Zook

Please keep posting pics and reviews. Need to live vicariously through you.

I reckon you should try nail them. He obviously has a way to sell the bike, and probably does this a lot, so stopping one person will stop many painful incidents. Don't let on that you're not going to do it, rather get the oke bust. Maybe someone who has dealt with these issues will have a better idea of the mechanics of how to sort it out. (Edit: if anyone's ever thought "if only I could catch the =$*#!", now's the time to help figure it out.)

Poor Caster can't get a break. The announcer oke called her "controversial" twice in about 2 minutes, don't think that story is going to go away soon. I reckon if they've let her in and decided what they want to decide, they should STFU and let her run, or at least set some date past which they'll leave her in peace. If she wins gold, the whining from other countries will go off the scale. I hope she does, and gets some killer sponsorship deals.

Really enjoying the Olympics. Shooting (shotguns, on now), track cycling, watching Bolt, archery, some of the swimming, have all been surprising pleasures.

I think my aunt mavis was a doper. She hardly trained, ate enormous meals, but at a first-come-first-served 2-for-1 sale nobody could beat her to the lacy undies section.

If you're going to include synchronised swimming and men's artistic gymnastics, you better have mountain biking.

Also, fastest way to get dates is e.g. "olympics mountain biking" into Google. SAST times, widget on the right-hand side. And they have a full olympic setup here: https://www.google.co.uk/campaigns/olympics/index.html Events here: https://www.google.co.uk/campaigns/olympics/events.html And very, very important: 09 Aug Women's High Jump Qualifying Rounds (1/2) 10:30 AM 09 Aug Women's High Jump Qualifying Rounds (2/2) 10:30 AM 11 Aug Women's High Jump Final 8:00 PM

I'd say try riding it. If it's secondhand they won't mind if you take it for a spin. Then select from a couple suggestions here and try those bikes. On the Trance, a friend has one and thinks it's a bit too bouncy for him. He's very technical but prefers his bike to be a bit more efficient. So...try it for yourself, preferably on a trail you'll be riding on.

Jaco - agreed, I'll still remember how he demolished some fields, and even with dope he managed to do an incredible thing, staying in form, injury-free and doing everything almost perfectly right for seven TDF's. That's almost impossible even if you have all the advantages - look at Schleck and Contador. But he's made life hard for many people in this world, who were only doing their job. So I won't feel too sorry for him as long as he stays as aggressive as he is. If he's innocent, that'll come out. No way he'll leave a stone unturned in this fight. But I'm pretty damned sure he's guilty, so all he's doing is obstructing.

If the guy wants kit, it's very unlikely for his own use. So frankly he's doing something good. If he forgets to pay you, that doesn't make him an a-hole. Remind him once or twice, and then don't worry about it. If it's really bothering you, put up your bank details and I'm sure one of us will pay you for your postage. I mean, thanks for sending the kit in and contributing yourself, but rather be happy you're contributing and don't worry too much about the postage, unless you can't afford it.

I've generally defended Armstrong, but he deserves to be nailed. You can't say you're for cleaning the sport up, and then be against a mechanism that works for that. He's been aggressively defensive, making life hell for anyone who's not with him. He's had his time, now cycling needs him to go down, if he's truly in the wrong.

2 year contract IIRC, and he's 27 so it's not a tragedy to spend another year with them. They're also likely to not hold him back if he keeps up that level of performance - would be stupid to, especially if there's less focus on TT next year. But sure as nuts the next contract negotiation is going to look different, if they make him play second fiddle to Wiggo indefinitely. One thing I will say, though, is that he shouldn't embarrass his leader. If he is pulling the dude uphill and feels stronger, he shouldn't keep leaping off the front unless he's given the go-ahead to take off. Or wave his hand in Wiggins' face and make it obvious that he's not as strong, on international TV. He should bide his time, go when it counts and when he has team permission to do so.

Nobody suggested riding against team orders, that would be insane. Even ultra-calculating Armstrong let Landis go once he'd done his job. Top of the climb, Landis had killed himself to position Armstrong. Armstrong asked Landis if he wanted to win the stage, and when Landis said "yes", Armstrong's reply was "ride like you stole something". It didn't work out and Armstrong was pretty much forced to win it, but that's the type of legendary move Wiggins seems incapable of. The race is about numbers, but it's also about soul. Only defence, to me, is just in case Wiggins got a puncture and Froome was there to offer him a wheel. On the other hand, very glad for the win today - Valverde deserved it.

I fully agree she should cut it out, but I can't imagine what will prevent him from getting some serious offers next year. The only problem is - will he have such a good opportunity again? Contador will be back, and cranky. Cran-ky.

Wiggins is a chop. He should have let Froome go. He got nothing substantial for keeping him around, and it would have meant so much for the oke who dragged him through so many stages. The lasting video images of this tour are going to be of Froome looking around for Wiggins. He, like Voekler, is likely to T-bone someone while he looks backwards all the time. "Where are you, Brad? Can I get you a drink? Are you ok? Want me to pop back to the car for a sandwich? Do the rules allow me to push you?"

The reason the GC guys let you win is because they're also playing their calculated game. Energy expenditure vs overall goal. So 200km comes down to a predictable 2km attack that is definitely going to fail if they attempt the same thing today, because everyone is playing the obvious calculation. Nibali attacking by himself when there are two able to work together behind him, is silly. He obviously doesn't have the energy to do it. Imagine van Garderen being allowed to get 100m on Wiggins, and then have Nibali attack, jump across and the two of them work together. It'd have at least a fighting chance of success.

I think there are definitely riders in the peleton who could go faster but aren't because they're happy to just survive the day. See anyone who drags themselves through in the peleton, and then the next day rides a monster breakaway over mountains. Ok, junior strategist here, but this is what I think. When a team is this dominant you can't attack on the final climb. You have to hit them when they aren't expecting it. Attack on the previous climb so you weed it out down to Froome and Wiggins, and have guys ready to help you in the breakaway. Have multiple teams attacking - one on each climb, make Sky work for every inch rather than just defending on the one dead-obvious place everybody expects. Why don't people help across teams? Have two guys from another team help you selflessly, then pay them back on another day or in another race. Would create great TV exposure for both and would be much harder to predict.

Voeckler is awesome. Guts.

Stop replying to him. Stuffs up my blocking.

Thanks. Found it. Under Edit Profile -> Ignore Preferences. That will not be the last time I use that function.

Nibali Nibali Nibali. If he puts the pain on Wiggins, Froome will have to catch him.

It's a great idea. If they fail at making it exciting in even these mountains, my own idea is to hand Tour and team managment over to the pro wrestling people. It'll take ages for the public to realise the change, although the cyclists will wish for the days of "tacks on the road" being their biggest worry. I'm thinking teams including some rugby players, and open warfare on the hillside, with paint-ball guns. The cyclist girlfriends personally encouraging them up the mountain in revealing kit should top it off, live-twittering each other as they lose bets and have another tequila.

Agreed. Ages back, when I thought Lance was the bees knees, I realised "If Lance was doing my job, no way would he be riding all week and weekend. He'd be doing what his job was, as well as he could." So I love riding and my weekly effort wanders between 0 and 12 hours depending on the goal and season, but my life isn't about that.

Not great. It's ok until you zoom in to the photo, then you see lots of weird un-antialiased sharp bits. Still, it's nice because you can just put it on every-X-seconds and it'll take lots of photos that you might not be able to otherwise.

Cadel and Nibali have both attempted attacks at various points, they just didn't work. Wiggins just isn't making mistakes and they're not hurting him on the mountain stages.