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Map of road ride

peninsula 50km

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We've been busy (riding!)

The past couple of months has been pretty busy for us here at iRide Africa.
Unlike most work places though, at iRide Africa being busy = more riding. Lucky us!

Jennie has left our sunny country for the European road race season (she's already come 2nd in her first race in Sweden!) So I've been doing a bit more road riding than normal and it'll treat me well for some of the future races I hope to be doing this year. Look out for the iRide Africa gazebo at your local race and join us for a beer after your race!


More good news is that we have a host of wonderful new trails here in Cape Town! Here's Jo shredding a piece of the Ellioti trail that was burnt in last years huge Jonkershoek fire. Most of the old trails in Jonkershoek now seem to be opened (Ellioti is not completely opened yet though so it's not worth riding yet)



We've had 3 sets of repeat customers over the past 2 months so we must be doing something right!

The photo on the left gives you an idea of what keeps the peeps coming back. Big mountains, blue skies and great singletrack all to yourself.

The new trails out Durbanville way are really, really good. Check out the map here. Don't let the lack of mountains let you think that there are no climbs out this way! The views over Table Bay and Table Mountain are such a nice change from the usual. Plus these trails cater for a wide range of skills (though beginners will struggle with the steep climbs). I can safely say that the black and double black runs will test even the most advanced rider out there!

Though the combined trail (between Hillcrest and Contermanskloof)is only about 22km long, the elevation gained is 896m and it took us 3 hours to complete at a leisurely pace. Did I mention that the singletrack is top class?! Check the proof!

Oh, and just to make things that much better for you, iRide Africa has a nice new van and trailer to transport you and your precious bike(s) to all the best rides in Cape Town!

It's about to get some big branding, so if you see it zooming around Cape Town, give us a hoot and a thumbs up and maybe you'll get a free iRide Africa shirt thrown at you!

For the cycling photographers

Here's a link to a great photo essay about a week in the life of Sven Martin. Sven is one of the worlds best mountain bike photographers.

Sven and Gary Perkin are about to launch a coffee table book of all their best photos. It's called Chronology and will be in bike shops by the end of April 2010.

Cape Town sunrise rides

Sticking with the sun theme, we went out to scout a ride early (real early!) this morning in Stellenbosch over to Zevenwacht wine estate. It was a great morning but the air has certainly got a bit chillier now and some of the vines in the area are starting to turn to their autumnal colours.

Our iRide Africa jerseys are starting to be seen on all the best mountain bike trails and today's ride was no different. This was our last ride with Jennie before she goes over to Europe for her race season :(

Yesterday some friends scoped out the new Contermanskloof trails (start at Hillcrest estate). I took a quick photo of the hooligans descending the final piece of singletrack. These trails are going to be fantastic come winter time!

Ceres sunset singletrack

Just getting back from another magical mountain bike tour. Join us for our next one!

Cape Argus 2010 results

Cape Argus 2010 results

Men 1 Malcolm Lange (Suid-Afrika) Medscheme-span 2 Christoff van Heerden (Suid-Afrika) MTN Energade 3 Daryl Impey (Suid-Afrika) Radioshack-span 4 Burry Stander (Suid-Afrika) Specialized-span 5 Rene Hasselbacher (Oostenryk) sainfo.co.za-span 6 Dean Edwards (Suid-Afrika) House of Paint 7 Bjorn Glasner (Duitsland) Kuota-span 8 Johann Rabie (Suid-Afrika) Medscheme-span 9 Lance Armstrong (Amerika) Radioshack-span 10 Nicholas White (Suid-Afrika) Medscheme-span Women: 1. Anriette Schoeman (Suid-Afrika) Biogen Toyota 2. Robyn de Groot (Suid-Afrika) MTN Energade 3. Catherine Williamson (Engeland) Bizhub-span 4. Cherise Taylor (Suid-Afrika) Nashua-span 5. Joanna van de Winkel (Suid-Afrika) Biogen Toyota 6. Jennie Stenerhag (Swede) Alpha Pharm  7. Marissa van der Merwe (Suid-Afrika) MTN Energade 8. Chrissie Viljoen (Suid-Afrika) MTN Energade 9. Mariske Strauss (Suid-Afrika) MTN Energade 10. Fabiana Luperine (Italië) Selle Italia Ghezi

iRide to work

Every Friday we head up over the mountain instead of the normal commute to work by road/rail.
We start at 6:30 at Rhodes Memorial gates and have a slow jaunt into town. Join us and appreciate this city!

Today was special-the mist made us feel like we were on an island and when the sun broke through...WOW!

 I turned around and rode 'the other woman' back home-a phenomenal start to the day!

Cycling in Cape Town

Just another perfect day in Cape Town. Riding up chapmans peak, this is Rebecca from Australia finding yet another reason to emigrate to South Africa!

Cape Town bike trip

Cape Town bike trips 2010

• 4 Day mountain bike trip 29th March-1st April 2010 -price R6220 incl accomodation and most meals

• 3 Day MTB tour 22April -24 April -price to be confirmed

Don't miss out on these singletrack holidays when the weather is perfect here!

Contact us for more information

Cycling feels the heat

If you don't believe the hype about Cape Town's weather-then check out this screen grab of the following weeks weather (it continues like this for 2 weeks!)

This is why we are trying to convince you all that our winter is actually the best time of year to cycle! Come and ride with us in April/May/June!

