NGM

Saddened to hear about the passing of one of the greats, Frederico Bahamontes, who died earlier today. 95yrs is good going though. He "only" won one Tour, but for his generation was the best climber and the first ever Spaniard to win the Tour. And his win was against a pretty stacked field. He might have been the best climber ever, although comparisons across eras is not really fair. The bikes, the kit, the masses of fans all standing and clapping politely (instead of filming and pulling away at the last second to get the best social media content), it seemed like a much simpler time for bike racing. And imagine Vingeguard stopping for an ice-cream at the top of a mountain pass during a critical stage of the tour.

The more I watch the more I think this course, especially 10 laps, is a bad idea. Maybe it will get a lot better when the numbers thin out, but I still think there will be more accidents and logistical issues to come.

ProtonVPN is free. Well it has a free version that gives you 3 locale options: Japan, USA and Netherlands. I've never missed an event when logging in to GCN+ via the Netherlands.

This was my main reason for not going pro.

Thanks. Ya to some guys EPO was the unexpected but only choice they had if they didn't want to go back to subsistence farming in Kazakhstan. Not always easy to take the moral high ground and (contrary to what my teachers said) "Everyone else is doing it" does actually make things different in my opinion.

That era was rife with the kind of doping most of us still associate with the word: somebody with unnecessarily large and veiny deltoids injecting anabolics in a darkened corner of some training facility. There is a brilliant book called "The dirtiest race in history" which documents the build up to the 1988 Seoul 100m finals. Only one of the 8 men who lined up that day was not caught for some form of doping. I think he came last. Ben Johnson was the most notorious of course. To cut a long story short, the Eastern Block countries were miles ahead of the game with the state sponsored programs in an effort to say "Hey look at us, Communism is the best". Coaches from the west soon figured out what they needed to do to get their athletes to keep up. If you don't know about her, look up Jarmila Kratochvilova. Her 800m record is the longest standing record in athletics I believe. But it's not like some after school special "Don't do drugs hmmkay" scenario, it's always more complex and I came away from it actually feeling a lot of sympathy/empathy for the likes of Ben Johnson. Much the same as I did reading all of the EPO-era cycling biographies. The list of people who made it that far in the sport and then turned away once they realized what they needed to do to stay in the game is very small. I'm sure I've posted similar versions of this story a few times. It's just really interesting to me. Sport could benefit from some sort of TRC/amnesty process IMO.

Stolen: Fuji Touring Disc 2022 When: 19/07/2023Where: , Jamestown, Stellenbosch, Western Cape3x10 shimano drive train with bar-end shifters. Trp spyre brakes. Black bar tape and black brooks saddle. Front and read racks. To my knowledge, nobody brings these bikes into the country so it's likely one of a kinda. Size 58.Get further details about the incident in the Stolen Bikes section.

Stolen: SOMA Wolverine 2019 When: 19/07/2023Where: , Jamestown, Stellenbosch, Western CapeThe bike had a 2x10 GRX groupset, a brown brooks saddle and matching bar tape. Size 58. It's a small niche brand with only 1 importer in the country that I know of. So odds are, if you see a green size 58 SOMA wolverine, it's mine.Get further details about the incident in the Stolen Bikes section.

I really enjoyed that. I've underlined the bits that the author wrote with a slightly raised eyebrow:

What flipping epic stage. We really have an interesting tour coming up. It seems that there is nobody that can hold Jonas' wheel in the mountains when he decides to go. It was evident when he dropped Pogacar on Ventoux 2 years ago and it seems even more evident now. In the previous 2 tours Jonas also seemed to get stronger (or just deteriorate slower than other riders) as the tour wore on. In the first week he'd be in the top 5 in the time trial and not really doing anything explosive in the first mountains - but just made sure he was there. But by the end of the tour he would be unquestionably the strongest climber and (IIRC) could have won the final time trial but seemed to gift it to WvA. Perhaps he just paced himself really well, or possibly just grew in confidence. So it was a bit of a surprise to see him come out swinging yesterday, either he just felt good/could see Pog wasn't great... or the team had their hand forced by Hindley. Probably both. The two things that count against Jonas is that WvA is not quite the super domestique he's been in the previous 2 years. Still brilliant, but seems like he's not quite capable of the super-human feats of previous years. And secondly they don't have Roglic to launch attacks (worthy of chasing down by Pogacar) this year either, which worked so well last year. The only thing I'm certain of though is that the GCN commentators seemed far to eager to write Pogacar's obituary yesterday evening. For one of the most complete cyclists of our generation and with 2 weeks to go... that's a big and unrealistic call IMO.

