Whirlwind update

So its been a while since my last past - and I'm starting to feel the guilt. Thought now would be as good a time as any to post a whirlwind update.

The Tour:
Its over - and life has returned to normal again. No more dominance over the remote control - K is free to change channels if she wants to. So what was up with the Tour de Farce anyway? Things were looking so good at the start of the third week - I thought we were in for a cracking final couple of stages - and then it all fell apart, and continues to push out a daily sport headline revealing some new scandal. On a lighter note, there has been talk amongst one or two mates of putting a "Tour holiday" together for the 2009 season.

Graft:
On the work front, things have been pretty hectic. We're busy with the development of the web, mobile and other interactive elements for the three reality shows that are about to be launched. Interesting times - exciting projects to be involved in.

Golf:
Haven't put in as many rounds as I would have liked this month - although I did manage a round with Tweedie at Obs 2 weeks ago. Had a dogdy start, but came back strongly. Also managed a round at Irene, and shot a respectable (for me) 87.

Travel:
Had the pleasure of being able to spend a couple of days in Dullstroom this past weekend. K and I went down to a place called Millstream - its a trout farm about 4 km's before the town of Dullstroom. Old style stone cottages with fire places - was really nice. We ventured out on our mountain bikes on Friday morning for a ride down to Highland Gate estate. They are busy laying the fairways and greens at the moment, and its looks like its going to be a magnificent course (and housing estate) once complete. Riding the 22km back to Millstream into gale force winds proved a little too challenging for K and I though - we hitched a ride back through the farm roads on the back of a tractor after battling for about 12 of the 22km's back. In fact, the winds were so serious, that on Monday morning, we heard that fires (aided by the strong winds) were responsible for the deaths of two people in Lydenburg, and a number of runaway fires in Dullstroom. Luckily for us though, Millstream wasn't affected.
The fishing wasn't that great either - although I did manage to land a sizable brown trout. I blame the wind for the lack of success :-)

Social:
Off to dinner club tonight - its the "cheap and cheerful" round for the next four dinner clubs. No take out, no franchise restaurants - cheapest total bill out of the four couples wins this round. We're up tonight and will be going to a place in Emmarentia called Lapa Fo. Should be good.

Hunter takes first place in Stage 11

Robbie Hunter has become the first South African cyclist to win a stage on the TDF. Hunter has threatened several times in this year's tour, and today was his day.
The wild card Barloworld team are proving their worth in this years tour, with a 9th Stage win for Juan Mauricio Soler Hernandez, and today's 11th stage victory for Hunter.
Tom Boonen, the leader in the green jersey classification crashed out on a sweeping right turn, with 600m to go - it would have been interesting to see the lunge for the line between Boonen and Hunter. Robbie admitted in the post race interview that Boonen is a stronger rider than himself, saying that he would try his best for as many sprint points as possible, but that chances are that Boonen would always be in front of him.
If you missed the race this afternoon, make sure you catch the delayed feed this evening - this is South African cycling history in the making...

TDF Crashes

Seeing as its that time of year, and in reference to my previous post, I thought I'd find some footage on TDF crashes. This clip isn't very comprehensive, but it has a couple of classics, like Ullrich's wipe out on wet roads during the 2005 individual time trial stage.

Vive le Tour

Right, so the TDF is back, and my evenings are once again being planned around the delayed feed and highlights packages of the days racing.
Its weird - every time I mention to non-TDF junkies just how exciting a race it actually is to watch, I get this blank Icouldn'tthinkofanythingmoreboringthanwatchingcycling stare. I've given up trying to convince people now, and resorted to changing channels in the office at around 2:30pm each afternoon, with a gentle nudge on the volume control as the afternoon progresses and the peloton winds its way through some of the most magnificent fields, forests, hills and mountains, into the streets of the town that the race will finish in.

