iRide Africa

This blog has moved!

2010-04-29T13:45:00.002+02:00

We have finally managed the move our blog to our website! You can see newer posts here

Map of road ride

2010-04-26T21:06:00.003+02:00

peninsula 50km

Map your trip with EveryTrail

We've been busy (riding!)

2010-04-19T15:37:00.004+02:00

The past couple of months has been pretty busy for us here at iRide Africa.
Unlike most work places though, at iRide Africa being busy = more riding. Lucky us!

Jennie has left our sunny country for the European road race season (she's already come 2nd in her first race in Sweden!) So I've been doing a bit more road riding than normal and it'll treat me well for some of the future races I hope to be doing this year. Look out for the iRide Africa gazebo at your local race and join us for a beer after your race!

More good news is that we have a host of wonderful new trails here in Cape Town! Here's Jo shredding a piece of the Ellioti trail that was burnt in last years huge Jonkershoek fire. Most of the old trails in Jonkershoek now seem to be opened (Ellioti is not completely opened yet though so it's not worth riding yet)

We've had 3 sets of repeat customers over the past 2 months so we must be doing something right!

The photo on the left gives you an idea of what keeps the peeps coming back. Big mountains, blue skies and great singletrack all to yourself.

The new trails out Durbanville way are really, really good. Check out the map here. Don't let the lack of mountains let you think that there are no climbs out this way! The views over Table Bay and Table Mountain are such a nice change from the usual. Plus these trails cater for a wide range of skills (though beginners will struggle with the steep climbs). I can safely say that the black and double black runs will test even the most advanced rider out there!

Though the combined trail (between Hillcrest and Contermanskloof)is only about 22km long, the elevation gained is 896m and it took us 3 hours to complete at a leisurely pace. Did I mention that the singletrack is top class?! Check the proof!

Oh, and just to make things that much better for you, iRide Africa has a nice new van and trailer to transport you and your precious bike(s) to all the best rides in Cape Town!

It's about to get some big branding, so if you see it zooming around Cape Town, give us a hoot and a thumbs up and maybe you'll get a free iRide Africa shirt thrown at you!

For the cycling photographers

2010-04-13T07:57:00.002+02:00

Here's a link to a great photo essay about a week in the life of Sven Martin. Sven is one of the worlds best mountain bike photographers.

Sven and Gary Perkin are about to launch a coffee table book of all their best photos. It's called Chronology and will be in bike shops by the end of April 2010.

Cape Town sunrise rides

2010-04-04T17:16:00.002+02:00

Sticking with the sun theme, we went out to scout a ride early (real early!) this morning in Stellenbosch over to Zevenwacht wine estate. It was a great morning but the air has certainly got a bit chillier now and some of the vines in the area are starting to turn to their autumnal colours.

Our iRide Africa jerseys are starting to be seen on all the best mountain bike trails and today's ride was no different. This was our last ride with Jennie before she goes over to Europe for her race season :(

Yesterday some friends scoped out the new Contermanskloof trails (start at Hillcrest estate). I took a quick photo of the hooligans descending the final piece of singletrack. These trails are going to be fantastic come winter time!

Ceres sunset singletrack

2010-04-01T19:57:00.001+02:00

Just getting back from another magical mountain bike tour. Join us for our next one!

Cape Argus 2010 results

2010-03-14T14:25:00.001+02:00

Cape Argus 2010 results

Men
1 Malcolm Lange (Suid-Afrika) Medscheme-span
2 Christoff van Heerden (Suid-Afrika) MTN Energade
3 Daryl Impey (Suid-Afrika) Radioshack-span
4 Burry Stander (Suid-Afrika) Specialized-span
5 Rene Hasselbacher (Oostenryk) sainfo.co.za-span
6 Dean Edwards (Suid-Afrika) House of Paint
7 Bjorn Glasner (Duitsland) Kuota-span
8 Johann Rabie (Suid-Afrika) Medscheme-span
9 Lance Armstrong (Amerika) Radioshack-span
10 Nicholas White (Suid-Afrika) Medscheme-span

Women:

1. Anriette Schoeman (Suid-Afrika) Biogen Toyota
2. Robyn de Groot (Suid-Afrika) MTN Energade
3. Catherine Williamson (Engeland) Bizhub-span
4. Cherise Taylor (Suid-Afrika) Nashua-span
5. Joanna van de Winkel (Suid-Afrika) Biogen Toyota
6. Jennie Stenerhag (Swede) Alpha Pharm
7. Marissa van der Merwe (Suid-Afrika) MTN Energade
8. Chrissie Viljoen (Suid-Afrika) MTN Energade
9. Mariske Strauss (Suid-Afrika) MTN Energade
10. Fabiana Luperine (Italië) Selle Italia Ghezi

iRide to work

2010-03-12T12:35:00.001+02:00

Every Friday we head up over the mountain instead of the normal commute to work by road/rail.
We start at 6:30 at Rhodes Memorial gates and have a slow jaunt into town. Join us and appreciate this city!

Today was special-the mist made us feel like we were on an island and when the sun broke through...WOW!

I turned around and rode 'the other woman' back home-a phenomenal start to the day!

Cycling in Cape Town

2010-03-11T11:11:00.000+02:00

Just another perfect day in Cape Town. Riding up chapmans peak, this is Rebecca from Australia finding yet another reason to emigrate to South Africa!

Cape Town bike trip

2010-03-10T13:32:00.000+02:00

Cape Town bike trips 2010

4 Day mountain bike trip 29th March-1st April 2010 -price R6220 incl accomodation and most meals

3 Day MTB tour 22April -24 April -price to be confirmed

Don't miss out on these singletrack holidays when the weather is perfect here!

Cycling feels the heat

2010-03-01T12:10:00.000+02:00

If you don't believe the hype about Cape Town's weather-then check out this screen grab of the following weeks weather (it continues like this for 2 weeks!)

This is why we are trying to convince you all that our winter is actually the best time of year to cycle! Come and ride with us in April/May/June!

March cycle trips and tours Cape Town

2010-02-24T10:24:00.002+02:00

Cape Town cycling trips in March:

26 -27 February: 2 day singletrack trip -Belville/Wellington/Stellenbosch/Cape Town
2 March: Day trip of scenic road riding through Stellenbosch region
8-11 March: 4 day road cycling tour in Stellenbosch region-great prep for Cape Argus Cycle Tour!
21-30 March: 10 Day road cycle tour in Stellenbosch region

Contact us today if you want to cycle in amazing weather with incredible rides!

Cape Town cycling tour -over 50's only!

2010-02-22T15:16:00.000+02:00

Our friends over at Soul touring have a great tour planned for the active over 50's. Check it out!

South Africa road champs 2010 -results

2010-02-22T13:50:00.001+02:00

Jennie Stenerhag competed brilliantly with the pro teams in Klerksdorp over the weekend and ended up 3rd across the line in the elite womens road race. See the full ladies results here.

Still on top form she stayed over in Johannseburg for the weekend to race in the Dischem 'Ride for sight' and enjoyed the sprint finish into 1st place. Well done to the star of iRide Africa! More results here

To lighten up your day

2010-02-18T12:57:00.003+02:00

Came across this old flyer and updated it a bit. Thanks to Graham for the fun!

Cape Town cycling -2 days of brilliant rides and views

2010-02-16T13:06:00.002+02:00

Two days cycling with two great girls from Sweden. I'll let the pictures do the talking!

3rd place in Construction du cap ninety niner

2010-02-16T12:20:00.000+02:00

by Jennie Stenerhag

(lead road guide iRide Africa)

This weekend I did not need to travel far for racing. I have done this race in Durbanville every year when I have been here in South Africa and I enjoy the race. The route was changed this year to a more hilly and challenging finish. The race was 108km and with only 6km to the finish we had 2 very steep hills to conquer. On the start line was The Bizhub team with 5 girls, Cycle lab with 2 girls and me as professionals and some good local girls. We started together with vets 40+ men and after getting out of Durbanville the attacks started. A group with 5 men got away and after that the pace went down even though we could see them almost all the time, so we were not far behind. I felt fine during the whole race and when one guy bridged over I regretted that I did not go with him.

When we came to the 18% gradient Visseshoek hill approaching the last kilometres of the race, me, Ashleigh and Anriette put the hammer down and left the Bizhub team together with the rest of the men behind us. I tried to put pressure on the other girls and maybe I did it a bit too much because I could not respond when they kicked close to the top. I tried to chase on the way down but could not close on the 2km downhill. The finish was at the top of a 1.2km steep hill and starting the hill a bit behind I could not get back to the girls. Ashleigh won 15 seconds a head of Anriette and I came in another 23 seconds later. I am happy with the race after another podium position!

Read the article on

supercycling.co.za

procycling.co.za

Results:

1 Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (Biogen Toyota, RSA) 2hr54min53sec
2 Anriette Schoeman (Biogen Toyota, RSA) 2:55:08
3 Jenny Stenerhag (Alpha Pharm, SWE) 2:55:31
4 Yolandi du Toit (Bizhub, RSA) 2:55:52
5 Lise Olivier (Natro, RSA) 2:56:21
6 Catherine Williamson (Bizhub, ENG) 2:56:21
7 Jade Roberts(Bizhub, RSA) 2:56:43
8 Jennifer Hohl (Bizhub, SUI) 2:57:02
9 Heletjie van Staden (RSA) 2:58:28
10 Mary Haw (RSA) 2:59:20

Summer South African mountain biking

2010-02-02T12:52:00.004+02:00

A great photo essay from Sven Martin. he captures perfectly what it's like to ride in Cape Town right now.

iRide Africa gets some press!

