GrumpyOldGuy

I enjoyed Gent Wevelgem, the narrow roads, the steep climbs and the new gravel bits made it into a great race, but I see a lot of negative racing lately, I agree with Sagan, Terpstra made the effort to bridge over so one assumes you want to contest the win, then just sitting back and saying "you work" is negative racing, I said it before, its happening a lot in modern racing, to me it makes no sense, to "win it" you have to be "in it".... you throw the dice and you take your chances, but you most certainly cant win from 20 seconds back.

Interesting, its similar to a travel insurance, but I wasn't aware anyone offered it as part of the package, maybe they will offer something like event cancellation in the future, its a small step and I definitely see a market for it, certainly I would take it out as well.

There are various insurances that will cover the participant. I used to be involved on the committee for a few running races and we were often approached by insurers. For us back then it wasn't really an issue as we only had 3-4000 participants and in running events weather is not that big of an issue, so we never took it, but we would always suggest runners who traveled take out some kind of insurance against the unforeseeable. The CTCT is a very much bigger event obviously, and weather is an issue, but so is entry fees,.... no doubt there would be a moderate cost involved which would increase the entry fee, and, as thats usually where the prospective cyclist looks first, it may also discourage them from entering. Its a double edged sword really, but perhaps for future events they could offer an umbrella cover as an added extra, (ie) Entry is R???.00 then if you require it, basic entry cost insurance is an Extra R??.00,.... You could also offer various tiers (ie) for visitors who travel far they could insure against travel and accommodation costs as well, local participants can just insure against entry fees etc.......... it would be a bit of extra paperwork I guess but then its out of the organizers hands and the participant will have recourse (or not, depending) if the event has to be cancelled for whatever reason. With 35000 entrants this would interest a number of insurers I am sure, the history shows the risk is there but its small, so Yah, I am pretty sure many would be bidding for that contract.

Yes, I imagined that, but just wanted to be sure as obviously I am far away, I think people will accept it if the only reason was the wind, no one can foresee that, but from what I read here there were other issues as well which may leave folk with a feeling of an unresolved issue.

Why did they say you cant get a refund, or even a part refund or a carry over? My mate was also there from JHB would have been his 20th Argus, sent me an email to say lots of irritated folk around, him included.

Very sorry to hear such news, I wish the family peace.

One of the nicer trophies I have seen, he took a gamble and it paid off, I kinda like that attitude. The woman's race was also very good, Niewiadoma is a rising star, she followed every move and was always up in the front, she was effortless, only Longo Borghini's experience and extra racing miles saved her,.........the youngsters are a coming!

Yah, Sat. I may watch the Strade this year, haven't bothered before but last years finish was quite epic. Italian races are always good in my opinion, one can never discount the Stybar's and like, but I think Nibali is looking better than ever, he can deal with the white roads, he is on a new team and he is Italian, I may just keep an eye on him.

That must be the worst example of a protest I have ever seen, good grief, things were happening in slow motion, for a second I thought it was Mr Bean! ....news must be slow if this made headlines.

Not Judging. However the comment "she can barely afford a phone call" is telling to me.

After reading the article it appears to me his parents remain living in poverty. Somehow I dont like that.

I am dreadfully sorry to hear of Tumbleweeds accident, I pray he will make a full recovery and that his family and loved ones are supported in all ways during this difficult time. God bless.

Yes, quite a bit, he actually warned Hoover and the FBI intelligence 6 months before the strike at Pearl Harbour that the strike was been planned but they never acted on it. It was a tough time for him as he lost some friends in Pearl Harbour as well.

Yah, it is Veteun, I battled a bit through the first quarter of the book as its all about the history of the organisations like the Abwehr, the Gestapo, MI5/6 at that time, their agenda in gathering info, who ran these operations, who they were accountable to, how they sent coded messages (which in the case of the Abwehr was ingenious actually), where there were "safe" houses for spies in different countries who were on the run and so on. One needs the backround I guess to understand how Popov was operating and who he was reporting to etc but its quite technical, theres lots of copies of manuscripts, coded letters etc and not really light reading. However, once it gets to the actual spy operations its riveting reading.

For anyone who is interested in second world war spy stories I have just finished "Into the lions mouth - the true story of Dusco Popov - a world war 2 German spy. Apparently the book was the inspiration for the James Bond series of books and movies.... anyway it is hard reading initially as it goes through the history of Nazi Germany, the Abwehr, MI5 and MI6 as well as the FBI, all of whom at one stage used Popov's spy services, but once it gets into the meat of the story (ie) how he gathered intelligence, how he fed his master of the day false information, how the FBI threw him to the dogs by blowing his cover and he had to run for his life when the Germans realized he was a double agent and set out to murder him. A good read if you enjoy historical documentaries, strangely enough he became enormously wealthy during the war been paid handsomely for his spy work by all the agencies, when the rest of Europe was living with food rations he was living on caviar, but it was a risky business and there were a number of attempts on his life.

Let me know, I havent read it either and I enjoy those kinds of books.

I often ran in the Supernova, felt fine, but for me most shoes are much of a muchness, if it fits and its comfortable I'll use it, to be honest I have run in virtually all the brands over the years, Nike, Reebok, Adidas, Saucony, Asics, Brooks........nothing wrong with any of them.

I used that shop for years, in the corner of that small centre, always found them very good and had a good range of product. I could always get Saucony there even though its hard to find generally, not sure about now but I recon you cant go wrong stopping by there.

Yah, they all have their own little personalities,... just like humans.

....or maybe a little bit of my all time favorite band, Jethro Tull, what a showman, I went to one of his shows in JHB a few years back,... it was filled to capacity with balding old guys, but man can Ian play a flute........

I felt like a bit of nostalgia today....so where else but Woodstock 1969. Just timeless music.

That part confuses me in bold. I will actually call BS on that. To break the cage bar is no mean feat, I think it would need a much bigger shark than this one, possibly even one with a big acetylene torch as well. Breaking into cages was a great "Jaws" movie trick, in real life its very unlikely. I think Slowbee is correct, the bottom of the cage was open and either the shark swam in and the diver dropped out or he was never in there in the first place, because then he would be looking "UP" and not down as the commentary says. I doubt there is any way a shark could have pushed its way into a cage and the diver swam out the same gap. It makes for a riveting video but I think there is a little selective editing and captioning going on.

Yes, and wonderful helmets they were too. I dont know why the company stopped making them, maybe the market was too small back then I dont know, but today they would be really smiling had they continued, with the prices of imported helmets in SA been what they are. Just as an aside, if you want to get the internals of the helmet replaced there is a place in Boksburg or Benoni, cant remember, but its near Carnival City and there was a guy there with a small factory making helmets on a small scale. I think most of his work was actually replacing helmet inner's, and I had the one of my AGV helmets redone by him. I thought his work was excellent and the helmet was fine. He also polished my visors and it was like suddenly looking through a new glass, one cant believe how road dust etc pits and damages the visor until its polished. I'll try find the details (I cant promise I will find them, but I'll try) and if I can I'll post it here, if he is still there and operational I am sure others will also find it useful.

When I bought Gold Finder Amazon as usual says "have you read this" and a book I saw was "Treasure Hunter - Diving for gold on North America's death coast by author Robert Mckinnon so now I just bought it.! Looks very interesting as well and I wondered if anyone else had read it.?

Well, to report back I just finished it this morning. Excellent book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks.