Danger Dassie

Gerald de Kock, can’t recall his colleague’s name offhand. I think she often works with Eurosport. IMHO they did a good job and worked well together. Another Saffa was the venue commentator, Max Cluer. Plus our own Nick Floros designed the course.

Ride time, that’s the measured effort which is recorded by your device and Strava/similar. Which will also show you the total elapsed time. My computer is set to auto pause for this. Makes life that much easier.

No one is “just selling the sport and discarding” anything. The fact is that the TV rights are held by the governing body, the UCI. RBTV have other projects in the pipeline, some of which might include WC coverage. As Warner alluded to. So it seems the commentary team stays on with RBTV, outside of that they do have other gigs with RBTV as well other stuff. No one knows what the actual deal is going forward, the World Cup coverage may even expand with EWS. Chris Ball has some involvement, so that is encouraging at least. Still, it is the end of an era. Ten years of consistent quality coverage and commentary leaves a substantial legacy to fulfil. Hopefully Discovery Sports step up here and maintain not only the standard and vibe, but also the accessibility. Bigger is not always better, we’ll see though.

Nice one with Matt Beers taking the inaugural SA jersey for gravel. Will be cool seeing the Saffa stripes rolling around in international competition with some podiums. Specialized better stock up on them Crux steeds!

No Minnaar in the run today?

Tragic news for the cycling community - https://www.velonews.com/news/gravel/sule-kangangi-of-team-amani-tragically-dies-at-33/ "The Kenyan professional cyclist succumbed to injuries sustained in a crash while racing in Vermont. Kangangi found new life breathed into his cycling career with the advent of the Migration Gravel Race, a four-day stage race that debuted in Kenya in 2021. The race brought international talent, like Ian Boswell and Laurens ten Dam, to compete with aspiring pros from East Africa on gravel in the Maasai Mara of Kenya. Kangangi finished second overall in the inaugural race. In June, he won Evolution Gravel, the second stage race from the Amani Project to debut in East Africa." A bit more upbeat news with local pro HB Kruger who podiumed in third at Yuzzu Gravel Series, Belgium. Part of the UCI World Gravel Series. The result see him represent SA at Gravel World Champs. 110km 2000m of ascent 3h37 of racing https://www.instagram.com/p/ChzZcBMqZYb/?hl=en

This. Creating a consistent content stream requires investment. The work itself is a profession that requires commitment. This all needs to be paid for somehow to ensure it’s viable. Challenging, because a culture of entitlement has developed over the years towards so-called ‘free’ content.

Other than as recently as last week. Barely ever, never in a race. But it is one of those items that when you do need it, you’re stuffed without it. The compact design here makes it worthwhile. Definitely on my list to replace my current bulky multi tool.

One illegal action does not beget another. ie three people cycling three abreast illegally, is not cause to commit another equally/greater illegal act by overtaking on a blind corner over a solid white line. Irrespective of the mode of transport. Its pretty logical, simple and straightforward. The fact that Duane is at pains to point this out sums up much of the problems on the roads.

Checked your pedals and/or cleats?

Understandable, we’ve seen the same within other events like London.

Suppose we could well chuck a penny for a few ideas. But there were a few options in the small wooded area at least, along with a few rollers and at least creating an actual path/flow features through all the grass. Maybe there were sever constraints like budget etc. Stand by the fact that the course was underwhelming for a Euro Champs field. Nick could well have put something significantly better in place I reckon. The mans an innovative and proactive talent.

Ja didn’t seem to be any real commitment or appropriate level of builder experience at that level. Maybe it was a budgetary issue. Showed a bit in the racing and favoured Pidcock’s pull away as the (large) chase group floundered. Not taking from his result, good boost ahead of worlds. I did enjoy the women’s race. One thing these smaller none core events prove, is the high standard of both courses and racing. And how spoilt spoilt we are with coverage. It all sets a high standard.

Yeah, I’m familiar with XCO 😉 ... point is that it isn’t indicative of a Euro Champs level course, technical challenges aside.

Found the Euro course completely underwhelming. No wonder so many riders opted for hardtails.

Which driver. Obvious. “Elbow over the line” are you fkn serious. The driver was either deliberate or not paying attention, ie on their phone. The person operating 3 tons of metal got zapped by the law, lightly. So the topic is done. I’m not going to belabour on the lack of rationale further.

No. Driver.

I believe Ciovita organise group rides near where you are? Alternatively there’s also East City Cycles.

I’m guessing he’ll be appealing on some level. Purely speculative, but doubt it’ll be surrounding the illness given the substance. So perhaps on an issue of contamination, either beef or grain. From some reading it seems that performance benefits are negligible as an outright PED. Unless it’s used in conjunction with something else and/or masking?

Eh? How do you mean, what doesn’t add up?

Keen to hear the reasoning. It's not something that one would find in a tainted form afaik. And a WT Dr should/would absolutely know better than to administer it. I remember years back when an anti-doping evangelist ironically espoused on Twitter the virtues of the stuff. That he was able to complete a cross cape event with broken ribs pain free. This was within a twitter convo about banning it for competition use. Similarly when it was eventually banned by the UCI, I enquired with SAIDS and CSA on how this would be managed locally. Basically got fobbed off. Anyhow, found this to be one of the most useful links providing an overview on the risks associated with Tramadol: https://www.usada.org/spirit-of-sport/education/tramadol-why-some-athletes-and-anti-doping-experts-want-it-banned/

Ah the old dead horse... neigh

Fair play to those who can actually get there, more so if able to pull a result against the odds. Can imagine there are other priorities at play which actually benefit the careers and well being of the athletes. Rather than having to endure the **** sandwich from sporting federations/gov to attend an (arguably) outdated games event. At least the kit design looks good.

Minmovers conduct leaving a lot to be answered for it seems. Would start with them.