2010-01-26T08:48:00.005+02:00

Some really good magazines have written some articles about cycling in South Africa. Kadens magazine in Sweden really explored South Africa for the best cycling and Jennie Stenerhag, our road guide is interviewed. Mountainbike-magazin from Germany also has a great article about cycling in Cape Town and surrounds with some great photos from local, Greg Beadle

Check them out-Great pictures!

Jennie Stenerhag Interview

2010-01-24T14:43:00.001+02:00

Check out a great interview with one of iRide Africa's road guides. Click on the link to take you to South Africa's new cycling news website.
www.crank.co.za/tag/jennie-stenerhag

South Africa Singletrack Holiday, South Africa

2010-01-15T18:09:00.006+02:00

Be prepared to be blown away!

Would you like to join us on an epic trip from Cape Town to Natal and ride trails like these? Of course you would! Contact us today to find out more!

Cycling in Cape Town

2010-01-15T10:11:00.001+02:00

A great start to the day ! We are privileged to live in this city with sun, surrounded by sea and mountain towering above us. The cycling potential here is massive-twisting roads to ride on and fantastic offroad riding to be done all over the mountain.

This morning we cycled over from the Southern Suburbs into town on the slopes of Devils Peak and Table Mountain into town.

This 'iRide' will take place every Friday from now on. Meet at 6:30 at Rhodes memorial cattle grid. It is PERFECT for anyone who works in town and wants to get some excercise in while missing out on sitting in traffic. Join us!

Back to biking

2010-01-11T08:39:00.000+02:00

We have all taken a Christmas break here at iRide Africa. Jennie has been in freezing and snowy Sweden while the rest of us explored South Africa for more epic rides- and boy did we find some!
(please excuse the horrible phone photos-they don't do this country justice!)

We got to sample some amazing passes;

We also got a chance to catch up with old friends and test their skills on some gnarly singletrack;

Of course, some mountain biking on Table Mountain went down a treat as well as some rides into the Overberg.

And don't forget that Cape Town is almost ready for the Football World Cup! We have a few cycling tours between matches so contact us if you want to go on a cycling trip or two.

2010 cycling tours

2009-12-16T14:13:00.002+02:00

2009 is almost over! We're welcoming in 2010 with more cycling trips than ever before!
Here's what's on the menu-contact us via our website if you would like to join these tours.

5 Day Mountain bike trip
Date:11 January 2010 - 15 January 2010

10 Day Mountain biking tour
Date: 18 February 2010 -27 February 2010

7 Day Road cycle trip (incorporating the Cape Argus Cycle tour)
Date: 8 March 2010 - 14 march 2010

7 Day Singletrack MTB Holiday
Date: 25 April 2010 1 May 2010

Happy cycling! Happy Friday!

2009-12-11T12:05:00.005+02:00

It's been a long time since I posted a Friday photo, but this one is just too good to pass up! This photo got sent to me from Louise from IT46 who joined us in our November mountain bike tour.

It is a photo of a nasty bruise on her "derriere"-we couldn't figure out where it came from but it was probably on the technical trails either in Wellington/Delvera!

I reckon it's by far the best non-permanent tattoo I've ever seen!

Thanks Louise!

I like to think that we play safe but we will definitely keep you improving your skills on our trails in South Africa- come and join us for some fun in the sun!

2010 Football / Soccer World Cup Final Draw announced

2009-12-07T17:52:00.008+02:00

Cape Town hosted a massive party on Friday night when the FIFA Football World Cup draw was announced. Best you come to Cape Town with your bike if you want to be able to get around easily!

The fixtures are now set so it's time to start planning your holiday! Check them out at FIFA's website or for an alternative site click here

Of course, we'll still be hosting road cycling tours and mountain bike trips during the Soccer World Cup so best you enquire right away because we know for a fact that all accomodation in Cape Town is in real short supply!

We'll be juggling between watching the games and doing short trips around the fairest Cape so check out our websit e, see what we're about and come and ride the best!

Busy month for cycle holidays!

2009-11-30T16:55:00.012+02:00

It's the last day of November and it's been a great month of cycling around Cape Town with some great new guests.We started off the month with a few short mountain biking trips near Greyton. The first days of summer were felt by all and the riding was pretty fantastic as well, especially on the new full suspension bikes we were using! Steve and Kitt noted how similar the region looked to the Pyrenees (except that we get the luxury of riding in these mountains all year round!). We cruised through some great sections of singletrack that will soon be extended and linked up during the next year to include even more trails. I must apologise to the group about that last big climb though- 7km with some 18% grade sections! Well done for surviving!

During the middle of November we were invaded by some Scandinavians and Euro's- a brilliant mix of people that had us chuckling and making the most of each others company. iRide showed off the best mountain biking trails in the region, and was super impressed with the new bench cut single track in Wellington-more to come there as well! The Spanish Bull was "surprised" a few times while we were out- twice by the challenging trail and once by the heat in that valley. Be warned! This place can get hot!!

I'm sure Per was the first guy to attempt the Delvera trails on a cyclo cross bike! Good going, I'm going to have to get one of those machines! Jon kept on surprising everyone with his incredible balance on the bike. He will forever be remembered by us as 'the Swiss clock'- he just kept on ticking up those steep climbs! Alberto got me quite worried up one particularly steep climb when, at the age of 37, his heart rate got up to 194 bpm! Louise kept the guys on their toes and it was great seeing her nail some tight switchbacks towards the end of the trip. Riding, learning, eating and laughing and lots of wine.... I'm sure you'll be back! (There's much more riding that we can show you!)

For the past few days, Jennie has been road riding with a new group. Everyone is loving the sun and the scenery while she shows off the best rides in the Cape. Once again, fun personalities and good athletes are making our jobs a blast!

Yesterday they took on the challenge of the 97km Burger road race, competing against 5000 cyclists. Gemma managed to sneak in, in just under her goal of 3 hours, Niclas showed the locals some Swedish power in a time of 2:41 and Per showed Ida some of the local scenery (and got a taster of our infamous South Easter wind). Of course Jennie was the star of the day as she won the Ladies race and the overall series for the year as well. Well done to you all!

I can't believe that as I sit in the office today, you are all busy riding one of the best routes in the Cape which takes you over 4 mountain passes- I just hope you all got up early to miss the afternoon wind! Hopefully I'll manage to get in a ride with you all before the week is out! Have fun out there and why don't you join us on a tour?
Come and ride the best!

2010 Single track tour

2009-11-24T06:47:00.003+02:00

We're busy planning a big 10 day singletrack mountain bike trip for February/March.

If you want to ride trails like this contact us now so we can customise your trip for you!

Featured rider: Roan Exelby

2009-11-13T16:18:00.005+02:00

Roan has been riding and racing bikes for a very long time. I remember that back in the early 90's he had a weird looking Pacific bike. It was purple and rigid yet had a Y frame for some reason. Then I think he had the first 'dual susser' I had ever seen-a Proflex with flex stem and an elastomer on the rear seatstay.

Anyway, since those days he has been riding and racing and earning his due as one of THE characters of the sport, as well as earning repsect as one of the hardest blokes on the planet. He has so many accolades I wouldn't know where to start (How about 3rd place World MTB marathon champs, and 3rd overall place 24Hours of Moab? PRIVATEER!). With these results and much more, Roan still just gets on with it making sure he's having fun on his bike. Shouldn't we all be following his example?

He answered a few questions for us:-

Full Name: Roan Exelby

Years Riding: 29

Worst nickname you've had: Robocop (whilst racing with 2 wrist guards!)

Best bit(s) on bike: Bikepure.org headset spacer

Number of bikes you own: 5

Funniest cycling incident: Watching Geddan Ruddock pop a wheelie and fall on his head after winning the SA Elite XC Champs in Tokai circa 1998 - luckily his head was harder than the grass!

Steel or Aluminium? Alu

Can you true a wheel? yes

Worst wipe/injury? Crumpling the side of an Audi A6 with my body at 60 km/h .... luckily i convinced the owner to pay for my totalled bike... unluckily i still have injuries!

Number of frames broken? 1

Best party trick on a bike? Pogo

Why do you ride? I am a Fun Biker... I ride for fun!

If you could name a trail, what would you name it? Long Drop ... but it must be worthy of course.

Favourite riding buddy and why? Any fun biker who can tell jokes in the rain at 5am.

Useless fact of the day: Night is dark, dark is black. Day is light but light is colourful. If colour gives spice then why is night so much fun?

Fixies are...Best left on a track !

One piece of advice...Ride a Morewood

Upcoming trips-Join in!

2009-11-06T07:37:00.002+02:00

Do you want to ride?
Well you have no excuses now!

We have the following trips coming up, why don't you join us, even if it's not for the whole trip?

Singletrack tour:
18th-21st November- 4 days of the best trail riding in the Cape

Burger road tour:
27th Nov-6 Dec- 10 days of beautiful road rides incorporating the famous Burger Cycle Tour

Summer is here!

Jennie Stenerhag wins the Amashova in Durban!

