Another 04:00 am wake up - Arno du Toit

After yesterday's little Velo speed session, which some of us thoroughly enjoyed, it was time for a longer, easy day in the saddle according to the coaching panel: Paul and Yolande. I must admit, getting up before the sun is not my favourite thing in the world, but I like riding bicycles so I do it anyway!

As we met up with the rest of the wolf pack, I was surprised to see Amy there on time. (Jitte, glad I packed a rain jacket).

So, we hit the road towards Harties, or at least that's what we all thought, but after a democratic decision was made by Paul and himself, we went somewhere else. Somewhere Pretoria north / Brits / Hartbeespoort-ish… I'm not too sure where it was. The roads were dodgy, with loads of traffic. Not ideal. It was sad to see some motorists still not caring for us cyclists. Never the less, it was a bit more exciting than the normal route.

 About half way in, we had a quick stop for coffee at a garage, (somewhere). Paul almost lost his sense of humour when he discovered his 2nd puncture, which was also the 4th one in total for the group. Soon enough though, we were back on the bikes and off again. We headed back on familiar roads with a rather unpleasant headwind. 

There was some nice teamwork, with everyone taking turns in front, which made things a lot less painful than I thought it would be!

We ended our 4hr30min ride with an 80-85% tempo over Klapperkop and straight down to Bicccs for a few good cups of coffee.

Till next time

Ride safe!

Arno

"Bulletjie" Traning Session with the Velo Group - Edwill O'Neill

I woke up at 4am, feeling slightly dusty, but after my first cup of coffee I was ready to hit the road with the roadies (Velo Group) and the a[s]g PYcycling MTB group.

The morning conditions looked good, with just a light wind and a sky full of stars when I left home to meet Paul Cordes, Yolande Speedy, Arno Du Toit and Marcel Marais at the Engen in Pierre Van Rynneveld at 5 am.  

We rode at a nice chilled pace to loosen up our legs. We eventually reached the Engen on Hans Strijdom, where Amy McDougall, Francois Ebersohn, Neville Ackerman and the Velo group joined us. After 30 minutes of chilled riding along Hans Strijdom and onto Lynwood road, the adrenaline kicked in.  We took the Boskop road towards Cullinan and from there it was “all out”... full throttle! Myself, Paul, Francois, Yolande, Arno, Amy and Marcel, pedalled our bikes fast and hard and kept up with the front group of riders. I reached my Tempo (170 bpm) in the first 15 minutes. It was a great feeling; it felt like I was doing a stage race in the Tour de France ☺.

The tough part of the ride came when it was my turn to sit in front and keep the pace. Half way through, I fell off from the leading group.  Marcel and I tried everything to stay with the leading group. We were struggling to maintain the power of the leading group, eventually we caught up with Amy and the three of us settled into our own pace-line until we reached Lynnwood Road and joined the rest of the group. Pauls words to us: “ if you let them put a 2 meter gap on you you’re going to fall off to the back”...true words!

Marcel and I thought our training for the day was done, but Nah! Paul had something else in mind... Muscle Tension training up Klapperkop! Ouch!

Just as I thought I was going to die we got the green light  from Paul to head off to our favorite meeting place, Bicccs,  where we had  our regular, well deserved coffee, breakfast and a good laugh.  Never a dull moment with the a[s]g PYcycling group!

Riding with the roadies was great fun!!!! A Few hours of pure pain!!!

This was a “bulletjie” of a training session!!

Edwill

Training Ride Update - Jacques Pretorius

When I woke up this morning it was very cold. It didn’t bother me since today is the first day we got to ride in our awesome new a[s]g PYcycling kit, with the confidence that cars will notice us in our bright new colours!

We went out on Delmas Road to do some tempo intervals. The head wind was killing us, but the thought of a tail wind home kept us going. After 30 minutes of hard tempo riding we turned back for our second tempo for the day, it was fast!! We then went to Bicccs to end our ride with what cyclists do best....... Drink coffee!

