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Yes, I bought one from "Amazon" was around R220.00 landed at my front door, Vat Postage etc - the rand was a little better then but shouldnt cost too much more now. I later saw it at a book shop for R380.00 - so Yup its available locally at a premium. Very good book, maybe a bit too technical for me, but I am not very mechanical anyway - I just bought it to understand how things work more than to fix them - but I am learning.

The Team dos not really belong to Riis, CSC contracts Riis in a management position to run the team to certain contractual obligations and a budget. Obviously CSC and other sponsors fund the budget, which was one of the best in the game - but with "Man" leaving it may change somewhat. Without the sponsors - well.............there is no team. The structures are irrelevant - he who pays the bills, in effect, owns the team.Thats harsh reality.! There have been indications Riis MAY not be welcome at the TDF - but ASO have not as yet made a clear statement to the best of my knowledge. I dont think CSC (the team) will be prohibited from riding but I do think ASO may make it unpleasant for Riis to be in attendance - although it hardly matters as they have a very capable management team with Scott Sunderland, Carsten Jeppesen Kim Andersen and the like.

Mintsauce - How dare you assume I have never had reason to forgive.? I LOST a child and had to forgive.! Before you assume things again, consider what you are saying.!!! I shall not even respond further. widget2007-06-11 01:57:45

I think Cofidis meant the 3 million euros it cost "could be used better elsewhere with less risk" not they could not afford it. Cofidis could easily afford this amount, its cheap advertising in the global sphere. You couldnt even get Beckham to wear your shoelaces for 3 million euros, never mind the entire years advertising from a bike team.

I dunno, its amazing.................... Wolfowitz awards his girlfriend an increase and he is kicked out of the highest position in the world bank because he never followed proper channels. He didnt profit from it, but he admitted it was an oversight and apologised. ...........but that was NOT the issue, the issue was he overstepped the mark, he abused a position, he acted unethically and he had to pay for it. Here we have some people, who preach clean sport, but have doped themselves and profited from it, who fraudently took all the accolades and money, who skewed the race outcome, who grabbed all the fame and fortune that came with the position with both hands, who stood on the podium and accepted the prize, who probably became quite wealthy on a fraudently achieved position, who courted sponsors and lied to them, who lied to the fans and the public for 10 years, who denied,denied,denied for 10 years.................and you want to forgive him.!!! Where will that take us.? Maybe we should let all the child molesters out now as well, hey, what about the fraudsters, lets just leave them, I mean they can show us where all the others are.!

My opinion is Riis would never have admitted to doping were the doors not closing on him and he felt threatened. If he was so honest and bothered about it he would have admitted to it years ago. Why only now and so suddenly. Naah, in my opinion it was done under a certain amount of duress. He probably though better to admit it, try the moral high ground and lie low, than have his name splashed all over the worlds media as a suspected doper and cheat. Things like this never stay behind closed doors forever. Sooner or later somebody will say something and "thats it" the chicken are home to roost.! So, do I feel sorry for him? Had he confessed 10 years ago YES, ......NOW - NO - Not at all, and I too would be calling for his head.

How the mighty have fallen.!! Riis can kiss his cosy little cycling world goodbye, Man has ended their relationship and CSC have indicated they will probably end their relationship with him as well. The ASO has indicated he may not be welcome at the TDF. They want his jersey back. The Danish hall of fame kicked him out. He is disgraced and branded a cheat and a fraud. I cant see any other sponsor willing to carry this load. ............In my opinion - Good. Somewhere, a line has to be drawn and an example made.Unfortunately Riis is suffering the brunt of it when he probably was doing a good job. But the fact is, you cannot have a sporting fraud heading up an operation, and preaching clean sport when he is guilty of the very same crime. Its like haveing a convicted cheque fraudster heading up the world bank - its not ethical. ............Okay, Okay I know this dos nt apply to politicians.! widget2007-06-08 02:13:50

Fair enough Gianni. ..........and yes I agree CSC did appear to be making the right noises, but unfortunately there exists a credibility and an integrity gap here which will certainly be an issue. Rijs may well find another sponsor, but I dont think it will be soon. Not too many Major global companies would be willing to have that mill stone dragged around with them right now - personally I think its over for him.

Its pretty much the same thing Gianni - sacked, end our relationship,............... "hey" we didnt sack you......we just "ended our relationship with you".! The fact that he is out on his ear is what matters, and I for one believe he deserves it. Its a fair point you make regarding investigation, however CSC s point of view would be, this is a business for us not a crime prevention operation. Rijs can be recruited by another organisation to do exactly that, and it may well be feasible, but CSC is not in the business of preventing dope usage and sport fraud, and I doubt thwy would want to have their name linked there either.

- Yup I can sort of picture it now.