2009-10-21T12:27:00.016+02:00

iRide Africa's lead road guide is on top form at the moment-19 race wins this year and counting!.

Last weekend, she traveled up to Durban to take part in one of South Africa's biggest races, the Amashova- a race from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, through the valley of a thousand hills.

The womens bunch consisted of 300 riders
with all the top teams representing, so Jennie had to work super hard to close down the breakaways as well as contending with miserable weather and a wheel change after she punctured!

Jennie was instrumental in whittling down the lead group to 9 riders by the time they reached Durban and had enough 'oomph' in her legs to take the sprint to victory.
Well done Jennie! We're super glad that you didn't suffer the same fate as the mens sprint finish-see bottom left! (That's Burry Stander not falling on the right!)

This latest win means Jennie now leads the Alphapharm series by 20 points. Not bad considering she wasn't here for the winter season!

Thanks to www.kingofbling.co.za for the photos

Ceres is where it's at!

2009-10-11T14:30:00.007+02:00

Yet another weekend away, yet another action packed few days of good laughs, great company and terrific riding. Life is tough!

I took the 'easy' option and scouted for new rides on my MX bike whilst the others partook in racing around this mountain bike paradise on trails varying from 15km to the monster 70km option. Good on you all and I hope you'll all be back next year!

Here are some photos to convince you to come on one of our singletrack tours...

Some days are just too good

2009-10-03T18:25:00.003+02:00

OK, so no photos to prove it because we were just too busy riding on the first real day of summer.

Long hot slog up a mountain followed by kilometers of finger aching singletrack.

Then a gigantic burger with potato wedges and onion rings and a ice cold beer for the measly some of R50 (under £4!!!)

Spring Clean Tour

2009-10-01T06:57:00.003+02:00

A fantastic 4 days of riding in the Overberg area, an hour away from Cape Town.
Here is a small collage but you can see more photos on our Facebook page

Highlights include-

Casey's donga faceplant
Graham riding every ride on a rigid singlespeed jump bike
New black trails at Oak Valley
Riding in the rain-this doesn't happen very often down here!
Not one puncture!
Marcus' face after realising that 'Singletrack is the answer'

Bike Fight '09

2009-09-17T06:59:00.006+02:00

The inaugural Cape Town Bike Fight took place last weekend on a perfect Spring day. What a blast! I'm building up a fixie as I type just because it all looked so fun.

There was the Fixie race around the parking lot-nice and dangerous with cars everywhere and a couple of tight corners. No idea who won, it was all a bit of a blur really.

There was the skid comp, which came down to the wire between a skinny racer and a not so skinny local bike shop owner-the winner eventually went to Gav, who had a more spectacular 'dismount' into the bushes where the tar ran out.

There were quite a few blow outs but the best one was totally unexpected as the bike wasn't even being ridden at the time.

The bike joust was a bit of a let down but the photo below sums up it quite nicely. Things to note:
Olaf going for Toby's head
Toby's concentration levels
The joy on the spectators faces - "We want blood!"

There was also a trackstand competiton where some serious skills were shown after 2 minutes of standard trackstanding.

And then there was the highly entertaining fixie shark pool (I made that name up because I don't know what i was really called. Anyone know?) Everyone circles in one direction and tries to take anybody else off their bike until they are the last person riding. Here's a photo of one of the last stand-offs.

All in all a great day out, let's make it happen again!

Proudly South African- Burry's first Elite World Cup win!

2009-09-15T07:06:00.003+02:00

I'm proudly South African on most days but at the moment I'm bursting at the seams for this kid!

Burry Stander has just had the best week of his cycling career-2 weeks ago a win in the U23 World Champs and last weekend he put the hurt onto the (seemingly unbeatable) Julien Absalon on the final climb of the final lap to take his first elite win in a World Cup hosted in Switzerland.

I don't think this will be the last time there'll be a post on this kind of topic!

South Africa 1,2 & 3 at 2009 UCI MTB World Champs!

2009-09-13T09:21:00.002+02:00

Talk about a misleading headline, but I'm so proud I'm not going to change it!

So this is how it all rolled out at the World Championships in Canberra, Australia:
1st Place - Burry Stander crowned world under-23 cross-country champion- Last in the hairstyle stakes tho...

2nd Place - Greg Minnaar missed out on winning the elite downhill title by a mere 0.05 seconds! But Peaty got a well deserved 1st and kept the pesky Aussies away which is always good!

3rd Place - Candice Neethling did us all proud in the junior cross country. I hope she continues with this kind of form!

You've got to wonder how good the riding must be in South Africa to produce such World class talent. Why don't you find out and come on one of our cycling holidays?

Cape Town Critical Mass

2009-09-01T13:05:00.002+02:00

Join us every last Friday of the month for a cruise through the streets of Cape Town to highlight alternative travel in this awesome (and small!) city

When last did you experience adventure?

2009-08-28T13:29:00.007+02:00

Here's an interesting definition of adventure by Colin Mortlock- apologies to the girls for all the "he's"-it applies to every human out there!

"This is the stage beyond, and often just beyond, the skills learning stage. The person has sudden fear of physical harm and no longer feels complete master of the situation. He feels, however, that he can, with considerable effort on his part, and given luck, overcome the situation without accident.

He accepts that his skills are about to be tested. He is conscious of a definite degree of uncertainty as to the outcome, and feels, as it were, poised on a knife edge between success and failure. I he succeeds, he has experienced adventure.

He has found himself in a situation which becomes firmly etched upon his mind -perhaps forever. He has feelings of satisfaction, if not elation, about the result. The degree of satisfaction and pride is proportional to the scale and intensity of the adventure."

Join us on one of our adventures at iRide Africa. It's not all fear and adrenalin but it'll certainly get you elated and satisfied!

Great products and brilliant events

2009-08-22T17:49:00.004+02:00

Want unique, local and well made clothes?
Check out Broken15 for their latest range in hoodies and T-shirts.

Want to explore Cape Town on foot and get a work out in the process?
Check out MyCity running tours. A great new way to experience Cape Town if your time here is too short to go on one of iRide Africa's tours.

Looking for a brilliant event?
Look no further than BikeFight '09. Crazy antics, crazy people and crazy bikes

The perfect winter

2009-08-19T07:21:00.004+02:00

Not too much to say really, amazing weather, amazing people, amazing amounts of laziness!
We didn't get out for nearly enough riding but here are some photos of what we did. The potential for perfect trails here is massive!

There are some more photos on our facebook page. Become a fan to keep up with our latest news.

New Morewood XC prototype

2009-08-07T07:12:00.005+02:00

Drooooool!
Here are some spy photos of the new Morewood cross country racing machine which is being tested on South African race courses at the moment. Roan Exelby says it goes like stink and has really given his battered body a rest on the new, more technical courses popping up around the country.

Big up to Roan for getting accepted to race at World Champs in Canberra, Australia later this year. Make us proud man!

Whether you're a XC racer or laid back free rider in search of new rides, we have the holiday for you! Check out our website for our set itineraries, or email us and enquire about planning a custom trip in South Africa.

We're ready for the FIFA world cup (with cycling in between of course!)

2009-07-31T13:01:00.002+02:00

Ok, so I'm a few weeks late in celebrating Nelson Mandela's 91st birthday but here's a great photo, courtesy of http://www.capetowndailyphoto.com.

I saw this great artwork the other day and what you can't quite see from the photo, is that it made from a collection of children's painted hands.

As if that's not cool enough, this isn't even an advert or billboard-it's a barrier for a building site! If only other building contractors would do the same, I'm sure we wouldn't mind all the mess and noise they make whilst making our city a better place to live.

FIFA Football World Cup and cycling holiday

2009-07-29T13:48:00.001+02:00

Our new Cape Town Stadium is looking very impressive! It's hard to
imagine what the World Cup is going to bring to South Africa but we can
assure you that our 3 day singletrack tours between World Cup matches
will get your heart pumping!
Check out our 'Specials' Page on our website
(http://www.irideafrica.com) for more information.
-D

Special Events

2009-07-28T07:03:00.003+02:00

Check our website for more details. Don't miss these events!

The Burger Road race tour takes place from 27th November to 6th December 2009
The FIFA World Cup Tours take place in June and July 2010

Observations and thoughts

2009-07-27T14:16:00.003+02:00

Lately, I have been thinking. Most would suggest that this was not a wise move in the first place, but I was never famous for taking sensible advice, and I had little else to do after contracting the now infamous Swine Flu (it didn't live up to the hype by any means, by the way), so there you have it!
As well as thinking, mind you, I have also been observing.

Firstly, I observed Dan's stories and pics (below) of the trails he's finding and riding.

Then, I observed South Africa's Greg Minnaar (current leader) have an absolutely dismal weekend at Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada World Cup DH round number 5. He punctured in the qualification, and then crashed in the final (hard enough to lose a glove!) and ended up 22nd. With Sam Hill successfully managing to close the gap by taking 1st, and Peaty taking 2nd, the World Cup is wide open with two rounds to go and just over 200 points seperating the top four riders! All-in-all, not great for Greg, but definitely great for the sport. I'm not a nail-biter, but if I was I'd be shopping for prosthetics already.

Most often over-looked because of Greg's successess, let's not forget Andrew Neethling who is currently ranked 11th overall!