Kickin' Off 2013!! - Paul Cordes

ASG MTB Academy is underway!!

After months of work and preparation the new season is finally here!! It has been an amazing run into this season with so much support and excitement from sponsors and athletes alike. We just want to say once again a big thank you to all involved for making this happen and we look forward to working together though out the next season!

The ASG academy team is finalised and it is fantastic to see all the athletes putting in such big effort and dedication into their training. The new F-Tech kit will be arriving shortly bringing together the unity of the all the members and we can’t wait to see everyone in action in the first event later this month.

Several of the older riders recently came back from a training camp in Oudtshoorn which was hosted at CangoMTB. 32hrs of riding and 13000m climbing later is what was on the program over the 7 days (one being a rest day) and everyone definitely needed to bring their “big boy” pants. This was the perfect way to get everyone into routine and focused on their goals to come. It was also a nice way to put the new ASG Team trailer through its paces and even though it is not complete it is certain to do a great job for us throughout the season.

With cycling safety on everyone’s mind, we are pleased that our academy as well as club kit is in fluo colors ! Not to mention our Rudy Project glasses and helmets to match! It is far safer to be seen both on the road and on the trails. We also urge everyone to be safe when on the bikes, and to practice proper rules of the road. We cannot expect to be respected by motorists if we don’t apply the same standards on our bikes.

The first events for team members will be the Gauteng road and TT champs on the weekend of the 19/20^th for a couple roadies as well as the USN Cup #1 at our club stomping grounds –The Red Barn. The following weekend sees the first of the MTN marathon and Nissan half-marathon series in Barberton where we will have a nice set-up at the start/finish area. Then our XC series kicks off on the 9^th of Feb down in Cape Town which is always very exciting!

Also on the agenda is the Centurion High School skills clinic where several of our team members will be running bases, teaching the youngsters some tricks and answering questions. Our ladies’ and fast mid-week Dirt Jam sessions have also been growing and have thus far been very beneficial to all who attend!

We hope that everyone has a fantastic 2013 and look forward to keeping you up to date with all happenings and results of the academy throughout the year.

Regards,

Paul Cordes

ASG MTB Academy 

Training Camp - Amy McDougall

To kick off the 2013 season with PYcycling, Paul Cordes and Yolande Speedy organised a 7 day endurance training camp based at Matthys Beukes’ farm in Oudtshoorn. The crew consisted of Paul, Yolande, Arno Du Toit, Marcel Marais, Neville and Patsey Ackermann, Edwil O Niel and myself.

We decided to get the 12 hour trip done in one go, and left Pretoria at about 4:30am on the 27^th of December. The ride was long, accentuated by my constant suffering from TB (Tiny Bladder) luckily the company was good, Paul was in his cowboy hat and him and Yolande played some arb wildlife spotting game that I still don’t understand! Entertaining none the less!

For the training camp, I would be riding two Cotics: a Cotic X cyclocross bike for the road, and a Cotic Rocket trail bike for mountain biking.

We started each day’s training at 5:30 to avoid the worst of the heat and allow for recovery time.

Day  1: 28^th December

Our legs were not feeling too fresh having done a long ride the day prior to a long day’s travelling, so we kept it easy, 3 hours out and back. In the distance loomed Swartburg Pass, a massive mountain shrouded in clouds. It reminded me of the road to Mordor. That’s where we would be training hills the next day, gasp!

The hours after the ride was spent chilling, eating, swimming, sleeping and relaxing. The sun sets really late in Oudtshoorn which allowed us to go for a “trail jam” session at about 5:30pm. Matthys has built an amazing xc course around the property which we played around on for about an hour session before dinner which worked up a good appetite! This trail jam session was my first mtb ride since I broke my hand at Burg n Bush. It was also the first time riding the 26” duel sus Cotic Rocket, I fell in the first 50m. My skills were sketchy but I’d get the hang of it and it felt great to be back on the trails again!!

