For a change, this week there was something exciting that happened on the bike. Or, should I say, it was the bike that was exciting.

Instead of the “easy spin” for an hour on Tuesday, I took a Yeti ASR for test ride on the usual run to the Rhodes Memorial singletrack and back. What a bike! It climbs pretty much as well as the Santa Cruz Tallboy I rode a few weeks ago, and descends as quickly as any other bike I’ve ridden. In my case, this is admittedly not a huge sample, but on the basis that the bike has to make up for my lack of talent, I reached the conclusion that the Yeti ticked more boxes than the other bikes under consideration. Having said that, I’d have been delighted to have the Tallboy for Epic, because it’s a fantastic bike. This was a tough decision!

For the record, the claimed weight on the Yeti is 11.5kg, which is 500g lighter than the Tallboy. The one I rode has South carbon rims, which are locally manufactured. I’m not a good enough rider to be able to talk about ‘feel’, but the pros rave about these wheels.

During my research I was reliably informed that the lowest maintenance bike around is the Giant Anthem. In my opinion, maintenance is the most underrated factor when it comes to selecting a bike, because some bikes are more complicated – not to mention more costly – to maintain. Add to that the fact that Giant is not an expensive brand to start with, and it just reinforces the value.

Thursday’s ride was one of those fun interval sessions (not), with ten two-minute blasts in heart rate zone four. I rode for two hours on Saturday, but skipped Sunday’s ride because I’d put too much effort into the festivities of the night before.

Next week is Wines2Whales, the first in a series of races building up to Epic.