Yes, from a TV (assuming you were asking me). Everything else on that TV streams brilliantly. That said, yesterday evening when I ran my VPN (proton vpn, free version, set to the netherlands) it was on my laptop and streaming was perfect. So I can now watch TDF, just not on TV (yet).

"Unwatchable most of the time" - that pretty sums up my experience too. Last night I actually watched GCN's 5 minute highlight package of stage 1 on youtube, after the first 2 minutes of trying to watch it on GCN+ was painful. Thanks @Roul, @babse and @Frosty for your input too.

Quick question, has anyone found that GCN+ streaming is poor quality? By that I mean I get the occasional buffering/holding icon and pixellation. I'm trying to narrow down the issue - I have a 100Mbs line and all my other streaming services (netflix, showmax, youtube) are great ITO image quality. I've tested watch a football match in HD, and switching over to the GIRO only for it to alternate between freezing/buffering and being heavily pixelated. I've didn't watch the TDF yesterday but I noticed this issue a lot during the Giro. I've set aside today to set up a VPN to watch the TDF, but if that is going to restrict the bit rate further (maybe it wont) then it may not be worth it.

Fine, make light of all of it with your jokes, but how do you explain this:

That's "El Pistolero" sir! I am an MvDP fanboy but I think Il Lombardia might be beyond him. For me Pog and WvA are the two riders with the skillset to bag all 5.

Just a head's up (which might be a bit late) but on returning to SA from an overseas trip last year with my bike in a cardboard box, I was asked if it was new and (on telling them it wasn't) was asked why i didn't declare it on the way out. I was then told that unless I was able to provide a receipt I would be required to pay import duties. I was able to show the receipt (emailed to me as part of the purchase) and I was good to go. So just something to keep in mind. Basically you may be asked to prove that you didn't buy your bike on your trip, although I suspect having a mine in a big branded cardboard box didn't do me any favours. Enjoy the trip.

@WIPEOUT 1000 it was just a joke in reference to @DieselnDust's post quoted above. I'm pretty sure he meant to say 7% less, because its 93% efficient. ie: Why would I want this drivetrain if I'm losing 93% of what I put in?

93% less torque than what I was putting in? No this is definitely not the drivetrain for me.

"this instantaneous ‘Powershift’ can be done under full load of up to 1000 watts." Well I'm sorry but that's a deal-breaker for me. #unit.

Off the top of my head, I'm not sure as I've just been watching and haven't been making the distinction between what was available to subscribers only. I'm pretty sure most of the long add-free documentaries are only available to subscribers though, and in my opinion they are really good. But I'm a bit of a bike dork with that stuff, I sat and watched a whole documentary on the history or reynolds steel and loved it. Might not be for everyone. @Frosty's suggestion is great. Maybe do a 1 month trial in May, it's the perfect month for reasons he's already mentioned. You can maybe just pay month by month for May, June, July and August, then cancel. You can get your fill on the 3 big tours and watch all the documentaries to death. Apart from the Giro Di Lombardia, you wont miss too much after August (Bracing myself for some abuse because I've probably forgotten some important race).

Just note to those who are thinking about investing in a GCN+ subscription, there is more than just racing. There are a number of good cycling documentaries presented by the regulars on the GCN show. Anything from "Behind the scenes at the Canyon factory" to an in depth look at "The Festina Affair". My favorites have been the bike "Makers" series of shows, documenting the manufacturing process of small scale/boutique bike brands. I signed up just for the races but have really enjoyed the other stuff too. It makes for really good stuff-to-watch-while-on-the-rollers/trainer material

Just a follow up on my earlier post. I broke my hand and am not riding so its almost certain that the weather will be fantastic. Gentle sun and a tailwind the whole way around. You're all getting sub-3's. Enjoy.

Contact Grant Freame: https://www.cycletouring.co.za/about/ He's really knowledgeable and sells ortlieb panniers and vsf fahrradmanufactur touring bikes, as well as lots of other useful touring stuff. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. I was (am) a bit of a novice but did a 3 month tour across europe last year and developed some pretty good ideas of how I would do things again.

Ja son and heat may have been a factor in the decision to stop.

The honeymoon phase. It took me about a month before I stopped obsessively looking at the app and showing my partner that we just boiled water in the kettle for "free".