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In this Issue: From the Editor .................................................................. 1 Spring Ride Reports ..................................................... 2-6 MTB News ............................................................................ 7 Upcoming Events .............................................................. 8

This week’s BT features reports from the Big 5 Spring Ride – an event with over 90 members and a few friends taking part. We rode on and off roads, doing what we love most, covering a range of distances and consuming varying amounts of coffee and good food – as all experienced cyclists do!

Firstly – a big thank you to everyone who took part. This is what make these kinds of events such as success. Thank you to the group leaders who steered their groups around the different routes, ensuring we all had a good time, and most importantly, stayed safe. Thank you to our patient backup drivers, who also helped keep us safe and carried necessary supplies. And thank you to the Club who picked up the tab for the delicious food and many cups of coffee we all consumed at N2.

A special thank you to Cornel and Richard for their organizational expertise and route planning. There is a good chance this will become an annual event on the BW cycling calendar.

Lastly a big thank you to Dave Davie and Supa Quick as well as Linda Widlake for the donation of some great lucky draw prizes.

Our winners are as follows: ROAD Lee Dry

Jude Kok Sally Upfold Dave Bure

Willem de Wet Tony McFarlane

MTB Chris Borain Neil Greyling Kathy Jacob

Daan Steenkamp Angus McInnes Omar Wilson

We will send through details of where to collect your prizes shortly.

Thank you to all the group leaders for their ride reports this week.

Stay safe & sane, Mustang Pow

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For the last two months, we have been planning an all-

inclusive Burg Wheelers Spring Ride. The date was chosen based on its proximity to the change of seasons from winter to summer, but before the imminent 2021/2022 racing season, and during a club fiscal budget surplus at the annual September financial year end. We studied the recent updates in Covid regulations like Hayden studies the weather forecast: constantly riveted to the screen, and with the wide eyed sense of awe more commonly found amongst district surgeons poring over the findings of our esteemed national medical parole board.

What could go wrong…

40/80km Road - Clive Deacon

We assembled on the R103, at the entrance to N2 Bakery at 5:50. The temp was around 3.5 to 4 degrees, as seven of us, with Kaydee in the Compendium back up vehicle, left N2 at 6am. We headed up to Nottingham Road at a pleasant pace. It was nice to absorb the stunning

scenery of the Midlands. After a short stop at Nottingham Rd, Eddy quickly noticed some coffee shops already opening. We were cold, & coffee would have been good, but very quickly I insisted it was time to go, before they changed their minds. The downhill back to N2 was a pleasure to ride. At N2, 40km done, Collin and Janice stopped, and the rest carried on to the Dargle Road. The roads here, were a lot quieter and the rolling hills passed by quickly. We turned at the Fort Nottingham turnoff and headed back to N2 where we where met with a lot of other Burg Wheelers we had not seen for a while. Well done to all the organisers, the coffee and egg roll went down well.

Ride stats: 81km, Elev gain: 1200m, Speed: 20km/hr.

130 km Road – “Mustang” Fifteen riders met in the early

morning darkness of the N2 bakery car park ahead of our 130km Spring Ride. It was a chilly start, but our GL’s quiet

encouraging instructions settled the early morning nerves, and we set off. Unfortunately one team member took a tumble near the gates of N2 in the mud, ending his ride before it had begun. A dropped tail light a few metres further and we had another stop. Fortunately, these were the only mishaps on the ride,

thanks to Dale’s experienced and calm leadership. Our first leg started down Happy Hill with a right turn

out along the Dargle road. “Varying degrees of undulation” is a good way to describe this stretch, as some of the hills are long and gradual while others are shorter and sharper. There was plenty of friendly banter with legs still feeling fresh as we caught up on each other’s news. We had our first stop at the junction to the road to Fort Nottingham - time for a quick snack, photo shoot, and for some in our group, the first irrigation break! Despite Dale’s instructions, a few members incurred yellow cards sprinting off and making the most of the downhills on the return leg, but we all regrouped safely back at the R103 T-junction to turn towards Howick and the 2nd leg - the Karkloof rd.

