Rode the Argus Cycle Tour last Sunday – I started in the VA (30-39 yrs old) group, but had a puncture just before Smitswinkel Hill and then joined the B who were 5 minutes behind. I rode the rest of the race with the B group and finished with a group of about 10 of them that got away on the Suikerbossie Climb.

Peter’s posted some interesting power stats on his blog. Its clear why I’m not a pro – how about David George’s figures?! Stupendous!!

Sunday night saw us having dinner at a Thai cultural centre where we watched various traditional dances. We all sat on the floor and had our dinner served there too. Most of the other diners were Thais, up from Bangkok on vacation.

We set off on the first full day of our ride on Monday, 18 December. We headed out of Chiang Mai on some wide roads and over some rolling hills. Some of the hills got quite long and probably qualified as climbs. We regrouped a few times, once at the top of a pass where all the cars were hooting as they went over. Our guide explained that passing motorists hoot to acknowledge the spirits and ask for permission to pass over their mountain.

A long downhill took us to an elephant park and hospital, where we got to see elephants painting and doing a few tricks. Amazing how smart these big beasts are. We had lunch at the elephant park too.

We carried on through to our overnight stop at Lampang. Dinner was at a riverside restaurant (first of many), but we got there by the traditional horse-drawn carts for which Lampang is famous.

To be continued…

One of the flyers in our race packs at yesterday’s Argus MTB race, was from Dirtopia, advertising AMA – the African MTB Association. Meurant from Dirtopia has been heading in this direction for many years, and finally we have our own IMBA-style advocacy organisation.

I’ve just signed up, and I hope that many of my MTB buddies will do the same. Meurant and Arina have done more for mountain biking in this country than anyone else, and their vision and plan for taking things to the next level really deserves our support.