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I generally would have no interest in commuting on a bicycle, besides the fact I am generally AT work at 5am - I am far too comfortable in my airconditioned box with comfortable seats and a good stereo system.

No vendor may debit your card without your signiture or consent. A voice recording would help the vendors case, but the bank can still request a signed copy of proof. The only time this changes is when its an on-line vendor who has a special on-line vendor agreement with the bank. The banks are pedantic about this, call your bank and ask. Usually the bank will go back to the vendor and ask for a signed copy of the credit card / debit card slip - if it can not be produced, I can assure you the bank will refund the debit if you desire it. Most vendors work on the presumption that you want continuation, which is fine if you do, however no vendor may debit your card without your consent.

Di Luca needs to loose more than 3 minutes to Simoni which I think will be difficult - he looks very good (for a non climber anyway) so he just needs to hang in and he has it in the bag. Simoni will still be my man, if anybody can upset the applecart its him. I dont think Mazzoleni and especially Schleck will hold on, so Simoni will definately move up onto the podium with probably Cunego - but with a TT still to come Simoni needs at least two extra minutes on Di-Luca (5 in total) which looks unlikely. ............but anything can happen and Simonis quote of the day..........................."I dont feel beaten yet" gives me hope.!

Hmmm, Yes, I am with Scotty here, we do not live in a "nanny state" - I dont believe its necessary for admin to get involved and set up a huge ruling process with draconian steps and consequences. Basically, it seems to me, some folk want Admin to fight their position for them, however if you believe in your post, its not inflammatory or slanderous or insulting, and you can justify it with facts, why would you want admin ruling on it ?? If a post offends you, Pm the poster and ask for an explanation.But remember, what offends you may not offend me and vice versa. All told, lets leave the mud slinging to those "standing in the mud" - I trust thats not us -, lets treat each other with respect and civility, lets keep it light hearted and friendly, lets discuss controversial points but keep our posts focussed on the "point not the person" lets forget the personal attacks and refrain from vulgar language, insults, slander, malicious posts to elict a controversial response, defamation and aggression. Religion and sexual topics are personal and can be very inflammatory, lets rather refrain from posting them, lets query, lets comment, lets discuss but lets keep it mutually friendly beneficial. I think if we all just follow our basic sense of civility, everything will be fine. widget2007-05-30 02:38:13

In China there is virtually nil % bicycle theft - and its got the biggest population of bicycle riders around. You seldom even see one chained or locked. Must have something to do with that little word "LAW ENFORCEMENT" As an aside, about two months ago our offices were broken into and a few computers stolen - the security company phoned the Police immediately - we are still awaiting their arrival!!. Last week the offices were broken into again, same thing, phoned the police immediately - I dont hold out much hope of seeing them.!! Actually once a policeman did phone, the conversation went something like this - Police - do you know who broke in? Me - No. Police - could you identify anybody. Me - No Police - So,..............how can we find them? Me - Maybe come and take a statement, perhaps dust for fingerprints, ask some staff members, I dont know thats your job.? Police - Errrr - Yes, but how can we find them? Me - Dont worry I am insured just give me the case number. Police - Yes, its ..........! Bye. In my opinion the attitude is " heres a case number claim from your insurance, we cant find them."

I dont think Mazzoleni will worry Di Luca or Simoni on the Zoncolan, he is a good climber but a little more explosive than Simoni or Di Luca. The Zoncolan is long and steep and Simoni is ideally suited to this type of climb, he is not a fast climber but once he gets his "diesel" going he just grinds away and can keep it up for ages. A few years ago Simoni would have run away with this stage, but it looks to me like he is a bit tired now, so I just hope he can recover today and give us a show of his old climbing self again. Cunego hasnt shone but he is always around, so maybe he is just waiting..........................!!!!

