Lucky Luke.

What was your mate's name in 3rd? Seems unlikely as the only result missing from the top 8 is Thornman's. The results are wrong due to a kerfuffle between PPA and Racetec at the start, sending riders across the mats in a disorganised fashion - there was lots of grumbling and eye-rolling going on.

Ok, that's why John is 5th and not 6th

Thanks, yep John had a good ride today - Racetec has him in 5th - glad he has some form back. I did miss the racing over the past year and a half - very happy to be back on the bike.

Me, Sean Roos and Jacques Van Zyl got away around km 18 and were caught by a chase group of, I think maybe 7, with about 20km to go. Attacks started to go in the last 3km and JP Jacobs rode away with about 1km to go and won alone. Not sure who was 2nd and 3rd, Neil Bradford was 4th, with probably Andrew Payne and Moolman Welgemoed and maybe Neil Swarts somewhere in the 5th 6th and 7th slots, with me 8th and Jacques and Sean 9th and 10th at a guess. Would be nice to see the results though for some confirmation.

That was me, caught C top of Smits and was sort of hoping I would sit in the bunch down to Scarborough but soon realised they needed a bit of help.

Not sure piet, I started in F and sort of made my own pace up as I went along. I think the winning time was around 1.48 or so.

Lovely day out on the bike, very enjoyable.

Just be polite and aware of the fact that the 10.30 starters do not ride bicycles very often. Expect a certain amount of Brownian motion and zero pacelining - must hurt like hell for these peeps when the wind blows. I did it twice a while back for St Luke's Hospice - got people to sponsor me per km - worked out quite nicely for everyone.

yes that is a strange question

I'm not convinced about creatine - unless you are a trackie and you're less concerned about power to weight and more interested in sprinting ability.

Exactly - amateur cyclists would all progress far, far more quickly by eating less and riding further. Train your body to burn fat stores, lose weight and you will go much faster and further much quicker.

I think the basic premise behind a recovery drink is that it is formulated to contain the stuff that is depleted by sustained and intense exercise - protein, carbs (in the correct ratio), vitamins and minerals etc. If you're getting this stuff from your regular diet, no need for a recovery drink. However, if you're at the Epic and too tired or pressed for time to think about it, or just concerned about getting the right balance of required nutrition - ie. you would prefer not to have to think about how to cook all that into a meal, then et voila, the recovery drink market has come to address your needs. Personally I only use recovery drinks when I'm severely depleted - like after 5 or 6 hour rides, or very hard sessions of 3 hours or more, and usually only when I know I need to ride again the next day.

Waterford Farm, Kariega River Valley

Great way to mitigate the christmas calorie intake, and once you recover you'll be ready to hand out some hidings for the 2014 season

I'll be in Kasouga from around the 19th and will be riding most days for probably a week or so. Charles Keey will also be in Kenton if anyone is feeling up to 4-5 hour rides at a decent clip, I know he's going to be looking for anybody who is willing and able to join him.

If your seeding is crap, you get to crush everybody in your group, and perhaps work on your TT form when solo-ing across to the next letter. If your seeding is good, you will *** off and be stronger next time. As long as you ride your moer off, it's a win-win situation, whether you are in A or Z.

The very recent incidents in Joburg (Johan Labuschagne) and KZN have prompted comments calling for an implementation of the WC's 1m rule, but it's patently obvious that our law would have done nothing to prevent the collisions in question, nor would it have helped Burry a year ago, or just about any other cyclist / car incident I can think of. The only difference I can honestly see with our new laws, is that if the incidents had happened here, the drivers in question could have argued about the lack of reflectors on the bikes, asked questions about whether the riders were using earphones and debated in a court of law as to whether or not the cyclists were riding as far left as humanly possible. Did I miss anything? It seems there is now a laundry list of legislated excuses for hitting a bicycle with your car.

Only been doored once, at about 35km/h by a parked london taxi - quite a robust door if you haven't had occasion to inspect one at close quarters as I did. This was on the Regents Park inner circle and this cab and one other behind it were the only vehicles in sight. The door greeted me like a perfectly-timed cricket bat addressing a full toss. The bike stopped dead as I went over the top and landed about 3m on the other side of this slab of metal. I still remember my whole body went numb when I hit the deck, and I had to wait a few seconds to confirm everything was still attached and in working order. The door I managed to seriously damage - only consolation I suppose - as well as bend my mtb fork back on itself. No apologies or offers of assistance from the cabbie - he was more interested in the damage to his door. I adjusted my riding style accordingly thereafter and have not been clotheslined since.

Big change needs to come from on high, which is why these people are outside the TFL offices. Only then will the transport culture truly change. You cannot realistically expect that people - cyclists and drivers - will adapt without the infrastructure and legal changes that faciliate that process.

Great job by the poms here. It would be great to see this level of pro-active organisation and co-ordination in Cape Town for example. Quite a lot that you could do for cycling with £600 million squid.

Cape Town Giants have a website, no doubt with contact details on it. And a Facebook page. Also, it's extremely likely that their club members all speak english, in the event that you have a safety tip to convey or feel that there has been a lack of 'rider education'.

I'm probably in the minority here, but I am over vitality - too much admin and pointless testing to tell me what I already know. Time wasted during which I could be out having a life.

Surely the point is visibility not passing distance? High visibility clothing has a binary application. Either you're squashed or you're not. Did they measure how many 3dclaudes vs 2dclaudes at the end of the study? Yellow clothes will not make your nation's drivers any more considerate. I would have thought that was self-evident. A more significant and multi-pronged strategy would be required to achieve that.

Thanks, but I didn't appreciate what happened after that DC and paid no attention to any of the DQ's and bitch fighting. Even during the race there were a couple of unnecessary interactions between our team and other riders that I would prefer to forget.

Nope, we were 4th in 2011 - we started pretty late and the winners started after us. But yes, surely the only sensible format is to start the fast teams first. However, I can see that for the very slow teams, and for the organisers, this could cause a problem due to the very late finish times / extreme heat etc. In which case, one solution would be to limit the support vehicles to say 20 seeded racing teams across all cats - open, mixed, 12 man prize etc. Start those 20 seeded racing teams early, fastest team first, and thereafter proceed with your reverse order start times - slowest team first, fastest non-seeded team last, with no support vehicles for the remaining 300 odd teams. Support vehicles are usually a pro / elite team luxury, and this race should be no different, especially given the problems we see every year. My wife will be delighted to hear she doesn't have to do it ever again. The organisers could collect say three hampers per team to be placed at three designated team rest areas across the course. Say, top of Op da Tradouw, at Ashton or Montague, and another one at Bonnievale. These hampers would need to be dropped off the night before or super early on the morning of the event to get to their destination in time for the first teams coming through. Problem solved.