Andrew_ew

My second op involved drilling holes extremely close to the holes from the first op and making it strong enough that the bone held the screws- he did it in 2000 and the knee is still strong, survived one more season of rugby, comrades, a number of marathons and a few spills on the bike. He really is a genius - also brilliant with shoulders. He had started riding as well the last time I saw him (shoulder).

Dr S Osman at Entabeni 031 2616616 - extremely gifted surgeon - got me back to playing rugby after another surgeon botched my acl reconstruction.

Sadly KZN is now catching up with the rest of the country it seems. I narrowly missed an attempted attack in the same place on Blair Atholl / Rodger Sishi road some weeks ago. I did put a warning up on the KZN danger areas thread.

Whoo hoo!! - Thank you so much ASG - awesome - can't wait for them to get here!

Some lucky folk have already won an entry thanks to the wonderful folk at fnb......

Some people have won an entry already thanks to the wonderful folk at FNB.....

I was in the 2nd A batch group - dropped my chain at Richmond Road (just after Fox Hill) and had some work to do to get back onto the group - caught them by Cato Ridge. I think I was right behind you in the final sprint - in the red and white Mr Price kit. I saw the riders down on Fields Hill - it looked pretty nasty - hope they are ok - there are some nasty potholes there - cost me a rim and a saddle earlier this year. There was almost a big pile up at the corner into the finishing straight when that pedestrian crossed right in front of the bunch. Marshals were napping a bit there.

I asked the event organiser cyclevent - part of cycle lab - how they got to a seeding index of 20 (the cut off for the age groups) and this is their answer: " They work on the other races that you have done in the past." I would never have guessed - so sneaky. I pressed for some more detail such as weighting indexes, beta factors etc. I asked them if they used saseeding or ppa in response they revealed the following pearl: "We use the timing from Racetec. What happens is the take the % of the your time compared to the winning time of the group." (sic) If the winning time is 2:20:08 and finishing on 20% of the winning time would be 2:48 = 140 min x 0.2 = 28 + 140 = 168 = 2:48? which then means that a time of 2:48 and under should get you into your racing group for age. Now how many people finished in under that time? 263 in last years Shova. In the VA, VB, VC groups there were a total of 346 riders. My maths is bad to the point of numerical illiteracy so any corrections are welcome and if there is anyone who know how they actualy work out the seeding then please tell us. I still don't know how they get to a number like 20 from a percentage of my race time without weightings etc? Why can't it be open and transparent?

I have ridden the course during its various incarnations - you will need to put on your big boy pants and take a realistic view of the risks you can and can't take in view of your work and family commitments. I am still not sure if I will be taking the A line on all the obstacles, some I am happy with and others not - at this stage. There are a lot of entries. A lot of the obstacles you will need momentum for. Too many riders in front of you and you will either be waiting or taking the B or C line in any event. A lot of the guys and girls have crashed on that course. Crashed hard. A lot of very good riders with great technical skills have crashed hard on that course.

Also had great service from them - couldn't find what I needed, Matthew ordered it for me, he let me know as soon as it arrived and it was delivered to me very quickly - no fuss no hassle - and at an awesome price!

I think the cost of things has just increased so much. Cheap kit can be a false economy - expensive kit often unneccessary for the mid packer. XT or SLX level of kit is adequate for most of us. A chain and cassette at SLX level is just shy of R900. Personally I can't justify that for a few races in the mud. Never mind the wheel bearings, brake pads, chain rings, free hub bodies etc.

Spot on - I used to ride and race irrespective. It got ridiculously expensive. I now do 80% of my training on the road on a road bike and save my mtb drivetrains for skills sessions and races - in the dry and occasional damp race.

Spending couple of grand replacing bb, wheels bearings, cassette, and chain made me realise how expensive it can be to htfu and ride in the mud & rain sometimes.

My wife complained once. I asked if she would prefer it if I played golf. She doesn't complain anymore and is now very supportive of my cycling.

Ate some tar at speed in a peleton in tour duran thanks to twit. Lost a fair bit of skin. Had to go to hospital to check for broken bones and proper clean up due to large area of missing skin. The kind nurse scrubbed the are gently with a sponge and warm dettol. Where dirt was embedded a scrubber was used. Morphine was given due to other injuries Jelonet was applied on my back and shoulder roasties, the knee roasties were left open. The roasties covered by the jelonet healed so well there is barely a scar - alwqys use it now for big roasties. Clickc sell jelonet.