Brechfa #2 - Priceless!

What makes Brechfa a great mountainbike base & why have we come back?

1. There are 4 trails with blue, green, red & black grades, this is perfect as everybody can ride a trail that they are comfortable with at their own pace & convenience.
2. It has amazing trails & are really good for training. A good combination between some long climbs & technical, but fun descents.

http://mbwales.com/en/content/cms/bases/brechfa/brechfa.aspxhttp://mbwales.com/en/content/cms/bases/brechfa/brechfa.aspx

From: Tharina Cronje

Sent: 10 April 2012 10:38
To: Albert France-Brotherton; cecilia de villiers; Cherese Binedell; Christiaan Botha; Dave Rice; Gerhard van Niekerk; Jason Wentzel; Lee-Anne Dippenaar; Liezl-Mari Anderson; Louis van der Walt; Myburgh; Richard Hemmings; Ricky Anderson; Roald Wallis; Simon Osborne; Stephne van Niekerk; Wynand Binedell; Zelda France-Brotherton
Subject: Priceless?!

RECIPE

Ingredients:

24 people

20 bikes

10 cars

4 cottages

7kg steak

7kg pasta

48 lambchops

5kg potatoes

3kg mince

One massive paptert

Instructions:

1. Take good company

2. Mix it with good food

3. Add awesome mtb trails

4. Bake it in Wales

5. For 4 days

Result:

PRICELESS!!!

Hi Guys

Thank you for a great weekend away. I was so tired last night, but still reminiscing on the weekend before I finally fell a sleep.

I've worked out most of the finances and decided to send it to you in groups who owe the same amount as in some cases the final amount differ due to adhoc costs & petrol. So you can expect the final bill soon. :-) (I was going to send you a copy of the Guinness world record of the longest Tesco receipt you've ever seen in your life, but it doesn't fit in on the photocopier - this photo is a better representation)

Thank you so much for jumping in & helping out with the cooking, cleaning & everything else.

Two of my favourite quotes of the weekend:

1. There is something about sheep I really like... Wynand Binedell

2. If only I had a chance for seconds... Dawie Rice

Have a lekker week!

TC

Managing Director

Tango Cycles - Making cycling much more fun for less

Shopping for 24 people... thankfully we had some "Spiertiere" to carry it all

 

Making use of the offer to help ie art of delegating, thanks Ricky. Those oondkoeke was devine.

Cox with the kiddy handing out easter eggs after the church service in Carmarthen

Celebrating the Big 3-0 #mountainbikingstyle

August Bank Holiday 2011, 34 of us went to Brechfa in Wales for a mountain biking weekend.


The Bunkhouse

I turned 30 in the week prior to the weekend, but decided not to have it as my birthday party as then it is exclusive and I wanted everybody to have the chance to come out and mountain bike with us.

We stayed in a bunkhouse that were able to host 32 of us, Zane & Jason stayed outside in a tent, not that there wasn't enough space in the house for them, but due to Health & Safety laws on this island. I would highly recomment Gilfach Wen Barn as it is well prepared for a group of this size, with 2 stoves, 2 fridges and enough bowls, pots etc to cook for this amount of people. Enough showers and such a spacious lounge area that you never feel in each other's space. 


Brechfa was the perfect setting as it has 4 routes, a blue, green, red & black so everybody was able to ride according to their ability.

Group Start

Bike park

Seeing 33 bikes lined up like this is quite impressive and a sight that makes me very happy.



The MEAT!

Wales is well known for the sheep to people ratio and we tried our best to bring the average down.  This bunkhouse made most of the men's dreams come true when it came to the size of the braai. It didn't have the normal half-drum braai that we are used to, it even went further and a half-petrol-tank braai. (Vegetarians should stop reading here)


We indulged in steak, paptert, welsh lamb & roosterkoek with some of my mom's homemade fig jam! 




Half-tank-braai
Die Boerseuns braai roosterkoek & tjops
Gerhard van Niekerk, Braam & Pierre

My flatmates sneakily lured me away to the station to pick Polly up. On my return I was surprised with this spread. I knew something was cooking, but was still quite taken a back by the amount of effort my friends have put in and being the centre of attention.



Surprize B-day Party for me!




The treats - Dankie Dolla & kie

Nic Master Minded evening Entertainment and this was probably one of the funniest things we have ever seen. Christiaan doing the wurm race on the floor.