A fairly busy road necessitated the group staying (mostly) in single file with just a few more whistle blows and yellow cards being issued until we were out on the thankfully quieter road to Karkloof. For many of us, this is familiar route, although there were a couple of “is this the

last hill?” and “Are we there yet?” from our coastal visitor. The turning point at the end of the tar saw most of us digging into ration packs to refuel with favoured snacks, and yes - more irrigation breaks. The return journey back to Howick was predictably fast, as the group safely negotiated the early morning market traffic. Back in Howick it was back to a disciplined single file up Main Street and out towards Tweedie, where we exchanged happy

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greetings with our 220km compatriots heading off in the opposite direction. Happy Hill awaited and Notties awaited - leg 3.

It was a noticeably quieter group that climbed steadily and slowly up back to N2 before heading on towards Nottingham road. Clearly as the energy levels were depleted, so were the vocal contributions. (Or perhaps we were just too busy enjoying the beautiful midlands views…). We reached our distance goal allowing us to turn a little before Notties, and enjoyed the last kms of downhill back to Lidgetton, where coffee and a delicious brunch awaited. Final distance was 134km and for most of us, much celebration and relief to have finished the ride, perhaps also because Dale generously withdrew all red and yellow cards issued on the ride!

Thank you Dale for being our “rock” throughout, and to Lucky from Compendium who kindly spent the first part of his birthday as our back up driver. Thank you too to Charles who also joined the backup and support team.

220km Road B Group – “King Polar Bear” The Big Five Spring Ride Day had finally arrived, and I

got up at the unholiest of hours to make my way down to Cascades, where I found another fourteen willing and able cyclists ready to take on the Midlands. All of it. In one fell swoop. Fuelled by nothing more than coffee, pastries, and the unshakeable yet misplaced faith in their own abilities.

I immediately noticed a lot of experience, leadership and horsepower on those bicycles. But then I also noticed

Dave, and decided to split the group into two teams: The Fast and the Fun. Or rather, The Young and the Daveless.

The rest of our “B-Team” ride was without incident, and our motley group of seven completed the Big Five course as a team, with a strict division of labour involving good honest toil and with everyone taking a long easy pull or three at the front. We even took turns

to fix Tony's puncture for him, he needn't have lifted a finger. There was non-stop banter, chewing, and therefore a flagrant disregard for good manners along the way.

After the initial 80km warmup of Old Howick & Nottingham Road, we were able to partake in

the decadent pleasures of N²'s finest filled bagels and croissants, before tackling

Dargle Road and Curry's Post. And after 160km, we had another opportunity, this time at Barn Owl, to luxuriate in the opulence of many hedonistic splendours – including their premium milkshakes, brownies and fruitcakes, before we completed the Big Five challenge with a trip out to the end of the Karkloof Road. A final pit stop to wolf down a loaf of

choc-chip & pecan nut-fortified banana bread, chased with Pringles & Coke, and

followed by the obligatory yet somewhat lethargic “Lift your bicycles overhead and

JUMP!” team photograph. And then straight back home (over Rotunda, obviously) to moisten

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our skeletons with those wondrous hot beverages and cool milk tarts at the Two Wheel Inn/Greg Minnaar Cycles.

After eleven hours of pedalling, 233 kilometres, 3850m elevation gain, 4900 calories expended and 4950 calories replenished, we completed a course that has never been done before, and will probably never be attempted again by us. So we did it properly. The fun way. With pastries. So. Many. Pastries.

220km Road A Group – Hayden Hutton At the start line the A group comprised Kole, Willem,

Dave Bure, Sean, and Hayden. Along the way we were joined by multiple ‘visitors’ who joined, and then left us, at various points along the route. Most notable visitors, in mileage terms, were Bobby and Mapi who each did around 200km of the journey.

We met Bobby, who was riding with a backpack, at the bottom of Rotunda. Bobby was asking about the backup vehicle so that he could load his backpack, however I had bad news for him. The backup vehicle was not going to be following us, but instead was meeting us at various points along the way, or to be called in case of emergency. Clearly an extra weight was not considered an

emergency, you see A group riders are quite tough! Eventually at Midmar Marcel offered to carry the backpack for Bobby, because this would hardly affect his power to weight ratio. Having said that at the first sign of Happy Hill, Marcel (the sprinter NOT climber), was looking for a replacement camel for the backpack. Willem was quick to volunteer and even refused to drop it at N² on the way past, instead opting to carry it all the way to Notties and back to N².

