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LAND ROVER: INTRODUCES FIRST GEAR PACKAGE

Cycling-oriented accessories are hand picked and factory approved. Mark Jones

If you had said to me just over a year ago I would put into print, actual words, anything about me cycling, I would have bet you my life that would never happen.

But you know what they say? Never say never, and here I am, about to tell you all about a brilliant weekend I just had in the Karkloof region of KwaZulu-Natal with Land Rover SA, mountain biking and testing out the first of many planned Gear Packages with their convenient Cycling Pack for the new Discovery.

They loaded a few cycling writers and hardcore cycling motoring journalists, all their gear and bikes – and myself, who is by no means diminutive – into the vehicles and we hit the road for some exercise in a very pretty part of the country.

Some useless background information: my cycling journey started on June 1 last year. I wasn’t happy with my fitness levels and weighed in at 113kg, so I took to pedalling whenever I could get a gap instead of, perhaps, ending up dead from a heart attack. Just over a year later and even with 10 weeks off recently recovering from serious, non-cycling related, injuries to my shoulders, I now weigh a much healthier 93kg. I took on the challenge presented by super-cyclist Kevin Benkenstein.

For what it is worth, this man cycles around 400 to 500km a week for fun, has completed a host of the world’s longest endurance races and has covered more distance on a bicycle than most people have driven a car in their lives. Although the route was just short of a very gentle 60km, I had to exit at 40km due to a lack of riding fitness and taking a proper tumble on to my still healing right shoulder when coming down a rather tricky and rocky section of the route.

I still enjoyed it thoroughly and it gave me a chance to see just how effective and easily this new Cycling Gear Package worked first hand.

Land Rover caters to a wide variety of lifestyles and sporting interests with a large catalogue of accessories, officially known as “Gear”.

But now Discovery customers who enjoy adventuring on two wheels as well as four have an option to equip their vehicle cycling-oriented accessories handpicked from the Gear range.

The Cycling Pack includes a choice of a roof-mounted bike carrier for two bicycles together with the required roof rails, or a towbar-mounted bike carrier for two. The package adds a rubber mat set for the first and second seating rows and a waterproof loadspace liner tray to protect the cargo area floor from the mud and grime picked up during a long day out on trails.

We used Gear, especially the loadspace liner, thanks to the rain that kept us company.

The pack also enhances the exterior of a Discovery with a set