So I quite enjoy having a rusk with my coffee in the morning but now being back at Varsity don’t have Mom here to buy them for me 🙂 As I enjoy cooking I thought I would bake my own, They came out pretty well.

Here is the recipe from Food24

Ingredients

• I cooled the rusks at about 70C but it takes a while, about 6 to 8 hours. Once you feel that the rusks are sufficiently dry enough leave them in the oven and just switch it off.
• You could cut down on the sugar a little as it’s quite sweet, 500g would be enough, not sure if you’re allowed to do this in terms of ‘baking law’.
• If you don’t have self-raising flour, use normal flour, for every cup of flour take out 2 tsp of flour and replace with 1.5 tsp of baking powder and .5 tsp of salt.
• If you don’t have a kitchen scale like me a cup of bran flakes is about 50g. For more weight to volume conversions check out the Food 24 website.

The Stellenbosch mountain bike race is a popular one across the Cape with four distances on offer to suite riders of all levels. It is also the ‘local’ race for all the Stellenbosch mountain bikers, myself included and hence quite an important one on the calendar. Usually the race is a tough 60km course but this year the organisers included a 75km invitation only marathon which quite excited me. The old 60km course was tough, but this tougher… with the total ascent cumulating to 2100 vertical metres! The course also offers superb single track, most of which is out of bounds for the year due to it being on private property.

Arriving on the start line on Saturday morning a more competitive field had lined up than what I had expected. Renay Groustra was there along with Erik Kleinhans and the whole GT/Mr Price team. As  was David George (SAfindit), the Fairbain and Blend properties teams as well as a few strong individuals. The pace warmed up straight away as we hit the first climb not two kilometres into the race. Things split up quickly and I found myself a bit further back than I would have liked in a group around 20^th position. Guys were pushing the pace hard but I think most weren’t quite sure what awaited them.

I settled into my own race after about 20km riding now on my own, maintaining a steady tempo and settling into a rhythm. 50km in after riding some awesome single track my legs started to come around and I soon started catching guys who had gone hard at the start. I managed to catch and drop four guys in the single track going through Delvera. I knew that I would need as much time on them as possible as the climb towards the finish would be a real sting in the tail. Hitting the last climb I was still ahead of the four guys but near the top Kent Horner caught and passed me. I tried to limit the damage as I thought I would be able to catch him on the downhill and single track through town to the finish but this was not to be. The single track was clogged with riders from the shorter distance and my cries of “Track Please” seemed to fall on deaf ears, which was extremely frustrating and something the organisers need to have a look at next year.

In the end I finished in 12^th position 10 seconds down on Kent. I was hoping for a top 10 but was satisfied with my result considering the competitive nature of the field. I also managed to get the rear shock on the Cube better set up and had no trouble with pedal bob but still enjoyed the benefits of a full suss bike on the rough stuff. All in all a good weekend but unfortunately no wine fest this year for us to enjoy afterwards!

Thanks to Jandre for the image, check out his site, the link is on my blog roll.

From what I’ve seen on twitter this afternoon it looks like there will be a Tour of South Africa next year on the road. Apparently it will be 9 days long and will carry a UCI 2.2 rating. This tour will take place in the 3rd week of February. Along with this CSA has announced that there will be a newly revamped local road racing series.

Good news for skinny wheel racing just when things were looking dismal with new rumours that the Giro del Capo will not be on next year.

5 September 2010   – Pro Classic Series Criterium 1

12 September 2010 – Tour de Worcester

24 October 2010       – West Coast Express

30 October 2010       –  Durbanville High School Race

31 October 2010       –  Pro Classic Series Criterium 2

7 November 2010    –  Klein Joostenberg

I have been lucky enough over the course of the last month to acquire 3 new sponsors. Thanks for helping me live the dream guys. They are:

Cube Bikes South Africa

I will be racing the . It is a beautiful bike and goes fast! Will blog again with more pics and more info about the bike. Thank you Paul, Darryl and Jacques.