Day 2: Swartburg Pass

We took an easy ride up to the base of the pass and kept a steady tempo heart rate to the top. Although it was long and pretty painful, I managed to keep a good, steady heart rate up both sides and I can say that I enjoyed the challenge and views!

Day 3: Robertson Pass

It was Yolande’s birthday, to celebrate we rode up and over Robertson Pass on the road, we had breakfast at the bottom and back again. The weather was great, with the pass covered in mist which made for a pleasant ride. The tough part came in the last 20km where we did a 20 km individual time trial. Most of the TT was downhill, so it was fast. I enjoyed the speed and getting my heart rate up and I felt strong! This was one of my favourite days but I was tired and looking forward to the rest day. The afternoon was spent legs up, napping  and chilling. I skipped the trail jam that afternoon as I am suffering an Achilles tendon injury and didn’t want to put more strain on it. That evening was spent at a restaurant called Pal Jas where we ate Ostrich and drank red wine, chatting and laughing and reflecting on the past few days and the days to come.

Day 4: Rest day (New Year’s eve)

A well-deserved rest day for us all entailed 0 riding, just rest and recovery. It was New Year’s eve and Marcel was sick, Edwil had left and the others opted to sleep, which was definitely the wise decision! Arno and I hit the town, which was rather disappointing as there were only a hand full of people in each of the places we went to, dodgy characters at that! Never the less, we had fun but with only an hour sleep, 5 hours of riding the next day would be interesting.

Day 5: Base ride (New Year’s day)

Unlike the previous days which were spent in sweltering heat, today was cool and drizzly which was a relief. The terrain was undulating I enjoyed the ride. I spent the rest of the day catching up the lost sleep from the previous evening. When I woke up it was trail jam time! This time I felt more comfortable on the bike, I came off once pretty hard but otherwise it was great fun!

Day 6: Swartburg suffer fest (Paul’s birthday)

Today was by far the hardest day of the training camp for me, and one of the toughest days on the bike I have had! Paul’s birthday present to himself and us was a ride up Swartburg Pass, down the other side, then up for half an hour, down, and up again. My body was fatigued and Achilles tendon aching. I was far off the pace and my heart rate was 10% - 15% lower than it was the first time we did the pass. I pushed through, but man was I glad when it was done and I was in the pool! The rest of the day was spent in a state of near comatose. I felt better after resting and we celebrated Paul’s birthday in a more conventional manner at a great restaurant in town. The pain was forgotten as another awesome evening with excellent company was had.

Day 7: Steady State intervals and pace line.

The pain was remembered. Four 5 minute intervals on an uphill and a pace line back to the farm. We could all feel the past few days in our legs. The intervals were hard but good and I was surprised to see I was getting stronger with each interval! The pace line was a different story, I had never done one before, and clearly have a lot to learn.

Thanks to Cycleops, we were able to record each day of riding and analyse our data accurately every day. Paul and Yolande for organising the camp. Matt De Jongh from Cotic for giving me the Cyclocross and Rocket to ride. Matthys Beukes and family for accommodation and trail jam sessions. Paul, Yolande, Neville, Patsey, Arno, Marcel and Edwil for great company, awesome rides and fun times!

I am really happy with the last training block that Paul has put us through; it is exciting to start the 2013 season strong with a solid base! I am looking forward to riding with PYcycling for team a[s]g  Pinarello. I think the team is strong and plenty of successful races and mountain biking adventures are to be had!

a[s]g PYCycling Academy Press Release

So after months of work and planning, we are excited to announce that our new academy will be kicking off next year from the 1st of January 2013!

We are very excited to say that we have partnered with ASG, who will be our title and major product sponsor for next year, and hopefully for years to come.

Our vision for the academy stems from the fact that there are very few professional mtb outfits locally, and that we wanted to bridge the gap between good amateur riders and the top level riders in the sport. We found that during the last couple of years, we have helped and coached several good cyclists, but noticed that even with them obtaining fantastic results, there was little assistance for them to progress in the sport, and therefore they became despondent.

