Naas V

It happened at 5h30 in the morning - fairly dark still. Can someone inform us whether the cyclists had; visible reflectors - front and backsufficient lighting systems I see so MANY cyclists without the above on our roads and always wonder why they're not better prepared for the conditions. Can it be due to carelessness/not thinking/ stupidity or ....what?

Why are you impressed? Have they done anything over and above? Did they make good on lost time, frustration, formal apology, lack of peace etc etc? Or have they just corrected what they should have done in the first place? Don't be impressed so easily friend. Satisfied, yes, but not impressed. Bad service should never have happened.

The problem with your post is by referring to this girl and others as "pro's". We don't have any pro riders in this country - "wannabe's" maybe. You'll have to look overseas to find pro's. Enjoy your cycling and it's not necessary " to get into the swing of things" - style and good manners are more important

Yes, and a lot of other things get overlooked as well - exactly why cycling will never come clean. Why was Hoffman disqualified at a recent 94.7? The argument was his teammates were suppose to pace him back. What if my stem breaks? What if my chain breaks? ..or a cable, or anything?? Some people prepares better than others but we also know life is not fair. To illustrate: Last year I took part in two high profile races where in both races the chain of one of my opponent's bike came off - in both cases we were starting to climb. So he lost some valuable ground but was motorpaced back in both instances. I say either he does'nt know how to change gears properly or his gears are'nt tuned correctly. So he needs to prepare better - the bike and/or his gearchanging ability. A hard and fast rule need to be APPLIED (it's already in place) So, I say, it shouldn't be allowed to be motorpaced back and neither should team managers be allowed to operate who condone acts like that.

I use to "sukkel" with maths at school until one day my teacher explained something to me - it went like this: Say your friend weighs 65 kg's and your love for your friend is X, then your love for your friend per kilo will be X/65. If your friend suddenly weighs 60 then your love per kilo will obviously be greater Important to understand that we're not talking of more love, it's per kilo where the maths change ...plse don't shoot the messenger!

I agree with Bored Girl - stop trashing the ladies here. And people can race for 2999 th place if they want to - we're all taking part because "way back 1936 in Sicily" it was fun riding and racing with bikes...and it should still be so today! I started the post to point out my annoyance with the so-called "more experienced and fitter ladies" I feel the ladies and other closely involved parties shoudl market their participance in a much bigger way so that lady numbers can grow faster and bigger to justify having their own seperate starting groups.

Please vote Naas V2010-02-16 07:17:23

Thanks 4 all the response. It mostly confirms what my feeling is as well - they should start seperately. So I've started a poll and aim to to present it, for what it may be worth, to the organisers of various races. Please take part in the poll. Blessings, Naas

So they just sat, sat and sat. When the speed picked up they jostled and jostled and jostled. When some VB's started to work nicely and it seemed like we're going to catch the break-away they, the ladies, blocked, blocked and blocked(unintentionally of course but very inexperienced and unproffesional) They never took a turn at the front but positions no 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8 is where they wanted to be. Needless to say, some of them had the strength to pip us on Vissershok and Odendaals. Racing ladies? Some of the best in this country? ...??? what to do,...very frustrating. They deserve to have their own starting group

Through the years I've seen this often and now again in the TdF - some riders shaking their legs sideways, mostly towards the end of a long hard ride. Is it done to get rid of the buildup of lactic acid? Does it really works/help and is there scientific proof?

That's awesome, congratulations to both of you - I video-ed similar experience when kids were small - such precious moments.

Depends Bruce...rather check with your doctor Anything else?

