Floyd

I have raced with the women a lot,....and they're no fairies!! They never go work at the front but mostly like to hang near the front where they often dangerously cut in for better positions and constantly cause gaps to open when they can't hang on anymore. Swearing in general is wrong and I'm against that. But swearing at them have no right to be highlighted or need any special attention - this is modern times and that's why they're lobbying for equal rights, prizemoney etc.(mostly forced by themselves upon society) They just need to work harder at their game or get more women to race so that they can race their own gender. Why did you start the thread Groot Lem? Is male to male or female to male swearing more acceptable? Maybe the complainent should start to realize that everybody must fight his/her own battles in life and nobody deserves favouritism of any kind - especially in sport!

Latrinus, you might be more correct in saying that the old ways of selection were still at large and that that was followed, but DEFINATELY not the right process, so we all know what that mean. Maybe you guys can put down the names for us now and keep us updated on your website on a weekly basis what is happening/influencing your final decision.

...so Groot Lem, jy dink die koshuis wassie al wat gebrand wassie???

Ou Groot Lem, hoor 'n voeltjie fluit dat daar 'n ge-brand-ery by 'n koshuis was - jy bly mos innie dorp - issit so?

OK, so I quickly buy this Q-rings and hope for the better results. Problem is I will still be the average Joe amongst all the Q-ringers now. So, to overcome that I probably need to train harder then to beat them. Maybe that's what I should've done in the first place. Gimmicks and short cuts will not do it for the serious racers out there but maybe for those with time and other restrictions/limitations/keep-up-with-the-jones's etc. The pscychologic problem then becomes the issue of "..what if I am still getting dropped where I was now supposed to have an advantage/improvement, what can I now change on the bike" Bikemax said it about 4 pages ago: ...what about real hard honest training! Take your training programme for the last 6 months to a specialist coach and he will quickly point out to you the REAL problem/issue. Maybe you should sponsor a top racer who struggle to get podiums.

Guys, guys, guys! Our time is worth say R50 - R 1000 per hour and now you wanna spend hours and days thinking about this and ways to get him, etc, etc,etc. My advice, you've done what you could, leave it be. The universe has a strange but effective way of dealing with this kind of thing. "You will reap what you sow" 4 Years ago somebody stole R5k from me - 6 months later, a detective told me about a complaint he got at the station - burglary, R50k cash plus Rolex watch stolen from flat, complaintiff uninsured. Guess who it was..."my good friend". Some days I get blessed beyond my wildest dreams from business transactions, so I just carry on sowing good seed! Try it - it works. The reward - Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but somehow it makes feel good anyhow...

It really depends on how important these races are to you ? If K to C is the "A" race then you need to be building fitness from now and as such may be compromising performance at the other races. Why not just use the other races as quality training and then try and peak for K to C ? You can always reduce load slightly and take a day off prior to the other less important races. THAT'S IT! That's the secret - at last Bikemax is seeing the light..just kidding. Categorise your races A,B.C. A=Where you wanna collapse/throw up/drop dead at the finish line in order to win; B=here you wanna do well, but not as critical as A-races, little bit of rest before but not peaking; C=for fun,experience,testing progress - don't have to finish K2C is not very technical - I will mostly concentrate on tempo training. One last bit of advice, when you have decided on a training programme(preferably by a reputable body like Bikemax etc), you stick to it and you trust it. You don't lend out your ear to anybody - you owe that to yourself firstly and secondly to your coach!

Also interesting view from Bikemax. My experience and from what I've seen here in the W Cape is that the yearround type of fitness programs have not excel anybody to the really toplevels. I stand to be corrected here and am willing to apologise, but will if pointed out to me. My earlier comment was directed more at the roadies and maybe ultimately that's the choice one need to make - do I want to cycle yearround and achieve less than my best or do I want to specialise(choose what's most important to me, road OR mtb) and follow a proper training programme to achieve higher goals.

I find it rather pointless to comment on the training plan other than: if you're doing intervals now, you're close to peaking and racing;meaning you'll be burnt out, easy meat when the real racing is done in the SummerCause you can't maintain competiveness that long;So, you should be doing basemiles now,Unless you wanna be a Winter Star!My advice: Plan a FULL year(9 months-rest of the time should be crosstraing,playing with your dog, girlfriend, kids, whatever) that includes RestTransitionBaseBuildPeak and Race and MaintenanceEven Bikemax can help you with that!

Sure, we need to move forward, but HOW? Unification of governing bodies in this country have only lead to disaster. Rugby, Athletics, Table Tennis, Netball,.. the list goes on of sports bodies ultimately fallen by the feet and having to play into the hands of the government. CSA need to answer first to showing us their budget(what is it going to cost and what will they try to achieve with the funding) - giving in for the sake of hey it's a great idea and giving them carte blanche is total stupidity. Sorry,we're the bank, we wanna see a businessplan first!!!

So, at Roland Garros they will have equal prizemoney this year for the eventual winners of the mens and ladies single titles... because of equality(???) nowadays. There were talks of having the same with the Argus Cycle tour(..if it is not already the case) I was wondering, when will they do away then with the sex differentiation and just let them, the fairer sex, enter with the men into one purse(double the money now). That will truly give meaning to the word equality. What do you guys, uhm ... and girls think?

If all of us here write to the newspapers as well, perhaps we can start a FLOOD!