To be fair to Simoni, the moto DID assist Garzelli, he blatently dived behind it in the last 500m before launching the jump on Gibbo. Anyway, I think this has been a great Giro, Di Luca hasnt put a foot wrong and would have to have an awefull day on the Zoncolan to loose the race now. .............not bad for someone who cant climb hey! Simoni is looking a bit tired, at 35 he is struggeling a bit I think, but I still say he will get a podium. He is a class act a wily old campaigner and he knows what is needed to be on the podium. I think young Schleck will loose some time on the Zoncolan, he is also showing signs of fatigue and Simoni and Cunego will manage to get up onto 2nd and 3rd positions. Mazzoleni is a great climber and a canny bike rider and if we remember was instrumental in Cunegos Giro win, telling him when to attack and when to sit and pulling him on some of the climbs, so he could be a "fly in the ointment" but I still think Simoni and Cunego will duke it out for 2nd and 3rd. Piepoli is spectacular, he is without a doubt the best climber there, and has worked hard for the team. Ricco was much better yesterday as well, I think he got a bit of "stage fright" on the Izoard, but he appears to have got it in control again. SPECTACULAR PIEPOLI - SPECTACULAT Di lUCA - SPECTACULAR GIRO.

Sure Christie, "the chickens are coming home to roost"!! Maybe Mr "Favourite SA media grabber " Bjarne Rijs will also have something to say - it seems rather odd that everybody around him is saying "Yes sure we doped around that time", but he didnt, and knew nothing about it - YEAH, YEAH right.!!!! ..............and pigs fly in winter.!!

SPLENDID STAGE !! All I can say is its a good thing **cough,cough** ...AHEM.. that Di Luca cant climb.......**cough,cough** otherwise I shudder to think how far up he would be now in GC. I think Cunego, had a bit of a bonk, at the top of the Izoard he was grabbing food and coke and then seemed to recover a bit - but a gutsy performance. As usual Simoni and Di Luca were spectacular, they undoubtably drove the break and were the strongest there. I think Simoni and Di Luca will form an alliance to get rid of Cunego - they both worked hard and deserved the time gaps. I think Popo will be looking for a new team next year, he was given no support and Rubiera slowed down before the mountains even started loosing 10 minutes - its a joke - Popo is a class act and with some support he could have stayed in the race, now he may as well go home. Soon we will be hearing from Discoverys two media lackies (the two Ps) how they are struggeling to come to terms with life without LA - Rubbish, apart from Popo, they have been sleeping late and following the Ullrich diet. Piepoli was also impressive, he rode on the front for ages and pulled the bunch - thats a pedigreed climber, not miserable Danielson, who pops off after 200metres. BRAVO Di Luca BRAVO Simoni BRAVO Giro.!!! widget2007-05-25 02:05:23

Yes, sure, Simonis quote of the Day "I have a debt with the Izoard" leaves me in no doubt that he is gonna try and take the stage depending on the structure of the race, but certainly he will take back time. I also say (again) watch out for Pellizotti - he is very underrated and without any pressure could climb quitely into pink today. I think Arroyo is a good enough climber and because he is so far up in GC he is likely to grab pink. Savoldelli, as you say will struggle, he will hope to latch onto a chasing bunch (ala 2005) to pull him back up to the leaders, but unlike 2005 when Lotto repaid a small favour to him, I dont think he has too many "chums" in the bunch.

Yup, they were sliding all over like ice skaters, except Popo that is, he bounced around like a tennis ball. Hope he didnt get hurt, today is gonna be a biggie for him.! Looking at the mountains today, its no wonder they were taking it easy yesterday. My predictions , Saunier Duvall will take the stage, Simoni will take back time on all his rivals, David Arroyo (Casisse D Epagne) will be in pink, Di Luca will maintain his position and Petacchi will abandon. Whatcha think.?

- ya score points for that one.

See my post 05 May - Di Luca - my pick on the podium.!! He IS spectacular, a class act, and a brilliant team. Remember his words at the start of the season "Its my last opportunity to win the Giro - I will be going all out to do so".!

Goodness, next they will be taking away your little silver stars (ala) kindergarten. I wouldnt worry myself unduly, although I did think we were all adults here.

