The Amazing Adventures of an Average Actuarial Cyclist

Since inception the Trans Baviaans used the slogan "The longest single stage MTB event in the world!". But then the Trans Karoo (240km) and 36One (361km!)  joined the cycling calender and the organisers Ecobound were forced to come up with a less measurable but equally impressive catch phrase - so they settled on "The  toughest single stage MTB event in the world!". I am not convinced that claim is 100% true, but it is as far as I know the most popular long distance mtb event on the calendar with people from all over the country flocking to Willowmore to do the annual 230km ride to Jeffreys through the beautiful Baviaanskloof. This year it was my turn to give this ride a go and I teamed up with my old W2W-partner, Dewald for the 2015 event. However, my post-Sani winter training program would qualify for a thesis on how not to prepare for an ultra distance cycling event, as I stumbled from one mishap to the next, with rain, flu, cold, holidays, darkness

It's may, that time of the year 1000's of mtb'ers all over the country to flock to the little town of Underberg just south of the Sani-pass to partake in the biggest & most famous 3-day mtb stage race in the country - The Nedbank Sani2C. Team Racemiere saddled up again for their second bite at the cherry and converged onto Underberg accompanied by the rest of their extended family/support team to participate. Not much has changed since our 94.7 ride in November, I still had a dodgy heart and Pieter still had a small baby in the house, so training rides were much less frequent & shorter than for our previous attempt, but at least we were not neglecting the all important pre-race tapering. Also, in a cunning plan to compensate for our lack of training Team Racemiere has now gone professional and procured a big name kit sponsor and were now known as the "Pragma Racemiere". Pragma Racemiere - Ready for Day 1! Race strategy was to go as fast as poss

The Tulbagh leg of the National MTB Series used to be one of my favourite races. Tulbagh is a tough but beautiful place to mtb, however it seems Capetonians are adverse to travelling a 100km north to mtb when they have a choice of awesome trails in their own backyard so the organisers decided to bring the race directly to the Capetonians backyard in a bid to attract more participants. Meerendal - co-incidently the place where I started out mtb'ing and still often ride at, also the 2015 venue for the Cape Epic finale was the choice of new venue. A national series race in your own backyard is not something to be scoffed at, however recovery from my little "heart-mishap" was slow so I opted for the shorter half-marathon distance to ease back into the racing/funride scene. Beautiful morning at Meerendal The starting grid of a national series half-marathon is very different to what I'm used to, the usual racing snakes with expensive bikes at the

The Karoo2Coast experience didn't work out as planned, but at least the post-K2C fitness levels were good and I stepped up the training to have a proper go at the 94.7. But then live happened.... Getting home after the Durbie Dash end of  October, I experienced some chest pains. Soon after I was admitted to intensive care in the Panorama Heart Unit with a suspected torn heart muscle. "Luckily" the damage wasn't as bad as we initially feared but it meant a few weeks off the bike and thereafter a considerable downsizing of my cycling program and the start of the journey on a long road to (hopefully) full recovery. As all the arrangements for doing the 94.7 were already made I decided to still ride, just at half the pace I initially planned to do it. So I teamed up with my brother Pieter, my Sani2C partner who just recently had his first-born which also, like a heart condition, is not conducive to proper training schedule. I landed on the Friday, on Saturday

Along with the Trans Baviaans and Attakwas , the Karoo2Coast is one of the last 3 big Cape mtb races I was yet to conquer. It is one of the original big and famous mtb races in the country, starting in Uniondale, traversing the scenic & historic Prince Alfred pass, meandering through the beautiful Knysna forests to finish next to the lagoon in Knysna. It's got a reputation as a dirtroadie race not requiring much technical skill and there is a common misconception from people attempting the race for the first time that it's mostly downhill from Uniondale to the sea ( technically Uniondale is 700 meters above sea level so it is a big net drop in altitude from start to finish so the perception is understandable) Attempting the race is a logistical nightmare, you either have to find  find accomodation in Uniondale and a 200km lift back to your car via George or find accomodation in Knysna and catch an early morning 200km lift to the start to the race. With that in mind