blingle bells

who else wants some pink chris king parts for christmas? well im busy negotiating some as we speak... with myself that is! so its been a busy few weeks with school and work, but its all going to pay of because its holiday time! first stop is a farm in a place called... um waldrighem? ok i know the spelling is completely wrong, so anyway its a friends parents farm somewhere in the netherlands. christmas is going to be spent there, then its off to somewhere else for first christmas day (the dutch have 3 christmas days, the less important the person the later they get visited... jees no pressure) and then its off to rome!!! woohoo bring on the pasta pizza and icecream... see you all in the new year!

almost christmas

and all i want since i have some front teeth is a flight to somewhere warm... and a macbook pro... and a nice tasty snack right now... actually what i want is not to want... does that make sense to anyone else? it seems im affected by the christmas spirit... although i would like to complement the dutch on the fact that it is already december and im not completely sick of the christmas spirit, i do think the fact that they have a whole seemingly separate tradition of Sinterklaas on the 5th of december has a large influence here tho... look it up on wikipedia, get to know a dutch person today! i think im going to go get that tasty sinterklaas inspired snack right now!

cheaper bike parts

i wish they would start genetically engineering these

cheaper food

has anyone seen the movie 'we feed the world'? well i watched it yesterday in dutch (achievment of the week) and found it quite unpleasant... no not the dutch part... its not that i learnt a lot of new things about globalisation, genetic modification and general human cruelty, its more that i had been hiding my conscience quite successfully up until now, shopping at supermarkets etc and that movie blew its cover! one of the things brought to our attention is that the amount of bread thrown away each day without being sold in the largest city of one european country is enough to feed the second largest city of that country... will someone explain to me why we need to genetically modify our food? www.we-feed-the-world.at/en/index.htm check it out!

a photo story

only a short story tho but plenty of space for imagination...



thats a nice bike isnt it? but how am i going to get it?



i reckon ill try hustling all the indoor trainer competitions



or maybe ill make candy!

much respect on the world champs effort Gav! read his story

a pic from the imana wild ride

they needed a helicopter to keep up... damn that was a cool race

bike candy

what is a better way to describe how i felt yesterday while walking, with the dutchie in tow, around the huge bike exhibition in utrecht yesterday? happy as a pig in shit, or a little boy in a candy shop - well i suppose that depends on who you talk to... that was a brief escape from the exam week i am currently in the middle of which entails writing writing writing, it seems its all about essays in this course... the outing also coincided with the arrival of my free transport card, thanks dutch government, i can travel anywhere in the netherlands for free! (week days or weekends, i chose weekends as there is no chance i can get away during the week) well try as i might i am not going to be able to write this without mentioning the wpmba provincial probably taking place right now, hope it goes well for the people i like, and just a touch less well for everyone else (is that fair?), heard it was a kuk course anyway, anyone want to give a race report? hey gavin, how was world champs?

ok, who am i fooling?

so i dont have much to say about cycling... i managed to ride twice last week, a grand total of just under 4 hrs of cycling... but there definately is something to be said for the training advantages of a completely flat course (i spose that depends on whether ur a climber or not), maybe im just getting unfit, but 2 hrs on the flat really takes it out of your legs... ok so i spose still do have a bit to say about cycling... how was road world champs? maximum respect to paulo bettini for doing his gold helmet justice and dominating, what a machine! but actually i was going to write about what has been distracting me recently... if ur wandering what im studying, well i had to read an article for our class today about the different space station designs that NASA has come up with and how they have been shaped by the political system of the time (as well obviously as the technology available, but in a way the technological advancement was paid for by the government so really, its all political... hmm interesting!) oh what colour should i have my red bike repainted (im considering getting disc brake tabs welded on...)?

(junk)food for thoughts

just to prove to you that the netherlands is not just about cheese and baked goods (i mean seriously good high fat baked goods, which as market forces would dictate it seems now all have lower fat equivalents, c'mon guys margarine causes high cholesterol, wait, or is it the other way round..?) here is a party photo (from left to right, its floris, me, wietse, cynt, marijn and jof)... and a photo of some baked goods the south africans amongst us may be familiar with (dont we have like international rights to marie biscuits or something?) this big pack only cost 60 euro cents! oh, and this is the masters course im doing: www.studeren.uva.nl/msc_science_and_technology_studies/

life in between cycling

hi, my name is james and im a cycle-a-holic, its been a week since my last ride tho and it feels a bit strange... it hasnt only been the weather that has prevented me from riding, id have to admit there is an element of laziness, a general lack of motivation to train (ive realised that one really needs this in the absence of mountains and beautiful trails) and a thousand other things to do! Lets start with the thousand other things to do: I am studying a Masters at the University of Amsterdam! Signed up yesterday, start lectures on Monday! Feels like a bit of a crazy last minute decision, well not that crazy actually im pretty stoked that i can start straight away... So im going to be here for a year at least, which brings me to the general lack of motivation to train: Theres not much mountain biking here, but there is cyclocross! Now all i need is a cyclocross bike and a schedule of the races and bingo, motivation! But as with starting up in every new city there are a tonne of forms to fill out and queues to stand in, and jobs to find... ahem... jobs please..?!? Well after approaching anyone that looked like they would have me i now have two potential job opportunities, dont want to jinx either of them so post more about that later!

which way do i point this thing?

