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.

2010 cycling tours

2009 is almost over! We're welcoming in 2010 with more cycling trips than ever before!
Here's what's on the menu-contact us via our website if you would like to join these tours.


5 Day Mountain bike trip
Date:11 January 2010 - 15 January 2010

10 Day Mountain biking tour
Date: 18 February 2010 -27 February 2010

7 Day Road cycle trip (incorporating the Cape Argus Cycle tour)
Date: 8 March 2010 - 14 march 2010

7 Day Singletrack MTB Holiday
Date: 25 April 2010 1 May 2010

Happy cycling! Happy Friday!

It's been a long time since I posted a Friday photo, but this one is just too good to pass up! This photo got sent to me from Louise from IT46 who joined us in our November mountain bike tour.

It is a photo of a nasty bruise on her "derriere"-we couldn't figure out where it came from but it was probably on the technical trails either in Wellington/Delvera!

I reckon it's by far the best non-permanent tattoo I've ever seen!

Thanks Louise!

I like to think that we play safe but we will definitely keep you improving your skills on our trails in South Africa- come and join us for some fun in the sun!

2010 Football / Soccer World Cup Final Draw announced

Cape Town hosted a massive party on Friday night when the FIFA Football World Cup draw was announced. Best you come to Cape Town with your bike if you want to be able to get around easily!

The fixtures are now set so it's time to start planning your holiday! Check them out at FIFA's website or for an alternative site click here

Of course, we'll still be hosting road cycling tours and mountain bike trips during the Soccer World Cup so best you enquire right away because we know for a fact that all accomodation in Cape Town is in real short supply!

We'll be juggling between watching the games and doing short trips around the fairest Cape so check out our website, see what we're about and come and ride the best!

Busy month for cycle holidays!

It's the last day of November and it's been a great month of cycling around Cape Town with some great new guests.We started off the month with a few short mountain biking trips near Greyton. The first days of summer were felt by all and the riding was pretty fantastic as well, especially on the new full suspension bikes we were using! Steve and Kitt noted how similar the region looked to the Pyrenees (except that we get the luxury of riding in these mountains all year round!). We cruised through some great sections of singletrack that will soon be extended and linked up during the next year to include even more trails. I must apologise to the group about that last big climb though- 7km with some 18% grade sections! Well done for surviving!

2010 Single track tour

We're busy planning a big 10 day singletrack mountain bike trip for February/March.

If you want to ride trails like this contact us now so we can customise your trip for you!

Featured rider: Roan Exelby

Roan has been riding and racing bikes for a very long time. I remember that back in the early 90's he had a weird looking Pacific bike. It was purple and rigid yet had a Y frame for some reason. Then I think he had the first 'dual susser' I had ever seen-a Proflex with flex stem and an elastomer on the rear seatstay.

Anyway, since those days he has been riding and racing and earning his due as one of THE characters of the sport, as well as earning repsect as one of the hardest blokes on the planet. He has so many accolades I wouldn't know where to start (How about 3rd place World MTB marathon champs, and 3rd overall place 24Hours of Moab? PRIVATEER!). With these results and much more, Roan still just gets on with it making sure he's having fun on his bike. Shouldn't we all be following his example?

He answered a few questions for us:-

Upcoming trips-Join in!

Do you want to ride?
Well you have no excuses now!

We have the following trips coming up, why don't you join us, even if it's not for the whole trip?

Singletrack tour:
18th-21st November- 4 days of the best trail riding in the Cape

Burger road tour:
27th Nov-6 Dec- 10 days of beautiful road rides incorporating the famous Burger Cycle Tour

Summer is here!