Introducing Tango Cycling to Jonkershoek!



Some of my cycling Besties!



I'm not sure why you ride your bike, but I ride my bike because of the people I ride with and the fun I have when I ride my bike.  

On 3 January I had the privilege to ride in Jonkershoek, Stellenbosch, South Africa with 3 of my besties, Christiaan (MC), Elisca (Dolla) & Liezl (Pokkeltjie). (Listed in no particular order. :-))

I've studied in Stellenbosch for 4 years and cycling was my mode of transport to lectures but that is how far it went. I knew guys who cycled in Jonkershoek & washed their bikes afterwards but to me that was a weird concept and something I never heard off before. 

I remember how I chased down the hill in true last minute TC departure style to try and be on time for my lecturew. My granny flat was in Uniepark and there was a shortcut down a grass field towards Stellenbosch High school. The people that were on their way to work had to skill fully jump out of my way because my green mamba had no brakes, it was metal on metal and one hell of noise going towards them. With a bit of luck and grace I managed to get my bike to stop in time at the pedestrian crossing. Maintenance of my bike was not high on the priority list or included in my budget. Hanging out at Tollies on a Wednesday & Saturday night were more important!

10 years later I returned to Stellenbosch, older, wiser and knowing what fun I had missed out on for not riding my bike in Jonkershoek. 

The plan was to borrow Steph's bike, but unfortunately we were not able to ride together due to logistics and timings so I contacted Specialized & Ride In via twitter and found out that I can hire a bike from Ride In cafe for the day. I've been following the cafe on Twitter and many a day wished that I could rather be there than sit at my desk in London

To my delight they rented out SpeciaIized bikes. I requested a small hardtail for the day. Gavin contacted me in reply and said unfortunately they don't stock small hardtails, but he had a small full suspension bike for me to rent.  I've never ridden with a full sus before as I know that I would want one if I did ride it and that I won't be able to afford it so it would be best to avoid the temptation. 

Upon our arrival at Ride In Cafe I spotted my favourite women's mountain biker, Ariane Kleinhans. Liezl met her the week before and wanted to say 'Hi' to her, but I was too shy so we didn't go over. :( She is phenomenal and a mean Swiss Cycling machine!

My hired bike wasn't just a full suss, it was a Specialized Camber, full suss, 29er! I was sceptical and overwhelmed and the same time.



With the awesome Specialized cycling machine!

We set off to Jonkershoek from Ride In Cafe. We climbed up the Canaries which is an ascending & descending trail. This climb reminded me of the first climb in Afan from Clyncorwg Trail Centre. Rocky, twisty & technical. I was worried about my fitness when we set off, but soon learnt to my surprise that this bike was just too willing to roll over everything without too much effort. 

Selfie time in the fog.

Typically TC I kept the rear shock locked so that I won't get used to it too much, but after some stern words from Christiaan that I paid to ride this bike I might as well enjoy it to its full potential. So I started playing with the suspension settings. Hard, trail and soft... I don't like it when you sink in too much at the back when you go over an obstacle. I don't like that lagging feeling. It is like you are halfway down the trail but the bike is still following you. I prefer the medium or harder setting. 



Going down the first singletrack I crashed in the first switchback turn as I didn't concentrate on what I was doing and corners are a lot more tight than on a 26" where a late response is very forgiving. 



Trail side support

On the last section I was following Christiaan's wheel. This is always a dangerous move as he just flies down the hills. I was not too far behind him until almost at the end of the trail where I missed a corner and travelled about a metre parallel to the trail. Don't fear with the tractor wheels it didn't seem to turn into a crash thankfully. The bike just continued rolling whilst I was laughing in amazement. I did slow down though for my own good as it is better to arrive alive! 

 



Beautiful Stellenbosch!

From there we went across to the other side at The Quarry. This downhill was the favourite for the others, but not that much for me. I think I was getting tired and didn't know the trail and were a bit more weary. 



Happy times, awesome ride with great friends. My cup is overflowing :-)

We rounded off our ride with lunch at Ride In before heading to Cape Town for a kuier with my favourites! I am so thankful that I finally got the chance to ride in Stellenbosch and that I was able to check out Ride In Cafe. As mentioned in previous blog post, "Call me Maybe" I think that running a café like this would be my dream job; ride my bike, share cycling stories, serve nice food, share the trails ... what more can you ask for?! The food was great! Most of you know I love my meat, but I actually went for a salad with roasted aubergine & off course feta cheese (my meat replacement) and I thoroughly enjoyed that. Filled me up nicely and I didn't have too much food envy over the others burgers. :-)
 





Lunchtime at Ride In Café

 

TC's Observations of riding a Full Suss 29'er: 

Pros: 

• It can roll over everything without any effort and as Iain said its like cheating, I can not agree more! 
• It is fast going uphill 
• And equally fast going downhill
• I loved the 2 x 10 chainring - the transition wasn't too much from a 3 x 10

Cons: 

• Downhill switchback turns are somehow an art to be mastered
• Lifting the 29er for a little bunny hop seems to be harder or not yet possible for me (Christiaan had the same trouble when he hired a 29er)

Myth buster: 
 

Small/Short people can't ride 29ers - They can! 

I can conclude that I would DEFINITELY consider a full suss when I buy my next bike. In terms of wheel size, I will definitely consider a 29er and not just 650b! 

Ps. As we got ready in the car park people asked us about Tango Cycling... we were just too happy to tell them more. We also overheard others asking who we were, but left them hanging, they can figure it out or just think we are the newest MTB Racing Team in South Africa on training camp. ;)

https://www.strava.com/activities/236059887/segments/6080535761

Pedal to Paris - 2014

As my grandmother always said... NEVER say NEVER as NEVER is a very long time. Many of you would know that I was rather vocal about my dislike of road cycling etc, but I've always had a tendency to suffer under peer pressure or maybe FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) will be a more fair comment.

At our Christmas Party back in December 2013, David  told me that I WILL be riding Pedal to Paris this year and that I will also be involved in the organisation of it, including the design and creation of 600 shirts in five different designs. I didn't have much choice other than to oblige and agree.

Our company, Manpower, has been involved with the Royal British Legion (RBL) for a number of years and have sponsored all 300 riders shirts again this year. Our team was 56 people strong and the biggest since Mark Cahill & James Levey rode their first Pedal to Paris.  



Team Manpower

RBL provide practical, emotional and financial support to all members of the British Armed Forces past and present, and their families. 

This year’s ride was the 19th ride organised by RBL from London to Paris and was particularly special as it is the commemoration of 100 years since the outbreak of WW1, and the ride included visits to War Memorials along the way, whilst the route passed through battlefields and WW1 and WW2 cemeteries, culminating in a spectacular finish at the Arc de Triomphe.

As a team we pledged to to raise £48 000 but exceeded that and are currently over £70 000 already! Over £25 000 was raised through generous corporate sponsorships including Pera Training, IQ Navigator, Sky, Steljes, Trailfinders, Lex Autolease, Broadbean & Career Transition Partnership. If you would like to contribute to this great cause you can do so via http://www.justgiving.com/companyteams/TeamManpower2014. 



Getting ready - Kit provided by Le Marq

Co-ordinating 5 different shirts with 3 different purposes was a challenge at times but great experience. At some point it did feel that riding 445km would be easier than arranging 600 shirts. Everything arrived on time and looked fantastic!

My training plan didn't really turn out as I planned as I got a cold in July. Thankfully I did a MTB-race in the Dolomites in June & I was hoping that the training I did for that would pull me through. I did one training ride with my friend Steph & bonked one kilometre to go from home & we only rode 87km, confidence levels were low and I really didn't know what to expect. David however had been to many spin classes coming in & out of the office gleefully asking me what I have been up to. On which I replied with either no training, or that I did an off-road triathlon 2 weeks before the event.

In all honesty I didn't have many expectations as it was road cycling which is not my first love, so I can truthfully say that I have been pleasantly surprised by everything. Firstly I would've never considered doing four days of road cycling and secondly I never knew that I would be able to do this. I have only once ridden 120km before, let alone 4 consecutive days of that distance. 



Day 3 - Fun fun fun!

