Two more days and back on the starting line for my favourite 3-day mountain biking event (Ride2Nowhere) and this year the team is complete with my fiancé, Dom able to ride and joining Andrew Norman and myself as we endeavour on a weekend of mountain biking fun, loads of wine, friends and great food. Not necessarily in that order.
Crossing the finish line for the 1st time at the inaugural Ride2Nowhere in 2012
I love this event and it will be my 8th year of participating (in its 8th year of existence) and what makes this even more special for me, besides the amazing trails, fantastic race village vibe, like- minded participants (racing not a priority) and awesome event organisers (Eulogy van Dyk and Con Viljoen) is perhaps the fact that I in some sort of manner have been involved since the inception of this bucket list event. Just love the whole concept and have come to know most of the community involved in making McGregor a destination every year in September.
My biggest fear this year is that I do not, for some unknown reason, cycle in hiking boots. Surely common sense should have prevailed by now. I am probably in my worst MTB fitness shape to take up the challenge since that inaugural experience in 2012 (And having to fight off a bout of flu last week did not help the last minute dot com training). But, hey we will be out in the middle of nowhere to have fun, enjoy the beautiful Karoo spring flowers (after all the rain) and make Paul Valstar wait for us at the finish line. Keeping him away from red wine as long as possible, if possible at all. Paul here’s to catching up with a few bottles of the red fermented grapes in the mix as per R2N tradition. (Does anyone know how to add cleats to hiking boots, would Duct tape hold it in place?) Did someone say muscle memory?
But seriously, so looking forward to this weekend, guiding and riding with Dom on the trails doing something we love together, suffering and up hills included on our mountain biking journey. (Patience Andrew, we will reward with cold beers). Staying at McGregor Backpackers again and our hosts Geoff and Dorothy are the best (even though they sprayed us off with ice cold water last year after the mud slide on the bike)
We doing it for the love of the ride! Andrew and Dom, are you excited yet!? I can’t wait.
See everyone in McGregor!
Below a few selective photos from my Ride2Nowhere journey since 2012
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- 2012 and had to have some fun on the bike. Lond day out!
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- 2012: Eish yes and YES I did love my granny gear
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- 2013. Somethings friends make you do. Fancy dress day and not much more needs to be said
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- 2013. Making myself and Thinus Crafford famous. Nothing like falling in front of the media
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- 2014. All the boys. What a great weekend with Thinus Crafford, Andrew Rogers and Rob Kucera.
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- 2014. The KTM Boys out in the middle of Nowhere. Miss those days gents
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- 2015: Suffered alone
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- 2016: The year of Swine Flu for Thinus and Mr Olympic Rob joining in the MTB Fun
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- 2016: Finally got a photo of me on the bike
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- 2017: Debut year for Dom. Broken derailleur and all
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- 2017: Someone followed me for 3 days
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- 2017: The trio with all smiles (Andrew, Dom and me)
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- 2017: Like I said, someone followed me around for 3 days
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- 2018: Snow, rain, mud and ice cold water to rinse myself and Andrew Norman off
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- 2018: Need I say Andrew and myself were freezing but we completed R2N through all the adverse weather
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