A weekend away

So last weekend was the Eselfontein Festival in Ceres … on one of the Western Cape’s hidden gems. Its a network of trails that I’m always surprised we don’t ride more … its full of seriously sinous, and almost sensual, singletrack.

With grandparents and babysitters arranged, Karen, Jackie, Tom, Tienie and myself decided to have a weekend away of just adults and bikes – some would say later on the first evening – just bikes. And the ecohuts at Eselfontein are a rad getaway. Daniel and Louise from iRideAfrica joined us for festivities on friday night .. and boy were there some festivities. So much so that somehow come Saturday morning I found myself on the start line of the 70km with all the racing snakes! Thankfully, I’m aware of my limitations, and lack of training and fitness after 6 months on the road following the World Cup circuit. I didn’t have lofty goals – just to finish & not to finish last. 2nd last was perfectly acceptable. Just not last. Tienie took care of that placing!

Off goes the gun and 5 hours 30 minutes later of revelling in singletrack bliss, cursing at the seemingly endless climbs and swearing out loud at the headwind on the last stretch added in to make up distance which is de rigeur for race organisers i crossed the line a happy camper. The Santa Cruz Bicycles Blur TRc never missed a beat … is it possible to fall in love with carbon fibre as opposed to carbon-based life form? Cos we’re getting pretty close.

Anyway, turns out I was better than expected – 5th last … perfectly acceptable!

And whats better – we did all the fun singletrack again the next day! What a weekend.

Here’s a couple of pics i managed to take when I managed to go from oxygen bankruptcy into plain old oxygen debt.