Squirt Lube

The best wax based chain lube a cyclist can get their hands on. You’ve gotta try it if you havent already. Thank you Jacques.

Sludge Tyre Sealant

Sludge keeps my tubeless wheels sealed and stops any punctures. There are 3 different types of sealant availible so check out their site for more info. Thank you Chris.

To find out more info click on the links to their web-pages on the right of the screen.

Saturday morning dawned with sunny skies as Erik and I hit the road to Backsberg Winery, the venue host of the Paarl Rotary 2010 mountain bike race. Being 20km out of town this gave us a nice warm up. As anyone who has raced in the Cape in winter will tell you that mud can be a real problem and what I thought was a light drizzle the day before had turned the course into a small mud bath.

The race started off at a gentle pace with Adriaan Louw and Louis Bressler Knipe upping the tempo and soon riding away. I was sitting happily in a bunch of 3 of us in 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th position knowing that the big climb of the day would soon be upon us. The climb to the top of Kannonkop is a beast! I didn’t expect the race to take us to the top but it did climbing 800m in 6km. I was quite shattered at the top going over in 6^th position and not feeling my best.

We started descending on heavily technical single track which was actually a portage section it was so steep and then down a jeep track for the next few kilometres with sketchy slippery corners, as clay does with a touch of rain. On the descent Harry Orr caught me and opened a small gap which I couldn’t close on the next albeit shorter climb.

The unique thing about this race is the compulsory 10 minute stop after 24km which doesn’t sound far in but it is after 1100m of climbing. Some people enjoy the short break but others don’t as you start the next part of the race on cold legs.

I slugged on to the finish not having the best of days. Five km from the finish coming around a corner in a vine yard my foot caught on some wire sticking out of the ground which brought me to an abrupt halt, luckily I had a soft enough landing on some kikuyu but now all I wanted was to cross the finish line and did so in 7^th, although I was quite disappointed,  all in all it wasn’t too bad.

Look out for the Show SurfskiTV covering the Scottburgh Winter’s Solstice Festival. Surfski TV will cover the Sunrise Run, Scottburgh MTB Race and the Surfski Race.

Tune into DSTV Supersport at the Following dates and times.
21 July 2010      18:30:00    SuperSport Six
22 July 2010      07:20:00    SuperSport One
25 July 2010      08:30:00    SuperSport Seven
26 July 2010      14:30:00    SuperSport Five
28 July 2010      10:30:00    SuperSport Two
28 July 2010      10:30:00    SuperSport Action
29 July 2010      17:30:00    SuperSport Six
29 July 2010      17:30:00    SuperSport Action
01 August 2010    20:00:00    SuperSport Six
03 August 2010    10:30:00    SuperSport Two
06 August 2010    16:00:00    SuperSport Five
09 August 2010    18:30:00    SuperSport Five

45km MTB Ride Results
Race No. Name Category Sex Age Race Time Overall Position Age Category Position
1514 ANDREW WARR 45km M Senior 01:48:06 1 1
2747 SHAUN PESCHL 45km M Sub Veteran 01:52:20 2 1
8005 CHRISTOPHER WOLHUTER 45km M Senior 01:54:31 3 2

Hello Almal

To get the blog going i posted a few race reports which i had already done from the past few months.

Happy Reading

Chris

The Unlimited Dusi Mfula Mountain bike Stage Race

The 2010 Unlimited Dusi Mfula mountain bike race took place over two days, which followed roughly the same course as the famed Dusi Canoe Marathon. The first day would see us riding 65km from Kingsthorpe estate down to Inanada dam and the second day a loop of 42km around the dam. I had teamed up with a friend of mine Hilton Frost and we would be representing Cube Bikes South Africa in the race.

The first stage kicked off at a frantic pace with teams TIB insurance and Thule/Morewood driving the pace. Unfortunately we just missed the front selection of four teams and this would mean we would spend the rest of the day chasing. A few kilometres on whilst negotiating the first of many single tracks for the day a section of rocks cut Hilton’s tyre and this would be the first of four punctures for the day for us. We got going again soon and continued to chase, riding through the valley which included many cattle path single tracks, wooden bridges, rocks and gravel roads. Towards the end of the stage we managed to catch and pass the Fego Cafe team to move into 4^th place for the day.

