Tuesday 28 May 2013

3 Days = 3 Rides = Bank Holiday Weekend!

25 May 2013 - Ride & Braai

The Ride

Box Hill Window
13 of us reported for riding on Saturday morning. We split into groups right from the start.
Hard core, Less Hard core & Fun groups. We all started with the steep climb round the back of Box Hill to the top. I led the Fun group (myself, Cecilia, Bron, Kyle & Mike). I was unable to find the entrance to China Pig, so instead we went down quite a steep descent, Kyle fell of his bike like a bag of potatoes, the sound effect was priceless as it was just a thud on the ground, he jumped straight back onto his bike and we continued. We got reprimanded by an auntie on a private farm that it is private land and no cycle track, she was rebuking us in a very kind way, we just apologised, cause in all honesty I couldn't find the trails that I was looking for. We dropped Mike at the station and found our way up to Leith Hill Tower by climbing up Summer Lightning. I love that route, it always bring back memories to when I first started riding, I relive all my moments of insecurities where I fell, unclipped or thought this is tough, so it is a huge confident booster whenever I do it.

Bron, Mike & Kyle
At the top of Leith Hill Tower we had the most amazing and biggest sausage roll ever! I am definitely going back for more soon! The teashop is under new management, the lady is not overly friendly, but the treats on offer make up for that.

Three of the A-Team ( The Van Niekerks & Rich) bumped into us at the Tower and joined us for our journey back to the station.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Hitting Summer Lightning hard with Stephné van Niekerk!
Steph and I love chasing each other down Summer Lightning. It is our ticket to ride 'varkerig' as we would say in Afrikaans. Summer Lightning divides naturally into 3 parts, so we take turns to go in the front. Today we had an absolute ball! We were gunning it whilst giving running commentary all the way down to the bottom. We rode so fast, that we had enough time for a 'bos piepie' before the others arrived. :)

The Braai

I prepared most of the side dishes on Friday evening as I knew space would be an issue once the 25 guests arrived. Most of today's riders, their better halves and friends who were unable to ride joined us for the braai. We had the obvious signature dishes of lamb chops and paptert on the menu accompanied by butternut, sweet potato, carrot, feta & cranberry salad. For pudding some people had braaied marshmallows on the fire or chocolate pudding with custard

Finally blessed with some sunshine


26 May 2013 - Swinley Forest

A lot of people have been talking about the new improved Swinley Forest. I've never been a huge fan of it in the past, but was keen to give it a try.

So my verdict is:
  • They have done an amazing job on building a challenging blue run, in my opinion it is more advanced than other blue runs I've ridden before, so will give beginners a good feel for mountain biking and help build their confidence
  • They have done a superb job on the berms!
  • The red run is also good, there were two sections that gave your stomach that sinking feeling like when you drive over a short steep hill fast - I loved it!
  • It was more challenging than what I expected
  • Some people are still cycling in the wrong direction, this can be dangerous especially it is near some jumps and on a downhill where we got some oncoming traffic
  • Signage is good, but could need a few more signs at a few corners especially the link from the blue to the red can be marked better
  • It was fun and is especially great for people who want to do a quick ride and who don't know other routes that well or want to ride on their own and it is IDEAL for anyone with a family as the teashop and play area is any child's dream
  • I don't want to do it every weekend as I prefer getting a bit more distance on the legs between single track sections, but it is a great for some variety every now and then
27 May 2013 - Dorking

Today we had the privilege to have the company of no other than Mr Gerhard Bonthuys, thoroughbred roadie as many of you would know. I met Gerhard the first time on a mountain bike ride last year, but has never seen him on his mtb since, I have however seen him on his road bike a lot and even had the courage to go on a few of their roadrides.

Myself, The Van Niekerks, Bonty, Pokkeltjie and Rich our token Brit was joined by Lizzie at Dorking station. Now in our circles if you mention that you've been riding with Lizzie it puts you automatically in another level of riding. She has a racing background and is known for her mountain bike skills and that she can out ride any male rider. Nervous levels were high before we even started riding.

We started off with the same steep back of Box Hill climb... WHY??? It takes me a good 20 minutes to warm up on every ride, this was a bad idea. This time we found the entrance to China Pig, we then went across to near Denbies Farm and climbed up past Tanners Hatch to Ranmore Common, stayed on the North Downs and down a steep section at White Downs onto the 22. From here we went the normal way over to Yoghurt Potts & BKB. We crossed the A24 head up past the fish farm over to the Volunteer, up past the YHA in Holmbury.

We had some tea, cheesestraws and other delicacies from The Peaslake Village Store before we took the 'flat route'  back to Dorking station. Pokkeltjie finally got her mojo back after she finally ate something and started enjoying the 2nd half of the ride. We have now excelled to another level of riding after we survived our first ride with Lizzie. Hehehe. :-)

Bonty seen on his MTB @ Peaslake!





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