It’s pretty cold here at the moment – at least it was dry today!
This is such a cool video.
Only you can judge the effort you put into something.
So give it everything you got……..!
Today the team went to Hector Norris Velodrome to do some speed work before we set off to Morocco.
Dropping back onto Brad's wheel
Sitting behind Rajab with Brad on my wheel. There was a bit of a breeze blowing across the track forcing us to ride a very mini echelon.
As I was injured during our annual training camp, I was invited to go down to Nelspruit with the team for SA Champs where I could support the team who was taking part, and use the good roads and terrain for some quality training.
Perfect roads and beautiful views above Sabie
It was a great success! Reinie won the National Elite Time Trial title and Calvin won the National U23 Road title.
In conjunction to this, Reinie came 2nd to Robbie Hunter in the road race by mere millimeters, JC came 2nd in the U23 TT, Lisa came 2nd in the Ladies road race and An-li came 3rd in the Ladies TT.
While all this was happening I was getting some big miles in the legs and was surrounded by beautiful scenery and great weather!
I really enjoyed myself and it was SO good to be riding on real roads again!
Makes you want to ride for ever....the hills make you change your mind eventually!
Good job team!! I am very proud of you. Hopefully I will be back in the peloton soon.
Nothing like watching Jens Voigt inflict pain to keep you motivated!
On my arrival back to JHB I was presented with a nice clean, fixed and finely tuned bike by our team mechanic Casper. It was time for me to start training again.
For the next few weeks I was destined to train indoors at ActiveWorx. To be honest I was dreading it a bit as I think everyone would rather be outside riding, rather than staring at a wall, sweating it out indoors.
To my surprise it was nothing like what I had expected.
My bike was put on a Computrainer and I was able to choose from tons of routes which people in SA had ridden and uploaded the course data onto the computer.
Another cool training tool I was introduced to was the ErgVid where u ride with other real people on the computer screen in front of you and as the terrain that you ride on changes, so does the resistance on your tire. This simulates you riding up and down hills, which is far more interesting than just sitting in one gear at one resistance for 3 hours. The tranquil background wasn’t so bad either 😉
Throughout the weeks I also watched Tour de France DVDs, some Spring Classics, the Milan-Sanremo amongst others.
Training indoors is way more fun if you keep your mind occupied. I don’t think I could have done nearly as much training if I was sitting alone on the veranda at home trying to train.
I must say a HUGE thanks to Dr Carol Austin and all the people at ActiveWorx for accommodating me with my training and for the great coffee!
Thanks.
The Fast One was the second race of the season (first was Central Gauteng Provincial Champs). The champs had got well for our team and I had had a rather good first race of the season and was keen to get some more good racing in my legs.
The race started out nice and fast and Brad and I had been in a few fast moves. We were just covering moves and the bunch had just been brought back together when we had to take a 90 degree right hand corner. The pace slowed down and we rolled through the corner.
Suddenly something hit me from the right. I heard my collarbone crack on impact. It was a rather disappointing sound.
Picture courtesy of @cyclenation
I thought it was a car that hit me, until I heard my helmet scraping against the tar and I realised I had crashed. I have never gone down that fast. My bike didn’t even give me a warning!
About 10 of us had gone down. The tar was wet and later we learnt that there was diesel on the road and the race organisers thought it was a good idea to spray it with water! Unbelievable foresight on their behalf – well done!!!
When I got off the ground, the collarbone shifted around inside and damaged/pinched the tendons and nerves which run over your shoulder. This caused me a rather large amount of pain.
I was taken to Sunninghill Hospital where I spent the night.
The next day Dr Mark Eltringham operated on my collarbone and pieced it back together with some screws and a titanium plate.
I think it looks pretty impressive.
As you can see Dr Eltringham did a pretty good job putting me back together...
The following day I was released and was able to go home, so I am off to Cape Town for some rest and recovery for just over a week. Then it will be back on the indoor trainer to get back into shape for the rest of the season.
I will keep you up to date with my progress as I go….
Jeb Corliss is a Base Jumper who recently jumped off Table Mountain in Cape Town. I am pretty disapointed that i missed it!
How cool is this!!! Off the front of Table Mountain.
And this is how it all ended……..Ooof!
A pic of Jeb milliseconds before he "touched down"...
Here is a video to see exactly how his flight unfolded:
The Republic of Hout Bay
As my short break from cycling ended and the new season started, base training was on the cards.
That is probably my favorite part of cycling.
Being in Cape Town, riding some of the most beautiful roads in the world with my friends and generally just spending time outside on the bike.
This year my teammate Arran was down in Cape Town for quite a while so i got to show him a few of the cape peninsula’s roads.
My new TREK training bike on Chappies
The things you get to see while on your bike range greatly. I was particularly impressed when we saw a rather large black snake on the side of the road which Darren Lill insisted on taking out of harms was and re-releasing into the bush a far distance from the road.
Darren Lill saving a mole snake from becoming a flat snake...
I clocked up a fair amount of miles and i am off to JHB soon for the beginning of the racing season…can’t wait!!
Arran and I am on the front page of The Citizen after a successful Momentum 94.7
Eddy Merckx Bikes put to the test....
Haha, every time i see this pic i have another chuckle to myself.
It is a pic posted on CyclingNews.com taken during the Tour of Hainan which we took part in.
It is proof that those Eddy Merckx bike are made STRONG!!!
Martin Wesemann 