What does one do when there are no mountains to ride one's bike thru? Race a road bike on a Criterium ciruit! So lets just say Im new to this game, road bikes, angry roadies, going really fast in the same gear for 2 hrs... Hmmm So its Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at the Sportpark Sloten in South Amsterdam for some roady craziness for me. Ive been twice and lets just say it hasnt been uneventful. I got shouted at by some guy before we had even started the second lap of a 3or4 minute course on Wednesday (still not sure what i was doing wrong). I ended up in the grass on the side of the track after clipping the back wheel (while drinking) of a muppet who clearly saw my weakness (being the fact that i was drinking i assume) and took the oppurtunity to overtake. But today will be different, I will learn how to go forwards in a peleton rather than backwards, and I will pedal harder... oh yes... pedal harder!

a photo or 2

its all about having your name on a number board...




training amsterdam style (yip its raining)

swiss mud bath, i mean cup

ok so firstly... heatwave, what heatwave? its done nothing but rain since i got here... its still at it, oh wait no its just overcast now...i asked one of the swiss guys what tires i should use and he smilled and we went to his basement... he pulled out some mean looking (check out shwalbe black shark mud tires i think) skinny ass soft mud tires and some latex tubes and patted me on the back...well it was touch and go on saturday with the weather forecast being sunny for the race, so i pre rode the course on my normal race tires and it was ok, bit slippery in places but ok... but when the heavens opened one more time on sat nite i went down to the basement and started changing tires, damn those things were skinny...oh the course... well now... i reckon there were about 5 or 6 sections that would have scared the crap out of almost everyone at nationals in SA, how do u say chicken run in swiss? well there werent any... wicked... sunny my ass... all it did was rain on sunday, the course was an absolute mud bath... the start was two laps of a grassy field section, i knew right away that the tires were right, i was cornering like i was on rails while others where sliding everywhere with feet out... started right at the back and passed quite a few people (prob about 80 ppl on the start) by the 1st single track...raced hard but very soon i was getting chainsuck, most ppl were running up the steep stuff anyway, but by lap 4 my brakes were gone and it was getting a little dangerous, soon i decided to save myself the pain and just stop... most of the pros were already in the showers anyway, i reckon less than half the field finished and my buddy old julien absolom (who will now be know as his royal fastness) had lapped all the way up to 15th place or so...ag it was a cool experience, i had my name on my number board and people were shouting it all over the course, it was wicked... ill be back for sure...

Bern baby...

Long haul flying, what is it good for... Well i spose its faster than riding but only marginally more comfortable than spending 100 days straight in the saddle...
The bike and I arrived fine and we were reunited before you could say `big ass swiss mountains`, it was good to stretch the legs having not ridden since the Imana and sat in one place for 10 hrs more recently. Mike (one of the swiss guys I met in Stellenbosch whos house im staying at here in Bern), Martin (aka Tiger) and I rode up a hill called Gurten which is where the race is being held on the weekend. We then bombed down a downhill run with some mean jumps and a road gap for good measure. Bern is a pretty cool city, a lot smaller than i expected and surrounded by hills and forest. Pity its raining right now cos id love to be exploring it!
I wont lie, im getting a little worried by the fact that every person i ask about the race and whether they are taking part (even some pretty hardcore looking cyclists) kinda laughs and says no thats just for professionals... hmm bring on the ass-kicking! oh and apparently its an 8 lap course... nice!

Boldly into the unknown after conquering, well... the unknown

Well the pieces went back together pretty well, in fact maybe all that super glue added a bit of overall strength... The Imana Wild Ride is quite possibly the best mountain biking experience one could ever have, get on the waiting list! A word of advice tho: Ride it with someone who knows the course! I did and it was like riding 200km of marked off goat tracks, beach and 4x4 track!
Well, team James (Jamie Smith and myself) had a bit of a disastrous day getting a little lost (following a previous winner of the event on a serious non-sneak) and finished in 5th place... We didnt take our eyes off the goal and chased hard and eventually starting day 4 in 1st position with 2 stage wins in between. Day 4 was tough but we held them off and took the win overall! Stoked! We'll be back next year to defend, see you there!
Its just a matter of hours now before i hop in the plane to switzerland. Last round of the swiss cup here I come!

picking up the pieces

Before i am asked how the knysna race went, lets make it clear - we dont talk about the war...
Lets just say the wheels fell of at about the 2okm mark and no amount of sugar in the world could stick them back on. Came in the top 50 i spose but was beaten by the 1st lady and when you're going for top 10 thats a little soul destroying! So what now? The WPMBA race this weekend has been cancelled, not quite sure what to train for at the mo but i reckon i'll just train crazy hard in the meantime cos something will come up... See you on the trails!

Recovering well.

Sometimes you ask yourself why you train so hard... just to crash like a cheese-filled sausage on the 1st lap of the big race! Well I must thank Jeroen and all those who convinced me to keep riding, even at my new slower speed resulting from a mangled leg I was able to secure some valuable points, official results to follow... It appears I was not the only person buying the farm or destroying their bike, what a cool course!
Back to Cape Town tomorrow just in time to head up to Knysna, see you there!

Day Before Nationals (Pretoria XC#3)

Chilling in Joburg right now, just finished building the Sycip. Didn't take any chances this time and packed it in a box after the SAA staff played a game called 'jump on the expensive bike' last time... Oh well, they payed for that...
Going to go check out the course later, I've heard its flat-ish but technical, cant wait...

The beginning...

Day 1... its late, check out the photo!