tinmug

I got lucky once: on hike with wife – nobody around for miles – then saw someone running in corner of eye to intercept us a 100-or-so feet ahead. Sent wife running back to car park, and I started running towards the attacker. He stopped immediately, turned and ran away from me. But an utterly stupid thing to do, as most attackers would be armed. Avoidance is the best option. But the cable Roodie Sjambok™️ is a very good idea.

Some preamble. https://www.vitalmtb.com/news/news/Discovery-Warner-Bros-Eurosport-Talking-About-Covering-the-World-Cup-2023-2030,1433 https://www.eurosport.co.uk/mountain-bike/extended-uci-and-warner-bros.-discovery-partnership-signals-exciting-new-era-for-the-uci-mountain-bi_sto8983284/story.shtml

That's a heck of a story. Glad to hear he's okay. 👍 Don't know much about bees or beekeeping either but have heard that the hive can be tetchy when it has been relocated. Haven't a clue if there is any truth in that but the presence of beekeepers suggest they might have something to do with the bee's behaviour on a passerby.

What's the 2018 fiasco (the fact that they made no money?)? As for footage: it would also be interesting to be able to track live speed, watts and heart rate at times. Who knows what we'll have next year (and at what cost).

Mitterwallner crossed the finish line 5-and-a-half minutes after Lecomte. Her off didn't nearly that much time. Not sure I'd call that impressive (apart from the fact that the ability to do a single lap here without stopping for sleep or hospitalisation is in itself impressive! 😅) She had a face of thunder at the finish and wanted nothing to do with anyone. 🤭

Marine Cabirou broke three vertebra in her tumble yesterday. Broken back, again. 🤕 Hope she heels soon and comes back to racing.

You are right. I did type that wrong. It's actually R1750. One day. Public road. Three water stations.

Of course: it's not cheap to put an event together. Using your figures this comes to around R58K (omitted cutting trails, no relevant in this case, and promotion _ event listed on event company's website which already exist; if your web designer wants R22 to make a web page and post some photos on social media then you have bigger problems 😅). Assuming the sponsors give nothing, they will still turn a (dinky) profit with only 35 entries. But hey, if enough people are happy to trek hundreds of kilometres across the country, cough up that sort of entry fee, pay for accommodation, meals, drinks, blah-blah then I suppose our little economy is just fine after all.

Gravel.

A few of these have popped up. One-day event, a few water points (and obvs paramedics on standby yada yada). Nine event sponsors. And (by the looks of it) all on public roads. R1700. Greedy event organiser? Or pay-what-they-ask attendees that are 1700-rand desperate to cycle with others (and then complain about the cost of bike parts 😂). Not knocking the event organiser (has very good reputation), or the event (no doubt awesome), just curious how this has become the norm in a one-day event where those 9 sponsors presumably cover some of the event costs (which are substantial, I am sure). 🤷‍♂️

You should make that movie. 😂

Didn't Aaron Gwinn claim, repeatedly, he had 8+ seconds on the French youngsters? 🤣

Minaar beats Amaury too. But Greenland moved to first (has he no respect for the team elders?).

So far ...Greg Minaar out-qualified Daprela, currently second behind Charlie Hatton. Good start. And GM is 49,75 seconds faster than Gwinn down the mountain. 😂 Ahead of Loris too. 👍

Bruni out for the weekend with a broken collarbone. Go Mister Min. 👍

That's nowhere near good condition, never mind like new. And recourse seems unlikely. Sorry to hear about your misfortune.

It's a test to see who can recover for Sunday. 👹

I can't add much to this discussion but my experience of going from Deore to SLX was chalk and cheese: significantly better feel/control with SLX.

HA always does that: gets all testosterony at the start to assert his dominance, then his stamina fails hime. Every. Single. Race. Except one, where he was – somehow – smart and stayed at the trailing end of the lead pack. Also the one race he managed to win.

Dan McConnel is out the picture, Becca does have a new coach.

… and learn what parts - drivetrain and brakes - the different bikes offer. Those bits are important.

My wife generally only wears Assos stuff, but she rates Kalas (https://www.kalas.co.za) and Privateer (https://privateer.co.za/product-category/privateer/) very highly. Reasonably priced and of exceptionally high quality.

Any preference for road or mountain bike? Look at the Classifieds here: you can definitely find a bike for around R12K. If you are in Cape Town consider speaking with Nils from Woodstock Cycleworks, he will be able to set you in the right direction.

^ Good luck riding that. A fair chunk of that is tar, a some hard pack/loose gravel (yay) and (at this time of the year) a a whole stretch of loose sand. Some of it on a no-cycling-allowed road road in the WCNP. Oh. And you have to cross private property. Twice.

I think short-track is at 2115, with XC ladies at 1600. Gents? Just after the ladies. 😅