The stop at N² was nourishing, but rather cold, and we were happy to get back on the road, and even happier to climb a few hills on the Dargle road just to warm up.

You learn something new every day, and I have to say that I saw a first at N²; the club had generously provided each of us with a warm beverage and croissant, which were delicious. But endurance cycling requires a lot of calories and each rider brought along a selection of sacks, including Sean Stanton who produced a tin of pilchards! I exclaimed that this was highly unusual, but he explained that gels upset his stomach! Somehow I could not see how pilchards, cappuccino and croissants was a good mix either.

Along the Dargle road we had our first puncture, and then a second on the last few kilometres of the Curry’s Post road; fortunately these were the only technical problems of the day.

In total our official stats were 222km, 3588m ascent at an average speed of 24kph, with a calorie consumption of about 5000 Cal.

Food consumed en route: NB: The calorie deficit was quickly rectified

back home)

The Iron Butt Award of the day goes to Willem De Wet, who left home at 3:18am and

completed a total of 262km, with 4187m ascent at an average speed of 24kph.

Willem has already done close to 11500km for the year!

Item Quantity Total Calories

Cappuccino 2 220 Chocolate Croissant 1 254 Energy bars 4 544 Bex vd Linde’s fruit cake 1 330 Gels 2 220 Energy drinks bottles 8 1040 Total Calories Consumed 2608

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25km MTB – Andy Gray

A comment made by the group at the start – “from the pictures it

looks reasonably

flat” So we

started with 9 and set off on the tar and onto the dirt road. 1st hill was down to

Caversham after which it flattened out. We than turned onto

the next D road and than the 2.5 kms up hill started. Here we had a flat tyre which Jackie and Tammy pumped it up for Nozie. Most of the group was half way up when we noticed they where missing so we stopped and Paula went back to help. They caught us up and went a little further and called it a day. Paula , Nozie and Jackie headed back to N2 while the rest of us got into a rhythm for climbing the hills. Six off us made the tar at Michael House and turned around to do it all in reverse.

40km MTB (G Group) – Gordon Borain Wayne, Ben, Josh, Andy and Gordon left N² a few

minutes after Rod's R Group. The ride down Heartbreak Hill reminded us that winter was still around. The Lions River N3 link gave us a chance to warm up and showed us that Andy and Josh should have been doing the 65! We caught up to Rod and his group after the serious climb to Curries Post while they were making the most of a road repair stop/go. From there the two groups formed one larger spread-out group. With Rod's guidance (he has ridden the route a number of times), we safely got through the sneaky bends on the downhills between the Curries Post road and Caversham Mill. Somehow we managed a rather sociable 41km with 900m altitude gain in 2h 45m.

40km MTB (R Group) – Rod Blake On a cold fresh Sat morning my faithful 40km riders

were all at the start at 7am. We started the ride with 12 riders and left 5 mins before time. We slowed down a bit up Lions River and at the top after 20kms we had done an average of 14,5km/h. Gordon’s 3 riders joined us and we continued with 16 in our group. Kathy J was chirping a lot but quietened down at Curries Post and up past the cheese factory which is a big pull .When we started going downhill again she got her breath back and was back to her normal chirping. We never got lost, no technicals and no wipeouts, an absolutely fun fresh ride We took lots of pics and finished in 2hrs 50min for a 42km ride. Very commendable. We were the first group in and stuffed our faces with glorious bagels, all shapes and sizes and of course washed it all down with Cuppachinos, the leader was allowed 2, so that was a bonus. Thanks to all who

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rode and of course to our fantastic committee and my captain for guiding me with his red arrows on route. We can’t wait for the next one!

65km MTB (1) – Alan Martin A few energetic souls in our group rode from PMB and

Hilton to N2 bakery for the start. In our haste to get going we left without Lester,

which was a pity, but he apparently missed the start as he was chatting to the ladies in the next group.