March cycle trips and tours Cape Town

Cape Town cycling trips in March:

26 -27 February: 2 day singletrack trip -Belville/Wellington/Stellenbosch/Cape Town
2 March: Day trip of scenic road riding through Stellenbosch region
8-11 March: 4 day road cycling tour in Stellenbosch region-great prep for Cape Argus Cycle Tour!
21-30 March: 10 Day road cycle tour in Stellenbosch region

Contact us today if you want to cycle in amazing weather with incredible rides!

Cape Town cycling tour -over 50's only!

Our friends over at Soul touring have a great tour planned for the active over 50's. Check it out!

South Africa road champs 2010 -results

Jennie Stenerhag competed brilliantly with the pro teams in Klerksdorp over the weekend and ended up 3rd across the line in the elite womens road race. See the full ladies results here.

Still on top form she stayed over in Johannseburg for the weekend to race in the Dischem 'Ride for sight' and enjoyed the sprint finish into 1st place. Well done to the star of iRide Africa! More results here

To lighten up your day

Came across this old flyer and updated it a bit. Thanks to Graham for the fun!

Cape Town cycling -2 days of brilliant rides and views

Two days cycling with two great girls from Sweden. I'll let the pictures do the talking!

3rd place in Construction du cap ninety niner

by Jennie Stenerhag 

(lead road guide iRide Africa)

This weekend I did not need to travel far for racing. I have done this race in Durbanville every year when I have been here in South Africa and I enjoy the race. The route was changed this year to a more hilly and challenging finish. The race was 108km and with only 6km to the finish we had 2 very steep hills to conquer. On the start line was The Bizhub team with 5 girls, Cycle lab with 2 girls and me as professionals and some good local girls. We started together with vets 40+ men and after getting out of Durbanville the attacks started. A group with 5 men got away and after that the pace went down even though we could see them almost all the time, so we were not far behind. I felt fine during the whole race and when one guy bridged over I regretted that I did not go with him.

When we came to the 18% gradient Visseshoek hill approaching the last kilometres of the race, me, Ashleigh and Anriette put the hammer down and left the Bizhub team together with the rest of the men behind us. I tried to put pressure on the other girls and maybe I did it a bit too much because I could not respond when they kicked close to the top. I tried to chase on the way down but could not close on the 2km downhill. The finish was at the top of a 1.2km steep hill and starting the hill a bit behind I could not get back to the girls. Ashleigh won 15 seconds a head of Anriette and I came in another 23 seconds later. I am happy with the race after another podium position!

Read the article on

supercycling.co.za

procycling.co.za

Results:

1 Ashleigh Moolman Pasio (Biogen Toyota, RSA) 2hr54min53sec
2 Anriette Schoeman (Biogen Toyota, RSA) 2:55:08
3 Jenny Stenerhag (Alpha Pharm, SWE) 2:55:31
4 Yolandi du Toit (Bizhub, RSA) 2:55:52
5 Lise Olivier (Natro, RSA) 2:56:21
6 Catherine Williamson (Bizhub, ENG) 2:56:21
7 Jade Roberts(Bizhub, RSA) 2:56:43
8 Jennifer Hohl (Bizhub, SUI) 2:57:02
9 Heletjie van Staden (RSA) 2:58:28
10 Mary Haw (RSA) 2:59:20

Summer South African mountain biking

A great photo essay from Sven Martin. he captures perfectly what it's like to ride in Cape Town right now.

iRide Africa gets some press!

Some really good magazines have written some articles about cycling in South Africa. Kadens magazine in Sweden really explored South Africa for the best cycling and Jennie Stenerhag, our road guide is interviewed. Mountainbike-magazin from Germany also has a great article about cycling in Cape Town and surrounds with some great photos from local, Greg Beadle

Check them out-Great pictures!

Jennie Stenerhag Interview

Check out a great interview with one of  iRide Africa's road guides. Click on the link to take you to South Africa's new cycling news website. 
www.crank.co.za/tag/jennie-stenerhag

South Africa Singletrack Holiday, South Africa

Be prepared to be blown away!





Would you like to join us on an epic trip from Cape Town to Natal and ride trails like these? Of course you would! Contact us today to find out more!

Cycling in Cape Town

A great start to the day ! We are privileged to live in this city with sun, surrounded by sea and mountain towering above us. The cycling potential here is massive-twisting roads to ride on and fantastic offroad riding to be done all over the mountain.

This morning we cycled over from the Southern Suburbs into town on the slopes of Devils Peak and Table Mountain into town.

This 'iRide' will take place every Friday from now on. Meet at 6:30 at Rhodes memorial cattle grid. It is PERFECT for anyone who works in town and wants to get some excercise in while missing out on sitting in traffic. Join us!

Back to biking

We have all taken a Christmas break here at iRide Africa. Jennie has been in freezing and snowy Sweden while the rest of us explored South Africa for more epic rides- and boy did we find some!
(please excuse the horrible phone photos-they don't do this country justice!)

We got to sample some amazing passes;

We also got a chance to catch up with old friends and test their skills on some gnarly singletrack;

Of course, some mountain biking on Table Mountain went down a treat as well as some rides into the Overberg.

And don't forget that Cape Town is almost ready for the Football World Cup! We have a few cycling tours between matches so contact us if you want to go on a cycling trip or two.