Bianchisti

I doubt beef forms part of a pro's diet during the TDF for so many days. Berto weighs about the same as a teenage girl. How much beef can he get down? 150 grams?

I'm not convinced he delibirately doped

I feel bad for Berto but even if his not guilty of doping, he isn't exactly innocent of ignorance. Surely if his that intent on being clean he wouldn't want to hold onto a title he may have won with an unfair advantage. There was what? 40 seconds between him and Schleck that year? Or maybe its just to easy for me on the sidelines to say take it on the chin and walk away. I didn't work for this my entire life! I think it's a well balanced outcome for the hole saga. CAS made their point and the damage to Berto's career has been minimised.

I think the reason why they dragged their heels so long was to ensure Berto won't be out of competition for too long. They allowed him to race and essentially his only going to be out of racing for a few months. Thats far better than having the best guy in the sport on the sidelines for 2 hole years. At the same time they're making a point that doping won't be tolerated.

Any feedback from the queries anyone?

Seems the winds covered the entire Mid-East over the weekend! Had the pleasure of riding in that yesterday but avoided the "desert" part of town. The black hair on my arms was yellow/brown from all the sand. The wind was so bad the missus was complaining about controlling the car on the road. Good practice for the Argus though!

Great to hear! All the best to him and his family!

True dat! Was the missus' first real visit to Jorzi! All she wanted to do for the first 3 days was sleep. Ran out of gas quite early.

So I haven't bothered getting on the scale since I've lost the 2.5kgs I gained over Christmas. Shopping last night in the bathroom section, I get onto one of their scales. I look at the reading and think;It's obviously a k*k scale cause that can't be right. I got on the home scale this morning, look at the reading and think: **** me! That k*k scale was right. I've lost 5kgs

Group Y (international not qualifying for better seeding) from X last year after going 35min quicker than 2010. The guys who finished just before and after me last year is seeded U and W respectively. So even if they beef me up I’ll only start 10 minutes earlier at the most. No benefit of a good start group (international you get all sorts). Will have to give it stick for that 3:30

Sounds like they.'ll have to resend all those mails, same as last year, or was it the 94.7 when all the seedings was messed up? They tell me they used my 94.7 time and last years Argus to seed me, but then they dump me in the international group.

Shouldnt that read "up" from RR. They go through A-Z first right...

Just switched to a Garmin which was easy to log info but my CS100 didn'tt save any of my Jan rides Nice and easy to import a .gpx file but the IDT workouts have to be entered manually.

You’ll probably be a bit surprised by Oman if you go there knowing “what to expect” with Dubai/Abu Dhabi as your indicative referance(if you don’t mind me saying so). And yeah very much more cultural (slow) as you say. I might bore you with this but I was reading someone’s thesis a while ago; about supplying clean water and alternative energy to people living in a very remote mountainous area of Oman. I mention it because it was interesting the extent they went to in order to provide people basic human needs while preserving the way-of-life these people have been observing for centuries. You’ll go to Oman if you want to watch sea turtles laying eggs on beaches and swim in natural rock pools (wadi’s) rather than indoor skiing or fancy wining and dining. I’d think 4-5 days would be to little as the towns are quite stretched out. Diving at Musandam (way up north) for example is nicely accessible from Dubai but far removed from Muscat (capital of Oman). But then you’ll probably dive around the many little island off the Sur coast.

Yeah its not the sort of destination most people will plan a holiday to but its a lovely place. Tranquil almost surreal. Lots to offer in terms of preserved culture and heriratge (if that floats your boat). You call yourself old so I'm guessing it might. Great people and amazing scenery. You're a diver right Grumps? Great diving and the biggest whaleshark I've ever seen was in their waters. And the water is "warm" all year round.

I actually thought the 94.7 was tougher than the Argus How do I now explain being slower over 94.7 than I am over 110

Some pics

Tour of where???? (I hear you ask). Well you lot generally have your fun, or shall I say your cake, and get to eat it too with the abundance of races to choose from, while I have 2 for my entire year so I want to show off. I'm turning this into a training weekend and we're riding one of the stages the Pro's will be doing. It's a "small race" and the riders probably won't be inundated by fans so hopefully I have a chance to get close to the likes of Cav, Cancellara and baby Schelk who's all confirmed their attendance. I'm a little bit worried about the ride we'll be doing though. The stage of 157kms at Jabal Al Akhdar with a final climb of 5.8 km at an average gradient of 10.3 percent, reaching up to 13.5 percent over the last two kilometres. That's gonna be a killer for "my legs" http://www.bikemap.net/route/1375351

bump

Yes took the bundle and love it. Coming from the Polar CS100 there's no comparison. I had my LBS mount it for me. When I was on the bike the first time a message popped up saying "Wheel size callibrated". So I'm not so sure if you need to set it yourself, I told the mechanic I'll come back once I've had a bit of a play around. I battled a little with Garmin.connect yesterday. I see you well on your way already. Know more than me for sure.

Just got one myself (doen 2 rides) and I don't know it too well but I thought it callibrates the wheels size using the GPS signals. I might be wrong

The attached map shows total climbing of 1570m for the Argus route. I've seen 938m on Mapmyride Is there any consensus on this question?

Cant you go to your local LBS and ask them for an old box. Bubble wrap around the parts that will be in contact with the box and put some sponge/polystyrene in the sides. That’s what I do though it still picks up some scratches goodness knows how. Expect to encounter problems if you just bouble wrap it.

Thanks for that. My weighted index is 39.292. My 2010 Argus race index was 41.166 and last year came down to 35.25. the 94.7 I got 41.461 so yup, it didn’t pay off. I started in a much higher group in 94.7 that has a smaller field so that race must be more difficult but the field for the Argus is stronger. I think?? Probably won’t be starting much earlier than last year but this year’s goal is sub 3:30 regardless of the weather. If the weather is good….

Your Burger will count, but previous Argus results “will have an influence” according to the orgies. I did the 94.7 to improve my Argus seeding but I don’t think it paid off. PPA seeding seems to be based on my Argus ’11 result so waiting for the seeding to come out and will decide then whether to ask questions of them!