As for picking a winner this year - well its pretty wide open at this stage. Alexander Vinokourov has been labelled the favourite, and to be honest, if I had to back a rider this year, he would be the guy. He's the one who was so aggressive in the mountains during Armstrong's last three Tours, and was denied participation in last years tour due to his team pulling out at the last minute because half its riders (excluding Vino) were part of the doping scandal. After todays stage though, it'll be a tough task for him - he was involved in a nasty fall about 30km from the finish, and rode superbly to limit the damage but still ended up losing over 80 seconds. Will make things interesting in the days to come, as team mate Kloden now appears to be the best positioned rider in Vino's team (second place overall), and may take over leadership as a result. Watch Vino in the mountains though - he'll be deadly.

Yes folks, its mid-July, the evenings are long and cold, but one thing's for sure - the voices of Paul Sherwen and Phil Liggett are a familiar comfort at this time of year and the sights and sounds out of France are an exciting end to each day. Vive le tour!

POTD: 20 April 2007

Brave cyclist - tackling the traffic through Rosebank during peak hour traffic.

POTD: 16 Nov 2006

Essential MTB gear...my helmet, water bottle, gloves, and iPod.

An open letter...

The allegations against Floyd Landis continue - although his legal team have put together quite a strong case that the tests could have been compromised, and cannot be called accurate. I came across this letter (its an open letter from Floyd to the Phonak team) on Floyd's blog...and I have to admit that I am still more for, than against him.

Dear Andy, John, my teammates and staff:

When I joined the Phonak Cycling team, it was our ultimate goal to win the Tour de France. On Sunday, July 23rd, 2006, we achieved that goal.

With the dedication and support of the entire team and staff, we overcame impossible odds to make the 2006 Tour de France one of the most exciting races in its history. When the race arrived in Paris on the final day, we had the Yellow Jersey.

Winning the tour with Phonak makes me very proud. Andy, you have assembled an excellent organization, staff and team. You never wavered in your commitment to the team and your athletes despite the struggles you’ve faced in the past. It makes me happy to have won the Tour with and for Phonak. You deserved to be on the podium with me.

While the recent allegations against me hurt us all, I respect the fact that the Phonak team must follow its own rules and charter under these circumstances. I just wish that all the parties involved would do the same. Despite this, I will not relent on my pursuit of the truth. I will not shy away from this fight.

Most of all, I understand that this situation impacts families and friends other than my own. It affects the businesses and sponsors that support cycling as well as the sport itself. It is for this reason that I am determined to show that I followed the rules and won fairly and cleanly. There is a greater integrity at stake here than just my own.

I thank you all for your support and courage as I embark on this journey to restore my name, the team’s name and the image of cycling.

Thanks,

Floyd Landis
2006 Tour de France Champion

You make up your own mind.

The Epic Cycle...

Managed to get out on Sunday afternoon, for what turned out to be quite an epic cycle as far as K and I are concerned. We headed off towards the Klipriviersburg Nature Reserve, with Brett (the neighbour), to meet up with Frank. Getting there was tough, but not too bad in the end. Anyway, we met up with Frank, and cycled through the reserve, and back in about 90 minutes. Frank had the luxury of getting back into his beetle, and not having to tackle what must be classified as a Category 1 climb (I know there are no Cat.1 climbs in SA, but whoever made that claim has clearly never cycled back up Columbine road in Winchester Hills). It was a pretty intense climb at that point (which marked about 3 hours in the saddle), but nothing that an Mp3 player belting out the consistent beat of the Foo Fighters could'nt sort out. K and I made it to the top of Columbine, and back onto the long downhill of Klipriver - whilst Brett had to be rescued by Frank, and driven home.

43km round trip, 4 hours in the saddle, and a whole lot of energy burnt up. My idea of a great Sunday afternoon.

Not looking pretty for Landis.

The results of the B sample have come back as positive, and it looks like Floyd Landis is going to have a hard time proving his innocence now. The tests show signs of synthetic testosterone - which rules out the possibility of the testosterone being produced naturally by Floyd's body. Even so, Floyd flat out denies taking any testosterone, and is putting the high levels found in both the A and B samples down to "natural" causes. He also states that the possibility of whiskey and beer taken the night before his 17th stage comeback could have resulted in increased levels of testosterone. Also, the medication that he is taking for his hip disability may have something to do with the increased level. Nevertheless, this assumed that the testosterone may be elevated, but naturally so, as opposed to ingested - which the tests seem to indicate.

