Velouria

You can tell we've thought this through: We probably need to start at around 2 for a nice gentle lap of the Peninsula. Then we'd get back just in time for the race snake start, where we'd have to hang on for dear life (you should see my wheel sucking skills when my life depends on it) and hopefully we get to finish at around 9:30 - just in time for the last lap, which would include several beer stops (we've been practising that last lap for several years now and really know how to pace ourselves, both on the bike and in the pubs!).

Not an unreasonable question at all. Let's just say that we have tried to figure out a scheme to do it 3 times... [emoji6]

Ask the okes in 1D - they seemed quite adept at leaving me on the front while pretending to not be there. It's amazing how skinny and quiet some guys can be when trying to hide on your back wheel. It's much easier to just settle in and ride a tempo than hopelessly flap an arm and trust that someone will come through. After all - everyone is saving themselves for the "sprint" for 700th place!

Apart from that incident, 1D seemed like quite a good bunch. Okes were chilled, no shouting or swearing, and I felt rather safe. I was a little annoyed at having to go around the crash (it's amazing how the "not my problem" gene kicks in when riding bikes and chasing other riders), but it did look pretty bad. The guys were in pieces. The medics running towards the accident from the water point 2kms seemed a bit inappropriate. A car, and preferably an ambulance would have been better suited. On a side note - 1D was two minutes faster than 1A to the 51km mark. But we sucked on the climbs, so 1A made up 6 minutes on us over the second half of the race. (It's a sad day when I'm the one of the better climbers in the bunch). Me waiting for the bunch to catch me after Smits (just before the Oceanview turn)...

Thanks DJR - as I get older (and *cough cough* less competitive) I find I'm reevaluating why I enjoy riding bikes so much. Rides like The Big Day Out remind me...

The wait is over! The report is here: http://www.velotales.com/2018/03/the-bigdayout-2018.html

I tore a hip flexor at Epic last year when I struck a rock with my pedal. One minute I was enjoying the trails in Lebanon, and the next minute I was lying on the ground, writhing in pain, trying to figure out how and why my crotch was so sore!

A Cervelo S3 and Cannondale. And Tim was in his Santa Cruz gravel bike

I was on my vintage Spez...

Since you have to do some assembling of the bike, surely it can be argued that you're buying a box full of parts and not a complete bike, and therefore the duty will be for parts only. The point of charging more for complete bikes was to encourage local labour to assemble the bikes. In this case, the local labour is me.

The Americans weren't even ashamed of using that technology. They had over 200 V2s from the war that they fiddled and tinkered with. And it was Werner von Braun who essentially got the US satellite Explorer 1 into space with his whole Redstone project. While the US was taking horse steroids to improve performance, the Soviets already had a fully fledged mirco-dosing EPO program...

Not really correct. The name NASA was created in 1958, and was essentially just a name change from NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics). NACA had been fiddling with some really cool toys since 1948, and NASA's brief was to conduct all non military space activities. (X15 - a NACA project taken over by NASA) A ROCKET PLANE!!! 1959 http://twistedsifter.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/nasa-rocket-launch-high-quality-25.jpg?w=800&h=615 The Bumper V-2 was the first missile launched at Cape Canaveral on July 24, 1950. Launch of Explorer 1 on January 31, 1958 (USA's first satellite) And by stating that Apollo was "basically at the beginning of NASA" you're glossing over Mercury, Gemini and all the other rocket programs. Apollo was a d!ck waving contest. The US were 2-0 down to the Soviets, having lost out to Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin, and just like any guy in the local cycling group who keeps getting dropped, they threw money at the problem. They essentially walked into a Specialzed Concept store, opened the catalogue, and ordered everything without even blinking at the price. The wanted the Strava KOM on the moon, and they were not going to lose out again!

Mucking about? Riding 17.86kms to work and back is hard work!!! While I love a good opportunity to ****myself up on a bike - I'm a little nervous of Munga. I'm not sure I could balance my desire to do well with my desire to live, and I might end up in a very dark and lonely place. It's on my list, but way way down near the bottom... Colonel is back as John Wakefield I say Minty post something the other day, on here, and on twitter. I haven't seen the others about in ages

I've always liked The Awakening's cover. Back in that boom time of SA rock...

I'd barely hit "Post" button on my previous message when I got one of these: Dreading the worst, I checked to see which KOM had fallen. Luckily, I know I can flag. The wind was strong this morning, but not that 105.6km/h strong!

Sounds like my afternoon commute EVERY DAY for 6 months here in Cape Town I was a little sneaky on the ride into work this morning - knowing that the South Easter is going to be pumping this afternoon (more than normal since it was already howling this morning), I thought I'd at least get something from today. There is a KOM that I lost on Christmas day (who goes riding on Christmas day, and not just riding, KOM stealing? I should have flagged it right there and then!) and I tried once under perfect (windless) conditions to get it back but came up 3 seconds short. Today's conditions were perfect for reasserting my dominance on the local neighbourhood KOMs. Nailed it with 2 seconds to spare.

Just a pity that Giant don't bring all the options into SA. There are some good looking bikes in their lineup... And then there is Canyon

I went from the S3 with discs back to my trusty old Spez with alu rims and rim brakes and it is k@k! Everything about my 7 year old Spez is better than the 2017 S3, except the braking. One finger braking is the FUTURE. (The S3 can take 25mm Conti GP 4000s) Back to the S3 - I'm not sure the added weight on the bike was solely because of the discs. My gut feeling is that Cervelo rushed the model to market, and possibly over-compensated. They also equip the S3 with terrible components, and the front end steers like a bus. But the discs rocked! Regarding CSA - we had an issue at Double Century (we actually had several issues) with someone reporting us for riding bikes with discs. Luckily, since DC isn't a CSA sanctioned event and most of the riders aren't CSA members, they have no authority to ban people from using discs. (I did have to show the commissar this article https://inthebunch.co.za/2017/06/use-of-disc-brakes-why-and-who-the-ban-applies-to/ to convince him otherwise. The fact that he didn't know this himself was quite appalling!)

It's amazing what that thumbs up does - not only for the truck that's just gone past you, but the other vehicles still behind you. Wave thanks to one car and suddenly all the cars passing you will give you space. It gets a little tiring after a while, and it should be the rule, not the exception, but if that is what I need to do to get space and show my appreciation, then so be it.

While this is all fine and well, I think we should be talking about the AMAZING telescope sitting in our backyard... https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/07/radio-telescope-new-galaxies-meerkat-south-africa-space-science/

We lodged a complaint for the drafting on the route (which was never radioed in), and another at the finish, and the team that I cannot mention responded by saying that they were trying to pass us. For 30kms. Race commissars weren't really interested in actually doing their job and so let the result stand (despite witnesses, Racetec timing, and Stava FlyBy analysis).

I was fiddling - should be up now