It's overrated, overpriced and should never be continiously used without monitoring your heartrate as well. There are only a small number of people that really fall in love with this tool due to the complexity of all the available information(graphs) and how it should be interpreted(not always easy) Don't be impressed by people telling you they pushed so and so watts - there's a lot of other info to take into account. You'll most probably need a qualified coach as well to guide you through this experience and should factor the cost of that in as well. See if you can get a second hand powertap and play with that a while( can even rent it from some people or find somebody that's fed up with his and borrow it for a while) After that experience you might find yourself thinking that a heartrate monitor is much more economical in terms of investment and the fitness results it can help you return/achieve. Latest rumours in some articles also points to a "comeback" to HRM training. I am also slightly older than you and I think it's imperative, with al life's stresses and challenges, that you have a tool at your disposal that can monitor how you feel(lower heartrate than normal can indicate pending sickness) This is especially helpful on some days when you don't feel all that well and should actually not be training at all. Good luck, Naas

Ek dink groot deel van die apologie was/is om "closure"te kry en dan soos volwassenes aan te beweeg. Iemand het 'n ruk gelede hier op die hub gese dat om 'n opinie te he nie beteken dit moet hier geskryf word nie. Ek stem 100% met die persoon saam. Hier's is nou opnuut gevonde voortslepende negatiwiteit rondom 'n saak wat niks van enigiemand anders behalwe Tiger se trots gekos het nie - en ek dink dis onnodig. Kom ons oordeel dan nie verder, vergewe hom sy "stommiteit" en gun hom nuwe plek in die son. As iemand van 'n beter manier weet om hierdie aarde 'n meer vreedsame plek te maak, laat weet my gerus.

Lessons learnt Use lock of sime kind -mine was only strapped and held by toptube attachmentNever entertain beggers - they were distracting Annalize while some were obscuring the mirrors so that she wouldn't notice the ones busy at the back - car was fully loaded - view to rear inside car was minimal; Rather stay with your trailers and bikes yourself and be outside when in dodgy areas - your wife or girlfriend can do the shoppinh. Having said that I've travelled in Africa quite a lot over the last 15 years and this was the first incident of this kindDon't know why wheel and skewer was removed and never got my KFC

Short version Sat 1pm, Madeira St, Umtata. I'm abt to order a meal in KFC when a shot rang out in the street. I ran out, my car parked in front and Annalize outside screaming "they've stolen your MTB". It was true, mtb gone, Specialized racing bike hanging loosely on Thule bike rack. Black youngster(luckily not injured, two others ran away) lying behind my car. Policemen, while gathering empty round starts kicking all hell out of him. Big crowd gathering now. Me, policeman and 3rd suspect went to police-station abt 300 yards away. The next 20 minutes still like haunts me. I watched 4 assaults on mid-day crime suspects, including "my" guy. Weird thing thing was that the hitting and kicking was mostly done by women constables. Anyway, next moment some important policemen in civvies told me "we will not open document(case). we will now proceed with two vehicles into location renowned for gangster activities to try and retrieve your bike, you must come along. They pulled 2 rifles with fully loaded cabinets out the safe, signed for it and next moment I found myself, sheepishly walking towards the taxi-like vehicle and off we are - 7 policemen with me and 3 up ahead in policevan. Through the CBD, into this slum area while sirens howl, screeching tyres and all traffic ducking and diving to stay out of harms way of what's coming at them. Finally stopped at suspected hiding place of 1st and 2nd suspect, abt 10 k's away from place where crime took place. Into first house - no bike. Out they came, time for some more kicking and hitting. OK, now we're ready for next search, house next doors. In they went, out they come with mtb, front wheel missing. "Yes" I said that's mine. "Where's the wheel?" In they went, out they come with wheel. "Yes" I said " but skewer'e missing". In they went, out they came with skewer. Now all the racing and sirens and screeching tyres starts all over agin. No stopping at traffic lights, everybody must just get out of the way. Thankfully, soon we sopped again in front of policestation. I thanked everybody, took some pictures, everybody smiling, get some contact details etc. So abt two hours later I'm on my way again, fricking hungry but keen, so very keen just to get out of Umtata - minor damage to both bikes. I did ask the policemen "so what were they gonna do with the bikes? Oh it's really the prefered mode of transport for lots of people and bikes look very nice. So mtb(mavic crossmax tubeless, Simano xtr and Fox shock) would have sold for R30 at least, the racer( 2008 Specialised Tarmac Pro with chorus and R-sys wheels would at least fetched R50 )" ...must tell my insurer I'm way overinsured then!

Slaan die ouens wat so met jou lol met jou handsakkie