Mamil

Where do you get latex tubes?

I'm going to have to be careful not to try keep up with all the fast guys starting after me. I often try talk some sense into the people around me on the start line. "Let's all be reasonable" I say "we start slowly, steady efforts up the hills", "we're all in this together". No one listens.

Don't hit the a frame at the bottom at 70kmph

Do we know any stories of any cyclist ever fighting off a thief? I recall one from the tgmtb trails... Someone had a wire across the trail and klapped the thugs with a log I seem to remember. Most stories I hear involve people being ambushed by superior numbers, knocked off bike and robbed or having the good fortune to spot what's happening in time and run away. I have pepper spray velcroed to top tube and another on my person. Under no illusion that that's just a security blanket and probably of little use in an actual situation.

Ja... Please ... Trigger warnings on porn shots please!!!!

Those "rollers" after Calitzdorp ....

So as self appointed groupetto boss I will be skipping the first stop but definitely stopping at the 123km stop for a refuel of my hammer perpetuem bottle and my water bottle and grab whatever other calories are available there and another water top up at the last one if necessary

Lining up the excuses before we line up - I'm 16 days post covid. No significant after effects mercifully but I've not ridden 100km since the 36one. Been following the protocol from the British Medical Journal blog posted in the thread to do with these matters and I'm good to go but I have definitely lost fitness.... so if you're on your BMX and beat me @Jewbacca.... this one doesn't count

I think I would like to start in a faster bunch and then, as is always the case, get dropped on the first serious hill and then form a group of stragglers looking to average 28-30kmph. How many of the 100 souls brave and true might be looking for a similar bunch? (I'd call it a groupetto but that would imply I can sprint ... which I can't

Speaking as 1% of the field - can we define "slow"

I'm not an expert but my daughter kept a hive as part of a school project and I learned a bit. If they are disturbed they will attack if you are unfortunate enough to be close by. Also don't stand in front of a beehive entrance, they don't like that. Each sting leaves a pheromone marker that effectively paints you as a target and the swarm will then keep stinging until you escape or die. A bee swarm is a very fierce wild animal. Glad he's ok. My sense, having anxiously watched my child harvest honey from these creatures, is that it should be done at a time when the bees are relatively docile, dusk and cool weather. In the heat they are very active and more likely to be dangerous. The smoke also super important in sedating them.

I think it looks very nicely poised - WVA is also there to tow them along when needed - and it's different for Pog now - before he was the new kid on the block, now he's the established champ that everyone is trying to beat. I do hope it's not a snooze fest - I don't think it will be.

Imagine being pogacar and contemplating being tag teamed by rog and Jonas.

This is my absolute worst thing at events. And you only need to get caught without bogroll once ....

Colour me jealous! Enjoy

Will def pick your brain

Next year. It's happening

The best quip I heard came from another Hubber "van aert was 'waiting for gaudu'".

I really enjoyed wva very subdued and somewhat delayed celebration. Whatever cat and mouse the break was playing it was absolutely thrilling to watch.

15k is also a kickr indoor trainer. Or a ticket to Mallorca and bike rental. Or 25 percent of next year's varsity fees for one offspring.

Which event is this?

On his stage 1 win he looked over his left shoulder as he crossed the line with a rather demure celebration and I wondered if he possibly thought he might have been pipped.

I don't think it's possible to not have a hairy time of things on a gravel bike. This is why people put forks on them and widest tires possible etc ... They are by definition sketchy as soon as the gravel gets loose or rocky or washed out or corrugated, gravel bikes show their true colours and they're nasty. Dont get me wrong, I love mine but it can be an absolute brute to ride. Don't let this stop you upgrading though. Mechanical discs are apparently way inferior to hydraulics in the feathering Dept or Soni read. Get biggest tyres frame will handle....

I have Bontrager flare rear and front ion lights. Both are excellent. My only problem is that I find the mount system too weak and too finicky for the front light. If they used a GoPro type mount the ion would be a world beater. Not an issue on the rear light which is obviously much lighter. Have relegated the ion to backup light status after it fell off at speed for the second time in favour of the Garmin front light. Of course testament to the build quality that it survived that.

I think it's excellent. There's a provocative tension between the idealised countryside in childlike brush strokes which suggest the pure naive enjoyment of cycling and the agony alluded to by the way the subjects chamois is skew on the saddle that speaks to the soul of every cyclist. Bids starting at 10000 Zars perhaps.