South Africa

Did 'Bulwer and Back' with the Kiwi's when they arrived - nice little introduction to the rides ahead! Stayed at Nip Inn in Bulwer, very hospitable but cold in the cabins this time of year !!

Well I gave it my best shot but it turns out just a week of strength training after months of injuries and recovery is simply not enough... I rocked up to the second round of the nationals at Humansdorp feeling good to go, but after the first lap I decided (painstakingly) that it simply was not a good idea to continue, as there was a very high risk of damaging my ACL and MCL further - and who knows what else! It was such a shame and I have not pulled out of a race since 1995 like that, so I was gutted.

We've been back in SA for about a week now, have had a pretty cruisy week actually, over Easter, which has been nice BUT my knee is still a bit wonky!

I've been doing heaps of cycling on my trusty Momsen, which is such great exercise for knee rehab. Went to the physio and gym instructor today to get strengthening exercises. Got a LOT of work to do.

As you probably know by now, the race was a bit of a rubbish one for me. The second, long special test was 12kms of long grass, hidden rocks, and poor marking - I didn't like the look of it from the beginning and I had a MASSIVE crash on the second to last lap. Unfortunately the crash was so bad I wrecked my bike, helmet, boots, knee braces, elbow, knees, head, pants - I even blew a glove off in the impact which is now lost forever!!

Van is packed and we are ready for the 8-9 hour drive to Qolora. Rumours are it could be wet, so we have multiple wheels and tyres for Justin.

Great thing about the Comsol Sprinter, it fits EVERYTHING!!

See you all there!

Only had two bikes to wash today - mine and Iain's. Mon was in a helpful mood once she realised how easy the spray pump + Powasol combo is!

Iain washed his own bike, and as Powasal is so powerful, he thought he better wear a helmet (he's not used to this whole bike washing thing!)

Pretty excited to be racing my new KTM tomorrow! It's all looking very fast and shiny, all the gear, hopefully I have some idea... a last minute prayer for some rain??

Got a nice new FMF exhaust, it's a bit louder so hopefully people will hear me coming up to pass this year...

Proud to be running E1! 

Back to work this weekend! I held a one day Intermediate training day up at the farm on Sunday. A very hot day, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. It's great to hear that people learned things they didn't know they could do on a bike!

Keep your eyes and ears open for more coaching dates, we will be heading to Johannesberg in April to run a few coaching days there ...

This week Scott and Dom have been staying with me and we have been cranking up the training to get ready for the WFO and nationals in March.

We've been cycling every day and riding our motorbikes most days as well. Great to be back on the bikes - nice to be on my new Momsen too, hadn't got a chance to ride that before we went back to NZ.

The first motorbike ride I was scared to put my foot down so kept crashing, but the next couple of times I rode much better. Really need to get my fitness going again as the down time didn't really do it any wonders!

Today we had our first appearance at a race as Comsol Bell enduro team. Scott and Dom were pretty stoked to get a whole lot of goodies from various sponsors this week, and their bikes were looking pretty flash with the new kit.

Dom and Scott did well in the main Enduro World XC race, Dom came in 3rd place and Scott in 4th, Scott had a bit of trouble with the back brake so we managed to borrow someone else's for the extreme race.