Highlights:

1. Day 1 - jumping onto Gus' wheel early on and staying on it till the lunch stop
2. Day 3 - most fun I've ever had on a road bike, working together & pacing as a team with David, Adrian, Will, Gus, Gary, Antony & Hugo who also looked after me as if they were my brothers/fathers on & off the bike
3. Also teaching Hugo how to do drafting
4. On & Off the bike team work & banter
5. Turning right onto the Arc d' Triomph and sprinting to the end of four days of amazing road riding
6. Meeting other people from across the ManpowerGroup made me feel proud to be part of the company


Lows:
- Stopping & Starting all the time on Day 2

Team Manpower road cycling legend
 & ride captain,
James Levey with whom
I got to work with on the shirts

Favourite quote/moment:
- You stole my wifi (pronounced weee-feee) - Gus Watt

Things I learnt about road cycling: 

You can also read this as, "Things I learnt about James Levey :-)"

1. Everyone should off course have 4 pair of gloves, a pair for each day
2. Wet wipes are better than any bike wash
3. To give your chamois a hand wash is not hygienic enough
4. You need to wash your water bottles out with warm water every evening

* Whether we all took that on board is a different matter :-)

I got to do three of the things I love most in life; organise, riding 'a' bike & meeting people. I can only thank David for not giving me an option to do the ride or not. I feel a huge sense of achievement and am even looking forward to do more road riding with my new acquainted friends.

Thank you to RBL for organising this great event, the closed roads, mechanics & physios contributed to a very memorable experience.

Strava:
Day 1 - London Greenwich to Dover
http://www.strava.com/activities/189760788
Day 2 - Calais to Abbeville
http://www.strava.com/activities/190238060
Day 3 - Abbeville - Beauvois
http://www.strava.com/activities/190717359
Day 4 - Beauvois - Paris
http://www.strava.com/activities/191276460

http://www.strava.com/clubs/manpowerpedals

David & Gus cycling through one of the WW1 battlefields

We all made it!

Thanks for pushing my road cycling boundaries!

Final remembrance ceremony at the Arc d' Triomphe




Catherine & Claire - hopefully we will be soon hitting some Strava leaderboards together in the Surrey Hills ;-)

More photos can be found on this link: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.851747484843213.1073741873.587996214551676&type=1&l=d6cdc27887

It's my birthday and I can TRI if I want to‏...

Exactly what I had in mind...

So on Sunday I did my 2^nd ever triathlon. You will remember that last year Steph van Niekerk taught me the breathing technique of swimming for the event. This year my aim was to swim without stopping, ie no resting, no head above the water, doggy pedal or breast stroke.
 

I swam three times in preparation for the XTERRA not because I planned it that way, but I got a stupid virus a month ago and haven’t been able to train so also downgraded from entering the Championship originally to do the Sprint again this year due to my health & fitness.

 



Killing time before the swim
Photo: Julie Meyer

Dropping my stuff off & getting ready for transition was so much different from last year, last year I was still putting my wetsuit on at the race briefing, this year it felt like I forgot something as I had time to spare to take photos with Jules & muck about with other athletes. 

 

I came 2^nd last out of the water, but I didn’t stop once and that is all that mattered to me.

 

Onto the bike, now this was going to be fun. Zane put word out on Saturday that the bike course was a lot more technical than last year and it made me slightly nervous, but more excited.

 

Pokkeltjie pulling me through on the bike leg
Photo: Zane Smith

Somehow I didn’t have jelly legs once I started out on the bike, it is probably down to the fact that I hardly kick when I swim, my 2 legs are just a heavy weight dragging along with me.

 

The bike course had so many twists, turns, bunny holes which I almost discovered the hard way as I tried to overtake someone on the single track. I quickly started picking up a few people. I think years of riding awesome trails in the Surrey Hills & the ultimate Sellaronda Hero training ground in the Dolomites this year helped a lot. It felt like every switchback turn was towards the left. My left hand side is my dumb side… got to improve! My brain started getting tired towards the end and I knew it was time to finish the bike before I crash doing something silly.

The bike was so much fun and I started experiencing FOMO having to still run whilst all the others had been able to support me, I also wanted to be able to hang out, but I still had 5km to run.

I didn’t escape jelly legs, they were there as soon as I started the run leg. I knew that the ditch jump was waiting for me and unlike me, I didn’t want to get my new shoes dirty. I also have a bit of vertigo and although it isn’t that far down into the ditch, I didn’t look forward to it. The course is great, but the fact that your legs are tired makes it a lot harder. I felt like walking, but said to myself I’m not allowed to because I know I’ll be beating myself up about walking. I did walk a bit just because I could and didn’t want to run. After the water point and back over the field I thought we would’ve covered 4km already, but I then saw a 3km marker, I prepared myself to still go back into the woods where we were last year and thought I still had 2.5km to go so saved some energy for that. I got to the tree trunk crossing and thought yay I have an excuse to walk again, but no-no the ‘bossy’ photographer from Lighttrapper (who I now know as Rob who is a friend of friend) encouraged me to climb over and carry on running. J Before I knew it, I was out of the woods and onto the finishing straight. I was a little bit confused and felt like I cheated as I then felt that I still had loads of energy left.
 



