and the Karoo!

With my racing season for the year done it was time to have a bit of off the bike fun. As Coldplay have been one of my most favourite bands off all time their concert in Cape Town presented me with the perfect opportunity.

It was good to meet up with old friends, make new ones and have an awesome party! I’ll let the photos do the talking…

The Crew

Gotta fix this taxi!

The Botswanian and T.Dog

Clearly I just lost this argument.

 

 Crazy!

Image Credit: Dan Calderwood

Bouncing balls in the crowd.

Couple of images off my cell phone.

What a vibe!

Image Credit: Dan Calderwood

The Grand Finale!

It’s been back to the books now though with my honours exams starting in just under two weeks. I’ve been logging in the hours at the bib and I hope it will be enough “om deur te kom”.

Till next time…

All images either from myself or compliments of Bisi and Jess

The time had come for my last race of the 2011 season. It has been an exciting season for me and I hope you’ve enjoyed following my journey. What I’ve been able to do this year would not have been possible without such fantastic sponsors that support me. To: Sean Williams Contracts, Cubes Bikes, Dulce Café, PVM Nutritional Science, Cycle Lab, Sludge, Squirt, Uvex and Rubena I am as always grateful. I am privileged to be associated with these brands as I feel they are the best in their respective fields and hence I use their products proudly.

 

But for now back to the race…. The race distance of 55km suited me somewhat more than the ultra-marathon’s I had undertaken in the last two weeks. Behind the chalk it was good to see familiar faces that I haven’t raced against in a while: Renay Groustra, Dominic Calitz, Adriaan Louw, Noel van Rensburg to name but a few. Sean was also down for the weekend and would be racing too.

 

All was going well until just over 10km in my chain managed to wrap itself around my derailleur. Not quite sure how or why that happened but I eventually managed to get it untangled and set off in chase of the 5 strong lead group. A chase that would prove to be fruitless, 1 rider vs. 5 into block head wind didn’t help my cause. Nonetheless I pushed on until I experienced the same chain problem again… I managed to figure out what was wrong and adjusted a screw on the derailleur, this seemed to do the trick. In the mean time I decided to wait for Sean who had had to start in a further back batch and ride with him.

 

Sean was riding very well on the day and we slowly made our way picking off riders one by one. The main climb proved to be quite a challenging beast but the views at the top and single track down through the Majik Forest warranted it.

 

Approaching the last climb we went through an area which for some reason seemed to have thousands of Devil Thorns. Not that I was too concerned with Sludge in my wheels but I did notice a few other guys using other product struggling a bit… Pays to use the best boys!

 

Entering the last few kilometres Sean and I had a bit of a race on our hands with two other riders. We managed to fend them off and finished in 7^th and 8^th place respectively. A podium was definitely a goal for the day but it was not too be.

Hearing something like 3000m of ascent in a 97km mountain bike marathon is kind of scary thing to hear if you’re a cyclist. It means only one thing… a big day in the saddle. This is what the MTN Hilton Dirt Fest Ultra Marathon, the 7^th race in the series of 8, presented us with.

 

I knew the area quite well however as my parent’s farm is located pretty much in the middle of the course and it was nice to race on somewhat familiar territory and thus have the benefit of knowing what would be coming up next.

 

A super competitive field lined up on beautiful Saturday morning, in my opinion one of the most competitive fields in the MTN series this year to date with 18 of the eventual top 20 riders being full time/professional riders. I took a different strategy into the race after having to endure a very tough 40kilometres last weekend after I had blown.

The Start

Photo Credit: Zoon Cronje

 

I entered the first single track well positioned in about 10^th position after jostling a bit at the entrance to it, but a silly mistake cost me as I clipped my pedal on a tree stump and met the fresh earth. I wasn’t too stressed as it was still early days so I settled into my own rhythm which I felt was a sustainable pace for a good 5 hours.

 

I was through the first feed where my Mom was awaiting me in about 25^th position, nothing too fantastic but I had Brandon Stewart (Itec Connect) to follow on the next downhill section and this helped me close the gap a bit to Francois Theron (Garmin Adidas). Theron continued to sit at that just unreachable point of 45seconds ahead of me for the next 20 to 30 kilometres as we traversed the Mount Verde section of the course. Here we encountered some super fun single track that had improved drastically from last year. Course designer Nick Floros had put much time and effort into the track with his team and it showed.