I also observed the fact that South Africa's Burry Stander is currently coming a more-than-respectable 3rd in the World Cup XC competition - I shall be removing my blinkers and following this more closely from now on!

So that's where I started thinking. It goes without saying that South African's are well on the map when it comes to the racing scene, but isn't it time that you - the people that really make the sport of mounatin biking what it is - experience the land and the trails where the pedegrees of our world-class riders were born? Of course it is!

The great thing now, is that it really is as easy as booking the flight and sticking your bike in a bag and arriving in beautifull Cape Town, as we can take care of the rest for you!

Okay, that's it, smoke coming out the ears has activated the fire alarm, enough thinking for one day, I'm going to go back to my Tom Waits and blueberries now. Maybe even do some work, who knows.

Cheers
Harry

New mountain biking trail

2009-07-24T11:04:00.017+02:00

There have been whisperings and rumours about a fantastic new mountain bike trail in Wellington. Secret smiles between riders who have ridden there have been noticed and noted by yours truly and finally became too much to ignore.

It was mid-winter in Cape Town and the sun was shining yet again. Is it just me or does it seem that we have had all our good winter weather in the weekend? With the temperatures in the mid 20's we couldn't resist travelling the hour and a half to Wellington and trying out the new mountain bike trails on Welvanpas Farm.

The parking lot was already quite full when we arrived. A good sign considering it's a rather new mountain biking venue and not many Cape Town cyclists know about it yet. That is all about to change though, because these trails are some of the finest in the Cape for sure, with unique views of Table Mountain, perfect single track, testing climbs and scream inducing descents.

We set off on the "easy" route which was a measly 7 kilometers long on the South facing slope of the valley. About 3 kilometers into the ride I decided that we had gone the wrong way and must have been riding on the "tough" route. The climbs were viscous! Even the slopes of Plum pudding seemed easier than these and I found it hard to imagine that there was a harder route on the other side of the valley. The saving grace though, was that the climbs were short, interspersed with beautiful bench-cut single track or flatter sections of farm road that allowed you to recover before the next brutal section. I was informed a bit later that we were, in fact, on the easy route and that I'd be tested a lot more on the other side. Oo'er!

On the very first singletrack we knew there was something special about this place- the soil was a solid red colour and ultra sticky from the recent rains. It was a great change from the usual terrain we experience in the Western Cape and it reminded me a lot of the Hilton forests in Natal.

We finally seemed to reach a section of downhill and I freewheeled down it, not knowing what to expect. The pace quickened as the slope dropped away and soon I was grinning ear to ear as the perfectly groomed trail swept bike and rider from side to side between fun little swooping dips.

The next section of downhill was the most fun I've had on a bike in a long time. Perfectly spaced sweeping corners with a little bit of tech every 3rd corner or so -it was like carving on a snowboard! As we dropped towards the river there was even an exciting, steep little gully to ride through(there is an easier alternate line as well).

The ride back towards the farmhouse meanders along a beautiful river with nice easy singletrack flowing as nicely as the river itself. Part of our group ended the ride as we got back to the farmhouse where you can partake in some wine tasting or enjoy a snack and coffee in the shop.

We carried onto the harder five kilometer route on which the uphill broke me on my single speed Voodoo. I hate to admit it but I actually had to walk up a section in fear of my heart busting out of my chest. It's a constant climb up jeep and singletrack but I can honestly tell you that it's worth every drip of sweat. The trail bends back on itself and the fifteen minute climb is reversed into about 5 minutes of exhilarating, fast and exposed singletrack downhill that leads back to the farmhouse.

All in all it is an incredibly beautiful place to ride, the trails are well made with brilliant lines

(you won't find your normal boring straight-line singletrack trails through the orchards here!) and the downhills are massively smile inducing. The only criticisms I have are that the signing needs to be bigger and the hills might be a bit steep for beginners or less fit riders (but that can always be fixed by making more trails and route options, right?!)

As I've said on iRide Africa's Facebook page
"If farmers keep building trails like this, there's no need to go to heaven when we die!"

The Knysna 'almost epic'

2009-07-21T13:00:00.012+02:00

I groggily wake up on an air mattress that has slowly, through the quiet hours of the night, become neither a mattress nor 'air' related in any way. A figure stirs below the mezzanine floor on which we are sleeping and throws a few pine cones and some wood onto the dying embers of the fire. The fire is soon crackling loudly and the entire cabin warms up enough to risk getting out of my sleeping bag and watch the sun-rise over a massive expanse of ancient, indigenous forest. There is so much potential for epic rides in this area it makes my mind boggle and crave for some coffee stimulation.

Our generous hosts, Andre' and Wodie prepare coffee and soon their little children are scurrying around, screaming and enjoying life to the full, as I wish I could do so early in the morning.

Raoul and I have been trying to sneak out on a long, fast, epic ride together for days. Word of our secret plans spread and the group grows to a few more. In fact, before we know it we are five people crammed into two cars (Thanks again to Andre and Wodie) with four bikes and are meeting Dave Mckay and Steve Burnett on route to the Homtini Trail, deep in the woods behind Knynsa.

We spot Dave and Steve at the meeting point, but we don't spot their car. It turns out they don't have one. After a few choice swear words from me, we manage to fit an extra two bikes and two people into the cars and drive into an unknown forest, without a map, without directions and without a GPS- all the ingredients that can lead to an epic!

We find the forest station easily enough, build our bikes up and try to make some kind of strategy about the ride and where Louise can pick us up. It turns out that none of us know the trail very well and were all counting on each other to lead the way! Louise pays for the riding permits as a trickle of rain begins- I am miffed about this but not as miffed as Raoul who has taken my bad advice and not brought along any warm layers as "it's never cold once you're riding in the forests". The rest of us don our warmer clothes (it is mid winter after all!) and we set off on a 7km descent through the forest roads.

We enjoy the freedom of scuttling and bouncing down the hairpins after being cramped in the cars for the morning. The pace is nice and slow much to Ruan Erasmus' frustration (the young and the restless), but he is meant to be on a recovery day so I don't feel too bad. I slow down the group even more trying to get some video footage of the ride but everybody is in holiday mode and the forests' sense of calm seems to be spreading to those riding through it.

Eventually the downhill runs out and we pay our dues as we climb upwards for a few kilometers. Suddenly the darkness of the moist forest recedes and we burst out into a sunbathed section of grassland and fynbos, just long enough to heat up our bodies before we plunge downwards once more into the forest on a beautiful forest road with tight, blind corners and some tricky little sections. After doing some more video work, I find myself all alone at the bottom of a valley. I cycle downwards until I reach a river and have to stop at the absolute beauty of the spot.

I feel totally alone in this forest now, with giant ferns fighting for their space between the 800 year old yellow-woods. The Knysna Lourie makes a bold appearance, swooping through the canopy, his blood red wings giving him away. I kneel down for a sip of water from the black stained river water and start on my way up.

And up. And up. It's a 4 kilometer long climb before I meet up with the rest of the group but actually it doesn't feel all that bad considering that we're 16km into the ride by now and have only had to climb properly twice. That said, I notice that Dave has become very quiet- a sure sign that he is starting to feel some pain and my legs are starting to realise that they have not done enough riding lately.

The Homtini trail is all about the scenery, there's not too much to tax your legs and your mind. That is, until you hit the last 5 or so kilometers. The forest road gives way to a beautiful, descending singletrack that flows really nicely and has some interesting rooty bits to keep you on your toes. We exit the trail whooping and hollering and generally behaving like a bunch of yanks before crossing over the N2 highway into the Harkerville forest.

We've written about the Harkerville forest before (see http://irideafrica.com/tour-options/single-track-tour-information/singletrack tours) and it's probably true enough to say that this place is pedal paradise. Our group is quietly happy that we are in known territory once again and have ridden for about two and a half hours now. We find ourselves taking it easy though, as we know we have much singletrack to ride here and still have to have enough sense and energy to navigate through the forests back to Knysna.

By some coincidence, Ruan gets a call from his mother just as we are about to drop out of cell phone coverage. The news isn't good, we need to return one of the cars to her as she needs to get some important shopping done. The problem is we are in the middle of a forest, on bicycles, with no communication and no idea how to get the car back to her. There's nothing for it but to hammer on down the singletrack until we get back into phone coverage. We start speeding things up a bit and before long Ruan comes short (just out of video footage!) and takes what sounds like, a spectacular stumble.

He loses his phone in the process so we walk back and I instantly recognise that it's the same place that I had a huge stack on a few months ago. There's a crafty, faster line right between 2 little trees that grow on either side of the line. I was following my sister down there when I tried to take the faster line. It didn't turn out to be the faster line. Let's just leave comments about my skills out of it and say that my bars were just 1cm too wide and my tuck and roll technique was put to use. So the search for Ruan's phone commences and while we do eventually find it, we also discover that it must be a place that many a mountain biker has had his/her pride broken.

The proof lies in the scattered remains of many an accident. Amongst the findings are water bottles (unfortunately not the one I lost in my accident), torn helmet straps, a pair of broken sunglasses and the tell tale signs of "involuntary bush removal" all around the area. The two trees stand testament to the mini-battles between them and cyclists. The trees have chunks of bark missing from them, all at a constant height above the ground...Handlebar height. It definitely appears as though the trees are winning the war here and so we leave them in peace, with one more battle notch.