So we decided to group our efforts and try to match up all the puzzle pieces to make what has now become the ASG MTB Cycling Academy.

The academy has a few different tiers; with its main focus being to coach and mentor cyclists, and help them reach their dreams. Along the way they will often need support, not only at race events, but also in the form of bike maintenance, enabling them to get to and perform in the events they would like to. With this in mind, we have partnered with several fantastic companies, which will be able to offer that support throughout the season.

The pinnacle of this is a sharp upper tier in the academy, including cyclists over a very broad age spectrum, all with their own goals and incentives, giving the academy team fantastic diversity.

Some of the riders we have worked with and will be working with next season include:

Arno DuToit(U23): Overall S.A. XCO u23 Cup Winner. 3rd SA XCO champs and overall senior men MTN Marathon series

Joel Hieber(YM): Winner Spur schools series youth, past 2 years

Amy McDougall(EW): 2nd Nissan Trail Seeker series Elite Women, SS women’s World Champ

Nicholas Popich(JM): Nissan half marathon overall series winner, USN half marathon series winner

Catherine Colyn(YW): 3rd Junior ladies XCO championships. 3rd women MTN half marathon series

Neville Ackerman(MM): SA masters TT champ, 3rd masters Worlds TT champs, 3rd SA XCM champs

Angie DeBoer(EW): 3rd Elite woman overall Nissan Trailseeker series, 3rd  3Towers

Edwil O’Neal(U23): 5th Overall half marathon series, 2nd XCO Provincials

Marcel Marais(U23): 10th Spur School series, 9th National series

Jacques Pretorius(YM): Overall winner youth Nissan Trailseeker half marathon series

Petru Ebersohn: 3rd Elite Women 3Towers

These are some of the riders we will be supporting next year and are very excited about what the future holds for them as well as many others.

But why we are really excited about the academy is that it doesn’t end there. We are offering a few tiers of support, depending on what the athlete’s schedule looks like and how much they can commit to cycling. This is a great way to inspire cyclists at all levels, and help them achieve their goals, no matter what they are. It is also a way for us to “talent-search” and hopefully discover and encourage new talent.

A HUGE thank you to our partners in this project, and we look forward to working with them far into the future! They include:

ASG: Title sponsor

Continental: Tyres

Ritchey: Accessories and wheel sets

San Marco: Saddles

High 5: Nutrition

Cycleops: GPS and power meters

Squirt: Chain wax and bike wash

Crank Bros: Pedals

Bat Seal: Tyre sealant

Magura: Brakes and suspension

Photizo: LED Light therapy

Dimension Sport: Massage therapy

Scicon: Bike bags and accessories

Epic Sports: Bike and tech support

IMC Reaction: Alarms, monitoring and reaction

Sixs: Under-garments

Zefal: Pumps and accessories

So as you can see, we have been busy and are really excited for 2013!! We have already started with our base training, as well as skill sessions building up to next year. Our first away Academy training camp will be held in Oudtshoorn from the end of December to the beginning of January.

Should you have any enquiries or would like to get involved with the club or the academy, then please feel free to contact Paul at: info@epicsports.co.za or (012) 643 0504. Or should you be interested in joining, you can do so either online www.epicsports.co.za, or at Epic Sports Cycling shop itself (012 643 0504). If you are interested in up-to-date news or following the academy’s progress, then please follow us on twitter: @asg_pycycling, and we will try to keep everyone up-to-date on the academy’s activities and achievements. We also have our blog site up and running, where all the athletes contribute, giving some interesting reading about all the academy’s activities. If you would like some good race reports, stories and photos, then go to www.pycycling.blogspot.com.

Regards

Paul and Yolande

Great End to a Roller Coaster year!

It was almost a week after Bridge Cape Pioneer before I pedalled my GT again, joining @PCordesracing for our usual Friday coffee ride to Bicccs and losening up my legs for the final @USNSA MTB Cup to be held the following day.