So where does that leave Landis? In a pretty tricky predicament I'd have to say. In his defence though, he did have 8 other tests conducted throughout the Tour, and all other tests remain negative. It is only the 17th stage win test that seems to incriminate him.

I still maintain that he'd be pretty stupid to take something, go out and win a stage like he did knowing full well that he'd be tested, and hope to get away with it.

According to Floyd's blog, he is encouraging supporters to "Keep the Faith".

You make up your own mind.

Landis guilty or not?

It came as quite a shock on Wednesday last week - listening to radio on the way home, news that Floyd Landis had been suspended by his team for failing a doping test. After supporting this guy for the past three weeks, you can imagine the disappointment I felt. I mean, what kind of fool takes performance enhancing substances, when he is the favourite to win the Tour de France. Given the recent events, and the scandal at the start of the Tour, you would have to be some kind of idiot to think that you could get away with something like this. The long and the short of it, is that nothing has been proven yet. There are two samples taken in the tests, and the first sample has shown signs of "elevated levels of testosterone". As the days have gone by, the allegations have dropped from "doping", to more like "cheating" - as there is no substance abuse involved from what I have been able to read. It is widely known that Floyd has a degrading hip, and has been on medication for some time now. Some even speculate that the rise is testosterone can be put down to natural reasons - especially given the physical changes that an athletes body goes through whilst riding a race like the Tour de France.
Nevertheless, there is a cloud hanging over the victory - and whether the rise on testosterone is put down to natural causes, or deliberate cheating - the Tour is once again tainted with controversy.
Check out this useful Tour blog for more detail.

Tour Update

Well, it may have been a farce to start off with, but this years Tour has certainly been filled with excitement and tension, right up until the penultimate day, the Individual Time Trial. This week has seen some fantastic swings at the front of the general classification. The stages on Wednesday and Thursday this week must rate as some of the most entertaining in years - with Floyd Landis losing 10 minutes in the Alps on Wednesday and being written off as a contender for this year, to fighting back in an aggressive breakaway on Thursday, and claiming back 7 of those 10 minutes. Todays time trial saw only 30 seconds between 1st and 3rd position (Oscar Pereiro in 1st, Carlos Sastre in 2nd and Landis in 3rd). Needless to say, Landis has launched himself straight back into top spot, with a 59 second lead as the riders tackle the final stage into Paris tomorrow. Unless something really dramatic happens, Landis has already won this years Tour - as there is no real attack on the final day. The yellow jersey is acknowledged, and the riders will fight it out for the glory of a win on the Champs Elysees, rather than trying to take time out of the yellow jersey.

I picked Floyd as the winner three weeks ago, and its been touch and go from the start (he lost valuable time in the prologue stage, after spotting a cut in his tire, and missing his time trial starting time). Although he wore yellow in the second week, this past week has seen him move from favourite, to write off, and back into guaranteed winner again. Even though the usual heads of state have not been present in the tour this year, it has turned out to be a fantastic spectacle once again.

Tour de Farce....

Lets put this in context quickly...for the last 5 years, I have been absolutely hooked, enthralled, entertained, addicted and caught up in the hype of the Tour de France. I don't watch cycling per se, but when July rolls around, and the Tour starts - the television remains fixed on the cycling, and hour upon hour of couch time gets racked up. Yes - for three weeks during the cold winter month (which also happens to perfectly coincide with K's year end) you will find me glued to the action taking place in "le tour". The commentary of Paul Sherwin and Phil Liggett are familiar voices that echo throughout the lounge each year, and provide intense and exciting accounts of the days action. There is just nothing that describes the kick that I get out of this most dramatic sporting event - claimed to be the toughest endurance sport on earth.
So...imagine my dissapointment this afternoon at reading that the two favourites this year have been suspended from racing, on the eve of the start of TDF2006, for their involvement in a doping scandal. Jan Ullrich, who has won the event only once (1997), and come runner up to Lance Armstrong on 5 occasions, and was set to give it one last stab before retiring - and Ivan Basso, who was runner up to Lance last year, and winner of the Giro de Italia by more than 9 minutes - both suspended by their teams today. Truly, truly dissapointing as this would have been an epic battle without the dominant presence of Lance in this years race.
So, with Ullrich and Basso out of contention this year, I'd have to place my money on Phonak's Floyd Landis to take the podium in Paris. Landis is a former team mate of Armstrong's, and Phonak's lead rider in this years race. South Africa's Robbie Hunter is one of the support riders who will be helping Landis to take the lead in the General Classification, so I guess that's another reason to support Landis. There is still a lot of fierce competition to contend with - so its definitely not a one horse race just yet. The likes of Cadel Evans (the Aussie), Alexander Vinokourov (not sure whether he will race either - same doping scandal has resulted in his team having their sponsorship dropped - although he is not implicated at this stage), Francisco Mancebo, Paulo Salvodelli (still with Armstrong's Discovery team) and Jose Asevedo (another Discovery rider) are all strong possibilities.
Still, my money sits with Landis. The Tour starts tomorrow...I've placed my bet. Lets see how my prediction turns out in 3 weeks time.

Work, wine and cycling

Its been over a week since the last post I made - purely because things have been so busy in our lives over the past few days. Here are some of the things that we've been busy with:

K's been pretty hectic at work, since her boss resigned 2 months ago. She's running all the contract meetings, seeing as there is nobody else representing her division anymore, as well as taking on all the other day to issues that he used to deal with. She's also had to make one or two decisions about her position recently, but I'll leave that for her to share with you.

On my side, things at work have also been insane. In amongst putting a plan in place for the upcoming year, I'm also busy with reviewing all my staff, and their performance with regard to the last quarter of 2005. Its tiring work to say the least.

We hooked up with Ronald and Hazel and a couple of other varsity mates on Sunday at the zoo lake Moyo, for a Sunday brunch. Was good catching up with the Tweedie's again - they're expecting their first child in May. I was really impressed with the venue - very chilled out place on a Sunday.

We went out to the 'Brown's - Best of 2005' evening on Tuesday. Each and every week, Brown's of Rivonia hosts a wine evening (usually on a Monday evening) where they get the winemaker up from the Cape, and the guests get to sample the wines from that estate over a meal that the chef puts together to compliment the wines. And each year, they have a "best of" evening - selecting the best of the best from the previous year, all rolled up into one enormous wine tasting evening. We were lucky to get a spot at this years event. And what a treat it was. They limit the evening to about 30 guests, and it is hosted by the cellarmaster, chef and owner of Brown's - in the cellar. Here are some of the wines that we sampled:
Welcoming Drink - Paul Cluver Sauvignon Blanc 2004
With Starters - Mulderbosch Chardonnay 2003 (K enjoyed this one) and Raats Cabernet Franc 2002
With Main - Rustenburg John X Merriman 2000 (highly recommended) and Beaumont Pinotage 2002 (also very nice)
With Cheese - Weltevrede Cape Muscat 2001 (almost too sweet for me)
With Dessert - De Krans Vintage Reserve Port 2002

And as far as the food went, well, also very good. We started with "Buffalo Mozzarella", I then had the duo of game (springbok and ostrich fillets) while K had the lamb fillet. We then got to sample some delicious European and local cheeses, and ended off with the most delicious chocolate creme brulee (different I know, but definitely recommended).

We've also done a bit of cycling this week. The ribs seem to have healed nicely (mostly bruising I guess), and I managed a 25km cycle on Saturday, a 10km with K on Monday evening, and another 14km with K yesterday evening. My bike is making a bit of a strange noise now, but is due for its first 200km service this weekend, so hopefully will be sorted out then.

Oh, and did I mention that I'm playing golf tomorrow afternoon. I know I know...hard to believe that I'm busy at work, when I'm playing golf in the afternoon, but this is honestly the first time in a long time. And its work related - what a bonus.

Pain in the...ribs!

