Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The biggest mountain bike show on earth?

The biggest mountain bike show on earth is rolling and gaining momentum. It is day 4 and Stage 3 for ABSA Cape Epic 2011, and unless you have been living in a hole you will have heard about it, or be following it or be addicted to it. Today riders are on their way from Tulbagh to Worcester 125km and 1900m of climbing. The prologue was spectacular and the first 2 stages have been hard, claiming at least 5 collar bones so far. Yesterday the 104km took the pros over 4h32 to finish and the back markers had 10 hours to avoid cut off.

There is a ton of information out there, check our epic resources and follow the event with epic twitter updates and news stories. The epic website also has the results and live tracking. On TV you can catch the half hour highlights package every night at 22h00 with repeats the following day. On Sunday get your morning ride in early so that you can park off on the couch and enjoy the final stage live on Supersport.

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Thursday, March 24, 2011

An Epic Weekend

Its an Epic weekend ahead of us the Absa Cape Epic 2011 kicks off on Sunday and you can catch it all live on TV. The whole prologue will be live on TV from 09h00 to 14h00 on Supersport. If you are in the Cape then get out to Tokai forest to see all the pros and support the local boys, Kevin, David and Burry, the racing will be awesome. The 2011 Epic is going to be tough as usual, with Stage 1 89km 2050m ascent, Stage 2 104km 2300m ascent and Stage 5 143km 2350m of climbing, its going to be epic as usual. This race produces many amazing stories like this one, Adam Ferris returning home from the cold after 38 years away to ride.

Here is a bonus for this week, another example of how mountain biking trails in South Africa are progressing. Karkloof Classic in KZN put this together to show what they are doing to prepare for the Karlkloof classic 2011. World class trails and a world class mtb video production, check it out, better still go ride the trails.

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Thursday, March 17, 2011

The Cape of Singletrack

The Cape has always had the lions share of quality MTB trails with a handful of marked and purpose built trails in Tokai, Jonkershoek and Lebanon thanks to the hard work and dedication of people like Meurant Botha from Dirtopia. But the singletrack revolution has been quietly busy adding to this solid base with some new trails emerging. The biggest area is in Wellington starting from Welvanpas with the whole Bains Kloof trail network offering some serious singltrack. The areas around Tygerberg Hills like Contermans, Magic forest and Merendal now also have some significant new riding options thanks to efforts by the Tygerberg MTB club

On the east coast new trails have been cut in KZN thanks to early efforts by people like Ian Wilson resulting in Giba Gorge as well as Hola trails and Sani trails. In Mpumalanga it only used to be Sabie but now there are all the trails at Mankele and Misty Mountain.

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Thursday, March 10, 2011

Singletrack Revolution

Mountain bike trails in South Africa have come a long way in the last few years.The biggest winner of all must be Gauteng where there really used to be nothing. If you think that riding in Gauteng means dodging hijackers, mine dumps and traffic then I think you need to get off the road and head for the hills. A combination of the need for safer riding areas, more riders and a lack of quality riding has been the catalyst for the creation of some world class MTB trails.

The trails around van Gaalens in the Magaliesberg continue to lengthen and now you can easily spend 5 hours riding everything from steep rocky singletrack to undulating riverine forest trails to smooth flowing contoured singletrack.In Pretoria the Groenkloof trails draw hundreds of riders everyday with the shady parking, post ride facilities, technical trails and safe environment. Teak place in the Cradle of Humankind also has a packed parking lot on the weekends. A new kid on the block is Kingskloofmtb on the Krugersdorp hill. And so the list continues to grow. Its the new wave riding on the back of the MTB race explosion and means more MTB trails to ride. So get out there and pay your trail fees to support those who are making it all possible.

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Wednesday, March 02, 2011

How to fly with your bike

Flying with your bike used to be the domain of pros but now it is a regular activity for almost any keen cyclist. Nowadays events are all over the country, flights affordable and time of the essence, so you have to fly with your bike. This traumatic experience is manageable by knowing how to pack your bike and transport your bike so that the airlines don't end up destroying it. There is no fool proof method, you can wheel it on, use a cardboard box, soft bike bag or a hard shell case. They all have their pros and cons, it just depends on your budget, love for your bike and unfortunately a fair amount of luck. Check our guide and options for transporting your bike.

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