@USNSA MTB Cup #5 Red Barn

I felt the familiar feeling of post stage racing legs when after a fast start of the 50km marathon my legs seemed to 'miss-fire' and I felt like I was pedalling with the brakes on. 

Amy having had a late start cruised past me on her new little bike with big wheels as if I was standing still and having no answer I took in some Vooma Gel to kick start my engine. Fortunately this and a stern talking to myself did the trick and I was now able to chase hard keeping smooth through the new single-track sections and hoping to make back some time.

It was only enough to hold on for 2nd but happily not too far off the pace. Congrats Amy for taking the win!

Thanks @USNSA for such a well organised and super fun marathon series on our door step! I look forward to taking part in it again next year.

Nissan Trailseeker #5 Hakahana

Another week, a revitalising sports massage from @DimensionSport and I was ready to take on the last Nissan Trailseeker for the year.

This was held at a new venue, Hakahana and I must commend Advendurance and the trail organisers on a fantastic route with great technical single-track, super steep climbs and lots of potential for the future!

Sadly Theressa Ralph crashed out in the beginning kilometers leaving myself and Yolandi Du Toit to battle it out for the win. I wish her Simon and Sean a Speedy recovery!

Yolandi took the lead on the first climb and we had quite a cat and mouse chase until the final technical 30kms where I managed to pull into the lead. I crossed the line in 1st happy to take the win and that my legs were finally feeling recovered.

Nissan Trailseeker ladies podium oh and very bad tan!

Another great MTB Marathon series, thanks @mtbseries and @advendurance! Keen to see what you have in store for us next year :)

W2W 2012

Another week of intended time off the bike changed to a pre-race taper week as I prepared for my final event of the year, the 3 day Contego Wines to Whales stage race.

This would be my first W2W and I was really looking forward to the promise of all the single track and technical riding it had to offer as well as my new partnership with Hanlie Booyens as the Momentum Specialised insurance ladies team for the event.

Team Momentun Specialised Insurance ladies

I left for Cape Town on Thursday arriving late afternoon after a couple of flight delays, Hanlie collected me from the airport, we drove to Lourensford and registered then drove to her house in Stellenbosch. I reassembled my GT which @PCordesracing had carefully packed the night before and did our final race preparation., With bags packed we loaded the car for the mornings early start, had a good meal and discussed our race strategy which went something like this: "Let's just ride to have fun without any expectations!" and headed for bed.

Stage 1 - lourensford to Oak Valley 77km, 2300m asc

Now one thing we didn't factor into our race strategy is that we are BOTH highly competitive. Bearing that in mind this is how our race unfolded...

We lined up at the start with me on my GT Zaskar 29er and Hanlie on her 26 Merida which she had recently converted to 27.5 and were excited to get on our way.

After stressing that she would be the one under pressure from the gun it was Hanlie that had to wait for me up the first long climb of the day. Fortunately I soon rode off my 'travel' legs and we started to reel in the riders up ahead.

We passed Cherise and Mariske having stopped to sort out a slight technical problem and I was sure they would be back on our tails soon enough.

We settled into a hard but steady pace and heading up the 2nd big climb we had Ischen and Catherine in our sights, game on...

Passing them on the next flat section where they had stopped to fix a side wall cut it was hard to believe we were now leading the race. We stopped at the 2nd water point to quickly fill our bottles and raced on.

Hanlie set a good pace on the single track climb up Hans se kop and soon we were cruising down some of the most amazing new single-track and our nirvana only interrupted for a few short sections where we were held up by a few slower riders.

Gantouw Pass portage

Reaching the compulsory portage over Gantouws Pass where we alternated between carrying and pushing our bikes up the steep, rocky climb! I had to keep Hanlie in check as despite strict instructions from her Physio that she was not allowed to run due to her knee op she insisted on breaking into a 'high cadence walk'

Big Dipper over Eikenhof Dam

Gratefully getting back on our bikes and with a nice lead we settled back into our steady pace enjoying the section over the Big Dipper wooden bridge on Eikenhof dam and crossing the finish line very happy to take the win and with a 9:24 minute lead on Bizhub's Ischen and Catherine and 23:15minutes on Contego's Mariske and Cherise.