One reason Harkerville rides are so great is that you get to experience riding in dark, cool indigenous forest and then suddenly pop out on top of massive cliffs above the Indian Ocean, surrounded by fynbos and covered in sunlight. We followed the route onto the edge of the cliffs where we took a short lunch break and tried to get Dave to be a bit more talkative i.e. feed him. He mumbled a few words, something like, "still gotto run a marathon....get myself into these rides....pecan pie" and then stopped talking again. I took that opportunity to steal myself a few of his jelly babies so that I could avoid the same fate (I at least, still knew that we had a very long way to go!)

The climb back up to the forests are always an arduous affair, and 4 hours into the ride, this one is no different. People are a bit quieter but there's no grumpiness yet. Ruan is the only one with tonnes of energy left. He is racing fit and darting ahead and waiting all the time, much like a hyperactive Jack Russell. We try to avoid the big climb out of the valley by putting our trust in the woefully inaccurate maps given to cyclists and (as always) get back on the incorrect, boring route home. Luckily Steve and I catch our navigation error in time and can make alternative plans to get back on track.

By now communications are back up and Mannie and Ruan decide to leave the group and get picked up by Louise, so that they can grab a lift to the other car and return the car to Wodie, and Louise can then join the rest of us in the pub later and....Well, it's all very complicated and we didn't even know what we were really doing, so that's enough of that ramble.

And then there were four. Raoul, Steve, Dave and myself set off in the direction of Knynsa in the hope of finding more singletrack but really just hoping that we can find Knynsa. We run out of map but are not really worried as both Steve and myself have "built in compasses" in our heads. The only problem was that they both pointed to a different magnetic North! The conversation went some thing like this:
Steve: "Ok so North is errr, that way, so Knysna must be over there"
Daniel: "Well, I would say North is more like there" (pointing in a totally different direction)
Steve: "The tree's don't lie, Dan! North is that way, check the rings"
Daniel: "Hmmm, OK tree whisperer, lets follow your direction for a while then"
Daniel: (whispering to Dave) "The guy's nuts! What are these rings he's talking about?"
Dave: "Hmmm? Hmsphric...ffffck....pecan pie...."

After a while we reach a compromise of alternating between Steve's and my built-in compass'. Whilst definitely not the shortest route home, this zigzagging way of orienteering eventually allows us to spot the famous Knysna heads (waaaay in the background) through a gap in the forest and confirm that this new method was working well for us. In fact, I am so relieved that I point the landmarks out to Dave and upon realising how far away they still are, he actually manages to string a few choice words together. I can't quote them though as his response is not repeatable on this blog.

Five hours into the ride and we eventually start smelling home. On one particularly steep climb we stop at the top, watching Dave climb up and consider mugging him for the rest of his jelly babies and leaving him for dead. As he grinds, hacks and cusses up the climb, the conversation evolves- something about eating squirrels and bait or maybe it was squirrels eating us, my mind and body were also starting to go at this point so I cannot report accurately.

Five and a half hours after we started we find ourselves outside the nearest pub from the trail we've just exited. It's one of Knysna's busiest times of the year and, can you believe it? The pub is closed! Lady Louise comes to the rescue as she turns up in the parking lot with a knowledge of how we must be feeling and turns out beers, chips and chocolate which are devoured at an insane pace. We chat and laugh about the ride and decide that it wasn't really an EPIC ride as none of us got really lost, none of us blew in spectacular fashion (Sorry Dave, you hit the wall with grace) and we didn't have to eat any road kill along the way.
The pub owner sees the rabble outside his establishment and decides to open up, get us inside and feeds us lovely sweet local brew and huge plates of 'slap' chips. Before long, I am cramping, the smiles are back, Dave is talking again and the rest of the rabble have all turned up on some spectacularly neon coloured bikes and we all sit back and relax after another tough day in Africa.

Epic rides- Genesis

2009-07-17T11:24:00.002+02:00

South Africa is riding heaven. There's no two ways about it, whether you ride on the road or in the mountains. The catch is that only a tiny percentage of the rides on it's roads, passes and trails have ever been documented and shared with the cycling community.

Herewith starts a diary of some of the best riding offered here. A few of them are tough and some of them are full blown epics but all of them are aimed at getting out there, exploring, sweating and having a story to tell at the end.

We hope that people around South Africa will join us, to share their favourite rides with us so that, eventually, we all have a worthy story to tell.

Look out for our first story soon. Below is a picture taken recently in George, to get you in the mood.

De Hoop nature reserve

2009-07-14T18:54:00.012+02:00

It's been a long time since I've been able to stand and turn in a 360-degree circle and not see one hint of human civilization for as far as the eyes could see. That is exactly what De Hoop Nature Reserve offered us, when we visited there last week.

We pitched up, dusty, dirty and without a reservation and the result was in fact, a very pleasing one! We were plopped into a nice couch, in front of a blazing fireplace and were offered free filter coffee and biscuits while they sorted out where we could stay. Nice start!

The day only got better as we walked to our newly organised accommodation to find we were the only ones occupying the quaint and very well appointed 'rondawels', right in front of a sprawling vlei teaming with birdlife and offering the most amazing view of pure wilderness I have yet to see in the Western Cape.

We jumped on our bikes to set off on what we thought would be a boring ride through the fynbos and were pleasantly surprised (or scared shtlss!) as a gigantic Eland bull emerged from the bushes right in front of us and got as much of a fright as us, resulting in it charging down the jeep track towards safety. The great appeal to De Hoop is that cyclists get free roam of all the tracks and paths, otherwise reserved only for the staff. This coupled with the fact that the animals don't fear cyclists (like they do humans on foot or car), means you can really see a lot of wildlife and also get really, really close to it should you be brave enough! We rode at a slow and leisurely pace through the jeep tracks (surprisingly not sandy, being this close to the coast!) for about 15km and managed to see Eland, the rare Bontebok, a huge male Ostrich, Cape Mountain Zebra and some fantastic birdlife (African fish eagle, pelicans, robins, herons, cormorants, shrikes) all from the seat of our saddle. Believe me when I tell you it's a very different experience than viewing game from a car- you feel very vulnerable and exposed!

To top it off, we cycled towards the beach, dumped our bikes and climbed a dune only to be greeted by no less than 10 Southern Right Whales dancing for each other in the ocean below us! We sat on the dunes fascinated by their lobtailing, breaching and spyhopping before cycling back to camp in search of some more challenging trails.

Most of the riding here is on very flat, unchallenging jeep tracks and so I led Louise to the hiking trail on the way home. This was more like it! Nice rocky, technical singletrack allowed us to get home but at a cost! Once you are focussed on the trail, you tend to miss much more wildlife and don't get the same sense of awe and inspiration from the area, so it really is better that most of the riding in the reserve is on easy jeeptrack. The other cost was me going over the handlebars in a tricky section and really battering myself up in the process-rather embarrassing in an area known by cyclists for its un-technical, flat trails!

We got back to our cosy beds and realised we din't have any food with us. Lucilky there is a fantastic pub and restaurant in the reserve and upon arrival, we were told they were having a fancy Christmas in July feast. Talk about getting your timing right! So we joined the other guests under a massive milkwood tree, surrounding a blazing bonfire and devoured an amazing 3 course meal for R100 (less than £10!), whilst meeting new and interesting people from all over the country.

Anyhow, De Hoop will definitely be on our list for future visits . It is a soul-healing place where city dwellers get to experience all of Africa's best- huge space, fire-red sunsets, friendly people and a fish eagle's cry to wake you up in the morning.

Cycle, Commute, Cape Town!

2009-07-02T19:22:00.002+02:00

So who says commuting is dead in South Africa? The (terrible- sorry I had a few beers in me!) picture on the right was taken on a random Friday night in Cape Town. A spontaneous invite for a braai at my place resulted in probably half of the group arriving on their bikes. Good on ya guys!

Of particular interest (well, to cyclists anyway)is the variety of bikes-in this one photo there is a fixie, a cyclocross bike, a couple of mountain bikes and a jump bike.

The real interesting part is that most of these bikes belonged to the fairer sex- so the message is clear, if you want to hook up with a girl who shares your love of cycling, come to South Africa and join us on one of our holidays!

Putting the client first

2009-06-29T12:13:00.010+02:00

For the past couple of weeks I have not seen my bike, I have not pedaled even a single revolution of a crank and I have not uttered one word of cycling jargon. I have put myself through this harrowing non-cycling experience in the interests of you, our future client. Confused? Read on-

Instead of cruising through pristine new singletrack, I've been indoors, behind a desk learning about the latest clothing gear.
Instead of trying to improve my technique on the local dirt jump track, I've been roaming around the mountains with a compass in my hand.
Instead of truing some abused wheels after another fantastically hard ride, I've been taught about search and rescue techniques and first aid for snake bites (the real kind, not what we mtb'ers experience all too often)

You see, I have completed the first step in becoming a qualified adventure sports guide. More specifically an 'Advanced Mountain Leader' and boy, has it been fun!

In South Africa, all guides have to have this kind of qualification. When you book your holiday be sure to ask if your guide is qualified and ask to see his badge and card. This is the best way you can be assured of getting a legal, competent guide that knows what he is doing and how to go about doing it safely!