.............said today that it will in all likleyhood end its association with Barnje Rijs. "It is the only thing for us to do" said the CEO and we will be requesting he remove our name from all bicycles and material forthwith. ............So as I predicted, they will be SACKING him. As a global company it was all they could do, you simply cannot have a confessed sporting fraudster heading up an operation bearing their name. I wonder if they will still be able to compete in the TDF as the ASO has already said Rijs is not welcome.?? It would be a terrible shame for the riders like Schleck and Sastre who stood a good chance of a high position. .........So Crux, Team TCS may still get a spot on the line, dont stop training yet.

Hey you have a nice office.! When I look out my window all I see is the William Nichol highway. ..........and it also looks like rain later.!!

Yes Spidy, I guess you are right. But we can dream eh?

When I lived in the USA a health club I attended in Boston had a sort of computerised system on each bike. At the start of the class the instructor would say right set your level to say 3, then there would be a red dot on the screen moving at a pre-determined speed (speed 3) your position was indicated by another dot and your job was to keep up with the control dot by cycling faster or slower, gearingup or down, whatever. It was great, you could set differant speeds, courses etc. I am surprized that VA was not interested Bikemax, it sounds fairly similar to the programme I saw in the USA and it was very popular.

Sure, in a way I agree Saffa G, but VA actively promotes the V-CYCLE classes as "alternatives" to actual training. Surely then, they need to screen their instructors to ensure they have at least a modicum of knowledge about correct training procedures for indoor cycling training.? It seems to me they just grab whoever is available and thats it , job done.! Most of the instructors dont have a clue, Ive been to classes where they want you to stand and hold the bars with one finger, stand but dont move your upper body,or as scotty said do the pop corn routing, its ridiculous, its totally not normal in regular cycling positions or training. Surely the idea of indoor cycling training is to replicate the standard riding conditions and body position as closely as possible.?

.............during winter I dont really get too excited about going on the road during the week, so just content myself with a few spinning classes at the local VA clubs - and I visit several depending where I am at the time - but after doing a few lately I can honestly say from my experience most instructors know very little about actual cycling training. Last night I must have done the most boring, useless, irritatinig, mind numbing class in all my life..................stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down and so it went.!! Generally I find the first 10 minutes are wasted with useless finger stretching and the last 10 minutes are wasted with just as useless arm stretching and in between its a mind less boring series of spin fast, spin slow, stand up, sit down, "are we having fun", "lets see some smiles"............ and so it gos. Who actually makes up these stoopid programmes anyway, its not that difficult to make it interesting. From now on I am not gonna waste my time spinning and will just do my own programme on one of the "life cycles" where I can get some benifit.

Hmm, seems odd I agree Shaunh, but, I doubt Di Luca would go anyway, and I cant see Liquigas not renewing his contract , he is a big name in the team, which has a strong sponsor with serious ties to the Giro and Italian cycling in general, actually everything Di Luca aspires to in his career, where as there are already too many "hens in the coop" at CSC and I dont think he would slot in.

I agree with you Christie. I think had Rijs come out at the race date and said I doped, I would say porky is wrong, but 12 or more years later - I agree, he is dishonest.!! Yes Christy, a confidential amnesty may work, however I dont see how that can be achieved. The sport is open to scrutiny and too much secrecy is also not good. Certainly a public amnesty, in my opinion will achieve nothing, these guys have denied for so long now its a part of their culture, the majority will not want the fact to be made known they doped, especially if it was during a major tour and they have accepted the accolades. No, most will chance a public amnesty and hope they are not found, but they may be enticed into a confidential one.

It was inevitable. I can only think its to do with the current confession of Rijs and a few others as CSC as a team has been doing great things, but, even with a 2nd in the Giro poor perceptions of the pro cycling business has again taken its toll. CSC is onr of the top financed teams in the region of 9 million Euros (give or take) coughing up the full budget will be a hard pill to swallow for CSC alone if they cant get a co-sponsor on board in the short term.

Oh absolutely Scotty.! CSC has stayed very quite, but sooner or later they will need to make their position clear and its really only two choices - stay or go. He may have done great things for brand CSC, but, like the Wolfowitz world bank debacle, you cannot have the head of affairs preaching one thing but guilty of quite the opposite.

..................heading home to Denmark to roost.................!! I wonder when CSC will make a position known on this matter, they cannot keep quite much longer. Riis booted out of Danish HOF 2007-5-31 14:19 Copenhagen - Denmark has removed retired cyclist Bjarne Riis from its sports Hall of Fame after he admitted using performance-enhancing drugs during his 1996 Tour de France victory. "We consider his effort as being fraud," Else Trangbaek, head of the committee in charge of the hall, told Danish radio on Thursday. "On that basis, one cannot be part of the list." Riis, the sole Dane to have won the French cycling classic, said last week that he used EPO from 1993 to 1998, including during his Tour victory. He also said he no longer considered himself a worthy winner of the Tour, and indicated he would be willing to give back the yellow winner's jersey. His confession came amid a flurry of admissions by former Telekom riders that they used EPO. Other names in the Danish sports hall of fame include former soccer player Michael Laudrup, Kenyan-born 800m world champion Wilson Kipketer and sailing great Paul Elvstrom, who won four straight Olympic gold medals between 1948 and 1960. AP