Anyway I do it and was very pleased with myself but boy were my hands greasy. (I had to wash them 3/4 times to get the stuff off, not a cool job. Then Yesterday Debbi comes to me and tells me about a competition that Good Hope Radio are having where you have to pose in a picture holding PowerAde and then posting it into their Facebook page with a comment. So I dress up in my cycling gear with the helmet and glasses, and Debbi starts clicking away with me coming up the stairs of our flat with my bike in on hand and me drinking this PowerAde in the other.
So i now decide well I’m in the gear let me go for a training ride. I get myself reading on the road and notice that my back tyre is a little flat so go to the garage around the corner from where we stay and pump it up. Right I'm ready to go and anticipate about an hour to an hour and a half cycle 40 - 50 km. I notice as I start peddling that my bike computer is not registering. The distance is still 00000km and the stop watch is still 00:00 so I re-set it and still nothing.
Man this is not good I think to myself, anyway I decide to push on and I head towards Sunset Beach and I get to one of the robots on the cycle lane and see there is a car that wants to turn to the left and so I stop at the robots to let them go left in front of me and the car stops with traffic behind him also wanting to go into Sunset Beach and indicates for me to go across the Zebra crossing. As I do this here I another cyclist ride past me and with a lumo yellow top on with boxer shorts and takkies wiz past me. I think wow was I going that slow! So I get going and decide I'm going to catch this guy and pass him and show him who is boss. I gear up and start chasing him. I catch up to him as we get to the Dolphin Hotel and decide to go, "cheers sucker!" and I pass him and start pumping it as hard as I can, but by now because I haven’t been training consistently I realise I can’t hold this for very much longer, but I decide to push on as best as I could and if he has to catch me well I'll just slow down and pretend to a sip from my bottle and get ready to turn around. (You know how it goes!) I now am right on the Blouberg beach front and find myself sliding around a bit and I look down to see my back tyre flat. "What, no flippin way!" I pull off and check my tyre, yip those damn dibbletjie thorns three of them in my back tyre. I flip my bike over onto its handle bars and as I do this the "other” cyclist comes past with a smirk on his face as if to say “that will teach you to be Bakgat, Mister I can cycle faster than you can". I decide to take a sip of my juice and take my time in deciding what I would do. Was I going to walk all the way back to Milnerton or was I going to (and I cringe as I thought this) "CHANGE THE TYRE, AGAIN!!!”
As I'm contemplating my next move an elderly gentleman on his 1960's bicycle stops next to me and says "what seems to be the problem" I tell him my plight and he jumps into action and says well lets sort out the puncture. And so I'm shoved into a corner kicking and screaming inside with no option but to fix the puncture, so I take off the formidable back tyre and we sort it out. I tell you my friend Gert was an absolute Blessing in disguise as I really had to put my pride deep in my pocket, because as I was still pumping up my back tyre he shouted to me if you need anything further help please, I’m at number 101 along this road. I thanked him dearly for stopping and helping me, realising of course my bad attitude, and became ashamed of myself.
I then decided instead of trying to be the big competitive cyclist and continue with my so called 'big" training (I only had done about 8km so far) I chose the humble road, and headed back towards home. Taking it a lot slower this time, decided to enjoy the scenery. I'm going along nicely and get to the robots about 2 km from the Paddocks shopping centre and see that now my back tyre is again flat. So I hop off and think that the puncture didn’t work and so starts to pump my tyre up again, as I only have about 4 km to get home. As I start to pump I hear an almighty ssssssssssssssssssssss!!!! and realise that the tube had been pinched just at the valve and i knew that no pumping would do any good and so started to walk with the bike as i do this another really good cyclist (could see by all the expensive gear and road bike, or he was wealthy and trying to show off not sure) stopped and asked if I needed any help and I told him what had happened and he asked how far away I stayed as if to offer me a lift, told him in Milnerton and he asked if i wanted to use his cell to call someone and I said Nah! I'll just walk. Asking if I was sure he carried on cycling. I decide I had better start running with my bike as I looked it was 17:48pm and starting to get dark.
As I'm running I see about 100m in front of me is the cyclist off his bike fiddling with his back tyre and catch up to him and say "and now?" "Slow Puncture just got worse!" plucking the courage and pushing the pride deeper in my pocket I ask if could use his phone to call my wife, "Thought that you should do that!" he says and hands me his nokia phone that looks older and more battered than ever. Anyway was grateful that I could call Debbi and tell her the story and she was able to pick me up at Paddocks and bring me safely home.
I had a bath with my son, Jesse and while Josh was in the shower Jesse and I decided to play a trick on Josh and we threw an ice cold facecloth over the shower curtain and it hit Josh right on the head. Jesse and I laughed as Josh let out an almighty scream as only Josh can do. This started a war of throwing things back and forth.
The evening ended with one of Debbi's the most delicious Spaghetti Bolognaise I have ever tasted. Wow now I'm drooling as I type this and suddenly hungry. I can still smell the flavour!!! A fitting end to a training ride that was good, NOT!!!!
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