Mamil

Getting p1ssed off with the customer base and their speculations about the river may not be the best way to go out to bat for the race. That the race might be a mud fest logistical nightmare isn't too far of a reach to make. Footnote - I entered in January already and am doing the 200miler unless it's raining hard in which case I'm duvet and a good book.

I'm actually really looking forward to the ride. It will be a real challenge given my fitness. Bike prepped and test ridden at Tokai and Garmin is optimistically interpreting me sitting in front of the tour de France with Doritos and gin and tonics as "peaking". Funny how there's always an ou something on these rides... Ouberg... Ouplaas... Ou man....

LBS is like a surgeon or an accountant - if you don't trust them they wrong one.

And no black screen sudden stop on DStv .... Could it be that they listened?

Current forecast predicts no rain. There goes my excuse. 9pm start seems somehow crueler than the 36one 3pm.

Missing the po(i)nt ?

light rain starting more or less the same time as the 200 miler starts Accommodation paid Entry paid long time ago Light rain I can cope with but If weather is foul - I'm staying under the duvet. I did the rainy 36one - I'm not riding 200 miles, undertrained, in the mud

And the fans are wild and dangerous too

I'm on a windows PC - only does it on the cycling stream - the tennis is perfect as is anything else on DSTV - only happens on the cycling.

Ving is one of my favourite sporting heros. For the reasons @Daledescribes and also because of a photo I can't find at the moment of him with his partner and daughter. Of course the fact that he can ride a bike in the way he can features.

Here's my letter to Marriot investing. To your marketing department, Your advertising has interrupted my viewing of the tour de France for 3 weeks now and has guaranteed that any intention I might have had of using your services, has been extinguished forever. As a footnote, your advertisement is quite frequently paired with an even more annoying one for Hollywood bets and as a result, you invitation to exploit record high interest rates, is now irrevocably linked with the mindless hope of the inveterate gambler. Congratulations. Hollywood bets is getting one too in which I'm quoting Orwell So long as they (the Proles) continued to work and breed, their other activities were without importance. Left to themselves, like cattle turned loose upon the plains of Argentina, they had reverted to a style of life that appeared to be natural to them, a sort of ancestral pattern...Heavy physical work, the care of home and children, petty quarrels with neighbors, films, football, beer and above all, gambling filled up the horizon of their minds. To keep them in control was not difficult." George Orwell, 1984 Also Cecil nurse is on my list and Ryder as well ... You'd think cyclists would know better.

Today is going to be epic. But first 110 km of zone 2 zwifting cos I'm too soft to go out in this icy rain

Good point!

For me Ving is still the better GC rider. The difference today was the strength of UAE, the tactical.master stroke sending Yates up the road, pogs explosivity whicj Ving can't match and vings coming back from injury and not having that last top end. I've been shot down in flames by @lechatnoiroffline but I stand by it. The next 10 years will show us.

Yoh I'm having to work hard not to let this idiot commentator on DStv spoil my experience. Banal repetition of stats on the screen delivered in a nasal whine. His companion is better but Jeepers this oke is annoying

the risks of riding with the bug makes me nervous for these guys

Here's a reference number escalated from the help desk via their facebook messenger if anyone fancies putting their weight behind an effort to get this useless company to deliver properly. 104949383 is the number to quote

If the wheel doesn't break your head will from wondering if the wheel is going to. I think you're a brave man to post this again but I'm relieved I'm not the only one who drops the tiny but crucial screw on the floor, is delighted to find it using his cell phone torch and then drops it again 2 minutes later. I know nothing about whether or not your wheel is safe to ride but I wouldn't chance it myself. Wondering what the experts say.

Does anyone elses DStv streaming service periodically just go to a blank screen and only starts again if you go back to launch screen and click through again?

About how if this rain doesn't stop soon I'm gonna be out of pocket to the tune of half an '82 corolla. I sold that car to a gardener in about 95 for 5k. It held its value well. The sangoma who introduced me to the buyer laughed as he drove away in the car and said "that one!! His name means 'the one who makes an accident'". Sure enough, the purchaser wrote that car off and broke his legs in an accident a few months later.

My first ever paycheck as a professional would not buy me one gp5000 tyre ... I slung pizzas for years before that and a weekend's work would not buy me an entry to a PPA funride. My first car (a second hand 82 corolla 1.3gl) was 6k ....

I get postural hypotension after heavy training too. A beer exacerbates it because ethanol is a vasodilator. Previous commentary about getting medical advice on forums applies. If I'm ever worried about something my friendly gp is my go to

I didn't realise alu can crack.

I know we're all supposed to say that ebikes are good thing, more people on bikes and all that jazz, but I just can't help the flicker of resentment that brightens into a flame of scorn and ridicule as some unfit oke 15 years my junior says "on your left" and whizzes past me making a noise like an electronic sewing machine up spykers hill. Still at least it's not a corpulent politician in a Discovery for whom finding his belly button would be a voyage of one, close passing me with 2 wheels in the cycle lane on Spaanschemat. I've recently pushed my e-bike acquisition out to 65 which, terrifyingly, is 9 years away, at which point I hope I've matured enough to get over my prejudices. Sorry for thread hijack .... No way should anything with a throttle be on the trails.

In my view cancellation of an event is a risk we acknowledge and accept when entering and is shared equally by all who enter. The damage to the brand of a race because of cancelling is enormous and I don't think any organiser does that lightly. Any potential short term profit is surely offset by the reputational damage the cancellation causes. I didn't enter the ATP that was cancelled so I didn't lose out on my entry fee or benefit from the discount but if it's flooding again I will accept the loss and use or lose the accommodation I've booked. Of course because I'm a bit light in the training department at the moment I might just breathe a sigh of relief and stopm at the spar for the red wine and cloves for that gluvine.