It happened just over a week ago. K and I decided to go for a 10km cycle around the neighbourhood. Whilst fooling around on my bike, and trying to impress K with a "front tyre in the air for 5 seconds wheelie", I lost balance on the bike and went tumbling. Problem was, the side of the handle-bar jabbed me in the ribs as I hit the ground. Getting up and brushing it off as nothing, we continued the ride home. I didn't think much of it that night, but woke up the next morning, barely able to pull myself out of bed.

The hike up the mountain in Clarens, and the frisbee throwing with Frank and Pat didn't do much for the healing - and after returning from Clarens on Sunday evening, barely able to breath, we decided to get the ribs x-ray'd. According to the doc, there's nothing broken, just some internal bruising. Given the discomfort, it would have been better to hear that something was fractured - at least I would then have an excuse for walking around like I'm 75 years old.

What a day!

So the new addition to our family was the “Mongoose” - what you don’t know is that we also acquired a “Schwinn” – my entry level mountain bike complete with entry level components. What I learnt from G about the purchase of any bike is that it’s not about the paintwork or how attractive the bike looks (which, being a woman I thought that was very important) it’s all about the components!! So I am pleased to say that I now own a Schwinn mountain bike with Shimano components.

Now you can’t have a mountain bike without the mountain bike rack and you can’t have a mountain bike rack without a tow-bar. So my little A class was chosen as the vehicle which will be used to transport these two new additions. We have fitted the tow-bar and the mountain bike rack and my car looks quite snazzy now.

Our first mountain biking expedition into Africa was last Friday at the Ezemvelo Nature Reserve. After a long hike with G and his dad, we set off in the mid day heat to try and find the mysterious White Rhino which we were not able to spot from the car. G’s advice to me just before the ride was that should I be charged by a white rhino and her baby or any other wild animal for that matter I was under no circumstance to try and ride away from them but should rather discard by bicycle and run. I was really impressed that he believed I could out run a rhino ;-) thank love.

The dirt road/sand/rocks/incline of the hill seemed a lot harder to ride through than what I had originally expected. The first km was hard, the second even harder and by the fourth km I was finished. Having gearing down from 6 to 5 to 4 to 3 to 2 gear, G seemed to disappear into the horizon and as fast as my legs rotated I could not keep up. It was at this point that I turned my bike around waved goodbye to G and happily free wheeled down the road I had ridden up, heading back to the camping spot. I must admit that there was something quite tranquil about being on my own in the wild, I passed one Wildebeest and a family of warthogs who seemed a lot more scared of me than I was of them. Once safely back at camp I was quite proud of the fact that I had a) found my way home on my own (my sense of direction must be improving), b) not been charged or mauled by any wild animal, c) had ridden 7.9kms according to my odometer.

I loved the day out and will definitely be trying another mountain bike trail in the New Year. My first New Years resolution will be to get my mountain biking body into shape!

Its the mongoose

I've been wanting to get a bicycle for a while now, but have put it off due to the fact that we really don't have much storage space in our place. It would either have to be kept in the spare room, or on the balcony upstairs. Putting in the room would mean that we would not really be able to move in the spare room, as its not the biggest of rooms - and putting it outside on the balcony, would mean lugging it up two sets of stairs each time I used it. Then there was the option of clearing out the space under the stairs - but again, where would I put all that stuff.

Anyway, I discovered that the guy who lives in the unit below us was moving out, and there is a storeroom next to his unit that would be available to use. That's when the decision was made.

Right, so would it be a road bike, or a mountain bike? In my mind, and being the type of guy who likes to spend time outdoors, and go exploring, I figured a mountain bike was the way to go.

I ended up ordering a Mongoose Tyax Super, 2005 model. Its classified as entry level, but falls into the sport range, which is one up from the leisure range, and one down from the racing range. Its exactly what I need - not too expensive, something that I can use on the road if I want (it has lockable front shocks), as well as on various off-road trails. Its what they call a "hardtail" model, with an 18 inch frame, rapid fire shifters, and Shimano Deore rear derailleur components. I should take delivery of the bike on Monday 5th Dec if all goes according to plan - an early xmas present to myself... :-)