Back into road cycling season

The road cycling season has started again and everyone is trying to get fit as quickly as possible for the big 94.7 that is coming up in November. If you haven't got back into the swing of things, please do now. It is not too late to start a training programme.

Our official photographer is out of action at the moment, so you will have to bear a bare blog.

Etienne is forever cycling with his camera and taking pics when you least expect it. How he's doing it, we don't know. I mean, trying to stay in the bunch, take pics, drink from your bottle and not fall over , well...... All the best for the second op to his collar bone after the fall on the Baviaans Mountain Bike Marathon. Hope this time they get it right.

We started the season off with the Dome2Dome, which is quite a long and strenuous ride for the beginning of the season. I'm sure if the organisers could organise a later date in the season, we will see better times. Coming out of hibernation for most of us, it was quite a shock to the system. Although I must say, we had better weather than the year before. Our first time rider Phill, did a magnificent job on his first road ride. Never done any training on a road bike before and to jump in at the deep end speaks about courage. He did have a few chain episodes during the ride, but I understand he got the yank of it now.

The Outsurance ride was next on the list and what a surprise we got! Thinking it would be almost summer we woke up with a howling wind and temperatures of between 7 and 10 degrees. Not a pretty sight. The pretty sight was the Union buildings which we, on the 77km had to pass 6 times-hope I got it right. It was a pretty sight to see the city from there, although the city did look a bit wind swept, with dust, leaves and all sorts of debri flying all over. I must say it was the first ever ride that I finished with a cup of coffee and not a beer. It's just not the same. We prefer the pros to start first and then us novices.

A lot of rides are coming up so watch all these different sites for details:

http://www.cyclelab.co.za/

http://www.enteronline.co.za/

http://www.cyclingnews.co.za/

It is not all road rides, so if you are more interested in mountain biking, most of the big rides also do have a mountain bike ride on the other weekend day. A nice and fantastic ride to try is the Crater Cruise. The Saturday is a 100km event but the Sunday is only 56km and really great fun. It is all happening at our very own Paris- Parys.

A very big welcome to all the new faces at the gym. To mention a few, Ilse and another Ilse and Frik and Charles and Elzette and Rennie and Elsa. Hope you are having fun.

And for all the other guys still in hibernation....... come on..... get out....have fun.

By the way, the 94.7 is still open for entries till 30 September. I know you've been humming and hahing-how do you spell that-so come on , take the plunge and enter. It is just fun!

Hope to see you soon at the gym, if you are still coming out of Winter, or see you at one of the races.

Just do it!