 

At the base of the first major 10kmwhich started at 60km (don’t get me wrong the first 60km weren’t easy!)  I caught and passed Matthew English (Concept Cyclery) and managed to maintain and open that gap on the long climb. The 2^nd feed presented itself at the top of this beast where I topped up on another bottle of PVM Octane.

That looks like a smile but I think its actually a grimace, top of a 5km climb.

Image Credit: C Sharp Photos

 

The climb had sapped me of quite a bit of energy but I managed to eat and get another gel down and started to recover for the last 13km loop before the finish. This was to be an extremely tough section with the initial descent down a rocky, steep, treacherous hiking trail with a number of compulsory portage sections. After running, and riding what I could I arrived at the bottom of the valley to be greeted with a delightful 5km climb to the finish. The initial slopes weren’t too bad but with kicks of up to 15% towards the end I struggled a bit. I could see another rider although I wasn’t too sure who it was 45seconds ahead of me. I pushed to try and catch them but in the process spent the remaining few pennies and ended up losing 2minutes on them by the time the finish line arrived.

 

The race as expected proved to be a long tough day out but I had a blast on some of the awesome single track which is now very compact and flowing.

 

A big thanks to my Mom for being at all the feed zones on the day with cold bottles and words of encouragement! Also to all my sponsors for their help because without them none of this would be possible! Thank you: Sean Williams Contracts, Cube Bikes South Africa, Dulce Café, PVM Nutritional Sciences, Cycle Lab, Sludge Tyre Sealant, Squirt Chain Lube, Uvex Helmets and Rubena Tyres.

 

Enjoy the photos! It’s been a while since I’ve managed to get some from a race!

After a season focussed mainly on xc racing I decided to spice things up a bit with some marathons at the tail end of it. Something that sounds great in hindsight but something you really need to gear your training towards in order to be successful.

 

I haven’t done the Hill 2 Hill since the first edition of the race some 5 years ago and had good memories of it. The race acquires its name from starting in Hilton and finishing in Hillcrest 105km later. It was great also to have Paul, Darryl and Jacques from Cube at the finish as there was an expo there and they had brought a couple of bikes down.

 

Traditionally the first hour of racing is fast as the race descends from worlds view into Pietermaitzburg on some awesome new trails, the course designers Nick Floros and Kim Phillips had created. I found myself with Mannie Heymans(Garmin Adidas) and Shaun Craig Silver(@ Slab Specialized) as we traversed through the city and managed to join the lead group again. The lead group of twenty or so riders stayed together until the king of the mountain, where Phillip Buys(Garmin Adidas) and Burry Stander(Specialized) split things up. I found myself in 12^th position going through the first feed just before 30km.

 

Things started to settle down and I settled into a pace I thought to be more sustainable for myself over the distance of the race. It seemed to be going well until ten kilometres later where a silly crash on a single track through Wattle trees resulted in me badly bending my rear disc rotor. I didn’t think it was as bad as it actually turned out to be and decided to carry on. The crash also resulted in 3 riders passing me as I gathered myself and I set out trying to catch back up to them. I would close the gap on the climbs and jeep track only to lose advantage as they worked together on the open dirt roads.

 

My Mom was at the 3^rd feed with a fresh bottle of PVM Octane for me and I guzzled it down trying to keep energy levels up. I had however spent too many pennies in my chase and the lights started to go out with still forty kilometres to go, not ideal.

 

David Leiman(Thule/Morewood) and I teamed up and took it in to the finish together. I was quite disappointed with how things had panned out but took consideration the fact that I had tried to race it out from the front. A risky strategy when racing marathons… My Cube HPC Elite worked flawlessly on the day and handled the tough terrain with ease. My Sludge once again ensured no punctures and the Squirt helped having no shifting or chain suck problems! Also, a big thanks to Ollie at Cycle Lab Pietermaritzburg for servicing my wheels which were awesome on race day!

 

My focus now shifts to the MTN Hilton Dirt Fest Ultra marathon this coming weekend. One which promises much climbing with a planned 3000m of ascent on the cards in the 100km race.