eitan

It just looks better, but my standard answer to the more macho side of the family is that it prevents ticks from sticking - then it sounds like I'm riding in true bundu country.

Ek het al lankal opgehou om met myne te ry - die ding maak my bang, veral in races.

I would say that if you seriously hammered it rest is now what your body needs. I am taking today and tomorrow off, will do a tempo ride on Wednesday, 8x30sec sprints on Thursday, rest or very easy on Friday. On Saturday I'm doing the 13k race with my boy, should be adequate as a pre-race "losmakerjie".

And what you eat on the bike stays on the bike...

Yes, it says: "Entries now closed" - for the 2010 event! How do you advertise your event on The Hub, but not update your website?

Check out Paarlmtb.com for regular rides, mostly mornings. Although it is a MTB site, there are often road rides posted. At the moment there is a nice one posted for this coming Saturday - out to Riebeeck Kasteel etc.

Some time off the bike will only do you good now. I tried to go for a ride after 4 days of this summer cold and it set me back so much further that I ended up with Bronchitis and 2 weeks off the bike. Once your immune system is compromised it is just so easy to get re-infected. The funny thing is that with an ordinary winter cold it actually helps to go for an easy ride, but it seems that the same is not true for a summer cold. Maybe some medical experts can help here?

Was Shan Wilson on a Full Dynamics. Or so I've heard.

Apparently it prevents ticks as well (only for mountainbikers).

Wish it was just that - pain can be managed. Kids brought home a nasty strain of some summer cold after the first week of schools; must have caught it as well. But I'll see you on Sunday for the Boeckaert Soenen.

Due to illness I cannot ride in this weekend's 24 hours of Oak Valley event. I wanted to give my entry to someone who can ride, but was told by Dirtopia that they don't allow substitutions! Can someone please explain the logic here. Advendurance, PPA, The Argus, Dryland, Ecobound and I am sure many more all accept substitutions, mostly at a fee.

The benefit of being an Asthma sufferer is that you can get a salbutamol prescription. Salbutamol is chemically very close to clenbutamaol. Apparantly over half of Spanish cyclists suffer from asthma (according to the UCI).

Please post your diet and training plan - must work if you've lost so much weight after only 500-600km of cycling.

I also got a Cycle Lab card with mine. Don't know if there's anything loaded on it... Agree with you that the book is great and a nice surprise.

That's the reason I was still driving around at that time; should've seen the filling stations. That and the fact that I have an expecting mother at home with all sorts of cravings....

Some proof of the heat in Paarl yesterday.

10266 for me, mostly MTB. Will do the extra 34 tomorrow to get to 10300.

Don't touch cottage cheese, must be the most fattening substance on earth - I have yet to see a thin person eat it....

Exercise induced asthma normally strikes early in the session - it is caused by a combination of an intense burst of effort with cold legs and the sudden breathing of cold air. I suffer from it and find that to avoid it I must induce an attack as early as possible in my warm-up by sprinting up a hill or something. I then have to stop, almost pass out and use my Venteze allever pump. This seems to act as a prophylactic for the rest of the ride or race.

You can get a decent headlight (LED Lenser) at the local kooperasie for about R450. I think they are distributed by Awesome Tools (the Leatherman guys). Some members of our team used it on the Transbaviaans and the light was good enough coming down Bergplaas. Don't know how it will be on singletrack though.

I ride the Paarl DH tracks and single tracks on most Sunday early in the morning. Anybody's welcome to come and join - start at 6 (that way I miss the serious downhillers who only come out to play when the sun is high in the sky). I am by no means a skilled ST rider and ride a hardtail, but really love these trails. Once you know which way the chicken runs are you can really let rip. I find the routes varied with some technical bits and enough to keep you thinking. What we do on Sundays is to loop the different tracks; up one, down another (and there are many). 4 loops is normally enough of a workout. This makes hill intervals fun and gives you something to look forward to at the end. (It takes the average rider 15 minutes to climb to the top.)

You can also make your own peanut butter. Use unsalted unroasted peanuts and mush them with a stick blender. Bit of a pale colour, but the taste is way better than any shop bought stuff. also works out a lot cheaper if you buy your peanuts in bulk.

I have found that it helps to ride with very low tyre pressure ( I go down to 1.5bar). But then you risk burping the tyre.

The loop you are talking about is the Marathon loop (also called BMW loop). It is still very green, but rideable. I rode it twice this week, once in the dark and once in early morning light. Must be one of the most beautifull paths on the mountain. There is another green and slippery loop that goes down towards the Taal Monument. I remember an Anderson Transport rider seeing hi arse there during last year's Rheebokskloof race.

Santini!