The last 3 days of our course were practical days and we were lucky enough to do an off-trail hike in the snow covered Hex river mountain range (very close to where we do a lot of our riding). Here, we put into practice all we had learned in the classroom- Night navigation, steep ground rope work, orienteering, camp craft, search and rescue, mountain weather and a whole lot more I can't possibly fit in here.

A fantastic time was had hiking, socialising, learning and enjoying this incredible country in all it's splendour.

With all this completed, we will be able to offer an even better cycling holiday with an emphasis (as it always has been) on quality, fun and safety!

See you on the trails
Daniel

Vier (bike number four)

2009-06-12T16:39:00.001+02:00

The strange thing about going through the bikes I've owned is that I haven't the foggiest idea of how I got rid of them, which poor soul I sold them to, or even for how much. The Wheeler 5900 was no different but I definitely remember the feeling of absolute relief when I did!

After my spine crushing experience with a terrible alumnium frame, I cleverly went straight back to the real stuff- steel! For a bargain price of R4000, I hooked up with the most classic steel framed bike I've ever owned. This bicycle was beautiful. Nothing fancy- triple butted chro-mo, clean welds full XT groupset (the most beautiful shimano groupo IMO), some of the first 'snake' stays to ever grace a bike. It was these features that made her (definitely a lady, this one) ride like a dream. It was a 1998 Diamond Back (Racing) Axis.

When it came to upgrade time, I stupidly stuck with the beefy looking Manitou's, this time wasting my hard earned money on the next model up. These still had elastomer's- but they were now split into 3 sections and the last section had been replaced by an inch long steel spring. A step in the right direction I suppose, but why did they have to take so long to get full steel spring forks right?!

The other two things that niggled me was the colour scheme- a full on American red, white and blue brash paint job and the fact that it had zero stand over clearance. Nada, zip, nought- this is the bike I learned to track stand on, solely because I had no other option! Proper old school frame geometry meant a very long non-sloping top tube . I remember gazing longingly at the 15&16 inch versions and their pretty sloping top tubes and sighing very loudly, wishing that I was short like Harry(sorry, couldn't resist!)

In trying to tell the story of any big falls I might have had on this bike, I've come to the realisation that I can't remember any. Maybe it was because it handled so well? I raced it all through my 'Intermediate Mens' years and even one year as 'Under23's' so I was definitely pushing it.

For the sake of this post though I'll mention one very big wipe that might have happened on this bike when I was up on holiday in Howick, Natal. I was riding with Tony Keytel and we had enjoyed a typical Howick ride through the Sappi Forests. All that remained was a steep, fast, flowing single track trail down Beacon Hill. I was really looking forward to this last bit as it had been a year or two since Tony had seen me riding last, and I was keen to show off what racing had done for my skills on a mtb.

I overtook Tony just before he entered the downhill trail and started picking up speed. The Savannah like landscape started rushing past me and everything started to blur. The dark line before me was perfect -smooth, shallow sweeping bends and no reason to pedal as gravity took care of that! The track started to get deeper as it sank into the ground from the combination of over-use and rain erosion.

Very quickly, the grass seemed to get higher around me and the trail dug it's way deeper into the ground. My speed was still climbing and a Windows™ warning 'BLA...DING!' sounded in my head, but I could still hear Tony's bike clattering behind me. So I kept off the brakes even when my pedals started skimming the sides of the clay earth that the singletrack was now embedded in.

My pedals only skimmed twice in fact- the first one was the warning and 2nd one was the lesson. As my pedal embedded itself into the side of the 'donga' the 2nd time, Mother Earth won the battle of momentum (p = mv) and flung me from my bike into the Cartwheel of Death (BTW, this was only a kilometer or two from Harry's Cartwheel of Death mentioned in post number 'Een'). According to Tony's scorecard, I executed a very graceful triple cartwheel and managed to follow the line of singletrack very accurately the whole way through the movement, resulting in a skeleton luge-like skid on my belly for the final few meters.

Lesson Learned!

Urban singletrack

2009-06-09T12:56:00.001+02:00

Check out this perfect urban singletrack! Specially made for us, just meters from our home.

I'm getting side-tracked from my mumblings about previously owned bikes (stories below and above), but I couldn't resist taking this photo and putting it up here. Take note of how it's reserved for mountain bikers only- even the pedestrians don't use it!

Thanks to Neotel, for brightening up my commute and putting a big smile on my face yesterday. OK, so it's going to be tarred over soon, but hey! It's been fun while it's lasted...

We interrupt this monologue...

2009-06-09T07:30:00.005+02:00

BIG news!

Our website is live
www.irideafrica.com

We are still working on on online credit card payment system- in the mean time we will continue using our usual EFT (electronic funds tansfer) system

Drie (continued from twee)...

2009-06-03T13:54:00.003+02:00

In December 1995, fresh out of school, I found myself catching a 2500km lift from Howick to Cape Town so I could start my studies. The only fact worth mentioning, was the mode of transport-a massive, long haul 18 wheeler truck! By now, my bike went wherever I went, so it was loosely attached to the John Deere combine harvester on the back.

The first few months of biking in Cape Town introduced me to two new aspects of riding that I hadn't come across in Natal- the curse of the (amazingly well designed) devil thorn and hectic bone rattling trails. The constant punctures were fixed pretty easily-bigger tyres and sealant. The crazy technical, rocky trails however, convinced me that I needed a new bike. Replacing my bottom bracket/headset at the end of every ride was becoming tiresome!

Eventually the measly savings were starting to look good and I had found a bike that looked like it would do the job. The only problem was that if I bought it that month, I wouldn't have enough money to feed myself for the 2nd half of the month. The only solution was that I would have to just starve. That bike was mine! So I proudly went and bought the worst bike and fork I have ever had the misfortune of owning.

It was a Wheeler 5900 with Manitou Mach5 Comp forks. It was absolutely beautiful to behold- metallic midnight blue paint job, big beefy looking aluminium tubing, clean welds, industrial looking silver fork. I was the happiest student on the planet! That was until, I took it onto my favourite trail.

The straight gauge aluminium tubing (even the seat/chain stays!) made the ride so harsh that I might as well have been picking up the rocks on the trail and beating my spine with them. The Mach5 forks 'springs' were 6 inch pieces of rock hard elastomer that resulted in about 2cm of travel, if I was lucky (only on+ 35 degree Celcius days!). To make matters worse, I still had to face the fact that I was going to be starving for the rest of the month!

Well, starving is a bit of an exaggeration. I did manage to sustain myself just fine. During the 3rd week of the month I was eating Weetbix cereal with water and no sugar for breakfast, lunch and supper.MMMM!
Monday & Tuesday of the last week was spent eating spaghetti with tomato sauce for breakfast, lunch and supper and for the rest of the week I was forced to tantilise my taste buds with plain old spaghetti for breakfast and supper (not enough for lunches!)

Besides all this moaning about the Wheeler, I did grow to love it in some weird way. I won my first race on it and it taught me a few valuable life lessons along the way-

(a) Never buy something without trying it out first (no matter how much you've read about it and no matter what the reviews say)
(b) Food is important! Not so much for sustenance, as mental and physical well being
(c) Steel is real!

Twee (continued from Een)

2009-05-22T14:32:00.001+02:00

So we had discovered that mountain biking could be loads of fun as well as keep us fit -BONUS! This prompted me to start saving up for a decent bike that could actually go off road without killing me in the process. Before long I made the impulse buy and was the proud new owner of a shining red Nishiki (again?!) Altron. Compared to my first Nishiki this bike was a technological marvel - chrome molybdenum frame and forks (no more hi-tensile steel for me!), cantilever brakes, real Shimano parts and the deal maker, rapid fire shifters!!

Harry was so jealous of me back then. He still had his Invader and you could bend his u brakes with your pinky finger and thumb they were so thin! I'll never, ever, ever forget the first time we attempted 'Kamakazi' hill. We were standing up on top of Beacon hill, overlooking Howick and Midmar dam checking this crazy piece of singletrack that plummeted straight down the face of this hill and eded up hundreds of meters lower. It was uber-steep and carved into a convex shaped hill so you couldn't even see where the trail ended. We both stood up there in silence, both knowing that there was no way in hell that our brakes were up to the job of getting us down in one piece. I mean, even my superior cantilever brakes weren't going to cut it!

Suddenly Harry had mounted his bike and before he could even place his 2nd foot onto the pedal he was at terminal velocity, flying and bouncing down this grassy hill, hanging on for dear life. I could see his brake levers were pressed right against his handlebar -in fact, they were starting to bend and buckle past his bar he was clenching them so hard! Just before he was about to disappear from sight, that supremely crap bike just couldn't take it anymore and flung Harry into the cartwheel of death. As Harry bounded downwards on his head and then ass, then head , then knees and again on his head, I started to crack up with laughter. It was the most comical sight I had ever witnessed. This kind of mayhem is normally seen on some lame TV stunt show, not by your very own eyes!

Harry eventually ground to a halt, pretty dazed and confused with my cackling and howling in the background and it took while to gather himself before shouting up to me, "It's not that bad.... You could make it with your bike!"

I think we took separate rides home that day...

Een

2009-05-21T16:39:00.004+02:00

Have you ever wondered how many s(miles) you've ridden? I was pondering this the other day and I got all nostalgic, thinking about all the different bikes that have carried me over rocks, grass,roots, mud and different countries. Here is my list of bikes I've owned over the years and a story that goes with it -go on start your own list, I highly recommend it!