Sprinting to the Finish line
Photo: Zane Smith

As I approached the finish line my friends started singing Happy Birthday to me, all of them & Carl & Terry from Squirtlube gave me high 5’s as if I was a celebrity in town. It was a special one & I will savour the memories for a long time to come. Thank you I wouldn’t have wanted to spend the day in any other way.

 

 



Hanging out with Carl @ Squirtlube and
The Winning Specialized Machine!
Photo: Zane Smith

We also had the opportunity to see Conrad Stoltz, XTERRA legend, 7 time World Champion race in this race. I’ve known Conrad from back home when I was still in university. Two of the things I can remember about him is that he was always riding his bike in Jonkershoek and washing it, I thought he was a little bit crazy. Little did I know that I would join this crazy hype of mountain biking & XTERRA a few years later.


I was so excited when I heard that he was coming to race in the UK as I’ve been following his career via his blog & other social media postings. Conrad & Liezl stayed with Carl from Squirtlube who we got to know through XTERRA England 2013 actually. Squirtlube has been sponsoring Tango Cycling since last year’s race. Carl also took Conrad out on our local trails and it is so nice to hear that someone who has ridden all over the world think that our local trails are fantastic.


Conrad smashed the bike course and like we would say in Afrikaans, he rode the rest of the guys kas toe! He won with a lead of 5 minutes over his next competitor and also won 50^thXTERRA title in his 22 year long career.


Caveman winning his 50th XTERRA title!
Photo: Zane Smith




Liezl, Simon, Jason, Willem, Paula, Lee-Anne & Myburgh
Photo: Tharina Cronjé

Jason, Lee-Anne, Liezl, Myburgh, Paula & Willem represented Tango Cycling in the Championship Distance. It was so great to be able to support all of them the same way they supported me. I have to say the Tango Cycling Support Crew made such a noise whenever we were not all together we just had to listen to the noise to know if one of our members went past.

 



Paula receiving her spot for Hawaii
Photo: Zane Smith

As preparation for Half Ironman World Championships Paula entered the XTERRA as a mountain bike newbie. Underplaying her mountain biking skills she was a complete wild card. She completely smashed it and proceeded to not only just complete her first off-road triathlon, but to win her age group category and qualify for XTERRA World Championships in Hawaii in October.
Congratulations Paula, we are so impressed and very proud of you. You are one of ‘us’ now!

 

Tips:

1.     Ear plugs – for the swim. Myburgh told me about this, it was actually the first time I swam with them but it worked because it doesn’t sound like you are going to drown all the time.

2.     Turn up on time & set up your transition at your own pace and well in time before the start of the race

3.     Don’t carry heavy stuff around the day before the race or over commit yourself

Thanks :
 

1.     All my lovely friends for supporting me.

2.     The man who said ‘you don’t have far to go’ from his canoe when I started to battle towards the end of the swim – you got me there!

3.     Sam & Richard for an awesome bike course, thank you for taking the ‘hornet sting’ out of it as well (Sam I hear you took one for the team J).

4.     Richard Campbell for his memory of an elephant & being so complimentary towards me & the rest of the gang over the announcers microphone.

5.     XTERRA for putting on this event amidst all of the uncertainty, I will continue to come back for as long as I live on the mud island.

Results:

 

http://www.stuweb.co.uk/events/2014/08/24/1800/

Photos:

 

The face of Tango Cycling, Zane Smith took a back seat this year and moved in behind his camera lens to take some awesome on the day event photos for us.

Click here to view the photos.

Tango Family (minus Simon & Milli), Conrad, Liezl, Yolandi, Carl & Terry!
Photo taken: Carel du Plessis with either Paula or Zane's camera



Beer & Bike - 26 July 2014

A day of fun awaits

On Saturday 26 July I finally arranged an event for the guys. I’ve been neglecting them since I started the ladies rides last year. So last Saturday was their turn. Iain & Lizzie who live locally in Dorking led the ride and showed them some new trails.

