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 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 :-)

Are you MAD?

So we (26 of us; mostly Nandos employees) are doing a ride from Pretoria to Durban in the name of Charity. The cause is to promote the AIDS policy of Nandos to all the staff on the way down to the coast and generate money to support the fulfillment of that policy.

The Policy is to encourage staff members to get tested. Should they test positive, Nandos commits to paying for all medical bills and ARV's while the employees get better. They even send food parcels home while the staff convalesce. Also very important, is to let the employees know that they will not loose their jobs - far from it, the company wants them to get better so they can remain part of the Nandos family into the future.

Its a long ride but it is probably the most important cause for the developing world. Its about Making A Difference!