mazambaan

Loctite is your friend

Yep, saw that and she put up a spirited fight after that for bronze but against the world No. 1 it was a losing battle. Tough for sure.

TNT1 - I think that is a very clever split - no Martin in TdF TT and Rogers on the Sky Team so couldn't hammer in TdF? Is Vroom in if Wiggo took in too much champers? Outside bet on Phinney or Sparticus? Cuddles too tired I see.

Jammer manne - I've got a nephew who's just started there (Aurecon) as an engineer (their main business is consulting engineering as I understand it).

Hmmm, Aurecon eh, "I can't spell ingineer, now I are one". Common sense didn't come with the flashy kit (or degree certificate).

Noted Tumbles and Karoo.., it isn't officially a team sport but I reckon the TdF cannot be won without a team of hoe? Certainly the winner needs to be a great cyclist and have a great team; riders etc etc. Plus luck on his side. I reckon also that Sky took a leaf out the LA book of all for one but, as Tumbles says, with Froome as deputy sheriff and backup. You could argue that Froome was also a beneficiary of the team, keeping him out of the breeze and then placing him with Wiggins. Froome has some tough decisions should he believe his main squeeze and become restless; many good and very good riders; not so many good teams with deep pockets; certainly not Orica from what I've heard.

Quoting from another forum a few weeks ago "and that cheeky little Manx monkey pops out from nowhere and nips across the line". Very apt for this stage.

Are LeakyGas massing for an all out assault on yellow? Nibs seemes to have finally got a team together. Unlike some hubbers he's recognised that the TdF is a team game and it's not good to have Sagan darting off here and there showboating. A bit like doing donuts in F1 or FMX in an MX race. Lol. Sky seems to have a more balanced team than say, BMC and guys who have good form. Those who want Froome to speed off and do his own thing - do you try and show yourself to be cleverer than your boss? seems common sense to me to be a team player. Funny also how so many hubbers want the dopers back to make the TdF more "interesting".

Partners interfering in their spouse's employment is a storey almost as old as the oldest profession; and very common (apologies for the pun). They never learn. I thought, contrary to some of the Hub experts, that TdF got pretty exciting yesterday. As for the comments about the pro's who are "morons" and "arseholes", these are obviously from esteemed Hub members who have won a few TdF's, or at least placed in the top 10; all "clean" of course. The might behind the keyboard! Funny though, the pro's seem to respect each other. I have nothing but respect for the pro cyclists that go out there every day. They have to be doping lol!

A chortle about the "cold coffee" comments - Froome "disappearing for 2 years" isn't my belief - it's the type of comment you hear from people who believe that all pro cyclists "dope" and take doping, and the avoiding of getting caught, very seriously as part of the "sport". Yesterday a few people were agreeing that all the pro's dope - but not all the time and avoiding a positive test was part of the science of their training. As for LA; look at the balance of probabilities. He stayed with, or beat, a host of fellow competitors, manyof whom were shown, or admitted, to have been doping. It's not impossible that he wasn't doping; but seems unlikely. Maybe he had more natural ability than his competitors so didn't need as much or as often?? I think what makes it a vendetta is what is seen as his arrogance, having forced all sorts of accusers to eat humble pie or retract. But the opposition re-grouped and re-thought and now they are back, again. But I believe that none of this is good for pro cycling. It's an old vendetta and the effort and maney should be spent to clean and promote pro cycling and cyclists now. I'll stick my neck out and say that what is happening to LA now isn't much of a deterrent to a junior cyclist at say, provincial level who wants to improve by any means possible. More day to day testing would be. Rant over. I had to chuckle at someone who commented while we were chatting; "Dope testing? why only test for dope? What about all the steroids and stuff?" (an offroad motor cyclist).

@TNT1; so if Merckx tested positive, why is he a hero now - best cyclist ever etc? Sure Hinault never tested positve; sounds like LA. Shouldn't WADA or whoever be investigatiing? Seriously I'm not an LA fan but putting up with non-cyclists "Wiggo must have the good stuff; wonder what it is" and "Froome disappeared for 2 years; very suspicious" and after the TT; "UK Postal has the good stuff" is a little tedious. Also, to be honest, one has to wonder. I think a good deal of it comes from the high profile that LA and his opposition have and seek in the press. Finding him guilty and banning him in perpetuity and beyond won't do much for the good name of cycling.

