The first time I heard about 'Dark and Dirty' was when I received a very suspicious-looking email in my inbox. I thought it was yet another spam-attack from a morally deprived site and rushed to erase it before my computer got stoned by a nasty virus, only to stop short when I saw the sender was in fact my graying and much respected father. (Known to the fold as 'Oupa Gert') Since then I have been looking forward to the occasional ride report from the extremist group of Pretoria based mountain-bikers braving mud and darkness every Thursday evening. Being a keen rider from Pietermaritzburg (with the world-cup downhill and X-country tracks in Ferncliffe and World's View my weekly staple - all invited), I was very keen to experience some of the magic myself. So on a trip to Pretoria I put in an extra half-day's leave and sped up on the Thursday afternoon only barely able to outrun a low-pressure system making it's way inland...
I arrived at the inverted cow - mall shortly before 7 to be met by a group of fearsome-looking but friendly riders lubing their chains and donning their raincoats. Any fears of the ride being called off due to inclement weather was blown away by the wind howling nastier every minute. Hardy and QT called the 13 brave riders to order and discussed the route plan. As the down-hill was recently cordoned off (poor style!) and inaccessible we would find some other action combining several exciting sections from routes not done for quite some time. With fear and trepidation I set off wholly intimidated by this crowd. I was somewhat encouraged that I wasn't the only new rider with Willie from Senekal (near Bethlehem), also on his virgin ride. We made our way through Cruiser-single track, a gentle climb towards the top of Vetseun- se-rol, a rocky and fast down-hill section that saw a hedgehog scurrying away before my approaching headlight. Next came the Cornwall-hill speed session, and as I was forewarned about the seriousness of the affair I disengaged my front shock in preparation for the battle. Only when Hardy set us off was I able to fathom the exceptional courtesy of the D&D-bunch, as they allowed Willie and I a 100 yard head start. Already smelling victory near the robot I was suddenly overtaken and unceremoniously dropped by Willie from the Free-state (henceforth known as 'Cheetah'). Once the group have re-gathered I was thrilled to hear that I could do the ride-report nonetheless, in a slight break with tradition not being the Cornwall-Hill champion nor having had a wipe-out. Big-dipper was a pleasant and exciting respite, but I was startled by how hard the Pretoria-rocks were only to discover that I never re-engaged my shock! This nearly saw me losing some serious street-cred with a very close shave over a stony drop-off near the bottom. With my trusty steed back in limousine-mode we worked our way parallel to the railway line where we halted to watch a snake slide across the road. Shortly after we were met by horse-men happy to exchange some friendly banter. This saw us through to the second speed session of the night next to the airforce base on the VO2- max dice. I was bent on revenge and being forewarned about Cheetah's sprinting-abilities I quickly took the lead and shrewdly cut him off to take the honours. From here it was down End- of-the world for another stretch of riveting, flowing downhill over rocky slope and a few drop-offs onto Back-of the-moon. Here we had a tyre change and with rain now coming down in droves decided to call it a night and head home for some hot-chocolate. Very embarrassed to actually tread tar we whiled away the boredom with granny-gear and single-leg dices through Lyttleton's deserted streets for a final bow through Kiss-your-handlebar tunnel and then home. Thanks a lot, guys and girls - it was everything I expected it would be. You okes rock, keep up the faith! Henry (Oupa Gert's son), aka Energizer Bunny back home in Pmb --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DarkAndDirty" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/darkanddirty?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
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