Andymann

They were also commenting on Maud's core body temperature rising and her HR dropping and the concern was that she was going to blow in the final few kms. And Garmin posted on Twitter a few screenshots of Byron's stats up the Climb so you're 100% right - lots of extra stuff that we never got to see. And I still can't think that a Pro Team is going to just carry someone who won a contract in a competition - they are going to want their pound of flesh from whomever is riding for them, so I'm certain they had a preconceived idea of the type of rider they wanted.

I actually went and did a bit of googling and also now follow him on Twitter (he doesn't say much!) and I'm embarrassed to say I didn't even know he is already riding in Europe. I just went on what the two guys from GCN and the Performance Manager from Alpecin said - pure climber, pure climber etc. He's clearly not just a climber and I really hope he has got good exposure from this - I wonder if other Teams also watched?

I know when I had delusions of grandeur about making the Zwift Run squad there were a bunch of things that were sponsored - the big one being a treadmill, so I'm sure they probably got to keep all the kit - doubt if the bikes would have been given away though.

And here's where we are so far - it's looking nice - long way to go still but we are making progress!

It's not original - the original one would have been made out of a hard rubber, but this was just something that I have had in my head for all these years, so I decided what the hell lets do it from wood.

So back in the late 80's my Dad bought an old Oak desk from Iscor which he had converted into a coffee table. Part of that conversion was to have the legs cut down so it was less desk, more table. My Mom of course was disgusted that he dare cut the legs off an Oak desk so she made him keep the four pieces "just in case". This was also about the same time I got the Velo, and in my mind I was going to use one of the pieces to make the wooden ball on top of the gear selector shaft ( remember this bike has a hand-change). I kept the one piece safe all these years and last week the Apprentices got a new task.....

Nope....... still skew 😉

My Father-in-Law runs the MTB trails at Cowhouse. When you are ready to get off the Trainer and back onto the trails drop me a PM and I will arrange a pass for you. Seems like Cowhouse had special memories for you both so would be brilliant for you to be able to get back there sometime.

I watched all 5 episodes - really enjoyed them. I didn't think Byron would win though - He didn't do badly at all, but I think it also depends on what the Teams are looking for - Byron seems like a pure Climber - not sure if Alpecin-Fenix was looking for a Climber. The dude who one - Alex - he's impressive but I just couldn't get to like him. He reminded me of a certain Vegan on Bikehub..... Tell you what though, the girl who won - Maud Oudeman looks very mature for 18 and rode very well - going to be interesting to follow her career.

Don't worry - I follow a few people on Twitter and you aren't the first one to get caught out! The stuff that account posts is just enough to make you think Noakes might actually have posted it - it's that close!

I think that's a parody account

I think you are right. My Danish is a little rusty. And I spent the night at a Slut spurt so I'm a bit tired.

"men Qhubeka NextHash har stadig mulighed for at forblive på WorldTouren" All the men from Qhubeka NextHash will slowly grow mullets for the fathers of the world tour? I honestly don't see how that's going to help them find a sponsor....

I'm home self-isolating because of Covid so I got stuck into my old box of ****.... Who remembers these...

"itchy is back" Said no guy ever. Apart from on BikeHub where it is warmly welcomed

They got it nice and close!

The lead motorbike in this case. ie, the lead motorbike for that bunch.

I'm guessing the lead Motorbike in this case knew the route whereas the lead BMW didnt

I don't follow her on Social Media, but my Wife does and she said that Cherise Willeit wrote a very nice piece saying she felt really sorry for Emma - but she also said the bunch was confident they would have caught her if she didn't have the extra 2mins.

Would love to know where it all went wrong - There's no doubt that something went amiss from the MTN days to the DD days - the team just didn't perform. And there are far too many good riders who came to the team with high expectations and didn't perform, and a few more riders who started performing only after they left. Let's face it - if the Team was constantly right up there in the last few years I'm sure it would have been a lot easier to attract a new sponsor. Maybe one day someone will write a book and the truth will be told

A bit more progress this weekend....

I actually have found the Obituary which my Dad wrote for Alan, so if anyone would like me to post it - I will do so. All I can say is they made them tough back in Rhodesia in the '50s!

It's actually such a really interesting story regarding the Velocette Thruxton - I tried loading the pdf document of the full story, but in a nutshell Velocette had a standard 500cc model called the Venom. There was a very good bike racer in Rhodesia called Alan Harris and together with his mechanic Geoff Lacey they built a pretty fast 500 Venom. The Velocette factory racers came out to Rhodesia and SA at the time to compete (with their factory race bikes) and were soundly beaten by Alan and his 500 developed by Geoff. To put this into perspective, it would be like someone in South Africa modifying a road Yamaha R1 and when the Factory Yamaha's came out for WSBK they get beaten by a local riders on a modified R1 road bike. That's the enormity of what Alan and Geoff did. The Velocette factory was so impressed that they flew Alan, Geoff and his bike to the UK, and stripped it to see exactly what they had done here in Africa. And from that, the Velocette 500 Thruxton (an R1-M in comparison) was built. Alan was actually a very successful racer - I can't find too much info but he did race successfully at the Isle of Man TT. Alan Harris sadly died from Cancer a few years ago, but I knew him well and when I built my Velocette Venom into a Café Racer, he advised me on all the right mods to do - Geoff Lacey is still alive living in George but he is moving to a retirement Village, so cannot keep all his spares - our Velocette Club has recently bought all of his spares in in amongst the pile of stuff are some of the original heads he and Alan modified when they were building the racer. Most of them are scrap because they didn't work, but there is one that Geoff said to me would work on my bike - I just need a proper piston and some 100 Octane race fuel! Crazy old man he is.....

Think they had until mid-November. Which is pretty much past now.

So a little bit of trivia - arguably of the most successful and genuine Café Racers (during a time where the guys actually removed their bikes lights and raced them on the weekend) was the Velocette Thruxton. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velocette_Thruxton Anyone who knows the history of British bike racing will know the success of the Velocette Thruxton and also the marketing pull of the name "Thruxton" Velocette only had copyright on the name for a certain period and when the current owners of the Velocette name forgot to re-register the trademark it lapsed and Triumph pounced much to the disgust of every die-hard Velocette owner!