Theres a number of reasons, some not even clever, but mainly the "cost of borrowing money in the UK and other first world countries" is much less than SA. Hense, companies have a far less "cost of sales" to recover. ............The shop dos not carry the cost, they discount this sale to a financial company who pays them cash up front and they recover the cost over a period of months - it will never be interest free, the interest (far lower than here anyway)- is just factored into the price.

Hmm, yes sure Linnega, but I think it must be mentioned, Edgars runs an account based book, retail shops like bike shops get cash for their goods. Obviously, on an account based book, prices can be somewhat inflated as the company waits for its money for extended periods. On the other hand, bike shops in SA are probably under financed and the owner runs the operation on a hand to mouth basis with little cream left over at days end. However, this NOT the consumers fault and he should not pay the cost there-of - in todays world we are a Global society and the world is actually very small, if we want to keep our money local, we need to be competitive locally.

Hmm - Yes, I think sadly you are right. As an example, one of the youngsters here wanted to buy a bike, he wanted to do some road rides but wasnt sure what to buy. Anyway, off he went with his money in his hand to a very well known shop here in Jhb (and I WONT mention the name) and they sold him a Mountain bike?? The reason they told him was, "its a good entry level bike, get some experience on it and then buy a better bike later when you have some experience. Fortunately he seems okay with that, and I am not going to tell him otherwise, however there is still this niggling feeling in the back of my mind that they sold him a M/bike Knowing full well he wanted to ride on the road, and in a short time he will realise he is not competitive on a mountain bike in any race, he will want a road bike and hopefully THEY CAN SELL HIM A ROAD BIKE DOWN THE LINE.!!! Two bike sales to one youngster.!! - Disgracefull.!

This is usually tossed up as a risk of self importing and has its merit, however the chance of breakage today is minimal and usually worth the risk for the financial saving. Personally, I have had only one breakage on imported products (and I import everything myself buying almost nothing locally) and the international supplier only wanted a digital pic of the breakage (no product return) and I had a new one delivered to my door in 7 days. ..but onto my point, agents who do not back up internationally purchased products do themselves more harm than good, it creates a poor customer perception of the importer and product and alienates future purchases. Any manufacturer worth their salt will cover a product irrespective of where it was purchased, its the local agents who play the "hardball" game, but times "they are a changing" and its only the immature and short sighted ones who will alienate their customers over a product they can claim back from the manufacturer, and keep the customers good will and future business.

In the bigger picture Landis case is just degenerating from bad to worse. LeMond was scathing of Landis, the lab has backed up their claims that the tests were in order, now even other cyclists (Papp) are saying that testosterone is beneficial to recovery and the ability to perform day after day at a high level (something Landis has been keen to prove otherwise) he is implicated by association in intimidation tactics and his only hope of a witness to back him up (Mercx) refuses to testify. I hope he has deep pockets, because the only person gaining anything here is his lawyer.!

Yup, as if he didnt know about his manager threatening Lemond.? I would be asking Landis, "What has the manager to gain by threatening LeMond without telling him"? I mean really,.......... I knew pro cyclists are not known for their intelligence, but Landis must be scraping the barrel at the moment.

Thats another point against them Marius, price fixing in SA is Illegal - its hard to prove but if it can be proved there are dire consequences. How most importers get around this is by having a "reccomended retail price", and of course Retailers (who want to make the most profit as possible) will stick to it - the importer also holds a stick over the retailer saying if you sell below (for eg) 10% off my suggested retail price I have the right to stop supplying you - so effectively you have a whole lot of retailers competing for the same sale, of the same product, at the same price - "price fixing", but via a loophole which makes it legal. I am sure many retailers would sell below the suggested price, but fear having their supply cut off. So the way around it is free trade, (ie) when another retailer (or individual) sources the product legally elsewhere which allows him to buy or sell cheaper and capture a portion of the market. Quite legal, and puts the ball right back into the uncompetitive business court, who generally have grown fat and uncompetitive exploiting a captured market.