Wednesday 27 June 2012

Post Tour Happenings

Ok, so I know I have been quiet but I have been a bit busy post tour.

After the tour I spent a wonderful week in Cape Town. First, I spent a few days with a cousin in Stellenbosch where I got to relax, ride bicycle and recover from the tour. I then went onto Cape Town to visit family and once again relax and recover. I also started a photo dvd (which I will try upload soon).


Unfortunately for me, whilst I was relaxing a cough that had started on the ride turned into bronchitis, in true form I tried to doctor it myself but was forced to go to the doc. 1 round of antibiotics later, I was still hacking and thought I had broken a rib which turned out to actually be pneumonia. The result of that was that I had to make some tough decisions with regards what adventures I was going to do. My next great adventure I was planning was Transbaviaans – a 230km non-stop ride from Uniondale to Jeffrey’s Bay through the Baviaanskloof. This was going to be spectacular but would have required intense training and unfortunately with something as serious as pneumonia, I was going to have to ease back into training and not kill myself so I pulled out of Trans.

I am now back into training and have some nice smaller goals lined up whilst I think about what the next big thing is. I have been given some nice ideas, so its just a matter of finding time to look at the options and pick one.

Since I have been back on the bike I have done 1 really nutty ride. Its called Critical Mass and happens the last Friday of every month. A friend told me about it and the 2 of us agreed to go ride this event. We started in Dunkeld at 6pm and cruised through the streets of Rosebank, right through the Rosebank Zone (cant imagine what the people must have thought at 100 cyclists randomly coming through the open area of the mall), and on into town. From a historical point, it was quite nice to ride up to the Constitutional Court and the old fort. At Juta street the group joined the main ride (it had taken us an hour of weaving around to get to Braamfontein) where we ended up being about 300 cyclists. The vibe was quite something!! From there I got lost. We meandered through Mayfair and other parts of town with us 2 roadies sticking to the front of the bunch and the mountain bikers jumping pavements and being nutty. Its quite surreal to cruise around a place I wouldn’t dare go in daylight at night!! One of the guys on this adventure even had a trailer behind his bike with a boombox – very cool except it kept blowing its fuse. After much weaving around town, we landed up at a place called the Bioscope where there was an official beer stop. For us, this was a bit long but the beer drinkers loved it! 20 to 30mins later we were off again on the return journey. The great town adventure ended at Kitcheners where most cyclists were either picked up or stopped for dinner and drinks. This is where a small group of us ducked and headed back as we had other plans for the evening which included pizzas.

It was such a fun evening! And with the next one being this Friday, I cannot wait to dress warmly and hit the streets of Jozi.