kosmonooit

Not like him to make those mistakes, surely down to fatigue , happens to me every day around 5pm

Piddles was saying he had the stomach bug that was doing the rounds during the week, and that's probably why he couldn't sustain his effort up front after the catch up, did well to hand onto 4th.

Well what other options were they in Munich? I am sure they wanted it integrated with the other events facilities (like the Tri start/finish area) They did throw in a token rock garden, but perhaps they should have got our Olympic track builder out there?

Crankworx always been out there on the fringe of mountain biking - hoping Red Bull will stick with it, its been 10 great years. I find slopestyle totally nuts to watch, plus all the supporting events like Speed & Style etc. I just keep being amazed how the sport can progress. I think the commentary was excellent - Cam McCaul is an ex competitor, as are the other guys who pop in. Needles tends to repeat himself but he generally limited to downhilll. There's been other leads but Cam seems to be the guy now, I don't have any issues and in fact think he is really good, professional and entertaining as well. XCO - UCI will still be around to make sure its done according to the rules but the event organising will be taken over by Discovery Inc as far as I can gather .... 'to commercialise the sport' which I must say I have reservations about. Did Red Bull do the Event Organising up to now? Where they not just the media partners and UCI ran the show? If so I guess UCI are happy to hand it over and focus on their core functions. Red Bull should really be thanked for stepping in once Freecaster folded, it has really advanced XC and Downhill , having free coverage.

I'm wondering who will be doing the commentating on GCN/Dicsovery XCO, and I'm hoping its Marty Mac as the lead. He did a good job on Friday (only watched the Mens Euro so far) and enjoy his CX and Women's Tour commentating. He has a broad knowledge of cycling and is a consummate broadcasting professional. I will not be missing Rob Walnut.

Downhill definitely,. he is great. But XCO he is a total hack.

There is a pic of that "Made in USA" black beaut here somewhere, I'll have to dig deep.... yeah it needs some love right now. No offense, but there does seem to be a class of people, typically in the financial industry,, who earn enormous sums of money but who have little idea of material / technical value, perhaps that's the afore mentioned 5% of the bike market. Where R160k is pocket change, I've seen this with some sites in the type of work I am doing now (domestic PV systems/Inverters/Energy harvesting/backup etc) where hoooog amounts of money had been spent on total overkill and the clients quite frankly have not the simplest clue as to what they got.

Actually the pedal bike I use around here is a 22 year old 26" Cannondale F500 Fatty, with 1st gen Hope Disc brakes, and a few broken spokes. Even still, compare the contents and engineering of ur Trek Mandone and a Yamaha XT250 motor cycle, for about 1/2 the price! and that's damn fine motor bike.

I'll have to agree that the price of most new bicycles do not represent their material value. Proof of this is how most of these bikes half their value once they roll out the door of the dealer. I'm looking for a 250 or so motorbike to rip around town on missions that do not require four wheels. For R75k you can get a new fuel injected Yamaha XT250. Think of all the engineering and mechanics / electronics that goes into such a product, its quite a reasonable price imo. I'll be paying cash once I have it. Now what with a fancy road or mtb bike new north of R100k, it just doesn't weigh up.... Just a matter of time before the big brand con bubble pop?

https://youtu.be/F5Vkgu-EWHc

Guess Shimano is a sponsor .... is that an electronic groupset? XTR Pedals used to be pants, guess they sorted them out by now.

Full-on bike race today!

Ex hubber apparently .... I've spent more time in the UK than Chris... no UK Passport tho

Alan is also riding well in terms of strategy now.

Maybe ... maybe not, She withered last year. Remaining rounds besides this weekend: July 29-31: Snowshoe, USA (DH/XCO/XCC) August 5-7: Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada (DH/XCO/XCC) August 24–28: UCI Mountain Bike World Championships – Les Gets, France September 2-4: Val di Sole, Italy (DH/XCO/XCC)

The dust hasn't seem to have settled with the Swiss Big Cheese debacle last weekend - fair amount of licking of emotional wounds it seems. Perhaps they should have a Cheese Fondue together there at altitude to rebuild the kinship. In the meantime, hope to see Alan bring it home, and the Romanian feature. And hoping for some good racing with the ladies as well.

I think Loana is focussed on World Champs in France, not the overall, probably will sit out North American rounds as well (is there a Mont-Sainte-Annes?)

Should be good racing tomorrow - the field quite open in both races. But yeah rooting for Alan & Cannondale. Pity we don't see the U23 races though.

Any more talk of football and I'll have to go.

Any history hacks here? That stage in Napoli, the circuit, the circuit was around the Roman resort city of Baiae. You might have seen the remnants of a dome close to the road they past a few times, Predates the Pantheon, from the Augustan era, Temple of Diana

Well she got stuck with the surname .... whatever, she's found a new lease of life. I don't think there is anything 'untoward' about this despite the naysayer doubters grumblings, as she rides to her 3rd victory, 40s, personally I am happy for her, its been quite a journey, and to see her skoping these wipper-snappers into their places

Camera work was excellent

I've warmed up to XCC, its better now its it own series and less points to the XCO leader. But the circuit yesterday was too open and flat I think, never seen such a large bunch circulating just about all the way, but good racing nevertheless. Piddles looked pi$$ed at his 2nd place wtf

Around Napoli today! One of my fav cities in the world, can't wait to get back there. Circuit today is around the Campi Flegrei area, the largest super volcano in Europe! waking up apparently, the massive magma chamber below filling up and the whole area is rising a few cm per year lol.

Riding a bicycle on Joburg roads is a suicide mission, now more than ever. Even in a car its stressful. Every day I am shocked to see how little most drivers care for the rules of the road and other users. Occasionally I see those pathetic attempts at cycle lanes here, and reminded what a total waste of public money they are, by naive fools who quite frankly had no clue whatsoever.