Now we knew there was no turning back, we were in this race and needed to focus properly on our recovery for the next day.

After replenishing our initial thirst in the rehydration tent we quickly sprayed down our bikes, collected our bags and found our tents. We pulled out our pre-packed shower bags (you can tell we are old hats in this game), had our recovery drinks my @USNSA Recovermax going down well, showered, headed to the lunch tent where we were impressed to see a good healthy spread laid out by Food Lovers market and Fair Cape.Afterwards we went for our massage and apart from a short interruption to give our race machines some TLC and prepping our chains with Squirt spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing on our mattresses along with most of the campsite.

Dinner was good and prize giving entertaining with Paul Valstar providing us with some comic relief and funny stories of the day.

Race village for the 2 nights as I found out after packing

my bags the morning before stage 2 #blondemoment !!

Stage 2 - Oak Valley to Oak Valley 65km, 1175m asc

The start led riders along kms of gravel roads with short power climbs allowing the bunch to split up before going into the first single-track.

We pushed hard sticking with Team Contego and Bizhub also trying to stick to the front of the group so we could get into the single track first. This clearly being everyone's strategy made for a super hard and fast pace.

Finally reaching the single-track we thought the pace would slack off a bit but it was too smooth and flowing so felt like everyone was going full gas. We rode together with Contego having formed a slight gap on Bizhub and after about 10kms we decided to drop our pace a bit and let Contego take the lead. Shortly after this and with them still in our sights I took a corner onto a gravel road too fast, almost saved it but then hooked my bar on some bushes and before I knew what hit me was lying on the ground disconnected from my bike. Fortunately the crash looked worse than it felt and after Hanlie found my glasses and I had 'reassembled' my helmet as best I could we were on our way chasing Bizhub who had passed us in the process.

We caught and passed them but they were hot on our tail and although we thoroughly enjoyed the amazing single-track through Lebanon we could not relax for a second. We spent the remainder of the race sandwiched between Contego who we were slowly gaining on and Bizhub chasing from behind.

We crossed the line just over a minute behind Contego and just under 2min ahead of Bizhub admittedly feeling the hard days racing!

The remainder of our day closely resembled the previous as we spent it getting in as much recovery as possible.

Stage 3 - Oak Valley to OnRus campsite 76km, 1338m asc

With 22minutes lead over Contego and 11:14 on Bizhub we lined up at the start for the final stage.

The start was crazy fast and after sticking with Contego for the first few kilometres we decided to rather settle into a slightly more comfortable pace, let the youngsters go and ride together with Bizhub who would be working hard to hold onto their 2nd place.

Although mostly downhill for the first 45kms we often found ourselves together with Bizhub fighting a crazy strong headwind.

After stopping to fill our bottles at water point 2 we pulled ahead of Bizhub and stretched our lead to the finish giving everything we had left on the last climb and enjoying the last 10kms of flowing downhill single track and onto the final stretch of wooden pallets along the beach.

Crossing the finish line we were super happy to take the overall win having thoroughly enjoyed the 3 days of racing!! Ischen and catherine held on to their 2nd place, Mariske and Cherise wining the last stage and taking 3rd overall.

Overall women's podium W2W

Thanks so much to Hanlie for an awesome partnership and great 3 days of racing!

To Rikus and Momentum Specialised Insurance for sponsoring our entry

And all my sponsors @EpicCycleShop #GT @USNSA @CycleOps_jhb @asg_PYCycling Squirt Continental Giro Rudy Project making it possible for me to race on such a competitive level

This was my last race for the year so that's all for 2012, looking forward to an exciting 2013 season!

Till then,

Yolande