Nishiki (can't remember model)- It was back in '93 or so and my best mates and I had started taking our commuting bikes into the Howick forests after school. We used to just follow our noses down the the dirt roads, taking in the peace and sunshine. We had noticed we were getting fitter but there wasn't too much excitement about it all-certainly not nearly as exciting as our main pastime of skateboarding!

These rides went on for a few months and we were invited to go on a ride in Hilton with a few old guys. This is the ride I'll never forget- the ride that inspired me to save up for my first 'real' mountain bike. We got a lift out to Garlick Forests with Chris's Dad and started out on a typical Natal Forest road. We were ambling along, messing about, trying to take each other out along this road when the ride leader suddenly turned off and disappeared down this narrow little path through the trees. "Eh? Whats this oke up to?", was the first thought and being young and reckless we just turned our bikes downwards and tried to keep up with the guy....Revelation time!

We hacked our way down this path, super sketchy, bikes rattling and totally out of control. Eventually all 3 of us careened into a massive pile of sawdust at the bottom of the trail, got off our bikes and noticed our legs were shaking, our side pull caliper brakes (remember them?) were melted and our headsets had lost all their ball bearings. First singletrack ever. Woah! Suffice to say, the smiles were BEEEEG!

Later on in the ride, we came to this humongous (well, it was back then),rutted firebreak dropping about 30m vertically down to another road level and the old guy assured us that it could be ridden. Well, peer pressure resulted in the three of us skidding, screeching (not much of that with no brake pads left) and finally, endo-ing our brains out down our first drop off. Revelation time again!

The whole trip home in the car, I remember repeating to myself, "Must find more singletrack, must get better brakes, must conquer that drop off next time". So much has changed since that first mtb ride, but I still find myself mouthing those same words, "Must find more singletrack, must get better brakes, must conquer that drop off next time".

So thats the story behind bike number one. Next up, the infamous Nishiki Altron...

Some good mtb-ing places in South Africa

2009-05-16T16:30:00.001+02:00

well written in a cool website

Mayday, maday, we're experiencing perfect riding weather!

2009-05-11T15:54:00.001+02:00

With the 1st of May having crept up on us, I have to report to the world that Cape Town in April and May is astounding. The wind (infernal wind, if you're not into wind sports) dies down, the midday temperatures are riding-perfect 25 degrees Celsius and the evenings are just chilled enough to really enjoy red wine by the fireside.

A few mild rain showers turns the flora from African tones of Sahara brown to English tones of vivid green, and of course the much needed moisture does wonders for the singletrack scattered around the mountains. Tokai's trails are in the best condition at this time of year -grippy and fast with nary a puddle to muck up your precious linkages and metallic moving bits.

We cram as much riding as we can during these 2 months so that we can never look back with regret during those rainy, muddy days at then end of winter. Why don't you join us?

PS:
Another interesting phenomenon is that dirt jumpers and bmx-ers put down their bikes and pick up their shovels- this is building weather! The intermittent rains means that the earth becomes softer and the jumps can be packed harder. As a result, the awesome little track in Rondebosch is growing daily as a bit of hard labour over a few months means playtime for the rest of the year!

Go!Go!Go!

2009-05-05T18:55:00.005+02:00

Phew! It's been a fantastic few weeks of riding, trail reconnaissance and travelling and I am finally back, sleeping in my own bed. My spine has been moaning and it's got nothing to do with all the jump digging I've been doing (and nothing to do with my age!).

All this driving and riding is going to translate into more epic and wonderful trips for iRide Africa's customers. We look forward to opening more and more trails in this country which is perfectly primed for the sport.

We have found some beautiful, smooth, traffic free passes to ride on our road riding tours and have met wonderful people and awesome venues to stay at along the way.

Our back country tours are going to expand drastically with the new remote tracks we have found, which will take you into untouched areas of spectacular scenery and introduce you to some of the best bits of South Africa.

Over this last long weekend, we helped out a bit with Dirtopia mountain bike festival, rode some fantastic singletrack, fine tuned our jumping skills and watched South Africa's best riders battle it out between themselves in the marathon, dual, dirt jumps, downhill and Red Bull freestyle events. The event was awesome and chilled and the level of riding was truly entertaining. Check out some of the photos below if you don't believe me!

Jennie is jamming!

2009-04-20T12:51:00.001+02:00

iRide Africa's lead tour guide cleans up in Sweden

News just in! Jennie Stenerhag left us a few weeks ago to compete in the European road season. This weekend she took part in her first race in Sweden, taking top honours and getting being rewarded with a place in the Swedish National Team.

Well done Jennie! We miss you here but know that all your training on this side of the world will pay off big time as you cruise around Europe and continue to race at the top level.

Jennie has been snapped up into the Swedish National team and her next race will be in a few weeks in the Czech Republic.

If you would like to train and ride with Jennie, book a tour with us today- she'll be back in our summer and ready to take you on the most beautiful rides you can imagine!

Too much riding?

2009-04-12T14:15:00.005+02:00

We've been away riding so much I've had to neglect the blog for a while. Don't worry, I'll catch up with posts soon enough. In the mean time here are some photos from Ceres on a riding trip we did 3 weeks ago.

Pro's loving Grabouw

2009-03-26T11:00:00.003+02:00

Teams from all around the globe are busy completing the penultimate stage of the awesome www.cape-epic.com. It's been an exciting week of racing and there have been loads of tales of drama, great competitive spirit and amazing examples of team camaraderie.

Reading through the commentary on the race will give you an idea of the class of trails we have here in South Africa and especially Grabouw where our MTB tours will take you on some of our trips. Below are a few quotes from some of the top riders on the world, talking about Stage 5 :-

Christoph Sauser rates this stage in Grabouw "We were riding in good spirits, racing to win the stage and not just chasing down time like yesterday. The last few kilometers were a real cross-country ride - we loved it!"

Burry Stander said "We wanted to win this stage and took over the lead. On the last 2 or 3 climbs, I was struggling a bit. Luckily the last single-track section pulled me through. It was so much fun - I really enjoyed today’s stage. It was definitely the best part of all the courses we've been riding so far.”

In the Mixed category, Alison Sydor and Nico Pfitzenmaier (Adidas Big Tree) are hanging onto their lead by winning their category yet again. At the end of stage 5 , Pfitzenmaier said “We had a great stage today – the single track was unbeatable"

Werner Leitner is one of Austria’s top triathletes and comments that he never expected that the terrain of the route would be so rough. “I thought we would be riding on gravel roads most of the time. The amount of single track is astounding. Despite it being very, very hard, I’m also enjoying it. The scenery and the route are really amazing.”

Bart Brentjen's team mate Chris Jongewaard says the last stretch of single track was loads of fun. “It brought me home. Also, Bart's passion is infectious. We've talked a lot about winning this race. It would be really nice and if there’s an opportunity, we’ll definitely go for it.”

So there you have it, from the horses mouth. If you want to ride great trails in South Africa book a tour with us- we guarantee smileage!

Raging fires, raging rides

2009-03-23T13:05:00.002+02:00

It's not in my nature to harp on about negative incidents but it just seems that the Cape fires have been relentless in the last month. So I apologise once again for being the bearer of more bad news with the following photos.

Just a few weeks ago we were riding on Table Mountain and I was commenting on how green it was for that time of year. A few scorching weeks later and the grass was brown and dry and the winds were starting to pick up as is normal for this time of year.

Unfortunately last Thursday night, a fire broke out below Rhodes Memorial and winds quickly fanned it into a horrific scene of destruction. The photos on various blog sites show the magnitude of the area burnt.
www.capetown.travel/blog/entry/fires_on_table_mountain

2009-03-23T13:00:00.012+02:00

The good news is that no properties were burnt and fire fighters did an amazing job as usual... The bad news is that the mountain we ride on now resembles a lifeless moonscape.

On Saturday we rode out to watch the prologue of the Cape Epic www.cape-epic.com and we rode through the burnt areas and took the following photos. The one above is what's left of our extreme descent down the face of Plum Pudding - not looking good but at least we won't be getting any branches in our eyes for a while!

The photo below shows some of the damage looking South towards King's block house - OK, it looks bad but after the first few rains, just imagine how green this is going to be!

The last photo is of South Africa's very own Burry Stander leading out Christoph Sauser on their way to win the 19km prologue of the most televised MTB race in the world.

Good luck to all the competitors of this grueling 8 stage MTB race! We plan on holding a special Cape Epic tour next year so if you are interested in taking part, contact us now so we can secure your ticket!

Jonkershoek's grief

2009-03-13T18:16:00.001+02:00

I've finally got a photo of what Jonkershoek looks like after this months fires. I have to warn you though, that if you're a sensitive viewer you may want to avert your eyes from the right of the screen! The photo really is quite appropriate for todays date-

Meurant says that about 300ha got burnt and as you can see theres not much cover left. That said, I have to say that the singletrack in the photo looks awesome! So Jonkershoek is probably off the cards for a while :( The loggers will get in there and take care of the dangers and before long we'll be riding through young green saplings and a bit more indigenous fynbos. We've been through this before and while it really saddens the heart we can only look to the limitless possibilities of the future!

