Star staffer takes up 40km-ride training challenge
THERE’S a brand new cycle challenge on the cards for Gauteng residents – a week before the biggest race of them all.
It’s the Momentum 94.7 40km Ride, in association with The Star.
It’s not Highveld Stereo’s hardcore annual 94.7km trek across Joburg, but rather a series of 5km laps through the Waterfall Country Estate in Sunninghill, north of Joburg.
You can use it as a warm-up for the Cycle Challenge the following week or as an opportunity to get out and cycle with your friends. You might even want to do it as a teambuilding exercise.
Or, if you’re fat, over 40 and haven’t been on a bike since you were a kid – like me – you can use it as challenge to see if you can actually cycle – and what all the fuss is about.
Call it guilt or not being able to duck in time when the editor looked around the conference table, but I’m the designated beginner rider for The Star.
Over the next nine weeks I’ll be keeping you up to date – not just about my misery at getting on a bike and learning how to change gears without spilling onto the road – but about training tips, the health benefits of cycling (none of which are immediately apparent to me at the moment) and general pointers for the race itself.
What I can tell you is that the route is picturesque – and doable.
I did it this week on a dikwiel (thick tyre). Actually it’s called a Qhubeka, a bike that looks indestructible, has no gears and which you have to backpedal to brake.
Surprisingly, I didn’t fall off, didn’t throw up or end up in intensive care. My thighs burnt like a prop forward’s after the couple of inclines, but there was more than enough downhill to freewheel and recharge.
At this stage, nine weeks out, I’m fairly confident I’ll manage at least one 5km lap.
That’s the beauty of this race: you do as many laps as you want and can quit at any stage. It’s not a relay, though.
I’d like to do more and I’ll start training to do just that.
Join me over the next few weeks as I rediscover a forgotten childhood pastime and try to overcome a lifetime prejudice against adults stuffed in lycra who hog the roads in Joburg’s northern suburbs with an unutterable and wholly inexplicable sense of moral superiority. THE 40km Ride will take place on a 5km loop track inside and around the Waterfall Country Estate on Saturday, November 10. Cyclists ride as many loops as they can manage.
The event takes place on the same day as the Momentum 94.7 Kiddies Ride. Date: Saturday, November 10. Time: From 7am. Venue: Waterfall Country Estate, Sunninghill. Parking: On the polo fields on the corner of the R55 and Maxwell Drive. Entries: Enter www.cyclechallenge.co.za Entries are limited and close on October 1. Entry fee: R150 per participant. Ride pack collection: At Waterfall Country Estate on: Wed Nov 7 10am-5pm Thurs Nov 8 10am-5pm Fri Nov 9 10am-5pm