dit klink awesome! wanneer gan jy my wys??????? On 5 July 2010 12:37, Donald Klopper (GMail) <[email protected]>wrote:
> Ride report: Awesome Singletrack (Silverlakes / Boschkop area) - Sat 3 July > 2010 > > I had an awesome ride with Bennie's group from Single Track cycle shop on > Saturday morning, starting at Hazeldean shopping centre next to Silverlakes. > > This Saturday there were only two groups starting out, a 60km group (who > wouldn't wait much) and a 30km group that would accommodate the others. > > So being intimidated by the tough riders of the long ride (the guys aren't > particularly chatty to strangers), I opted for the shorter one, hoping to > play with the front guys as much as possible to make of for the lack of > distance on the day. > > I was not disappointed. > > This was to be my third ride with this crowd, and even though not quite > Dark and Dirty, they at least seem to care about who gets stuck behind. They > never have a sweeper, but every now and again they seem to try and see that > everybody regroups before they ride on again. We haven't lost anybody yet in > the three rides that I have done with them, but towards the end of the rides > I always seem to be at the back helping out. Just my nature, I guess. > > In any event, the riding started out with a rather mixed ability group, but > everybody seemed fit enough to cope with the eager "slow" pace. We stopped > often to let the slower guys catch up, or the faster guys would ride another > short extra / fun loop / climb instead of just waiting for everyone else but > them meeting up ahead somewhere. > > I could see from the start that there were some really strong young guys > that were in a playful mood, way too strong for the group, but probably they > opted for the short ride due to fitness / recovery / illness issues. > > Halfway through (around the 15km mark), the "slow" group split up and the > faster guys went ahead mentioning something about riding the bike park > route. > > Now I couldn't miss out, so I chased after them. > > I probably looked out of place, always 10m behind them, but they never > tried to drop me too hard, they just kept looking back every now and again. > > As expected on each climb I had to dig really deep to keep up, but on the > flats, twisties and downhills I had zero problems. > > Finally we hit the "bike park" section, which is 100% single track, all the > way. > > I've been on portions of this single track "course" but I think we did the > whole thing this time. A couple of small bridges. There's even supposed to > be a see-saw which I neither saw nor have seen.... > > One little bridge in particular was quite interesting. Around 6m long, and > 50cm wide, and just above the water surface, this water crossing in itself > wasn't that daunting. The entry was the interesting part, with a mild > drop-off not quite straight, you had to land the front wheel securely before > turning onto the bridge. As I'm usually the first guy to bliksem off these > things, I just kept my speed up and front wheel in the middle, and it > worked. The squirt of adrenaline that this provided took me to the top of > the little climb that followed. > > Route markings were awesome, usually with little blue or black arrows > showing the direction of flow. There were some other very short "rocky" > sections that were marked as "Sharp Jagged Rocks" and the like, but none of > the route was dangerous, even for a night ride. I think it'll be awesome if > we can do a night-ride in that area some day. > > Anyway the guy leading the group wasn't REALLY pushing hard on the > twisties. I think he had confidence issues... but the pace always picked up > nicely when the path straightened out. > > Just after the end of the bike park section (around 11km of pure single > track!) we headed out on the tar, up the false flat back to Hazeldean. > > The group of people weren't very chatty to new people; I guess we do the > same at DnD rides. You have to earn your welcome by becoming a more regular > show. I wouldn't mind, because it's just a 12km warm-up ride from my house > to the start, easily turning into a 60+ km ride, when doing the SHORT > shop-ride. (This time I took the car ...) > > The "workout" has been shared for your viewing pleasure on Endomondo. > http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/jXt36pU6T2w > > DeeKay > > PS: I wouldn't ride that section with a group with fewer than 5 riders. > It's right next to Mamelodi, so there are a number of people that live in > the veld around there, and we passed at least one large dumping site. As > usual, everybody that we passed were very friendly, and we did pass a couple > of lone riders on their MTB's as well. > > > -- > 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]<darkanddirty%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/darkanddirty?hl=en. > -- http://cyclingwith.blogspot.com -- 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.