With slightly more tender legs we hopped onto boats which would transport us across the dam to the start of stage 2. This proved to be extremely cold and it showed as we started. The hot pace on the first climbs saw us going backwards. Fortunately as we warmed up on the main climb of the day up to Shembe plateau we managed to catch the Fego Cafe team again, moving us up into 4^th place. We descended on some fun single track down towards the dam despite being a bit sandy and rough in places.

One of the highlights of the day must have been riding along the edge of cliffs after descending down the Shembe plateau and seeing an amazing waterfall. From here we encountered more single track which led us to the dam wall. We pushed the pace in an attempt to catch the 3^rd placed Thule/Morewood team. Unfortunately this was not to be but we did manage to ride 8 minutes into the 5^th placed Fego Cafe team.

A big thank you to Darryl, Paul and Jacques from Cube Bikes South Africa for sponsoring us the entry, we really enjoyed the race. Also thank you to The Unlimited for backing the event and it was great to meet Theresa from The Unlimited at the finish.

Final Results

1. TIB Insurance – Andrew Hill and Carl Calvery
2. Merridew and White
3. Thule/Morewood – David Leiman and Jeremy Thomson
4. Cube Bikes SA – Chris Wolhuter and Hilton Frost
5. Fego Cafe

Klein Karoo Klassiek 3 Day Mountainbike Stage Race

On Thursday myself and Erik Kleinhans(Mr Price/GT) set off for Calitzdorp for the 3 day Klein Karoo Klassiek. This was not before we had our fair share of bike problems but we were soon on the way with Erik being a fantastic Route 62 tour guide/navigator. We arrived at the Calitzdorp Spa 20km out of the actual town which would be our home for the next few days and promptly set up camp and then went to register. The Spa is well known for its hot water springs and we planned to make full use of the warm pools over the few days that we would be here.

Setting up camp.

The 1st stage of the race presented us with 95km of racing and 2200m of vertical ascent! The route consisted of mainly gravel roads with a long section of technical and rocky jeep track. We would also have to climb the brutal Rooiberg Pass from both sides! 30km into the race and after the first ascent of the climb Erik, myself and Pete Stopforth were on our own. We lost Pete just before the technical jeep track. One of the highlights of the race must have been riding alongside a herd of about 30 Cape Mountain Zebra for a few km’s in a private game farm. On our way back Erik surged ahead of me on the second ascent of the climb to solo ahead for a convincing win. We spent our afternoon sipping on numerous espresso’s compliments of Erik’s awesome espresso maker whilst watching the Springbokkies grazing in our camp.

Another espresso on the go.

92km was in store for us on the second day but thankfully a lot less climbing. A neutral sort of start took us back in the direction of the town and into a beautiful valley. This is where we would spend the majority of the days race winding amoungst the beautiful hills of Calitzdorp and the Red Stone Cliffs . The climbs up to the halfway point is where Erik, Pete and myself went clear again with Erik setting the pace most of the way back to the finish and taking the win again with myself in second and Pete in 3rd.

The final day was to be a race against the clock with a 40km time trial. Something which doesn’t happen very often in the mountain biking world. Compliments of Marsillo Projects a start ramp had been erected which was the biggest I had ever seen in my life. It was about 20m long and about 4m in height! Erik pretty much had the race sown up with a comfortable cushion over myself. Nonetheless with Erik starting a minute behind me i was going to push for as long as possible before he caught me. After about 25km he did. A few km later going through a water crossing that we had already passed through on the first day Erik went down just in front of me and then while trying to brake to miss him I went down! Must have been a good laugh for all those watching. Erik took the win on the day again making it 3 from 3 and winning the overall. I was second again and second overall with Pete 3rd. Thanks to the Dryland Events team for putting together a great event.

Image compliments of First Care Medics