Carl, from Squirtlube told me about this race, the Iditarod Trail Invitational he did in Alaska a few times at the Skills weekend last year when he kindly joined us. He degreased each of our chains and re-applied/induced our chains with Squirtlube. So I’ve been trying to think of when and where to host an event where he can get the opportunity to talk to us about this extraordinary race which he has completed twice, and even WON.

A group of 11 keen, energetic guys met at Dorking station on Saturday morning. I joined the ride for the first hour just because I didn’t want to miss out and it is more fun to ride with people than on your own.

We did a new trail at Denbies before we hit over to Whitedowns lane. I was in a bit of trouble over here as the last time I rode this area was about 3 months ago with a few of the guys and I threw a proper tantrum as it is very steep and rooty. The long, steady climb on the tar road up Whitedowns Lane to the start of the trails as well as a leaking Camelbak contributed to this bad start. Poor Rich Hemmings got the brunt of my strop and were mocking me on Saturday as suddenly I rode down it and didn’t make as much as a peep about the steepness etc. In my defence, I’m stronger & more confident now than I was back then - might be these rides with the boys, I’d never admit that to them though!

The Pack: Wynie, Carl, Iain, Jono, Willem, Rich, Lizzie, J & Roelof
Photo: Zane Smith

I left the group at route 22 as they were heading back towards Dorking and I went right onto the 22 towards Abinger before I joined Hoe Lane to pick up the key for Peaslake Village Hall. I booked the hall the week before with a lovely lady called Marg who has been living in Peaslake all her life. What a lovely place to grow up in?

Our beautiful playground
Photo: Zane Smith

Jules & Nicole met me at Peaslake where we quickly set up the hall for the afternoon activities. We went for a walk towards the bottom of “Barry Knows Best” to show Nicole where we usually ride. From there we went over to Death Star and turned right at the top down to the graveyard before we got back to the Village Hall to start the fire before the guys got there.

We had cold beers ready for the guys on their return (which they were VERY grateful for) and we all sat round the fire as Louis braaied the boerewors for us. The guys were tired out as Iain & Lizzie dragged them up & down hills and showed them new trails around the North Downs Way and Shere. A few of the guys who know these trails said they felt like they had now conquered every single hill to conquer in the Surrey Hills. It may have been a bit of a shock to the system for some of the newcomers.

We headed inside once had all refuelled ready to listen to Carl from Squirtlube talk about his experiences of the gruelling Iditarod Invitation Trail ride. This ride is an unmarked route covering 1000 miles over the snow covered Alaska. It includes riding your bike over snow, frozen lakes, frozen rivers and even frozen sea. Carl attempted this ride 5 times, completed it twice, won it once where he also set a new course record! This is a no jokes ride. The effort and planning that goes into this race purely on how to survive and move forward in this race is astounding. Things that I would never even think about but what he had to prepare for. Things like: defrosting snow so that you have enough drinking water, blowing the water in your camelbak pipe back once you sipped from it so that it doesn’t freeze in the pipe, not wearing 2 pairs of socks to keep your feet warm, but rather having more movement in your boot.

The Audience

Carl told us afterwards that to do this race it is better to undertrain and be overweight then over train and have no fat on you. It is about being mentally prepared to carry on when the elements are against you.

Carl's Bike & equipment

The talk was really inspiring and made us realise again that if you put your mind to something, you can do it, anybody can attempt something like this.

I would like to thank everybody who joined in on the day. Iain & Lizzie for taking the lead on the ride. Carl for taking the time to join the ride, prepare the presentation and share it with us. Julie, Nicole & Louis for their help in setting up, cleaning up & preparing the food.

Saturday's route
http://www.strava.com/activities/171207056

1st Tango Cycling Competition!

I am so excited to invite you all to participate in the first Tango Cycling Competition?

Tango Competition

Stand the chance to win a years’ worth of Squirtlube, Squirt Bio Bikewash a KMC Squirt induced chain and a batch of TC’s signature crunchies! All you have to do is ride your bike as much as possible for a two week period from 25 November – 14:00, 8 December 2013! Register your GPS device with Strava and join Tango Cycling Club on your pc to enter and participate in this challenge.