Clean Dirt Jumps

2009-03-13T18:08:00.002+02:00

On a brighter note the 4X track at Dirtopia is looking wicked and you could easily spend an afternoon there just jamming with mates and learning some new bike skills-I look forward to actually testing it out this weekend! Have a great one! Here's a photo from a few weeks ago of some guys having fun on it.

1st Place Argus Cycle Tour 2009!

2009-03-10T12:36:00.003+02:00

Well done to our lead guide, Jennie Stenerhag, for winning the biggest (and most scenic) road race in South Africa!

This weekend was 'The Big One' for cyclists and Cape Town was absolutely full up with riders from all over the world as they descended on the Mother City for the mother of all races. Thirty five thousand (yes, 35 000!) cyclists take part in this annual road race of 110 km around the Cape peninsula, the biggest road race in the world.

Jennie rode a brilliant race in the most testing conditions this race has ever been held in. Winds up to 55km/h blasted through Cape Town, tearing down banners and bowling over cyclists even when they were just standing at the start line! The ladies finish came down to a sprint as it usually does and after a few replays of video footage Jennie was awarded with the number one spot for 2009 and some well deserved national TV coverage. Well done Jennie! This is on top of an already great season in South Africa, where she has won the Burger cycle race, the Herald VW Cycle tour as well as a few podiums and wins in the Alpha Pharm Seeding Series.

We are hosting a Cape Argus Cycle specific tour in 2010, so if you would like to join us then contact us ASAP and we will reserve your place!
D

Cycle of life

2009-03-07T07:58:00.002+02:00

Check this photo out. An amazing composition of the fires in Stellenbosch 2 weeks ago. It's taken by a young local photographer with a lot of talent. Check his website out here- www.hougaardmalan.com. Beauty and horror in one package. Unfortunately a new fire is burning in Jonkershoek this week. We're holding thumbs that the plantations are not too badly damaged but from experience we know that trails come and trails go. It's a life-cycle we should all know well considering we spend so much time on round wheels, with round chainrings and round bearings. So some singletrack and a lot of hard work might be gone forever but new trails (with new stories) will always pop up in time and maybe they'll be even better than before. I'm looking forward to it!

Foto Friday!

2009-02-27T22:16:00.004+02:00

Post Ride bliss...

A picture is worth a thousand words, a video a thousand more.

2009-02-25T20:08:00.004+02:00

Just another day in Africa from iRide Afica on Vimeo.

Solitude on Singletrack (saves our souls)

2009-02-24T18:35:00.004+02:00

Had a humdinger of a hot day yesterday, probably at least 30 degrees. There was no wind (very unusual for Cape Town), so I decided to go for an exploratory ride on Constantiaberg.

A few weeks ago, I spotted a possible singletrack trail waaay up high on an east facing slope. Well, it looked like a slope on Google Earth! I eventually found it after a bit of 'hike-ling' and boy was it cool! Beautiful, contour path, quite technical in sections but generally quite smooth.

The awesome part was that it was really exposed- a big steep drop to the right, that got my nerves up enough to get off the bike on the really narrow sections. It's obviously not walked on much and probably never biked on and needs a bit of clearing but it would be a fantastic bike trail to extend the riding in the area. I was the only one up there with a solitary African Goshawk flying in front of me through the forested section and the baboons frequent the area judging by the interspersed "dig" holes in the trail.

Before cruising down to the "milkshake highway" I just stood up there, enjoying the view across False bay and taking in the sheer solitude of it all-Cape Town is quiet when there is no wind around!

Now I must just to find out if it's legal to ride (there were no signs telling me otherwise) and if I can include it on on our Tokai Tour somehow.
D

Photo of the week

2009-02-20T20:59:00.004+02:00

Wooohoo, it's Friday!! You know what that means? Photo of the week, and just because it's such a beautiful day I'm treating you to two photos of the riding that we have recently done in our backyard.

Have a great weekend!
Dan

Fire Hazard

2009-02-07T18:21:00.012+02:00

Yesterday was a sad day in Stellenbosch. Jo was out riding with Swedish pro road cyclist, Jennie Stenerhag and they suddenly found themselves surrounded by a raging fire as they climbed up Swanswyk road.

Summer time in the Cape brings hot, dry and windy conditions and there is always a danger of fires breaking out. In fact, the Cape Town firefighters put out up to 80 fires a day, and that’s just around the Cape peninsula!

Fynbos is actually 'designed' to burn every few years so that this amazing and unique floral kingdom can propagate itself. This means that the Cape will always be at risk of fires but as mountain bikers riding in alien forests (pine, gum & poplar), it is in our best interests to make sure we report all fires and also to make sure we don't start any of these fires. Nobody knows exactly how these fires start but a large part of the blame must go to the smoking public who drop their cigarettes out of their windows. There is actually a number you can phone (021-4247715) to report these offenders and I believe that they are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. So please report these (mostly) ignorant people!

The terrible thing about yesterdays fire was that it burnt a lot of Coetzenberg, a world class sporting facility and also an awesome forest to ride your bike in. Coetzenberg is actually where I competed in my first provincial race and got on TV for the first time. Unfortunately it was for all the wrong reasons! I came screaming around a corner on the track, desperate to catch up to the field after having suffered a puncture. Suddenly there were crowds and we all know that crowds are only there to feed off your demise! Around the corner was a long set of big, eroded trail stairs and I was far too committed to do anything but attempt to ride them. I made it most of the way down until my flimsy (pre2000) forks buckled underneath me and I was hurled to the bottom of the stairs. Upon picking myself up, there was a big camera in my face and that clumsy, embarrassing fall was cut into the introduction of the show ‘Old Mutuals World of Endurance’ for that entire year!

Anyway, back to the fire. Jo followed the progress of the fire and the last report was that it was creeping up into Jonkershoek valley. If it hits Jonkershoek we are out of a lot of the best riding in the Cape and we can only trust that the superhero fire fighters are able to stop it in time. We will probably go out thee tomorrow and assess the damage.

On a way more positive note, I hear that Dirtopia is about to have a nice new bike park with huge drops and big jumps. I think it’s about time I get myself an appropriate bike for that! I'll get some photos up ASAP.

Dan

Singletrack - the holy grail of mountain biking?

2009-02-03T22:33:00.003+02:00

There are many facets to mountain biking, but beautifull, sweet, flowing singletrack is argueably the one terrain that binds all mountain bikers.

I am yet to meet one that hasn't had a smile on their face after riding it. It is the one thing we all have in common, the one experience that a beginner on a zero-suspension rigid klunker with toe clips can understand and appreciate just as much as a world cup downhiller.

It's what drives all of us forward, against the will of our bursting lungs and aching muscles, searching for that next great trail that we've never ridden before.

Just thinking out loud.

Harry

Welcome

2009-02-03T21:22:00.004+02:00

Welcome to iRide Africa - South Africa's premier holiday solution for mountain bikers, by mountain bikers, based in Cape Town, South Africa!

We are in the process of setting up shop, to be running by summer 2009, and aim to offer hassle free bespoke mountain bike holidays for mountain bikers. Through decades of riding, racing and hacking through this dizzyingly diverse destination, our team can take you riding on the sweetest singletrack riding that this corner of Africa has to offer.

Escape your dreary winter (or even miserable summer!) and flow through world class back country trails in this sunshine paradise we call home! Spend some time with us and not only will you get fitter, you'll improve your bike skills and will go home with a beaming smile and a tan to match.

We cater primarily towards the seasoned mountain biker that wants a riding holiday with excellent food, stunning views, excellent guides but most importantly excellent trails. We strive for excellence and all that we want from you in return is to ride and relax. Our local biking knowledge is second to none and we will take you on not only the famous trails but more importantly, the best kept secrets in this area!

And the iRide Africa award goes to........

2009-01-06T11:45:00.002+02:00

iRide Africa was formed by a tight knit group of avid riders and close friends with over 40 years of racing, riding and loving the cycling lifestyle between them. We have ridden some of the best mountain bike trails in the world (and the best road rides in the world are right here!), and simply want to share the best trails in South Africa with you. We are emphatic about great customer service and as much so about pure happiness! We want to offer you the very best riding, the very best local knowledge and the very best guides.

Daniel

Experienced mountain biker, Western Province Pro-Elite Champion back in the day.

Rides a Voodoo Wanga Singlespeed.

Soon to be qualified Theta Approved Guide
Cartographer by trade (so you'll never get lost!)

Jennie

Professional road cyclist.

Swedish.

Ex-mountainbiker and still loving it.

Rides a Specialized stumjumper expert, hardtail. And a Specialized Ruby expert on the road.

Louise

A keen mountain biker who rides a [t]rusty old Kona Lavadome that we can't pry from her fingers.

Sublime cook and sandwich maker.

Fluent in French.

Knows Cape Town inside and out.

Admin extraordinaire.

Harry

Crazy mountain biker with raging disregard for self-preservation.

Rock music aficionado, and weird facts guy.

Rides a ridiculously orange Marin Attack Trail 140.

London correspondent and UK goto guy.

Soon to be qualified Scottish Mountain Bike Leader.

Jo

Avid mountain biker, and ex racer.

Rides a Scott Scale 40 (Santa Cruz one day!)

Most cheery person on the planet.

Knows Stellenbosch and surrounds, and everyone who lives there.

Excellent skills coach and qualified masseuse.

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