I have heard good things about Rob McLelland-Smith in Durban.

Grumps, I'm not sure that USADA has investigated "millions" of athletes with the same vigour, and within the same time frame, that it is investigating LA. I tend to take the view articulated by Andrew McLean that it's time to move on and let Lance fade away. At every TdF stage we see Bernard Hinault. Was he clean? In Belgium we saw Eddie Merckx - was he clean? With all the allegations, I very much doubt it - it seems that no one was clean. Lance will never be there; the damage is done to his reputation; let the bugger just fade away. Hound LA and it will be in the press for some time to come. My reason for this is that the more it makes the press, the more convinced Joe Public is that all cyclists dope - hence the comments that Wiggo took exception to. No braai conversation about cycling takes place without doping being raised. USADA and WADA should concentrate on the current professionals and just maybe not crow from every treetop when any athlete is found doping. Don't hide it but, even for them WADA et al, it should be a source of shame.

I can't remember what the quote was and who the rider was (pick any from Garin, Petit-Breton, Anquetil, Merckx, Hinault etc etc) but it was to the effect that there was no doping in the early races but just by chance the rider threw his bidon into a field where the left over "water" was drunk by a carthorse that went on to win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe horse race. Maybe its record should also be investigated!

@Mackie, great passion; those boys were fired up, loved that moment but it would have been horrible if he'd been caught. It's a cruel world.

I saw Robbie Hunter at the back of the peloton at some stage. he must be taking a pounding. Phil L said Robbie had three crashes a few days ago then big one day before yesterday. Not for Sissies this ride. Haven't heard much of Darryl.

Cyclists in the wars again! http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/444525-So-I-bumped-a-cyclist-the-other-day/page5

Great result - go Burry. I hope he didn't cook himself even a bit in the heat.

These guys (all the riders also) are amazing and heart warming about Martin's work in the Valley. Both are relatively recent converts to MTB but super endurance athletes. I remember seeing Martin Dreyer a few years ago at Sani2c; quiet unassuming and friendly. Quite a contrast to some of the "celebrities".

Hmmm, buy a 26 Stunpy in Large, top spec; then realise you have sinned, change for the Epic, any Epic. I'll take the Stumpy off your hands for the appropriate discount.

My old Mogoose is a moaner and groaner on the trail. As indicated above, check bolts for tightness, check suspension for movement. Continued groaning means, at best, re-lube and Loctite as appropriate. At worst, new bearings. I've seen the movie a few times, it's either a ghost flick or horror, seldom a happy ending.

It's an African thing. Here rules are really guidelines to be "bent" to suit. If you don't like it - piss off to Perf. Tong firmly in cheek.

Some great advice here: I think we can all learn. From off road bike riding I can only support the practice concept, but with understanding (no comment on GF's etc). Try a little downhill with weight on the front wheel and feel the improvement when you move weight back making the front less twitchy and the bike more stable. Understand that you have to weight the front to some extent to go round corners. Maybe lower the saddle to build confidence on downhills. Looking where you want to go, round the corner and avoiding target fixation (that big rock or tree just calling you). Try keep weight on the outside of the bike in corners and on the downhill side on side slopes. If the pedals are not central, the low pedal can go on the weighted side (good way of missing those sticky out stumps and rocks). Try stay loose and always look for a soft spot to crash.

Good luck with the extraction. The bearings on my Mongoose collapsed when I beat on the inner race. For once Johan didn't get it quite right - the crusty old demon at my local welding shrine did the bead trick and the outer races eased out. This was after trying to grind ridges in them with a Dremel to beat them out and after thinning them out by grinding. Left a few scorch marks on the frame though. You can get bearing extractors but they are in the R1000 range.

But SW performs a vaguely useful function. You gasp at the price of something at your LBS, go SW, see same and nearly faint. You then return to buy at LBS feeling justified. A kind of placebo lube for the nether regions.