Long holiday rides

Right now it is crazy crunch time at the office, but in little more than a week it will all be over. In three weeks time I'm taking leave, and I am planning to do some very long rides on my off time.

At first I will be in our holiday house in Uilkraal.
The multitude of gravel roads in the area means I can literally ride at a low intensity for hours on my MTB. Through thehubsa.co.za I've hooked up with a couple of guys who also need to do long rides, so I won't be riding alone. Somewhere in this time I want to ride from Gansbaai to Struisbaai, stay the night and return the next day. This is a 100km one way trip. This means I will be taking a big backpack with me with clothes, food, and alot of water and energy drinks.

Somewhere after christmas I am shooting up to the Garden Route area with my mate Jannik. The plan is to end up in Vleesbaai, but I am hoping to ride Harkerville and me and Gavin are toying with the idea of riding the old 7 passes route between Knysna and George on the MTB's. I've done this ride on the first day of the Cape Epic in 2006 so I have first hand experience of how long this ride is. This was the day that I stopped using a speedometer. It was just too demotivating to see that I've done 30km and still need to do 90km for the day. It was during the epic that I realised that I can ride really long if I keep my tempo down and keep on refuelling myself.

These long rides are meant to build my aerobic base for the 24hr race at the end of Jan and also to set the tone for the 3day tour I want to do in March.

I can't wait to get the time in the saddle, and if I plan my things correctly, I'll get to spend enough time on the beaches to burn away the sexy cycling tan. Fun times.

Happy trails all

P