Robbie makes his debut

Avid followers of these exploits will remember that the last trusty bike was disposed of a while back. Well it took a while but a replacement has been found with much interweb searching, visits to every LBS and a detailed analysis on the Bicycling 2007 buyers guide (with highlighted entries everywhere).

Well now I get to introduce my latest friend, Robbie the Rockhopper. He comes from esteemed lineage as Specialized have been running the model for 25 years now. Without getting too technical we're talking lots of the fun upgrades since the DiamondBack rolled off the shopfloor 7 years ago – 100mm of travel, remote lockout and hydraulic discs. He also had the same colour options as the Model-T, so looks fhaaast.



As we've all heard from the one-balled oneder, It's not about the bike. So where better to test than last Sunday's provincial race at Buitenverwachting? Now being a virgin at Provincials, I was not sure what really to expect, but I did know that there wouldn't be many fun-riders hanging around. The area is my backyard, as my parents are round the corner and many a run has been had through these very vineyards. Cleverly I signed up for the intermediate men and would be doing 4 loops of the 6.4km/220m altitude course (the REAL men do 6). Oh yes, lets forget about being all happy about a new bikes here, the serious guys have pretty good rides, full sussers all over the place, and Sara prancing around in a very fancy pancy sponsored superlight carbon blah blah blah.

The first lap was a real shock to the system, but I managed to stay with the leaders to the top of the singletrack. We came down through the forest with some insane sections in soft sand. The more I forget about the drop-off the better, but lets just say you have about a 20cms gap between a gaping sharp bolder and a rock solid treetrunk. It's straight downhill and there's a bout 10 guys with cameras waiting for a wipe-out. The organiser's father dislocated his shoulder getting down it 15 mins before our start....charming. Well luckily I punctured on the third lap which took me out of contention and gave me a good excuse when, to be honest, I actually got mocked. Yes, Sara overtook me on the second lap, Go Girl!

OK, you might have heard about the milkwood, you might not have. It comes highly recommended and I don't advise on cr@p races. This has got to be one of the most special out and back courses around. It's this Sunday, so enter before the 19th here.

In other news, of course we one the sailing, and well how's this for a fun evening. SA lose closely to England on Tuesday will make windies run rate of -1.2, SA -0.2 and Eng +0.1 an affair of getting calculators out at the bar, with all three times picking the lucky semi against the ozzies. Just to get into the spirit of things. Go here to download your Kevin Pietersen dartboard and stick it up at work.