The black route, called the Raven, has the most amazing single track section, it is like Yoghurt Pots in Surrey Hills, but on steriods, bigger berms, twists and turns. Scary, but you are going so fast that you actually don't have time to think about it. Proper leg shaking adrenaline goodness when you reach the end of it. The single track climbing is hard work, but very rewarding.

 

On the Monday we did the red, Gorlech trail. It has lots of firetrack climbing and completely different singletrack in comparison with the black. The last run into the car park has a few scary berms with some lose slate stone corners, a nice and challenging run. It is also beautiful being on the edge of a mountain and overlooking other mountains on the other side of the valley. 

It was such a fun weekend and I felt blessed to have so many amazing friends around me.

 

On Day 2 we took on the AWESOME black route

Local wildlife

Van Niekers v Van Aswegens

Steak & Paptert - Delicious
Nic, Dolla, Braam & Al

Gesellig om die tafel

Nice, in the kitchen where they belong. #afewgoodhandymen

Tim's Mighty Crash

Note to self: Be sensible when you take 1st timers out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUcIxWgF060&feature=g-upl

The good thing is, he wants to come back for more... So watch this space.

Tour de France 2011

In July 2011 four of us (the usual suspects) embarked to the French Alps. The trip had a multiple purpose. To do some riding in the Alps & to watch the Tour de France.

 

I found this winter ski-chalet by chance on google one day, in summer it is a mountain bike/cycling chalet. It was amazing. Will, the owner is an excellent chef, his portion sizes are perfect. Enough to make you want more, but enough for you not to need more. I would highly recommend Ecrins Lodge. It had everything we wanted, a warm place after riding in the wet, a bike wash area, a bike storage area, a big bowl of pasta after a day out, beers in the fridge, jacuzzi & coffee and in an idyllic setting.

 

 

The downhills were something we never experienced before, they kept going for kilometres. None of the ones we did were super technical, but they had berm on berm on berm. Corkscrew berms, huge berms exiting onto a tabletop jump - you name it!

 

I had a bad fall in May that year and strained my left thumb quote badly, so the braking bumps at the bottom of these trails were not great & I also burnt my hand with boiling hot fudge 3 days before we left. We treated it well each day and wrapped it with a bandage and some blister plasters each day. The Alps are just beautiful, God really created a place of outstanding and unbelievable beauty.

 

I asked Christiaan if I could share some of his amazing desktop screen saver type pictures, so please see below.

 

Photo credits: Christiaan Botha

 

 

 

Ecrins Lodge
http://www.ecrinslodge.com/

 

The boys: Louis, Christiaan & Simon - Alp d'Huez

 

I'm fascinated by this tree, it looks like it is crying...

 

A river runs through it

Simon & Louis - Les Deux Alps



TC - Did I mention HUGE berms?

Thousands of people lining the mountain at Col du Lautaret

 

Col du Galibier

 

Hairpins of Alp d' Huez

 

The legend that is: Jens Voigt

 



Les Deux Alps



Christiaan Styling - Photo taken by me :)

My 2nd MTB

Specialized Rockhopper SL Expert 2010 Mountain Bike

 

After pure indulgence and money burning in my pocket I just happened to find this bike on offer whilst I still had my bonus in my bank account. Fate had it that only one of these were still available on the whole of the island & it happened to be my size. Christiaan gave me the go ahead and said that I was getting a good deal. I didn't need much more encouragement than that! It was meant to be.

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/specialized/rockhopper-sl-expert-2010-mountain-bike-ec019999

Biggest noticeable comparisons

Rockhopper vs Hardrock

- The Weight
- The SHOCKS - what a difference
- The Brakes

Biggest Adjustment to get used too

- Narrower wheels, took time to get confidence on the jumps

Tips on buying a bike (especially for the girls)

- Ask that question that you think might be stupid
- Demand proper bike set-up or play around with your set-up (make sure your brakes are within reaching distance & that your shocks are set-up for you specifically)
- Buy a women's specific saddle (I've learned the very HARD way)

Did I say? I ♥ my Phiets!

Phiets @ Peaslake

The birth of Yoghurt Girl

Cecilia & myself set of on a journey to Peaslake from Dorking station. We got a bit lost and were going down a narrow single track with long growing stinging nettles on both sides. At the bottom of this I came to a fork, on the left the stinging nettles were cut down and on the right the stinging nettles were still growing high. My hesitation in making a decision resulted in falling to my right hand side straight into the stinging nettles.

