Trackz

Can also recommend Louis Oelofse. He's a cyclist himself - has done Epic & several other multiday races himself. If you can't get an appointment soon PM me :-)

Burry Stander Philip Buys

Men's Elite Start Philip Buys leading the Men's Elite at the start

Cherise Taylor

Guys please stop the complaining ... I am really worried they're going to put Arnie & Owen Hannie on to voice over from remote. What I find bizarre is that Supersport finds money for all kinds of small little arbitrary triathlon & biathlon events that probably only the 150 participants have an interest in but nothing for the big tours. Maybe it's a lack of sponsors due to tough economic times.

Sadly there are not many options here. Civilised logic suggests the responsible thing to do is to raise awareness with the police and leave it to the law. Now sadly many of us have very short memories ... in the past year there have been several well published and discussed cases where cyclists have been attacked while out training. In all of those instances significant awareness was raised with the police and media. If anything, all this has achieved was to raise awareness with some syndicate that there was an unexploited opportunity to capitalise on soft targets. So what is different this time that raising awareness with the police and media will have a different result. I can ensure you there are much bigger issues for our government to deal with than a bunch of elitist cyclists who have been hijacked ... and the government are not even able to address those bigger issues, if it doesn't bring them more money in their back pockets, it will not make it past the first desk. So if a civilsed law abiding approach does not work all that remains is to take matters into our own hands. I do not know what form this takes but becoming vigilante is a terribly tempting thought but just so unsophisticated. Surely if we pool the collective brain power of the cycling community we can come up with ways to outsmart the barbaric element. Maybe find out where these bikes are going? Who's buying/selling? Maybe build tracking devices. Maybe get guards to accompany groups in the short term. Maybe we need a leader like Generaal De La Rey!Trackz2010-05-10 04:08:31

Really tragic, I have a son of the same age and I cannot begin to think how this must hurt. I have no words to offer, anything else seems rather insignificant all of a sudden. My prayers are with the family.

Old takkie gents. You can sign all the petitions you want, unless you find some endangered species or insect or plant that cannot be resettled, you're wasting your time. As per the controversial arms deal this is fill the pockets time for the officials so nothing will stop that. Best chance of retaining a riding area is to go speak to the developers and ask them to be "green" and design some cycling tracks into their development. Putting pressure on them by attacking them on a green topic could be bad publicity if they do not incorporate such into their planning. If you really want to play dirty ... rather go lobby with the Government Department (DACEL?) that has to approve their environmental impact study ... they've got teeth!

A heard a little birdie whisper the margin was a couple of mins in Burry's favour for both combined ... I suspect in the interest of it being a promotional event, maybe actual margins don't matter.

lemme go check ... one of the kids' mobile phone ... she says its a Samsung U800i :-) ... but in this instance its MUCH more fun being in front of the camera!!!

Posted these on YouTube & my Facebook ... some splashing fun at Groenkloof after the rains ... (quality not great - mobile phone) Trackz2009-11-22 08:03:09

the European guys? big loss for Actionphoto!

... coming in after the fact but I'm quite amazed this discussion even evolved past 1 page and that there's even a discussion - imho this is a no-brainer, either we as cyclists act courteous & behave on the roads or we will either be killed by frustrated motorists or we will be banned from riding on the roads. You choose your preferred outcome and behave accordingly. As for me ... as long as some guys are irritating motorists that drive 2 tonne projectiles at 120km/h ... I'm not playing where they're playing. My biggest problem on morning rides is which singletrack to take and which to skip.

Go read the article on the link Shamus posted. We used to debate this issue to death on the old Spinman group. Fatter & softer is the answer - go speak with the 'old' hands at the front of the pack - they don't win multiday races cause they're always faster ... Andrew is now riding his 29'er all the time ... go figure.

something to look out for ... make sure the skewers for the front fork are offset with regard to one another, either by height or by position on the trailer else the handle bars of the bikes bump into one another

Had Willem in the studio a week ago and we shot some pics of him and the Zaskar Golden bike ... what a beauty!!! Will try post a few pics as well. http://mihevents.co.za/Gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=42095

I noticed 7 new giraffe at the bottom in the past 2 weeks - anyone know if they were recently introduced? I only ever saw 2 or 3 on top of the hill. The "new" ones are very inquisitive, we stopped and they approached to within 5 meters till some idiot riders came rushing through on their very important training ride as if the animals didn't exist. Agree, been riding there the past 5 years and in my mind it's the number 1 MTB park in South Africa.

I have a couple more of the 2nd waterpoint on the 60km which I'll load tonight - I got tired last night & ended up loading some pics three times so had to clean up a bit - should have carbo loaded more before I switched the computer on. There was a chap from www.howlinghound.co.za sitting at the exit to the cave on the 60km - you can contact him directly.