gtr1

I rode there last year over New Years. Grant from Adrenaline cycles was really helpful. Did a ride with their group in the Karkloof the one day. Awsome ride. In Howick check out http://www.howickmountainbiking.co.za. The chairman is Ken and he cut most of the trails in the forest. I contacted him last year and he took me on a ride on New Years eve. Even went to his house for a beer afterwards coz most places were closed being New Years eve. Great bunch of guys and really helpful. I'll be back there for a few days just afetr New Years.

A leather jacket and you can join The Village People

Doesn't say what they earn, but here are the minimums........peanuts. In 2009, the agreed-upon minimum wages were 33,000 euros ($46,200) for ProTour racers, 27,500 euros ($38,500) for Professional Continental racers, 26,700 euros ($37,380) for neo-professional ProTour racers and 23,000 euros ($32,200) for neo-professional riders in the Professional Continental ranks. The CPA had proposed an annual salary of 50,400 euros ($76,160) for ProTour racers and 36,000 euros ($50,400) for Professional Continental racers.

I also rode in those days gone by when you never wore a helmet, and a few strips of something in a race. I still like to ride without a helmet occasionally. Mainly when I'm by myself. In a bunch ride or race, I'll wear a helmet. I also get peeved off by the strangers that shout out "WHERE"S YOUR HELMET" when passing on a ride. My best is the bunch rides. The same guys who have lots to say about wearing helmets, will jump red robots and stop streets. Ride 3 4 or 5 abreast ignoring the traffic behind them, or even sit behind trucks to try drop their mates on the ride. But hey, at least they're wearing a helmet...so they must be safe !!!!

The problem is that a lotof the races, especially in Gauteng, are not that technical. So doing the 30km is over in an hour, or thereabouts. Almost not worth the effort of getting to the race etc. Hence I ride the longer event as it is a decent 2-3 hours. If it's a proper XC course, 40k's could take 2-3 hours and be a lot more difficult. So for me it's more about the terrain. When you get a bit older we tend to have more endurance, so would rather race for a longer time than a short fast busrt. If a race organiser knows what they are doing, you wouldn't even have a 70k race over very technical terrain. You'd wait forever for the backmarkers to finish.

That would be a plan.......all the cars queueing up in the "fast" lane to buy ice-creams

Today I saw a cyclist riding on the R21 between the Polokwane/Johannesburg interchange and Nellmapius. Not only was he riding on the highway, but he was on the shoulder in the middle of the highway alongside the barriers. It's guys like this that give us cyclists a bad name. If anyone knows who it is, I think we should take action against him. He was riding a Blue bike. I think the make was "Dairy Maid" as this was printed on the Blue box on the front of the 3-wheeler. It also had a blue umbrella (luckily closed in the wind). Not sure if he's a roadie or a mtb'er. Had thick tyres, but he was on the road. Was not wearing lycra but a blue overall. This has got to stop !!!!!!!!!

That's not good to hear. I drive down that road quite often. I haven't had problems like that before. Maybe because the roadworks have gone on so long it's given the thieves time to work on a strategy, or to realise there are easy pickings. Maybe time to do like the taxi's. Just drive through even when on stop.

Learn to pedal faster Seriously, learn to up your cadence. I've never ridden an 11 until recently, and can probably count on my hand the number of times I've "run out" of gears.

Is that a Dop or a Dope ???

Maybe CSA should register as a charity. Then we can claim our DONATION back from the receiver Same goes for all these charity "races". Why can't we get a certificate from them for the donation ? This will help us save money in the long term.

Maybe that's the whole point. Everyone will give up trying to understand and just pay.....probably the higher amount just to make sure

The balance will quickly be wiped out by the Christmas bonuses

I thought all "races" in SA were fun rides, and that our pro's are professional fun riders (quote from one of the pro's) ???? So How does that effect licenses ? What I can't understand is that everyone is questioning paying R75 a year to CSA and what are they doing with that money, but everyone is quite happy to pay the high fees every week to race for "charity" and never question what really happens to that money. Personally I question both.......

Nope, it was definately next to the highway. I think the Merc garage is still there.

I remember 7 or 8 of us jammed into an old Fiat going to see Clout live in JHB. They had a stage set up in a car park by the Mercedes garage next to the M2 highway between Bedfordview and JHB. Behind Jules st somewhere. Those were the days

Now this is scary !!!!!! Before Alex Jay was David Gresham - Keep your feet on the ground and reach for the stars. My dad told me this

Is that a WW11 Jerry Can under the crossbar ?

We need a database of the names of all the strikers and the Union bosses. When any of them or their family pitch up at a hospital, they should get flagged as not allowed any treatment, or their kids should be refused education. Now that might be fair. The only way these strikes will change is when the government passes a law forcing the unions to cover the salaries of the striking workers during the strike. You will be amazed at how quickly the'll come to a resolution then. but.....we can only dream.

Tubbies are a mich nicer ride.....but a much higher price. Also a pain to fix...that's if you fix them. Bit expensive to throw away each time though. Unless a serious racer or money to spare......ride clinchers.

The Toer varied between 2 weeks and 10 days. The route also changed every year. It usually started in JHB and raced to Cape Town with a road transfer through the Karoo.Would travel down the garden route. One year it went to Durban via Ladysmith etc and then back via North Coast, Greytown etc. Finish in JHB. Another year they actually started in Eastern Transvaal (Mpumalanga), then to JHB and down to the Cape. There were teams of 5. They tried to race as teams but nothing like you see nowadays. In the early days the teams were selected, so there was a national team followed by a "B" and "C" team. each had seperate sponsors. A few overseas teams. Also a Mines (Black) team. Later there were the professional teams along with selected amateur teams.

Maybe that's because they're all doping so can't point fingers, but only a few are in a position to breach the etiquette rules

Cool comments by Andy. It's a race after all. Now they can all race again tomorrow and the next day and the next....and on Sunday there'll be a winner. If this unwritten "waiting rule" ocurred all the time, then they may as well decide before the tour who's the winner and then ride with him in the front all the way. And if that was the case it would probably be Contador, coz he was the favourite coming into the tour. At the end of the day it's about entertainment and excitement.....today was both. That's why we will all watch the next few days to see what happens. Vive Le Tour !!!

At the start of the stage LA had about 15 seconds on AC. They both punctured during the stage. In the end LA lost about 2 minutes and AC 1 minute, so LA was a minute behind AC after the stage. I also hope Andy tries to make up time else the stage could end up being boring.

Lance needs to try something soon. He's been resting for 2 weeks. Dunno how much rest he needs. Even the rest of the team have been like passengers most of the race. Yes they did get a stage win, but before the tour they were saying how much better they are as a team compared to all the others, especially Astana, coz they've got 3 potential winners in Lance, Levi and Kloden. With this showing no wonder they weren't invited to the Vuelta. I vote they shoul've included Impey in the team