Last week I promised a great reveal:
I have formed a brand partnership with
Ballistic Bike Trading! Ballistic Bike Trading, exclusive Importers and
Distributors of Ghost Bikes, Bryton GPS, ESI Grips, HIRZL Gloves, Halo
Headband, Chamois Butter, Buh Bump, Bike Medicine Ax-Lightness, Ass-Savers,
Cratoni Helmets and Tyre Juice. These are all awesome products that I am sure
you are going to be seeing a lot more of on my rides. (Check out my product
review section for a review on the Bryton Rider gps device.)Especially since I
have now acquired a Ghost road bike! Yes, Ghost have road bikes and they are
amazing – in fact, if you are in the market for top range road bike at an
affordable price, take a look at a Ghost! Seriously – just look at specs of the
Ghost vs specs of other bikes…. I did.
The partnership is an exciting one which I
trust will be beneficial to both parties and look forward to the journey.
So a few months ago someone put a little
idea in my head: go race in Europe. The initial idea was to go to France and do
the Tour de France sportive since this year is the 100th edition of
the legendary race. But, when the sportive route was announced we decided it
was too easy (I would only have gone if they had included one of the legendary
climbs such as Alp de Huez which is a climb I have always wanted to this climb
as it’s the classic Tour de France climb where Lance Armstrong gazed into the
eyes of his competition and simply rode away to victory). And, the sportive
stage was at the beginning of the tour whereas the pros are riding that stage
on the second last day of the Tour so we would miss seeing them ride that
stage. We looked at the other options like Giro di Italia and the various
classics. We eventually decided on Belgium which is host to some pretty awesome
races and after much back and forth, we settled on Liege Bastogne Liege and I
decided to play it safe and just do the 155km vs the full 271km.
Despite the shorter distance, it still
makes it significantly longer and harder than any of the South African races so
it has meant I have had to get my fitness to a level above anything I have ever
needed. I have been training my butt off!! Although life has been a pain and
often impacted the training which is a pain but hey, life must go on and I am a
load fitter than I have ever been.
With 1 month to go, I essentially have 2.5
weeks of hard work before I have to taper. Think tapering is going to kill me
as I really don’t think I am ready for this. Its actually scary to think that in 1 month, we will be on a Turkish Airlines flight to Belgium.
At the moment, I have to juggle life, work
(am swamped and not sure how I am going to get everything done), training,
spending as much time with KD as I can, my new challenge with Ballistic Bike
Trading and I have to start thinking of packing!! Am totally freaked out that I
have to pack a week’s worth of stuff into a single medium sized bag and with
the weather in Europe at the moment, it may prove to be interesting as to what
I pack as its not just cycling kit but also off the bike stuff. And, I have to
pack for the bush.
To my brother Gareth: not sure if you read
my blog (doubt it) but here goes… On the day we drive to the farm, everytime I
drive down to the farm and we go down the pass, I dream of riding down the
escarpment into the Lowveld and would LOVE to ride it from the top (the top of
the hill where mom had her accident) to Manoutsa but would accept just riding
it from the tunnel to Manoutsa. I have a pretty shweet deal on the cards for
either option. And a bonus offer as well. J I
have no fear you are gonna stop and not request bribery – cause you are a
rockstar brother.
I have done my fair share of cool
adventures but this one is going to beat them all in scale as I have never had
to think of suck great logistics! Fortunately for me, like all my adventures I
have an awesome support team behind me. From Andy who is my adventure partner,
to my folks and my family who are always there for me, my family in Belgium, to
my awesome friends and last but not least my new brand partners.
I still have a lot to get sorted like
getting my visa, getting new gloves (think I need new long finger ones so will
be looking at Hirzl gloves since I have recently had issues with my short
finger gloves in hot weather and am naturally nervous of wet weather and loosing
grip). Also need to spend quality time on Casper my new Ghost to get used to
it.
So, if I am quiet for a while, apologies!
(Will be tweeting my heart out so find me there but promise to send news as
often as I can.)
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