Meet Stan Engelbrecht, half of the duo behind Bicycle Portraits, a photographic documentary project showing ordinary South Africans and their bikes. The other half is Johannesburg-based Nic Grobler.

Their photographs and the accompanying interviews provide a fantastic insight into how bicycles can enable and empower people. In a country such as South Africa where public transport is often limited, or dangerous, it always surprises me that bicycles aren’t more popular. Many of the stories are inspiring and illuminating, a real window into contemporary South African culture.

They’re using the innovative Kick Starter platform to raise funds to complete the project. People can make pledges for any of various amounts, but funders are only charged when the project meets its funding goal, in this case $15,000. If the goal isn’t met, the project is cancelled. This provides a great motivation for funders to share the message to ensure the project meets its target funding.

So this is my call to support the project to make sure it happens. $50 or more gets you a copy of the book. Cheap at the price.

Read the original blog post here Bicycle Portrait Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

Pretty in pink

There was a lot of press for the event this year, mainly because Lance Armstrong was in Cape Town doing fund-raising work, and also racing in the pro-race. I think Pieter’s outfit got as much attention as Lance. Almost every spectator we passed had something to say. He was called everything from the tooth fairy to a pink elephant.

Lance who?

All the girls loved pink. Here Pieter is accosting some young promo girls.

Mmm, can I take you home?

In Noordhoek we spotted someone that had their coffee machine wired up next to the road. So of course we invited ourselves for a round of cappucinos.

Coffee!!

A great way to spend the Argus. I think next year I’ll also be dressing up. Any suggestions for costumes?

Read the original blog post here Argus Cycle Tour, with a fairy! Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

Read the original blog post here Day 115 Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

Read the original blog post here Day 108 Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

Read the original blog post here Day 101 Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

Here Danny Schmeisser is chasing hard.

More images posted at picasaweb.google.com/nic.coyne/Killarney091104#

Read the original blog post here Day 87 Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

Read the original blog post here Day 80 Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

Like most mornings, today started out with my having a quick look at flickr before I start whatever is planned for the day. Somehow I got led into a few great 365 serieses (sp?), and figured that would be a great way to get me taking more pics.

My goal for this 365 will be to try to capture fragments of my life, so that looking back over the series I might see a thread of a storyline, reminders of events that happened, memorable moments or even just an illustration of the mundaneness of a day.

Day 1 starts with my first planned activity of the day, an indoor training session. I’ve had more than 3 months off the bike and my fitness has gone to pot. Racing season is on us soon, but my first real goal is a 200km team time trial at the end of November. I’ve got a lot of training to do to be ready, and it starts in my garage.

Read the original blog post here Day 1 Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.

This chart shows my steady increase in TSS load per week. My last week hit a new high of 780TSS. This coming week will slack off a bit, then I’ll pick it up again, aiming to level out at around 700-800TSS per week until I have the time to give it a bit of a kick. That’ll probably start around the middle/end of December.

The result of the steady increase in load is this. A nice progression in CTL…

The blue line is CTL. Yellow line is TSB (training-stress balance). TSB is at a new low, so I’ll take today off, and either a short ride or another day off tomorrow.

My training rides have focussed on L3/L4 work, and while my threshold power is still down from where it was last year, I’m finding I can ride at high L3 for long periods. On yesterday’s 140km Double Century training ride, I managed a 20min L4 interval three and a half hours into our ride. Comparing my numbers to my bests, for the range around 30min duration, I’m only about 10w down. The gap widens on shorter durations, probably because of the lack of racing, and the gap is wider, but not too bad, for longer durations. For now I’ll continue to focus on L3/L4 work and in December I’ll start with L5 work in preparation for summer racing.

I’m very happy with how smoothly things have gone so far. Hopefully illness and work interruptions stay clear so that the trend can continue.

Read the original blog post here Fitness improving Content copyright Nick Coyne Photography, Cape Town wedding photographer.