Christie

I dont like thinking of JPD as a second spinner, spinners wil have to bowl lots and lots. Imo his bowling is not of such quality that he would make it into the side as a bowler alone (which btw Kallis could). Can he be counted on to bowl 30 overs or more? Perhaps the thinking is to look for reverse swing with the 3x faster bowlers. Our position is looking quite solid for now. I like the batting strength a lot, Faf will fit well at 3, if he keeps his shot selection standards up, as he have done so far in his test career. I like QdK down the order, to come in and play a Gilchrist type role when their bowlers are tired, or a Faf like role if we get into trouble. The 7 batsmen policy seems to be holding, but I see that as a conservative approach. 7 batters are great for a "dont lose often" strategy, but that depends strongly on 4 bowlers to get 20 wickets to win. I would like to see Piedt and Tahir play, if the pitch favours spin. Swann and Panesar out spun the Indian spinners on their last tour there, and contributed greatly to set up a series win for England.

The pitch looks quite dead, from the bit I saw this morning. It looks like a strong team, but Im disapointed they did not pick two spinners. Philander has not done well on flat tracks, like one of the tests were played on in Aus. I hope Steyn and Morkel can find bowling form, they were below par in the ODIs. 3 pacers is a gamble on this pitch.

The wonderful thing about cycling is that those bikes will lose 50% of its value every 2 years. If I wanted one of those bikes, I would just wait 4 years and get a big discount. I dont think motorbikes and sportscars devaluate so quickly.

Pro sport is not what we think it is. Look at the Hansie and now Vincent match fixing cases in cricket - I think a lot of sport we see is not a real contest, but rather just entertainment. As soon as lots of money enters the room, corruption is not far behind. What does the E in WWE stand for?

A very relevant remark. Lance never got bust because he put back his own blood, just much more oxygen rich than the blood in his veins after 5 days of racing. It is still not possible to detect 100%. They look at a ratio of old cell vs. New, but pros micro dose to aviod detection. I still think the Conto clenbuterol trace came from a blood bag he donated while out of competition, that he took on the rest day. The Astana medical team was not so sharp after Bruneel and co. split off, and probably overlooked the clenbuterol by mistake when they withdrew the blood. Will have to wait and see how the Impey case pans out, it seems extremely stupid to get bust for dope that can be easily found by test, that does not boost performance. I also do not think he would have needed to dope for SA champs, that would be a very high risk for very little reward.

Damn! The key question would be: what quantity of the magic potion was found. Lots of it would indicate masking, and probably mean an end to his international career.

Break in = put it in the classifieds and buy a different one. (if you already ride regularly)

No. Power = (torque) x (rotational speed). This means that for more power, you need to turn the longer crank at the same rpm as the shorter one. However, data from testing indicates that power per person remains konstant, regardless of the length of crank. I saw a study where they used an adjustable crank that could go from 140mm to 200mm, where power per rider stayed the same - conclusion seems to be that your lungs and legs can do a certain amount of watts, if you fit a shorter crank, your body will adapt to spin it a bit faster, till you reach the same limit as before. Same story for a longer crank. There were some exception, if I remember correctly, shorter cranks were beter for sprinting. Bottom line is that getting bit longer or shorter crank wont gain any more power.

Flip was just stupid today. First game back, and he he goes and flips (pun, sorry) a players leg while he is in the air. With all the good locks we have, why is he even in the group? Etsebeth, Peter Steph, Lood all better players.

I wont go so far as to say we did not deserve to win. Boks made many stupid errors, and Wales played well today, but in trying to be "physical" they were playing dirty. They got away with al lot - high tackles, players on the ground on the wrong side slowing play down, etc. Imo their one try was a knock-on - player lost the ball on the line. That last tackle was an intentional elbow to the face. I would not be surprised that gets sanctioned during the week - red card offence imo. Very stupid - proper tackle could have won it for Wales.

