Bain’s Kloof Pass

Posted on October 27, 2012 by Ryan

Peoples reactions to what we are doing are varied bust mostly something along the lines of  ”Jy’s Fo*#*# mal”. Yesterday we passed 2 cyclists and we were shooting the breeze while riding alongside them for a while; it was fun when asked where we were riding  to be able to answer “Joburg!” When we arrived in Wellington we met Niel from Adventure Cycles and his actual words were the ones in quotations above.

Today was the most amazing day’s riding. The weather was perfect (campaign day some might say) and there was very little wind. Niel organised for a group of 6 riders to join us on our way out from Wellington and we had there company almost all the way to Ceres (minus Mitchells Pass). They were awesome and told us stories of the area the whole way. The mountains around Wellington are breathtaking and the gin colored waters that flow in the rivers and over the many waterfalls are simply mind blasting (don’t you mean mind blowing Ryan? No anything can blow your mind…this was mind BLASTING).

We rode up Bain’s Kloof pass and although we spent most the day ascending, the surrounds kept us so distracted that it ended up being quite a leisurely ride. I really can’t do the area justice with my limited vocabulary so I will post some Trigger Monkey photos in the next post so that you can experience a little of what we did today. For now check out the GPS tracks and results from this mornings unbelievable ride!

 

 

We are now in Ceres relaxing at Porterhouse Eleven Guest House with feet up. *whisper* the place is run by De Wet Barry’s folks! Province and Springbok memorabilia everywhere! On that note must find somewhere to watch the Currie Cup final…

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Stage 01 – Pick of Pics

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Ryan
City Lodge Send Off

City Lodge Send Off

Mad Cows

Mad Cows

Ride monkey ride

Ride monkey ride

Cow Train

Cow Train (did you see what we did there? as in Gautrain...but not)

Look no hands ma

Look Ma, no hands

It is pretty out here

It is good looking out here...and I am not just talking about the flowers

Arrival in Wellington

Arrival in Wellington

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73 down 1427 to go!

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Ryan

Day 01 went really well; the Cape weather came to the party and supplied us a perfect and constant 19 degrees C with a side order of overcast with no rain. The South Easter even woke up late and left us alone; perfect riding weather…

Thank you to iScrip for sponsoring this stage – you guys rock:

 

iScrip

iScrip - People & Technology

 

Check out the riding results below…I am about to get stuck into a double shot Latte and nice lunch here in Wellington – chat to you later.

 

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One Gear Stage 1: Sponsored by iScrip

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Ryan

 

Day 01 – woooohooooooooooooo! And it begins! It is so surreal to think that we start riding on Friday. A literal year of planning coming to fruition…

Friday’s stage takes us from the heart of the mother city out on the Dubanville road to Wellington. The stage is a 73 km long and is sponsored by iScrip – People & Technology. We have to use this opportunity to send out a massive thank you to iScrip for sponsoring not only this stage but a total of 3 stages!

 

iScrip

iScrip - People & Technology

 

We will keep you all up to date via the tweet machine during the day so be sure you are following us:

Ryan: https://twitter.com/khandakulu

Doug: https://twitter.com/DougHolder

 

 

View ONE GEAR – Stage 1: CPT to Wellington and see below the proposed route:

Download the full proposed route with Google Street view images: Cape Town to Wellington – The Proposed Route

Cape Town
1.
Head southeast on Darling St toward Parade St
About 1 min
go 140 m
total 140 m
2.
Slight left to stay on Darling St
About 3 mins
go 230 m
total 350 m
3.
Slight left onto Sir Lowry Rd
About 3 mins
go 240 m
total 600 m
4.
Turn left onto Christiaan Barnard St
About 18 mins
go 1,3 km
total 1,9 km
5.
Turn right onto Duncan Rd
About 20 mins
go 1,7 km
total 3,6 km
6.
Slight right to stay on Duncan Rd
About 11 mins
go 900 m
total 4,5 km
7.
Turn right onto Container Rd
About 6 mins
go 450 m
total 5,0 km
8.
Turn left onto Marine Dr
About 48 mins
go 4,0 km
total 9,0 km
9.
Turn right onto Kei Rd
go 10 m
total 9,0 km
10.
Turn left onto Marine Dr
About 2 mins
go 170 m
total 9,1 km
11.
Turn right onto Greyton Rd
About 5 mins
go 400 m
total 9,5 km
12.
Turn left onto Koeberg Rd/M5
About 1 hour 7 mins
go 5,5 km
total 15,0 km
13.
Turn right onto Plattekloof Rd
About 22 mins
go 1,7 km
total 16,7 km
14.
Turn left onto Durbanville Rd
About 28 mins
go 2,2 km
total 18,9 km
15.
Continue onto Tygerberg Rd/M13

Continue to follow M13
About 59 mins
go 4,3 km
total 23,2 km
16.
Slight right onto Durbanville Rd/M13
About 33 mins
go 2,7 km
total 25,8 km
17.
Slight right to stay on Durbanville Rd/M13
About 7 mins
go 550 m
total 26,4 km
18.
Slight left to stay on Durbanville Rd/M13

Continue to follow M13
About 35 mins
go 2,7 km
total 29,1 km
19.
Slight left onto Race Course Rd
About 14 mins
go 1,3 km
total 30,4 km
20.
Continue onto Church St/M13

Continue to follow Church St
About 13 mins
go 1,2 km
total 31,5 km
21.
Turn left onto De Villiers Dr
About 2 mins
go 150 m
total 31,7 km
22.
Slight right onto Wellington Rd
About 6 mins
go 450 m
total 32,1 km
23.
Turn left onto Langeberg Rd
go 10 m
total 32,2 km
24.
Turn right onto Wellington Rd
About 1 hour 16 mins
go 6,4 km
total 38,6 km
25.
Turn right onto R312
About 4 hours 20 mins
go 20,8 km
total 59,4 km
26.
Turn left onto R44
About 49 mins
go 3,9 km
total 63,3 km
27.
Slight left to stay on R44
About 1 hour 34 mins
go 8,1 km
total 71,4 km
28.
Slight left onto Champagne St
About 2 mins
go 190 m
total 71,6 km
29.
Turn left onto Stokery Rd/R44
About 10 mins
go 850 m
total 72,5 km
30.
Turn right onto 4th St
About 2 mins
go 110 m
total 72,6 km
31.
Turn left onto 2de
About 59 secs
go 79 m
total 72,7 km
Wellington
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Russel picks up a scent

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Ryan

I could see the glint in Russel’s eye as he realised that this was his last chance to go to work on my legs! I have mentioned before his sadistic ways; well he said we would take it easy today and he would just do some “releases”. Ooooh ah ah!

He carried on shooting the breeze and chatting about daily stuff expecting answers while he worked on my quads with his elbow. How he expected conversational responses from me I have no idea – I spent the entire time biting the pillow (literally) in order to limit girly screams falling out of my mouth.

For all my whining though I have to say that my knee feels so solid after all that- he definitely knows what he is doing (and really enjoys doing it).

Dude – big thank you for all your hard work and help in fixing my knee! And thanks for the strapping advice – will definitely be in touch during the ride for more advice!

BioDynamics

BioDynamics

Categories: BioDynamics, Training | Leave a comment

Last Bio Session

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Ryan

 

I keep saying the word “last”! We leave for Cape Town on Monday and suddenly this is all becoming very real. I am off to go see Russel in about 30 minutes time and it will be our last session. He is going to help me with strapping and teach me the right method to support my knee.

Russel has been incredible and given me Biokinetic sessions twice a week for about 6 months now. I cant tell you how effective the rehab to my knee has been and how much stronger my tiny pins are now. My gammy knee conking out was probably the biggest threat to me not finishing the One Gear Challenge and I can say now with more confidence than ever that I am going to complete the 1500km ride!

BioDynamics

BioDynamics

Categories: BioDynamics, Training | Leave a comment

Last Big Training Ride

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Ryan

So Russel (Biodynamics) has told me that I need to start tapering from next week so I went out for one last big ride this morning. I got in 80km which is about 10km more than what we will need to average on a daily basis! Holy crap, as I wrote that with my tired pins aching below the table, it has just dawned on me what lies ahead.

Anhoooo, let’s ignore any anxiety for now and focus on the fact that the 80km went well. I had a little bit of an ITB niggle at the end but I will ask Russel to work his magic this week in my last 2 sessions with him – all will be Golden! I have said the word “last” more than once in this post; I can’t believe that this is all coming to a head and that we leave for Cape Town in just over a weeks time. It is amazing though how it all comes together and how all our partners have really pulled through for us.

I collected all our USN stuff yesterday – they have gone nuts on providing us with everything we are going to need (nutritionally speaking)! I have protein bars,  protein drinks, recovery stuff, bottles… everything – it is actually mad! I used some of it on my ride this morning and there is no doubt it made a difference. Our biggest challenge is going to be to recover each day before setting out again on the bike. The recovery products from USN are incredible in that way and I am going to be smashing those in my beak with vengeance after each stage!

Check out the deets of my ride this morning below:

 

Categories: GPS Tracks, Sponsors, Training, USN | Leave a comment

Second Vo2 Max test results just in

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Ryan

I just got my results from the guys at the Exercise Physiology Lab for my second Vo2 max test. They have done a comparison to show improvements from the last time I did the test with them in April. And yes…there were improvements! Hopefully this bodes well for a successful 1500km ride approaching fast! skreeeeeeeeeeeeek!
Vo2 Max – Ryan Meiring results _2012

Exercise Physiology

Exercise Physiology

Categories: Sponsors, The Exercise Laboratory, Training | Leave a comment

BMX Direct to the rescue

Posted on October 4, 2012 by admin

I am getting fit and making sure that I am strong enough to complete the grueling 1500km but if a bike part were to fail and that ended up being the reason the One Gear dream was not realised it would be very sad. BMX direct to the rescue! The guys at BMX direct will be supplying us with a brand new 2013 bike with all the necessary parts that may ‘fail’ along the way; spare tyres, tubes, patch kit, chain, grips, brake cable, pedals…They are also on call 24/7 if we require any technical assistance. Amazing stuff!

Check out the Bike (and yes we will be raising the seat!):

 

BMX Direct

BMX Direct

 

RN1_2013_blk_red_angle

RN1_2013

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MB Training Ride

Posted on October 2, 2012 by admin

They say you can multiply the off road KM’s ridden by 2 to get the equivalent on road distance (obviously – so if you do the math this was a 93.64 KM training ride – Just saying! And yes “they” are the scientific community and its all very scientific and…stuff.

Categories: GPS Tracks, Training | Leave a comment