Posts Tagged ‘Conrad Stoltz’
Perdeberg Winery Mountain Biking – Conrad Stoltz
Perdeberg Winery– known as “The Home of Chenin Blanc” and for producing 33 million litres of wine per year, is now also offering scenic, family friendly mountain biking routes for young and old.
This Saturday’s Perdeberg MTB Funride, in conjunction with the Ommiberg Festival is hosted by trail legends Dirtopia. The event features family friendly* 16km and 36km routes. *”Family friendly” refers to easy, fun to ride dirt roads with maybe a few sandy patches. No death defying obstacles and no “Wish-your-mommy-is-here-climbs.” Any mountain bike will do.
A certain “Caveman” will do the prize giving…
Like is says in the flyer- this is a wine festival– once you’ve put your bike away, there’s wine tasting- including a traditional straight-from-the-tank tasting with onion tart pairing. There will also be live bands, food stalls, a petting zoo for kids and a lively Best/Most unique dressed contest – where you can win a 3L bottle wine. Dress theme: Red Red Wine…
Make sure to meet the lively Paleo eating, winery mascot Merlot the Zebra. What a character! In his own words: “I am a LEAN,
Caveman tries to remember Durban Ultra Triathlon 1994 #ThrowbackThursday
The year was 1994. In a time before the internets. The year Apartheid crumbled. The year I had “Mark Allen hair” Nowadays its called a mullet.
“Ironman” was nothing but one race on a more-distant-than-the-moon volcanic island full of “Scotts” or, closer to home, “Ironman” was a Boere style triathlon: 20km K1 paddle, 120k bike, run around Harties- dominated by hard hard men with tough names like Rockley and Bester.
To us, the “Durban Ultra” was the pinnacle of endurance triathlon. 4k ocean swim with sometimes huge swell,
How on earth did we survive our youths?! #ThrowBackThursday
“What do you mean protective gear?!”
Its about 1987, I’m 14 years old. On a bored out two stroke YZ 125, I tore through dongas, thorn bushes, streams and my home made MX course- wearing nothing but worn out Nike Pegasus, PT short, T shirt and Open helmet & goggles. And a “This is awesome!” grin.
Not sure how I made it safely to (sort of) adulthood. As I near parenthood, I’ve heard people talk about “babies bounce”, but in hind sight, if I can help it- rather safe than sorry. Or as we modern bike riders say: “Dont dress for the ride, dress for the fall…”
A life time later- my dad and I crossing rivers (but not tearing through dongas and thorn bushes) on our
Caveman to race DualX off road duathlon this Saturday
Theo Blignaut’s stories of the adrenaline (& pain!) filled DualX racing series, fascinated and inspired me to leave the goggles at home and give off road duathlon a whirl.
I was drawn to XTERRA in 2001 because of an action packed picture of Steve Larsen running his bike through a stream in Richmond USA. The Momentum Health Oatwell DualX Duathlon Series powered by PeptoPro has been running for a year in Gauteng, and I’m excited to see what its about: Technical run and bike courses, fantastic Advendurance organization, good prize money, extensive SuperSport TV coverage , and as you know, I just love racing!
See you at DualX #1 Hakahana this weekend!
PS: It’s a bit of a last minute decision, so sadly, no Caveman MTB Skills Clinic in Groenkloof this time, but “Pre Ride XTERRA Grabouw bike course with Caveman” is still on for Sunday 8 & Saturday 14 Feb.
Gert Stoltz 1992 World Duathlon Champs
Gert Stoltz, or Tarzan, as my friends called him, at Duathlon Worlds 1992.
Gear: Oakley Factory Pilot glasses/goggles. Oakley’s first shades. They were a bit “old fashioned” by 1992, but probably the most prized Oakley item one could own today. Size 61 Zini bike bought from Bruce Reyneke Cycles with Reynolds 501 steel tubing, Shimano 105 group set with down tube shifters and Biopace non round chainrings. Patrick shoes, (the cheapest) LOOK clipless pedals (a novelty) and a frame pump which today is the size of a rocket ship.
Since I can remember, my dad and I did sport together. When I was a toddler, “Rofstoei!” (wrestling) was my favourite, in part because my dad was the strongest in the whole wide world (thats a fact)- with only one hand, he could pin me down so tightly I couldnt blink an eye.
Soon I graduated to other sports which we did together – bikes, motorbikes, running, archery, canoeing (paddling) yup and even swimming. He hated swimming, (legs made from steel dont float) but tolerated it in order to compete in Biathlons and Triathlons.
We had many fantastic sporting memories together,
