Lucky Luke.

online entrants should be able to opt out of the medal and opt in to a charity donation. medal collectors get a gold sticker for their helmutt or whatever. those without are not offered one at the finish. simple.

totally. while we're on the subject, SHOES! Size should be a required feature to be displayed in the ad TITLE - not at the bottom of the description or anywhere else. What is the freaking point of looking at ads for shoes that will never fit me?

I recently moved from a Polar CS500 (after many years of Polar HR monitor usage) to Garmin 800. Thoughts: Garmin = forward thinking technology, use your data wherever you like, no issues using with my mac, much better interface, customise display of workout data on the device, industry leaders for GPS Polar = shockingly broken software and worse than useless Apple compatibility, regular loss of workout data during transfer, cannot use data on most sites (Strava, Endomondo etc), heads firmly up 4rse, no signs of improvement in four years of usage.

I'm in Sorrento, Italy. Old men cruise down the middle of the main road here without a care in the world. No hooters to be heard. Get a grip, take a valium suppository and stay on your side of the road.

hang on, I see woollies have sent him some halaal buns as a gesture of consolation

nice use of the date there, if only it were true.

Buzz Aldrin is 82. Likely he would finish first - at the end of a defibrillator somewhere near the start of stage 1

True Swiss but Mr Vermaak's event is already sold out every year. Do you really want the LA circus to come to town and drive the price up even more? I don't think he needs that kind of exposure

PM Tarmac's Revenge, he owns a black Oltre, a Venge and has owned multiple SL3's and it's likely he can quote you a price on the Oltre that will beat whatever you have been offered. Might be able to quote on a spez as well. Right now he's still riding stage 7 of the epic but he should be back in the land of the living by tomorrow morning.

The argus trip cost somewhere in the millions. Why would anybody pay LA a bar or more to race masters at the epic? Nobody pays Shan and Mighty Mouse appearance fees to win it. It would be a bit unfair to pay Lance and Levi when the best they'd manage is 2nd. Burry even kicked his ass on the road at fun ride world champs.

Neck pain is probably down to poor setup or the wrong size bike. The difference between an Oltre and an SL4 is not going to come down to sore neck vs. no sore neck, provided you have the right size and the right setup. What do you want to use the bike for? Unless you are riding at a very high level, the best approach is probably to ride them both and see which one feels best. And to get a bike fit included in your purchase. Enjoy your new wheels, they are both awesome machines. The black Oltre is the shiznit. SL4 more of a climbers bike, Oltre slightly more aero.

Me too, I find Solal's slow release mellatonin works pretty well at keeping you asleep past the wee hours. It's been my only regular 'supplement' for the past year aside from Vitamin C and E.

I think this type of marquee event would be nigh on impossible to put on in South Africa as a road event. Too many social, logistical and administrative issues. Look at the Tour of SA. Plus the attraction for the international visitors is all about the bush. I think they'd be much less interested if you told them they had to ride around on SA roads for a week. Another thing about the Epic that would not translate well to a road event : it's about both the pro's and the back markers. That would never work for a road event.

The epic is interesting to me as someone who trades on user-experience. Most of my work is centred around experience design - and making the customer experience as painless as possible. For Kevin the more pain involved in getting from point A to point B the more cash people throw at him. Genius

I reckon he's making significantly more than that. Good for him though. He has a highly desirable product. And he's the only one selling it.

Me too, I like Evans, not too sure about DG. Burry and Christoff are a class act.

ye I have seen some cracking stuff of his on FB

sick. This is what marriage is all about

Yep, that's why my post said 'doesn't prepare'. Are all the guy's pushing their way to a three hour prologue and 8 hours + on day 1 victims of bad luck or illness? If they are then I apologise to them like I did to the earlier poster who has had to retire. Just on the derailleur thing. If it was the hanger that broke, yes I'm definitely carrying a spare. Otherwise SS would have to do to if it came to that. As for the fact that the event is hard, I should freaking hope so. If not I'm asking for a refund.

I was only here for spat. As for the size of the triangle on Burry's bike - wake me up when he's winning on a penny farthing - happy to read about that.

Eish that sucks bud, sorry to hear it. No sense racing when your body is trying to fight off a virus.

Sure Swiss I guess there are some things you can't train for.. Maybe I'm just jealous of the peeps who are fine with spending the money and not putting the hours in. Personally I don't have that much cash to throw around.

For 37k I'm pretty sure I'd finish. I did Sani for free with no training and 2 weeks notice and I smashed every day as hard as my fat ass would let me. 37k and you know I'm training 20 hours a week for plenty months in advance. Anyone who spunks that much cash and doesn't prepare deserves some ridicule and a whole heap of pain.

ok my bad, I thought he had.

Interesting bit I just found on KE's blog which pertains to almost exactly this situation: