Weekly Summary

I'm really enjoying my riding at the moment and had a great week this week. I hadn't given too much thought to just how fit and strong I would become on the bike, especially once the base fitness was sorted. Right now I seem to be able to ride for hour after hour with no fuss and I'm also enjoying the back to back riding (Mon early, Tue night ride, Wed early) which should help for the Epic.

My favourite ride at the moment is from Home in Somerset West to Jonkershoek in Stellenbosch. Aside from a few k's on the R44 and a bit on Jonkershoek Rd the rest of the ride is on dirt roads, jeeptrack and lots of singletrack. It's the single track that I'm really enjoying as it's a lot of fun but also great for developing those all important technical skills (apparently we'll need them for this year's Epic). For those that know Jonkers', once through the gate (R20 to get in) I go straight onto the Canary Path and ride this piece of singletrack all the way to the top. Canary is made up of three parts and is a very technical ascent. I then turn right onto the contour road and after a couple of K's turn left and climb (a big climb) up to the waterfall. This is also a great place to refill the waterbottle! I then descend the other side and rejoin the contour road to the Never Ending Story which I ride to the end. This is fast and free flowing with some good switchbacks and other technical obstacles. At the bottom I turn Left and after the oak trees join the Patula Path. This is in two parts and whilst it's mainly flat it's very very rocky making it quite technical. Having followed this to the end it's back onto the dirt road to the dam wall where I turn left again onto Taeda Path, the single most rocky piece of singletrack in Jonkers. Most riders skip this path as it's very rocky and once the rocks are dealt with it becomes very sandy, but it's well worth it! This path also takes you right back to the gate. Once I've done all this I then set about riding home along the river in Stellenbosch to Coetzenberg where I turn into the University's farm and do the rocky climb back into Eden. Once there I do a bit more singletrack before retracing my steps over Stairway to Heaven and farm tracks all the way back to Mooiberge where sadly it's back to the tarmac of the R44 all the way home. That is my early (4.30am) Monday morning ride which sets my week up very nicely.

Stats for (load) week:
Ride time: 17:45 (target: 16:30)
Distance: 267km
Kcal's burnt: 13350
Total ascent: 4675m

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