The Pirate

Good morning hubbers. Does anyone know if there are morning rides from Umhlanga from now on until the end of the school holidays ? If so how late and where do they start during weekdays and over weekends please ? Cheers

Luke Durbridge became the first male rider from the modern era to win the National time trial and road race in the same year winning the Australian Road Race this past weekend. With Chris Froome, TJ van Gaarderen, Tyler Phinney and Luke Durbridge we have a couple of epic Tdf's coming up in the next 10 years. All brilliant in the ITT and on the road.

Thanks E-man. So the rumours were way off target I have sent it to our team captain. See you guys in November.

The website says: **We are busy finalising the 2012 Event Rules and will update this page soon.** I heard rumours that no food and water support / stops will be allowed in the first 100km plus everyone must stop at the 115 / 120 km mark for a certain time ( 15 minutes or something ) period before carrying on ? This doesn't sound right ? Does anyone know how the rules changed for the feeding and support ?

I think it's just a question of time. Many top sportsman, including Sir Chris Hoy, said that this was the single biggest achievement by any sportsman in British history. He can expect to be bigger than Sir Ian Botham, Sir Bobby Charlton or Sir Chris Hoy. Can you imagine if he wins gold in the ITT in London as well ? Plus the rumours are doing the rounds that he is going to light up the torch tonight at the Opening Ceremony in London. So will Phil Ligget be forced to call him Sir Bradley at next year's Tour ? Only time ( and the Queen of England ) will tell.

He ( Chris ) looked very unhappy as he rolled over the finish line. He even shook his head. On the podium Wiggo didn't look at him once, not even any kind of eye contact plus he didn't even shake his hand. He did look at Nibali and said something to him but nothing to Chris.

Thanks, must confess it was the first time I saw someone with negative points.

How can a rider have negative points for the Green Jersey ? One rider has -2 and another one -15 ?

Will be there for 4th year in a row. Very nice race, best pannekoek on the East Rand.

Andy, who is not racing the Tour because of injury, is reported to have said from Luxembourg: "I swear on my life and the lives of my family, I'm sure he has taken nothing." BIG words.

Half the peloton seems to be in the "break" - 39 guys

The break will most probably only come after the Sprint point today.

For me the best one on the web is : http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2012/us/live/aso/

When is doping ever going to stop in cycling ?

I hope after today's stage this question can be put to bed for once and for all now. He is a cycling god in the making !

The Points before today's stage of the top 20 hubbers from the 99 in thehubsa league. 1. Jaco van Dyk 1776 2. John Donnelly 1763 3. Johan Stumpf 1734 4. Johann Michau 1692 5. Colin Allin 1677 6. shaun struwig 1665 7. Quinton Walker 1662 8. Greeff Moolman 1655 9. Mark Ward 1646 10. Rory Mitchell 1645 11. Francois du Toit 1642 12. Darren Lee 1641 13. john jacob 1641 14. Marcus Marinus 1637 15. Scott Pringle 1632 16. Alan Zinniker 1623 17. Stephen Chambers 1611 18. MITCHELL VOSLOO 1608 19. Jc Fivaz 1605 20. Nicolene van Dyk 1574

Something I picked up after he dropped Wiggins and the team car called him back. He waited for Wiggins and then as soon as they joined up again his team car started talking to him over the radio, he ( Chris ) took his one hand of the handlebar, put it on his ear and listened for about 15 seconds what the teamcar has to say to him. He then pressed in his button and spoke back to them. While he was doing all of this he was in the front of the group dictating the pace looking super cool and calm and Wiggins was pulling faces and huffing and puffing behind him. Chris is a monster that came from a "good" tour rider in the last 4 years to a top GC rider in the last 10 months.

For me the hero's of yesterday was Kern, Rolland, Froome and TJ. Mind you that new French rising star Pinot is a freak. Youngest rider in the Tour, already have a stage win behind him, riding it the weakest team in the Tour and still attacks the best climbers in the world and beating them.

I loved the facial expression of Brad yesterday sitting behind Chris in the last 5 km to the summit. Pulling faces, try to talk to him, dropping of the back. We all know who the strongest rider ia again at the Grand Tour this year. It would have been so much more entertaining for us if they were on sepperate teams. Hopefully Chris will get his time next year.

After stage 8 the point stnading on theHub League is as follows ( top 20 ) 1. Jaco van Dyk 1267 2. John Donnelly 1242 3. Johan Stumpf 1183 4. shaun struwig 1181 5. Johann Michau 1170 6. Francois Du Toit 1142 7. Greeff Moolman 1139 8. john jacob 1132 9. Kenneth le Roux 1131 10. Nicolene van Dyk 1129 11. jaco steyn 1123 12. Darren Lee 1110 13. Rory Mitchell 1110 14. Quinton Walker 1107 15. dan rob 1107 16. Collin Alllin 1104 17. Scott Pringle 1100 18. MC Dreyer 1093 19. Alan Zinniker 1092 20. Stephen Chambers 1091 Cograts to Jaco van Dyk who is currently under the top 10 in the world and to Collin Allin who has moved up 27 places since the last round. It is still very close and one or 2 good days could see you jump from 50th to the top 10. Enjoy the ITT today.

Peter Sagan's pure talent is summed up in these next few sentences from his Mountain Bike career : Sagan drew a significant amount of attention when he appeared at the Slovak Cup with a bicycle borrowed from his sister. Sagan had mistakenly sold his own and had not received a spare from the Velosprint sponsor in time. He won the race despite riding a supermarket bike with poor brakes with limited gearing.

Must have got it from mr Luke Vryenhoek

Before the start of Stage 6 ( Round 3 ) today the points ( of the top 20 ) on thehubsa League was as follows : 1. shaun struwig 839 2. Nicolene van Dyk 829 3. John Donnelly 818 4. Jaco van Dyk 812 5. john jacob jingleheimer schmidt 808 6. Ruan Lochner 791 7. MC Dreyer 790 8. jaco steyn 780 9. Quinton Walker 778 10. Alan Zinniker 776 11. Kenneth le Roux 772 12. Rory Mitchell 769 13. Jonty Adams 763 14. Andrzej Stepien 763 15. Tube Hunter 759 16. Johann Michau 756 17. Marcus Marinus 749 18. Richard Pilkington 747 19. Johan Stumpf 746 20. Ettienne Bruwer 745 Ps. Use your trades carefully, you only have 20 of them. Well done to Jaco Steyn who moved up 27 places since round 1.

Still hovering in the last 10. Hopefully from Saturday my other 7 riders will start scoring points for me. Funny I do poorly in this competision but on the Fantasy League game I am under the top 10 from the 80 hubbers that are playing in that one. I should have chosen Sparticus in this one as well. He alone has cost me 26 points so far

Wow, Shaun Struwig knows his stuff ! He is currently 7th in the World. Well done Shaun.