Day Six - The Finale - Babbelas on a Bike

Okay, so very little sleep, much libations and liquor consumed and we were on our bike again at 8:30am on Saturday for the ride up to Gateway - the finishing point for the Ceremonial Ride...

Needless to say just being on the bike was tough, but then we had to do the hills from the beachfront up to the top where the centre is absolutely broke us... well, me at least... i think i almost died...

Anyway, we got there to yet another phenomenal reception. Cesar did the presentations; had guest speakers and food and drink was provided... yebo, the food was chicken... :-)

everyone, exhausted after the last seven days either hopped onto the bus to the airport or made their way home.

To say this ride was life changing is to understate the affect it had on everyone. For us crap-cyclists, just being on a bike for more than 10kms was an achievement... for the babysitters (read: guys there to help the "novices" like me) there job was all that more important because they not only brought themselves the entire distance, but others much of the distance too.

A big thanks to "The Babysitters" team:
Phillip Mellor
Craig Wilson
Terence
Dean Hahn
Kelvin
Antonio (aka Fat Porra)
Kevin Mac
Andrew

These are the guys who helped push us lesser mortals up many hills. Thanks very much to these guys from us crap cyclists. The teamwork you guys displayed was nothing short of phenomenal!

Thanks to our leader, Cesar Dias - this event is his brainchild and would not exits without his energy

Thanks to all the sponsors too, especially Internet Solutions, the biggest sponsor, who was accidently forgotten on the final day certificate giving! :-)

Until next year, all our love...

over and out....

Day Five - Friday - Valley of a Thousand HIlls

On Friday we headed from Nottingham Road down into Howick to do the first restauarnt stop. Another warm welcome greeted us.

The next stop was Maritzburg in Scottsville restaurant. More food, some welcome coffee as the rained and cold came soon out of Howick enroute to PMB.

From PMB, we headed to Blue Chip, a production facility that is making the Nandos crisps... more spreading the message while scoffing down the yummy flavours that will soon be available to the market.

After Blue Chip, the route was through Ixchanga and The Valley of Thousand Hills... much pain was inflicted on these hills, for very good reason... Melanie shed a tear and Kelvin was absolutley broken from helping her up these gigantic hills...

We then made our last restaurant stop in Hillcrest... again, more food and drinks, and spreading the word to staff.

Jumping on our bikes for our final stop, we headed down the back freeway of Durban, some 35kms, to the Pirates Surf Club. Greeting us was an awesome Zuludance spectacle, champagne, beers... and you guessed it: Chicken!! After chowing food and glugging beer, Cesar then led his troops to ocean for swim... The water was freakin cold, but welcome. After showering the club, those who lived in Durban headed home while the rest of us rode the 4kms back to hotel to freshen up for the final soire and fines evening.

That evening was the finale and the fines finally became alocoholic... Tequila Gold... and geez did they hurt... Sel handed out the fine prizes and then it was off to Hops and Barley for some making-shapesd (read: dancing) and doping... Eish, much fun was had - between accidental headbutts, The Bullet cutting rug and the gang killing a R3k barbill in quicktime, fun is probably an understatement

Day Four - Thursday - Quotes from the Crew

Okay Fans... todays update is mostly about quotes from the core members of the ridining team... but first the lowdown... We went from Ladysmith to Nottingham with stopovers in Colenso, Estcourt and Mooiriver. There were massive hills that broke many of us (read: me).

Kevin Utian (Nandos South Africa CEO) joined us for the Thursday: "This is an absolutely awesome and incredibly emotional event. Watching the Nandocas doing this ride unselfishly for their fellow Nandocas is something that words can not describe. I was fortunate enough today to see some of our novice riders being pushed up the hill and it bought tears to my eyes. I can only sit in awe at the most amazing experience and i pay tribute to every single rider and the support team for creating magic this week. I salute you all!"

Janine Coetzee: "I lost concentration and the guys were just there to help me" - after dominating Alp-Du-Mooi River.... allegedly talking about the ride, but with the bunch of animals we have on tour, you never know what that means....

Bryan from NEMS:"Because the chicks are so strong, like Chinese Olympic swimmers (read: bigger muscles than the guys), the Medics on tour are going to take a blood and wee-wee sample... because we have noticed there pre and post drink mixers are out of the ordinary... that and the fact they want to kiss other girls"

Selwyn Bron (Nandos Global): "The Rolling Hills of the midlands, made my scooter go hard..."

"Standing up to the challenge of our riders,
you will win with fire your belly
we are with you all the way
the hottest Cock on the block
We are Peri proud of you, our Nandocas" Carla (Nandos Marketing)

"Wazza (aka runny guts) didnt do the ride on Wednesday, the only person in the history of Nandos (and it is 20 years old) not to do a day's ride... bitch" Jay Murguan.

"Do you want some of my icecream?" Bryan to Janine - ie, can i smooch you?

The CIO of Nandos was renamed "Prego" from "Fatty" due to hurt feelings that were inflicted...

"There aint no hill that Nandocas cant climb together" Cesar Dias - cyclist extradoranaire... oh, and MD of Coastal - this event is his brainchild.

