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Same here. Didn't know there were any celebrities on Obs.

My experience on the road once, with a lightish alloy MTB and 26" slicks was that it was barely if at all slower than a normal road bike.

I have a Race Face crank on one of my bikes - I quite like their system. No silly hidden extractor bolt, you just need a crank removal tool and a BB tool to fit a chainring.. Actually that's way too many tools 🙂

Lets hope Paarl Rock is out of the picture completely. What a debacle.

Sorry that went over my head. I have a 2013 SLX crank that I remove regularly without issue. It's way easier to deal with than the dub style removal system on my wife's carbon Truvativ crank.

Change to Shimano and never have this issue again...

@HowardSteele - Please change the title of this topic to Tokai Trails Open again with one or two exceptions.

That's not nice at all. Hopefully just a once off. We rode there a couple of months ago without incident.

Yeah, its always sold off to Big TV - I also have the UCI stream for all the other races - - just paid another month for 6 weeks of no racing while everyone has an extended holiday and licks their wounds. Guess it will be catch up on tiz... I see the world's XCO track is Crans Montana which was hideously technical if not dangerous but it seems to have been toned down somewhat. There is a preview with Y Neff on the tube somehwere.

Yes!

Well said!

Your awreness is limited. Go do a search for accommodation there and you'll find lovely farm stays including trail riding on their tracks for guests

I did some research a while back and the only way to ride Picket Bo-Berg is if you stay at one of the farms in the conservancy. That is a superb network but not for everybody as its proper MTB - with rocks and drops and lots of tech and very few berms. A trail/enduro riders dream.

Thanks for the info on the scene. The facts make it even worse for the bus driver. This is very like the accident that killed Burry Stander. That driver was convicted of culpable homicide. Ways to try to avoid this kind of tragedy as a rider: 1.Treat every moving vehicle including other riders as death machines 2. Expect every other driver/rider to do the wrong thing eg. cut across your path, open a door, stop suddenly. 3. Ride with a bright flashing light up front always.

Most of the c$nts on social media clearly don't ride now or have never ridden a bike.

There is very little open to interpretation actually. 1. Bicycles are often far slower than cars and motorbikes down Chappies and even if they were going fast, what is the maximum speed - probably 60km/h on that rough surface, depending on wind direction. 2.The damage to the bus appears to have been to the front windscreen. That says the bus was still busy turning when it hit the riders, who incidentally had right of way down the lane they were in. In other words, the bus gave the riders very little if any chance to avoid the collision. 3. A tour bus making a turn like that on a road full of runners cyclists and cars is always fraught with danger and required extra care from the driver. The outcome seems to indicate the care/skill wasn't there. 4. While I am sure the driver didn't set out to do this, the facts show he was negligent and and such could be sued civilly, prosecuted for culpable homicide and possibly lose his job.

Looks like the TDF F will be a closer run affair than the boys version. Hoping K Le C-P gets back in yellow.

Dig those trail names!

So far so good for the Ben H

I'm still holding thumbs for the plucky Irishman 🙂

So Ben H defeated the Hub pundits and stayed in yellow. I see today is hilly. Why will he not still be in yellow after today, he looks like a climber?

He should stick to XCO 🙂

It seems to have taken two years or so for the contenders to work out how to deal with UAE and TP. Its been an exciting first half and it will be good to see how it pans out. What are BH's chances of retaining the Yellow?

I've only bought a second hand MTB once, for my wife, and keep my bikes for years for years and years. If you're an experienced rider and tinker a bit, you'll know what to look for and the 26" Zula I got for R10k for my wife is still going strong after a few mods and upgrades over the years. I have bought second hand road bikes which are easier and cheaper to repair than most MTB's but then again, I am not talking expensive carbon disc brake road bikes as I'm happy to ride older aluminium bikes.

If you crave longevity run a steel chainring. Will last as well as your SRAM cassette i.e multiple chains. If manufacturers were honest they'd put some effort into developing even better steel options rather than trying to sell overpriced short lived alloy chainrings. Change my mind 🙂