No no, this is not the office. BUT the fine lunch and even finer wine at Guardian Peak Winery with my lovely wife,

is the reason I ended up in the office on Sunday AFTERNOON…

3hrs on my Specialized Roubaix. Stellenbosch to the far side of Franschhoek pass. 4 Passes. Hard tempo up both sides of Helshoogte and both sides of Franschhoek pass, and twiddling along at 300- 330W on the flats.

One of the biggest allures to me about the Stellenbosch area is the amazing scenery… Simonsberg here

And if course the Franschhoek Pass baboons…

The Franschhoek Baboon has got to be the laziest baboon to walk the earth…

Ok, this little one is still semi awake and admiring his toe.

Top of Franschhoek Pass. In this corner, Barry Pauw- my team mate at the 2005(06?) Cape Epic, rolled a front tire (because of a slow puncture) 130km into the 8th stage, already we had lost 3 chain ring bolts (fixed chain rings together with zip ties and could only use big ring!) and punctured twice. And my achilles was half torn by then. In other words- we were not filled with mirth- Barry’s front wheel washed out in the hair pin bend and he crashed wholesale across the road- Barry, bike, bottles, big words and glasses all scattering in different directions. We fixed the small side wall cut by wrapping duct tape around the tire a few times, (now THAT looked Caveman-like) and vowed never to do this bladdie stoopid race again.

In that same corner, you’ll find the sweetest mountain water- I never miss the refill stop.

Back up Helshoogte you get the other view of Simonsberg. Oooh, what cute little numbers dancing around on the Wattage meter screen- its gonna be a good season. (XTERRA Buffelspoort this coming weekend)

Finally- Dorpstraat Stellenbosch- home sweet home.

Liezel played international Netball (Americans. click here for Netball video) for the past 15 years, and just recently took the endurance sport plunge. She took to the endurance thing like a springbok to the Karoo, and here, doing intervals on the Stellenbosch fields, I had to ride my bike just to keep up…

The Totalsports Challenge is a great season opener- its a fun event, the course is really scenic, all kinds of endurance junkies pitch up and we decided  to do the Terra Firma event as a Mixed Team: I do the 45km draft legal TT (road bike) leg, Liezel does the 13km road run leg, I do the 30km MTB leg, and she does the 9km beach run…

The 45km bike. I used it as a trial run for the upcoming SA TT Champs. So I didnt bother with drafting or trying to attack anyone. I’m trying to make friends with my UCI legal (no nose cone) Specialized SHIV TT. However, the hard part is staying friends  with the “Flat bike” as I call it for an hour of pain. The Time Trail is called “the race of truth”, and after 40 minutes or so, no amount of speed (or big watts) makes up for the pain surging through your body…

A gaggle of riders enjoyed my draft for 43 of the 45km, (the yellow line offers the least rolling resistance)

But whenever the TV got near, and on the 2 big climbs (Rooiels in picture) they attacked.

We finished in a pack of about 7, Liezel (in pink) waited at the change-over and burned some rubber on the way out. 13km is a long race for a first time runner, but she paced it well, and put some time into our competition.

After that hard TT leg (1.02 for 45km) my legs were a little dented, but gravity provided some relief and time for play. (And to pick off a few more riders) Thanks to Fanus at Oakpics.com for the great pics

Liezel blitzed the 9km beach run bare foot and brought it home 4th in the open Terra Firma and 1st in the Mixed  teams. It was so much fun being able to race with my wife and being able to watch and support each other along the way. We do some of our training together which is great, but we are both born competitors and nothing makes our adrenaline pump like a gun at the start!

Talking to the TV  hairy squirrel (microphone) in top right…

Hobnobbing with fast athletes Kevin Evans and Richard Murray instead of warming up. Notice GoPro camera- when I get some time (and skill) I’ll put a video up.

After a long day, our Team Kelfords Ford Fiesta with Thule racks, and securely locked Specialized Shiv TT and Specialized Sworks Epic 29er takes a romantic overnight break at Hangklip,  Pringle bay.

After an action packed, fun day, Team Stoltz takes a romantic break at Hangklip, Pringle Bay…

I recently received this email:

[Hey Conrad Stoltz,
You are a big hero of mine and you have inspired me to cycle from central China to Denmark, my home country. I've been a fan of you since I heard about the BAMF nail incident. [He's referring to this blog. C]
I know you are busy with your wifey, congratulations man, but I would be really pleased if you could update your blog. You don’t have to do some crazy long blog, just a little bit and it would be great.
All the best,
your fan Henrik Hagemann]

Hendrik prompted me to start blogging again.

1st off: “Hey Hendrik Hagemann, please write me your story and I’ll post it on the blog. China to Denmark is a loooong bike ride, and I wish to know if I inspired you in a good or bad way to ride that far…

Your fan Conrad Stoltz”

What happened since the last blog after World Champs:

Thanks to a match made in heaven, Liezel (nee Wium) and I blitzed romance, engagement and got married on 11.11.11 in South Africa. Good wedding pictures take time, I’ll blog about the wedding when the photographer is done editing…

Since then we have been having an amazing time, honey mooning and spending quality time together… We started on the tropical island of Mauritius,

Stayed a while… (Here sailing over shallow corral reefs)

Then Thesen Island in Knysna, South Africa,

Knysna Elephant Park was an amazing experience…

And after all that time in and around the ocean, we headed for the Karoo.

Then we had a quick 2 weeks in Stellenbosch (Liezel had to work!?) and then we joined my parents on the farm for the Festive season.

It rained  A LOT. Sometimes flooding the road and cutting us off from the outside word…

And sometimes you just have to hold your breath and take the plunge…

Liezel got to meet the rest of my family and we had a great Christmas.

I re-lived my dream from when I was a 3 year old. (Back then, there was no triathlon)

Training? Yes, we did some. My wife is a machine!

Here is a rough draft of my race schedule, kicking off this weekend:
Jan 14: Total Sports Challenge. Liezel and I will do the 2 man Terra Firma event under “Team Stoltz”
Jan 28: XTERRA Buffelspoort SA.

Feb 5 National road TT champs
Feb 12: National MTB Champs
Feb 28 XTERRA SA- Grabouw

March 3: Argus MTB race.

As you can see, we had an amazing 2 months together, growing even closer. We wanted to start our marriage off on the right foot, and keep joking “we’re on honeymoon for life”.  I didnt blog for these 2 months because the “bloody computer” is probably the biggest distraction from personal interaction and training, so I switched it (and the “bloody phone”) off and left it at home for 3 weeks. Was quite a liberating experience. Blogging is a hobby, not business as I have yet to make a cent from it, but I’ll gladly humour you guys, and thus keep recording memories.

Thanks for the kick in the backside Hendrik