The pace was medium until we turned into the Fort Nottingham dirt road and then we upped it a bit.

Various stops for photos and bladder relief do affect average speeds, but are a necessity for a fun ride.

Steve Forster was designated photographer, but this resulted in him losing his car key on the service road near MHS as well as leaving his glasses on the bridge near Caversham. Seems that multi-tasking is not his forte although the pics were good.

Final distances ranged from 104 kms to the standard 64,3 kms.

The croissants were an absolute treat. Thanks to organizer Richard and the BW Club for a fun day out.

65km MTB (2) – Gavin Scholtz

The 2nd 65km group mostly stayed together with exception of two, who suffered with more pressing issues as the ride wore on. The ride was a "who left the fridge open?" ride with some high spirits, dirty bums, some mini hill contests and smiles for miles.

Everyone was catered for and got safely to the end for some lekker

brekkies. Well done Richard, all who assisted and N² Bakery for

providing first class food for some hungry cyclists.

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N2 bakery is situated atop Happy Hill, the highest point

of the legendary and eponymous Strava Segment climb. The original dirt road (now part of the R103) bisected

the large Happy Hill farm from the Dargle Road turnoff to Lidgetton, almost 100 years ago.

Nova and Nadine (the two N’s) took over the Happy Hills Guest House eight years ago, and established the bakery and Caladdi bed & breakfast.

They have grown in size to several branches and pop-up outlets across KZN, including the one next to Cascades Checkers main entrance.

Their most popular menu item is the miniature carrot cake, although the breakfast bagels and chocolate croissants are also warmly recommended.

Richard Krusekopf Ride Reports:

This weekend it was all about the Spring Ride for the entire club. What started as the brainchild of B group winter road group leader, Cornel van de Venter, turned out to be a fantastic event for the entire club, roadies and mountain bikers alike.

Once the word had spread the entries started trickling in. When I stopped in at N2 Bakery in the week preceding our event I mentioned to our host that we would be happy to have 50 riders. Little did we know that there were going to be almost 50 mountain bike riders alone.

The routes on offer were 25km, 40km and 65km and mountain bikers were spread across these groups with the 65km ride being the most popular. The weather needed watching during the week of the ride but when I did a 25km ride recce on the Friday all roads were dry and dust-free. Some rain on the Friday night had me concerned whether the 65km route was going to be rideable. In the end, all routes were very rideable even with a few water puddles on the 65km route.

A great day out, thanks to the group leaders, Alan Martin, Gavin Scholtz, Rod Blake, Gordon Borain and Andy Gray and to back up driver Jumbo Irvine. Thanks to Burg Wheelers committee for supporting the initiative and

funding it and thanks to N2 Bakery for hosting us so warmly. Obviously, on a day like this a few stories come out in each group and I am sure these will be re-told at subsequent rides.

Watch out for some lucky draw prizes sponsored by Dave and Colin Davie at SUPA QUICK.

ICE

Reminder to make sure you have yours in place and on you when riding. Lights

For safety, whenever on public roads. This request goes hand in hand with the above ICE message.

Timber Harvesting & Fire Season

Harvesting is ongoing. Please respect their trail and road closures during this period.

Be on the lookout for any trail closures with regard to burning firebreaks. Be vigilant while in the forests and make sure you know how to get out. Club Rides

The Wednesday rides will leave from X-ways at the SUMMER start time of 15:30.

The Saturday rides will leave from Quarry parking at the SUMMER 6:30 start time.

Further details will be found on relevant WhatsApp chats. Contact me if you would like to be added to the MTB groups.

ON SPECIAL

HATTON’S CYCLES 29" Ardent Race

2.2 tubeless tyres @ R499.95 net Only 2 per customer,

only for BWCC members

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Race Date: 10 October 2021.

Race Date: 28 November 2021 Entries open 2 August 2021, Entries limited to 4000

Race Date: 24 October Entries are open @ https://www.shova.co.za/

Information on upcoming races can also be found on

the KZN Cycling website. https://kzncycling.co.za/