"Jay Murugan is easy on the eye to the ladies, but the guys in the know, know that he likes the Chatsworth Chipolata" Wazza, BDM Coastal...

"The mountain bikers pulled away from the road-riding-gays and showed them what real riding was about..." Craig - Cross Colours

"Antonio uses solid tyres because tubes cant hold his weight" Eugene.

"Wazza may look appealing to the eye for guys... but chicks think he is a fat bitch" Jay Murugan

Day Three (Wednesday) - Chris "The Bullet" gets wet from Riding!

Today we went from Stucky's Guest House in Volkstrust, through to Ladysmith in the heart of Natal. Today's total distance was 155km, with a stopover in Newcastle and Fort Mistake.
The day started at 7:30am in 11 degrees celsius (read: far-king cold!?)... oh, and it was raining too... with a "Category 1" climb (think that means it is the start of the hard hills).

The reception at the Newcastle restaurant was unbelievable. The store treated us to food, softdrinks and coffee. There was DJ, loud speakers and the police escourt. Even the press was there, so we are getting famous... We had another presentation to the staff from Cesar explaining the benefits in getting yourself tested and punting the company policy. We then had Patrick, a trainee patrao, give us his story from when he was first tested until today when he is looking and feeling great, living a normal life thanks to the Nandos support. The importance of all of this was made even more clear when Patrick told us that he supports 11 people. It hardly needs to be said that this initiative of Cesar's is making a difference to many, many people in the Nandos family.

We then finished at the Ladysmith restaurant with another inspiring speech by Patrick and Cesar. Everyone is looking good even after the first day of hectic climbs.

The hotel we are staying in is The Royal - Ladysmith's "finest". All the crew is currently in the pub talking war stories (or as Selwyn says "talking shit"). From the sounds of things, the guys are spicing the stories up a bit...

King of the Road: Chris "The Bullet" Thorpe - he just looked sublime on the bike today - if he were a chick(en) it would have been sex on a bike... a close second was Philip doing a wheelie after climbing a far-king big hill.

King dingbat: This has to go to me, after only doing 40kms today. But I am okay with it, because Jay Murugan (aka The Trash Talker Tarantino or as Warren says "bitch") was first to go out on first two days... and Wazza sat out the whole of today due to being "sick"!?

Okay, enough for today...

The Fat Ozzie

Day Two (Tuesday) - Cycle Tans

Today we did Secunda to Volkstrust... another 150kms. We stayed at the Graceland hotel - pictured to the left... After Eugene took us the wrong way yet again, we ended heading in the right direction, with our first stop in Standerton.


Unfortunately there we no restaurants on our way today, so the warm receptions were sorely missed.


Tomorrow we head down into Natal through Newcastle with a few restaurant stops on the way, so we are looking very forward to that.


Tonight we are staying in Stucky's Guesthouse just outside Volkstrust. Quite a nice little spot, but unfortunately the lights have just gone out with no backup generator (hoping I can get this posted in time)... interesting times with the lights out as a couple of the guys have been hitting the cane and cokes so lots of mischief.... Warren is lead instigator.

Speaking of Warren, the banter between Jay and him has been nothing short of sublime. It really makes one feel welcome when key members of the Nandos crowd are mutually humilated.

Ceasar has just started the fines and Jay has been told to shave one of his legs. Nothing like an Indian with one shaved leg riding a bike... oh, and ladies are lucky... they are just about to get a strip show from 10 cyclists, under the guise of "Showing off their Cyclist Tans".

Anyway, that is enough from the Fat Ozzie cos I is way tired (Fatty did 118kms today!?)... tomorrow we will be having a few entries from the other guys shortly

Ova
The Fat Ozzie :-)

Day One (Monday)

Okay, this morning we set off from the hotel at 7:15am to our second restaurant stop: Menlyn Park.

We had an awesome greeting from the crew there with DJ and the police lead.

Delmas was the second stop of the day, after the first 50kms.

The little town of Leandra was our third stop of the day. This was the 100km mark. No Nandos here - in fact there wasnt much there. This was just to refuel for drinks and sweets.

Secunda store was our third restaurant stop. 150kms klaar. Again, we arrived to an awesome greeting with Zulu dancing and the works...

We are now at the hotel getting ready for more carbo-loading chow. We are staying at the Graceland hotel. It looks like a porn palace... a bit like a cross between the Playboy mansion and very Porra-esque architecure. :-)

I am tired. I managed to do about 110kms of the 150kms... which sounds decent for a Fatty, but today and tomorrow are the easy days!? Apparently day four and five are the killers, once we hit the midlands... geez, I am so excited (removing tongue from cheek).

Chat tomorrow...
The Fat Ozzie :-)

Prologue (Yesterday) - "10kms" Turns into a 52Km ride!?

So we arrived in Pretoia, Sunday afternoon, at our Town Lodge hotel set to do a "small" ride to a new store as a pre-event ride... Eugene was the leader and he said it was only about 7km's to the store from our hotel to the restaurant.

Total return journey was 52kms.

Needless to say, the Fatties like myself were unimpressed...

Anyway, we headed off for chow after showers and carbo-loaded on a huge bowls of pasta readying ourselves for the 150kms the next day.

Cant wait :-\