I wonder what conclusions Sky will draw from the race? Contador is going to be a real challenge to them at thr TDF. He will have a stronger team. They risk a lot taking only one contender, with no plan B. The first week of the TDF sees lots of crashes, and we have some cobbles thrown in, too. What to make of Froome's condition? How much did the crash hold him back? Since he cannot ride away from Conti in the mountains, he will have to make time in the TTs, then look to defend on the climbs. The problem with that is that the Wig can do that, too.

Fantastic race. Great win for Talansky. Strong ride by Conto. Froome blew completely. Drama! Regarding the break, Conto was the race leader, it was his responsability to control the race. He made a mistake to focus too much on Froome, and did not take the threat posed by the contenders in the break seriously enough. He also had a weak team, which could not help him much at all.

Advert while he went over the line - finish of the race was not broadcast. That sucks.

It is a big call not to take Wiggins. It may come back to haunt Sky, one incident with Froome on he cobbles and their GC plans could go up in a cloud of dust. Crazy imo to pay such a strong rider, but not being able to use him. I am not a fan of Wiggins, the threats of withdrawing from the tdf, walking away from Garmin etc does make him look like a prima donna. Imo Sky had some trick up their sleeve (Argon gas or something) that the other teams did not know about, without which Wiggins would not have won. Porte, Froome will also be on more even footing now that Conto, Nibali etc are on level terms again. Conto: Doping cheat stripped of multiple Grand tours. Without his Bruneel blood bags, he looked more like an ordinary climber. If he is super strong all of a sudden, I would not hesitate to question his integrity. Froome: He could have handled the Wiggens situation better, imo. With LeMond vs Hinault, Conto vs Lance, the stronger man sucked it up, and won in the end. Froome is being a bit of a brat. Wigins: He is simply not that strong, in ToC he won agains mostly American local. He even got dropped on one mountain.

The companies do that themselves - Campy even copied a crank design frome somebody.

Weights as given by Totalcycling, here: http:// http://www.totalcycling.com/en/Component-Weights/cc-8.aspx

Groupset weights: Athena = 2168 Ultegra = 2294. (Athena wins by 126 grams) An outside conteder would be Force22, = 2152 It looks as if Ultegra is quite a bit heavier than the other contenders. For interest: Super Record = 1875 Dura Ace = 1998 Red22 = 1868 (the weight weenie champ) Chorus = 2096 (not much ligter than Athena, perhaps not worth the extra money, then)

With top end gruppos, one can compare weight to see what is equivalent to what. If Chorus and Dura Ace weigh the same, then it is a fair comparison imo. Performance of the groupset cant be judged on price. I have owned and ridden Chorus, Record, Dura Ace and Di2. There is no difference in performance between the top groupsets, only how the shifters work, looks and a bit of weight. Im convinced that your Argus time would not differ by one second if you rode Super Record or Ultegra, or Di2 for that matter. The most important factor: ride what you like, all the to gruppos are very good.

Buy what you like most. If it was Cippos money, it would be Campy. If it was me, I would choose Shimano. Look on Chainreactioncycles, they had a special on Ultegra 11x gruppos a week or so ago. Alternatively, you could argue that both are great gruppos, so just pick the lightest one.

Geepers, have we not got players in the country that has at least enough talent to play the Welsh? The number of foreign based players in the squad bothers me a lot - rather select SA based players, unless there is no alternative. My second gripe is with the older players, who must have one eye on retirement. Sure, some of them may be justified, but it looks as if Meyer is looking after his old gang. Thumbs down.

The auto mode will make it feel as if you are riding a 1x22. It can operate with one shifter - Shimano's answer to SRAMs 1x11?

My guess is not far off, then, depending on what size it is.

I feel the same. I hated those the s-bends, but this F8 looks the business.

For me, low frame weigtht, with high lateral stiffness and good vertical flexability in the right area are measures of the quality of structural engineering that went into the design. Lots of bike companies can build a carbon (or steel / alu even) frame that weighs around 1200 grams. Only some (Addict, Evo to name a few) can do the same at sub 800 grams.

What parts should Chinese bikes have? :ph34r: