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I’ve been rather quiet - work has been pretty busy, and I’ve been trying to do a lot of riding.

League races have gone relatively well, with Paul grabbing one win, and both Paul and myself with the front group over most of the climbs. We rode Sani2C together and managed 20th overall. We’re pretty chuffed with that, since neither of us are at peak fitness. In fact Paul was giving me a push up some of the climbs on the last day. Sani2C has by far the most spectacular course of any mountain bike race in South Africa. There was soooo much single-track. And mostly nice fast, flowing, non-technical stuff, which was a lot of fun.

Yesterday was funride world champs, and the VA group had a very smooth (and crash-free) ride to come in around 2:47. Not the fastest time, but I’m not complaining. I managed to sneak in with 17th place in the very long sprint.

Cycling will take a bit of a back seat now as I try to prepare for the 7-day hike we’re doing in Scotland in early April. The average day is over 20km, and I’m carrying the tent and everything. Looking forward to it!

We rode another Double Century yesterday, and managed to come in just inside 6 hours. 5:58 I think. My first time under 6 hours, after hitting 6:00 exactly in 2005.

It was a great team effort with 9 of our 10 starters finishing together. The only person to miss out was Frank who had an unfortunate incident involving a musette and his front wheel. Said musette stopped Frank’s front wheel from rotating causing Frank to go flying over the bars. Fortunately Frank wasn’t hurt, but his wheel lost a spoke and our support vehicle was not around to give him a replacement.

Comparing numbers with last year’s race, it seems I went harder despite being less fit. I certainly felt better after last year’s race. This year everybody was completely knackered, apart from Paul who looked like he was ready for another lap.

Still awaiting the results on the PPA site. Hopefully we made the top 10

Another great race today with Garron taking his first win to notch up 4 in a row for Team Vineyard BikeMaxPower.

I’ve been off the bike for 10 days, so I sat in as much as I could to save my legs. We were quite a big bunch going over Hels with Paul setting a very manageable tempo. About 15k’s from the end Team BMP still had 5 riders so we started attacking. First Peter, then Andreas, then Paul. Paul was marked very closely by Shaun and John, so we started again - Peter, Andreas, Paul. Nothing looked like it would stick, but we were tiring out the main sprint contenders while we still had Garron sitting comfortably in the bunch.

About 3k’s out I got away with Alister Arenson on the rise up to Paarl Main Rd. Surprisingly we got a good gap, but my lack of riding in the last few weeks saw me not recovering from the initial attack effort, and Alister did 75% of the work. When it came to crunch time, the final k, my legs were toast, and we were swallowed up with 50m to the line. My disappointment quickly changed though when I saw it was Garron flying past ahead of Shaun, taking a well-deserved win!

And that wraps up a great spring League campaign. 4 wins and 3rd overall for Paul.

I’ve just come back from a week in Amsterdam, with no riding, and then not much riding the week before due to being so crazy at work leading up to the trip. So fitness plummets again - I’m too nervous to open up Cyclingpeaks to see my CTL.

Last Sunday was the fast and flat West Coast Express. We headed out with a tailwind at a phenomenal pace, probably averaging 60km/h for the first 10k’s as the attacks were coming thick and fast. I ended up in a break with all of the main contenders, being driven primarily by John O’Connor. One by one though, we dropped off as he was setting an infernal pace. He ended up on his own until just after Atlantis.

Just before we got into Melkbos it split again, with most of us on the wrong end of the split, but luckily they slowed down up front and we regrouped. Then Andreas launched a masterful attack along Blouberg beachfront, which no-one followed, and stayed away until the end.

Shaun Le Roux won the bunch kick, with Paul getting 5th. I sat the wrong wheel in the sprint and ended up 12th.

Well done Andreas!

Two weeks ago was the Durbanville High league race, a rolling route out past Fisantekraal, then back via Paardeberg and Adderly Road. Arauma tried to keep a tempo going, but there was a steady stream of attacks that tired them out, so that by the time our contender, Paul, attacked, there was no-one to follow him. Paul stayed away for the final 5k’s to secure the win, with Arauma’s Shaun Le Roux winning the sprint for 2nd. I arrived somewhere just inside the top 10.

Team Vineyard/BikeMaxPower/Reeds first victory of the season!

Saturday was the flat Tour d’Worcester. No wind and no real climbs. I marked several attacks but otherwise took it relatively easy until just before the dirt-road section.

We didn’t know what to expect with the dirt, but I realised it was coming when Francois rode off the front. Shortly thereafter the road kicked up a bit and I thought I’d take the opportunity to string the bunch out a bit. I carried it through the first quarter of the dirt before my legs gave in on me and all the contenders came flying past. 9 riders got away whilst I managed to hook in with a chasing group consisting of most of the rest.

With only Paul from our team in the group of 9, we didn’t fancy his chances, so we proceeded to chase. We tried to get the group working nicely, but a few individuals spoiled the chase by coming through too hard. Then we had the marshalls that tried to stop us to let through some slower groups. WTF!?

In the end we finished less than 100m from the lead group. Paul went on a flyer with 3km to go, but was caught with 100m to the line, leaving Shaun Le Roux to take the race and the yellow jersey.

My numbers for the race were ok, especially considering my heavy training week. We rode for another hour afterwards and my week ended up just short of 800TSS, which is my biggest week in a long time.

We’re going to have to try something a little different next week if we want to get Paul ahead of Shaun.

Comparative power stats from Peter at http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pvzhpTQNrhxbyrtpVXSkUEg&gid=1

Fitness & form are strange things. After recently having 3 weeks off the bike, even a 2 hour easy ride was resulting in sore legs. Three weeks later it feels like some leg strength is returning.

I took it real easy my first week back - only 319TSS for the week, then 473TSS and 484TSS for the next two. I really didn’t want to overdo it and need a rest week so early. Those 3 weeks have served as a bit of a base, and after feeling absolutely horrible with no power last Sunday, this week I’ve been feeling stronger and stronger.

Tuesday I did a 2.5 hour ride at 0.73IF, giving me 130TSS. Yesterday was shorter and harder - 1:20 at 0.82IF giving 91TSS. That included one 15min L4 interval. Its been a long time since I did one of those. Today I started out conservatively at L1/L2 then gradually ramped it up for 2:16 at 0.83IF, giving a nice 155TSS. NP for the ride was 234w, which is more like it!

Saturday is Worcester League (98km), so I’ll probably rest tomorrow and hope that the good legs last until then. The plan is then to do an hour after the race, and another 3.5 hours on Sunday, which should give the CTL a serious kick up the bum (currently 57).

Its no nice seeing CTL on an upward trajectory