walkerr

Afraid I don't have any details, but our club guys warned us there was another bike jacking on the R44 (near Cloetesville again I think) last week. Please be extra vigilant around that area - ride in groups if you can

Ouch - I seriously hope no one has lost any money on this!

nice one Also went out and rode today - that wind was fierce!

Great story Roer - truly in the spirit of the day. Well done to your team mate for getting home, and the team sticking with him

My first One Tonner, what an awesome day and ride. Rolled in at 5:54 - not that fast I know, but a quicker pace for me than I normally ride. Longest and fastest ride for me so far. Credit goes to my team mates who dragged me home over the last 30 or so. Congrats to everyone who finished.

Yeah - possible, but would rather share the experience with a good buddy if possible. Will see, maybe we can figure a way to get some funds for team entry.

I agree - I'm up for it - but I doubt my swaer will be able to raise the money.

Haha - fair point.

If you look around the world at political situations that become impossibly intertwined over the years - the real resolution for many of them is to start with an amnesty to people in the past that had been involved. Not to condone them, but to be able to move forward. If they really wanted to clean up the sport not just go after LA, maybe they would have been better getting everyone to agree to drawing a line in the sand, so that everything which had gone before could come out and they could use the information to learn, reshape the sport and move forward.

You're going to have to go a lot further back than LA though to find and burn the witches. He might have been the leader of this doping ring, but he didn't invent doping and came into the sport fresh faced and innocent at some stage and got sucked into doping by others who had established the trend way before he got involved. As someone posted earlier - there's going to be a lot of empty podiums if you really want to hunt witches good and proper.

Does LA suck or not? Seriously, you want the whole issue boiled down to a 2 option, multi-choice question. He was the best at what he did at the time he did it - cycling, and with what we are hearing now, doping too. I'm not sure "suck" or "doesn't suck" really has any relevance.

To me? He competed in a sport where doping was rife, and it seems pretty much everyone was doing it - so if he ended up the best in that sport at the time, that makes him a better doper, and a better cyclist when on dope. The question to me is not "would he have been the best if he had not doped" but "would he have still been the best if everyone had not doped". We'll never know the answer to that. Those so-called team mates who have now come out and stabbed him in the back had a choice at the time - go along with it and be a doper, or speak out and try and change the sport. In my view, they made their choice at the time - it's too late for them to try and reverse that and change the sport now, they became part of those who believe doping and cycling go hand in hand. That choice and the ability to change the sport has now been handed down to the current generation of cyclists, they must decide what sport they want to be a part of.

11 team mates turn on him now, but chose to say nothing at the time? For me, that weakens my impression on the team mates more than it does LA. If they accepted at the time, and decided to say nothing, they should have had the guts to stick by that decision. If they didn't agree with it then, they should have said something then. I'm not condoning LA - or hating him for what happened. His team mates though? They suck IMO

Was having exact same conversation with my swaer at the weekend - getting priced out of the average local/amateur guy being able to do them. Progress I guess, but sad too.

One of the guys in our club got hijacked yesterday while on the MTB trails at Schaapenberg, lost his Spesh Be careful out there guys and ride in groups whenever you can. Edit: story from the club: http://wannabteam.co.za/w/mountain-bike-hijack-schapenberg-trail/

Maybe try Omnico direct, they are the SA agents. If not, Wiggle list the R4 model (not sure if that is right for yours): http://www.wiggle.co.uk/wheel-components/?s=easton+freehub Probably won't work out any more expensive

100% agree - the above are 36 spoke rear and 32 spoke front. Being tough they'll also double as my Audax wheels next year on LEL

I got a set of Mavic Open pros built up on Hope Pro3 hubs - and boy does that rear hub sound wonderful humming down the passes. Not the lightest option of course, but for training I like a bit more weight - feels like I've got new legs when the event wheels go on. I also value toughness and long-life in training wheels - given the hammering they get, and how often you are a long way from home, I shy away from going cheap on the build.

What he said ....

Friend of mine and member of my club is very good: http://wannabteam.co.za/w/sponsors/special-offers/somerset-sport-rehab-centre/ Penny is Strand based, but maybe give her a call see if she ever does CBD visits. I know she's working with Tim Noakes nutrition study group and travels into town for that. She's both a cyclist and tri-athlete, knows her stuff.

Have you added your name to the notice list on the DC site? Last I heard there were 100s looking for places, so I reckon it's gonna be tight finding a spot. Would think the official DC site is probably the best route.

Good advice

Glutamine is billed as helping with both your immune system & muscle repair/recovery. I add a small amount to plain water after every training session. I don't like using it during an event - but that is a purely personal thing to do with possible side effects

Haha - thanks!

Ah yes - I hear that Beer is an essential part of any Ironman training programme