It was burning and itching like crazy. We didn't know what to do and bumped into two guys that recommended dock leave. I tried it, but in retrospect didn't rub it in good enough.

We continued looking for Peaslake and eventually got there. I bought paracetamol straight away and Cecilia suggested that maybe natural yoghurt will be a natural cure.

I was sitting in Peaslake 'Square' slapping on thick yoghurt to try and cover my scars. The coolness of the yoghurt did bring some sort of relief - thankfully.

Whilst I was doing that a man came up to me and asked if he can take a picture of me. I couldn't refuse and smiled for the camera along with my lovely white yoghurt covered leg.

I got cold shivers and experienced some stinging as we continued on our ride. Not pleasant at all.

It was hard to sit still in church on Sunday evening and trying to sleep with yoghurt on your leg proofs to be a calamity. On Monday morning my colleagues advised me to the pharmacy, so I walked the walk of shame in my LBD and yoghurt covered leg to Boots. This pharmacist had no idea how to help me and just repeated to me you must have an allergic reaction to something. I KNEW that, I fell in stinging nettles, I knew what happened, I just needed a cure. No help whatsoever so I came back to the office.

Our IT-guy Kenny popped into the office and I told him what happened. He said try vinegar. Desperate as I was I went to the kitchen and found balsamic vinegar and slapped some on. You can imagine by now I smelled like a fish & chip shop, but I didn't care. It worked!!! I finally felt some relief of the stinging.

About 2 months later a big group of us went riding and on our way back this car stopped next to me in the car park. This man, Richard, said to me, "Hallo Yoghurt Girl." I looked at him bewildered and very embarrassed as I realised he was the one who took the photo of me when I fell in the stinging nettles. He told me to look at their blogpost and I repeated their blogname like a parrot. D-I-A-R-Y O-F A M-O-U-N-T-A-I-N-B-I-K-E-R.C-O-M

This is what I found! Look at the 3rd entry in September 2010 to see the hyperlink to Yoghurt Girl.

http://www.diaryofamountainbiker.co.uk/2010_september.php

Meet Yoghurt Girl, it is I. #soshy

http://www.diaryofamountainbiker.co.uk/sept10/19-09-2010_27.jpg

I've come to terms with the fact that a certain circle of people knows me as Yoghurt Girl. As I've said, I love meeting people, so I've made peace with how I met these guys. We greet each other, even follow each other on Strava and I'm still getting a mention or even a photo whenever they see me on the trails.

 Place of accident - somewhere near Peaslake

Dog leave Advise from these 2 strangers

Mmm Yoghurt Girl

TransAlps 2010

After months of training, 10 of our friends finally started the TransAlps in Fussen, Germany.

Four of us went to support them on the final two days. Douw & I spent a week on the Italian coast, Cinque Terre before we headed up to the mountains, I told the girls that were joining us from Milan onwards that Italy is experiencing a heatwave, don't bring lots of clothes. The closer we got to the mountains, the harder it rained and Liezl came without a sleeping bag, Douw gentleman that he is, gave his to her. He ended up sleeping in the bathroom from 5am onwards whilst us 3 girls snuggled cosy in a sleeping bag each, with the bodyheat of each other in one tent. Sara he is a keeper. :)

Best Supporter Car

Hectic rain on Stage 7 - Madonna de Campiglio
They were kept on the mountain for a while

 

Me & Dollatjie

 

Drinks prior to the Final Stage
Janet Webb: "Guys is this decaf coffee" as a waiter puts an espresso in front of her.

 

Most relaxed team in the world, The Beast & The Machine (Dawie & Zane) recovering already whilst some riders are still out riding.

To Quote Christiaan: "It looks like South Africa vomitted over you

Noisy Nic

Ricky still eating!



Si & Ja-Net finishing strong!

 

It's been a long 8 days, but they have done it!
Congratulations!!!
Nicolaas, Nic, Simon, Christiaan, Elisca (Dolla), Ricky, Janet & Jaco

 

The amazing Riva del Garda
TC, Lindizwe, Pokkeltjie & Douw Pou



We are the Champions, we are the Champions!

 

Makeshift sleeping bag, taking patriotism maybe a bit too far Pokkeltjie

 

Post-Race Chilling at Lake Garda
Christiaan, TC, Douw, Lindizwe, Dolla & Pokkeltjie