To participate in the competition you all you need is the following:

 

1. Be registered on Strava, have a gps device or download the app on your smartphone

2. Join Tango Cycling Club on Strava – make sure you join the group on your PC otherwise your profile will not come up on the leaderboard http://www.strava.com/clubs/tango-cycling

3. Ride your bike as much as you can from 25 November – 14:00 on 8 December 2013

Terms & Conditions:

 

Enter at your own risk

Strava leaderboard will have the final say as to who is the winner

Honesty is the best policy so no #digitalepo business

The winner has to live in the UK

Tango Christmas Party

The winner will be announced on 8 December 2013 at the Tango Christmas Party!

We can all go for a last ride together, maybe just around Richmond Park, everyone can do as many laps as they want and then we can indulge in some homemade cakes & tarts with teas & coffees at potentially my head quarters (tbc). £5entry fee to the Tango Christmas Party. Anybody ie cyclists & non-cyclists are welcome to join the party?! #makethecirclebigger

Who is in? Who will take it? Who will you putyour money on?

Tango Cycling Greetings,

TC J

Ps. Squirtlube is now available for purchase on Wiggle and Specialized Concept Store in Kingston.

My 1st Triathlon - XTERRA England

It all started way back in June when I was determined that I had enough time to learn how to swim and train for the XTERRA.

I've never been able to swim properly so never considered doing triathlon as I've always had this fear of water, I think I've always been jealous of others that were able to do triathlons.
 

As soon as I saw XTERRA is coming to England I've decided that it is the closest I'll ever get to do one... So I sent an e-mail to my friends and got a group together. Many of them entered whilst I was still procrastinating clicking the button!
 

We are coming...

 

SINK or SWIM?!
 

Liezl and I managed to arrive late at the race briefing, not even wearing our wetsuits, needless to say I didn't hear a thing of what was waiting for us.


 

The Mess

The horn blew and it was as if I froze, rebelling, do I really have to swim now??? The buoy was VERY far in the distance and I felt so sorry for myself. My arms was tired from lugging the wors around for the Chill Zone the day before. I started off head above the water... half-heartedly trying to do the breathing thing. Round the halfway buoy I've lost the field and was on my own apart from the few lifesaving kayaks loitering around me. I had some strong words with myself, "You didn't learn to swim for NOTHING, Steph will be so disappointed if she sees how you are not implementing what she taught you." I also didn't want to be swimming all day long. It was a long 27 minutes of silence, but I did it.

I ran on wobbly legs (I mustv'e been kicking for a change Steph ;)) to T1. Zane & Simon arrived just in time to see me at T1. Myburgh was screaming at me to go faster in T1, but I couldn't get my socks and gloves on properly, it was sticky.
 

RIDE LIKE A HORNET STUNG YOU

The start of the bike leg was weird. I wasn't used to my legs being like jelly and found it quite frustrating as I couldn't get into a rhythm. The first part was more technical too and I kept thinking, but you can ride technical sections, what is going on? After 3km I seemed to get better. I was frustrated that I was so far back in the field, so decided, the bike is my strongest part and if I wanted to make up some time, then NOW is the time to do it. Inspired by the UCI Mountainbike World Champs the weekend before I just went for it.

Past the half-way mark I was able to see Katy in the distance in her Tango Cycling kit, so it kept me motivated to catch her.

HAPPY SO HAPPY

I caught up with some guys and didn't expect to see Stu in front of me, he offered to pull over so I could overtake him. I was just about to pass the guys sitting behind Katy when I heard them swearing, the course went under some trees and the next thing I just saw things flying around and felt a sting on my bottom! I tried to ignore it and kept going at it, although it was quite painful.

I loved the ride, overtaking a few people gave me confidence again and made the memory of the swim short lived.
 

RUN

Back in T2 I noticed blood through my trisuit and saw the sting still in my trisuit. I ran along over the uneven field with my wobble legs through the first forest section. I suddenly noticed a marshal and some people and then came to a sudden STOP. There was a ditch, the width was longer than my length. The marshals told me to jump and I was like, "With my short little legs???" So I jumped inside the ditch and crawled out the other side. They also told me mind the bog which I interpreted wrong and went down right in the middle and sank into the bog up to my knees. It was fun though. The run was much harder than I expected. We had to cross the same ditch on our way back, but this time by using a tree stump, I literally shuffled/crawled over whilst holding on to it.

I've done it!

The last part of the run was through more forest parts, it was so nice to run through it, but it just felt like it was never ending.

