There's no such thing as better wine or better cheese. One is grape juice that's gone off and the other is milk that's gone off.

Ah, but what a great way to eat mould

Did anyone get blown off their bike by the wind last night? Holy crapola, Beach Rd was insane. 45kph one way....20 the other.

Must be residual from that Hurricane in the US

Trent Lowe to Discovery in 2006.

The next Cadel?

woah, where's this from? Must have been his form at the Tour of Georgia that got him noticed.

from cyclingnews.com...

Team transfer news
By Tim Maloney, European Editor

29 year-old Colombian climbing sensation, winner of two stages in this year's Giro d'Italia Ivan Parra has inked a deal with French formation Cofidis for 2006. Belgian Rik Verbrugghe looks likely to join Cofidis next year. Although Quick.Step boss Patrick Lefévère was sorry to see the prologue specialist depart, he acknowledged that his team couldn't meet the rich Cofidis offer. Alain Deloeuil, Cofidis directeur sportif explained that "Rik is more than just a solid rider; he'll fit perfectly into our team structure."

Although talented Slovenian Tadej Valjavec has been courted by several teams for 2006, he has chosen to sign a two year deal with the Lampre squad, which will likely be called Lampre-Valsir next season. Valjavec will focus on the Tour de France in '06 as well as help Lampre leader Damiano Cunego in some races. Also joining Lampre in 2006 is emerging Italian sprinter Daniele Napolitano of Team LPR, who just won two stages at the Tour du Poitou Charentes et de la Vienne in France. Departing Lampre for LPR next season is Samuele Marzano.

Discovery Channel's 2006 line-up already has some changes in store, with Basque climber Egoi Martinez coming from Euskaltel and solid young Belgian classics man Jurgen Van Goolen from Quick.Step. Aussie Trent Lowe, a former junior MTB XC world champ currently riding the road for Jittery Joe's (Subaru-Gary Fisher on MTB) was a climbing revelation in the Tour de Georgia this spring, finishing 11th on GC and will join Discovery Channel next year. And peloton whispers say that Discovery Channel is also close to signing CSC's young Russian classics talent Vladimir Gusev.

Thought about going for a ride, but couldn't bring myself to get out in the Huricane...I noticed that the only people riding were 'sailing' the wind southward anyhow.

another great MTB'er down. I suppose it's hard to compete with what he could earn on the road

It was pretty inevitable for Lowe to go to full time road. the boys a gun, even Paul Rowney labled him the best cycling prospect Australia has produced in a long time. Another GC contender for the tour in a couple of years?

anyone here done the southern highland fling 100K MTB ride? if so , whats it like? worth doing?

Hey Hitchy, veteran of many Alpine Classics, what gearing do you recommend for the steeper slopes? Audax website reckons 39/26 or 28 would be a good bet.

You still going saccy?

not yet, supposed to be all but 2kms on dirt, profile to be added to the website soon.

I'm entered anyway and am going down there on the October long weekend for a scout around the forest area where it's on.

are you doing the 100K option? seems like a long way to go on a MTB in a day. depends on what the terrain is like i guess. long way to go on a hardtail.....

Got my invite on Friday, so I'll be there with bells on.

I can't remember what's on the back of my thing. Thought it was a 25 or 27. If it's a 25 I might have to take the bus.

yep, all 100kms, might even do it on the SS (I already have the hardtail and a rigid fork to boot) if I can train enough between now and then. I've done a 100 miler (a few years ago when I was fitter) so 100 kms seems pretty doable about now, just over 2 months to prepare for it.

A mate of mine is just about to do a 100 miler in Virginia and he trained a lot more than me, he's freaking out about it, but, if you have some good fitness/training base, you can still do the distance, maybe not that quick but it's easy enough to get to the finish.

you talking about this?

https://www.alphalink.com.au/~audaxoz/alpine.html

Don't know if that's current or not. This is the site I go to.

https://www.audax.org.au/alpine.htm

given that ive jsut come back from 2 months off the bike due to illness, i think ill stick to the 50K option, sounds good to me, looking forward to it as well.

great stuff, looks like an awesome ride !!

2 months off - yuck !!

I like that pic at the bottom of the page you linked to. They expect us to climb that high? They're dreaming.

tell me about it. was embarassing doing the M2 on saturday. after 20 kays id almost had enough!

Might have to wear the old Thylacine shirt if it hasn't fallen apart by then.

I've got a flatlander's 23 and I'm starting to wilt already! Bloke here at work does plenty of rides down in the alpine regions and he sed "Compact" straight up. And he's a strong climber! You might be limited to max 26 anyway if you've got the short cage rear dereilleur. Hopefully Hitchy will make it sound like a walk in the park.

Radical course only about 40km of flat riding in it. All the rest is flat out down hill or spinning uphill. Maybe a three-speed dragster would be a better alternative

Did anyone notice that Mr McGee is in gold in Spain? He's the first Aussie to hold the leaders jersey in the three big tours.

And old man Zabel beat Boonen and Hushovd for 2nd in the sprint behind Petacchi. He's a bloody legend!!

McGee doing well.

Zabel 2nd again...