Road cycling captain’s injury works in everyone’s favour
The mountain bikers have been cruising over the holidays, as race season only really starts kicking off at the end of summer.
THE South Coast area is beginning to look a little like Beijing, with all shapes and sizes of bikes and cyclists out on the roads and the trails at all times of the day this Summer.
The crazy few roll out of bed before the sun rises and are on the road as the birds start chirping, while another breed go out in the midday heat. Either way, they are out there doing it, which is the first step to happiness.
Toti Cycling Club has had a great start to 2015. There are two amazing road groups going out in the mornings. The fast and the furious hit averages of 30kms-plus on most mornings. This is the group to jump onto if you want to hurt yourself. The ballies group are a bit more chilled but don’t fool yourself that they are slow. They still give one a good work out. These groups leave Engen Garage in Rockview Road at 5am Tuesday to Friday mornings and 5.30am on Saturdays and Sundays. The roadies have been doing some wonderful 100km-plus rides over the festive season. This is in preparation for Argus and other big races coming up.
The mountain bikers have been cruising over the holidays, as race season only really starts kicking off at the end of summer. They have been doing fun rides with no urgency or speed in them. They attended the night ride held at Ellingham trails, put on by Bush life Adventures. This included a great ride through the magical forest and a great bonfire afterwards. Unfortunately, the club’s newly-found road captain decided to buy some land on the trail and broke his collar bone. Yes, the road bike captain. The Mambas joined up with the Scottburgh club’s mountain bikers twice in the last few weeks, once to do a long, hard ride into Vernon Crookes Nature Reserve and again for a breakfast ride at the fantastic Virginia Trails. The ride to Vernon Crookes had some hideous hills to climb, but it is an excellent training route to do if anyone wants good hill training. The ride is exciting and well worth the hard work. Saturday morning saw around 38 riders of all strengths congregate on the beautiful Virginia farm. The riders set off at 6am into a cool, misty breeze. Some took it really easy, doing the picturesque 20km route, while others rode a bit further, doing between 30 and 40-odd kilometres. The track is in fantastic condition, and if one does every trail available, about 65kms of riding can be achieved. The club members were then treated to a scrumptious breakfast cooked by Toti’s injured road bike captain and another injured club member. So there is some bonus to injury – well, for other people anyway. Thank you Toni Rahme and Shaun Heinz for your wonderful culinary skills.
Mountain bikers meet on Saturdays and Sundays to do group club rides at a variety of places. There are now three groups from which to choose. These cater for most skill levels and if you don’t fit into the group riding yet, but would like to begin, someone is always willing to help you along with advice and rides.
For more information on any of Toti Cycling Club’s rides, call Shaun Heinz for road riding on 074-848-7405 or Caryn Harvey for mountain biking on 082-357-5287. The club hopes to see some new faces joining in on the fun.