Coming down the home straight I heard the voice of Annelize in my head. Just make your steps longer and keep breathing deeply.

The way I got cheered on over the Finish line made me feel as if I won the race,  just the ribbon was missing. :-) It was special - thank you!

Katy & I located the First Aid people. They were only able to offer us ice for our sting injuries, so I stripped off and the lady had to hold the icepack on my bottom. She did say after a while that I can hold it myself to which I just said I know...



The Sprinters
Stu, TC, Jason, Katy, Liezl & Willem

Liezl made it onto the podium in her very first triathlon ever! We are so proud of her.

Pokkeltjie claiming her place on the podium!

Tango Cycling Chill Zone 

Braaimaster

 

This was Gerhard van Niekerks idea, I executed it. #goodmanagingskills

 

Gerhard braaied wors for us and we all had boerie rolls after our races. It was so nice to have a place to put our stuff and it was so good to have the shelter from the rain.

 

 

 



Gerhard van Niekerk & his brainchild



 

Pokkeltjie claiming a hug from The Machine
 

TC

 

Our other friends did the championship distance and it was fun to watch them compete! The course was well designed so we were able to support them at so many places. The 'internal' competition was strong between, Johan, Oli, Zane, Myburgh and Simon. :-) Lee-Anne is so head strong and despite sufferring from knee ache she soldiered on. Lizzie Doyle was called up by XTERRA and got offered a place at the World Championships in Hawaii in a month's time! Sooooo cool and proud!
 

Some of the hardcore ones:
Zane, Simon, Lee-Anne, Myburgh & Lizzie
 




Oli & Johan

 

You can find more photos of the whole day on the Tango Cycling Facebook page

VIDEO:

http://www.magisto.com/video/LlVFPlUFCi09VRZpYw

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Thank you XTERRA for forcing me to learn a skill that I've wanted to be able to do all my life. Thank you Stephne van Niekerk for pulling your 32 year old friend up and down in the pool and teaching me how to swim properly! It has been the best birthday gift and I'll always be able to use it! I am far from a confident fast swimmer, but I've overcome my fear for water! If I can learn to swim at this age anyone can!
• Watching the full distance competitors crossing the ditch and the bog
• I also had the opportunity to meet De Wet & Carl from Squirt and am hoping to speak with them again soon.
• It was great doing it with friends and being able to support each other was fun and such a blessing

The biggest challenge of doing a triathlon:

You have 3 finish lines... and you are ALL out all the time!

TIPS:
 

Wear a wetsuit - Conrad Stoltz was obviously right when he tweeted to me saying that a wetsuit would make a world of difference - it did!
What others said:

Katy Hamlin: "I'm chuffed for completing the thing and watching Zane fall in the stream was priceless. ;) The funniest thing was cycling through the hornets nest - reckon we should set up a victim's support group for bikers with bum stings! I definitely wasn't prepared for how off road it was so would be more specific next time."

Liezl van Zyl: "My highlight was being the 3rd lady overall. It was so unexpected but very rewarding and encouraging. And of course the boerierolls afterwards #yesplease. I should probably practise my transitions as a shocking 4 minutes for T1 is just unacceptable. I mean...what did I do? Blowdry my hair? I would definitely do it again. It's a well organised event and it was such a great atmosphere...especially with all the friends being there to support us for the Sprint tri and when we returned the favour by cheering them on in the full tri.

Stuart Hamliton:

My highlight has definitely have to be the swim. For the sprint distance race the water was as smooth as glass. You don’t get better open water swimming conditions than that! Hearing the screams and squeals of the people in front of me getting stung by wasps made me smile! Only funny because I wasn’t stung. (though I did feel guilty!) Would you do it again and why? For sure, it was my first off-road triathlon and it was such great fun. The support was some of the best I have ever experienced, and to be able to support the other athletes in the other race distances was awesome. For next time I would train! One bike ride in 6 months is hardly preparation enough!

RESULTS:

http://racetimingsystems.net/Results/IndividualResults.aspx?Id=1424

ENTRIES OPENED FOR NEXT YEAR:

XTERRA England to be hosted on 23 - 24 August 2014 at Vachery Estate again.
http://xterra-england.co.uk/

I'm definitely planning to do it again and hope to see you there! Very happy that XTERRA is offroad otherwise I might've never ever done a triathlon.