Well done Darryl Impey . . .

The sport on Sunday afternoon was just fantastic and I was wishing I'd thought to set up a second TV set in my lounge. 

As it was I was flicking furiously from Silverstone to Wimbledon and to Lords trying not to miss anything but I also found time to flick to the little French town of Brioude to watch South Africa's Darryl Impey win the biggest stage of his life at the Tour de France.

Impey took his chance to get into the breakaway and then he not only showed a lot of guts and power, he also demonstated brilliant tactical nous in driving the breakaway so as not to allow any other fast finishers to get into the group as well as timing his final attack to perfection to make it a straight race between himself and Tiesj Benoot knowing that he could beat Benoot in the final sprint . . . which he did. Not recognised as a climber who could take on a specialist like Benoot, it was the last few hundred metres of the final climb where Impey won the stage. Once they got to the flat section the final sprint was always a formality.

On a frantically busy afternoon of high quality sporting entertainment, that was probably the highlight for me.

Fascinating.....gosh, when I think of all the hours I spent waiting to time the pigeon, depending on the distance it sometimes took up the whole day. First you'd have to ring up and find out from a club official the time of liberation, then you'd have to work out the estimated flying time but that would be neither here nor there depending on prevailing weather conditions. As an example what happens if the pigeons cop a headwind or on the contrary a tailwind or if they had to fly through a storm? Times could be faster or slower.

Getting back to the Electronic Timing Device.....geez it makes the old fashioned clock just that....old and primitive. But here's the question, what happens if there's a power failure in your area? There surely must be a backup plan in place.

Rooi, Moz could care less, he is winding you up like he does old Maaik daily. 

The pigeon thing was funny as hell...it's a pity we all moved past humor on certain topics/posters.

...as for the Tour, winning a stage is probably the pinnacle in the South African rider's career...hopefully he can achieve greater things, but no small feat on it's own...I'm sure Moz did not miss that...it's just too much fun to rev you.

PS, I should probably not even speak to you, but hell life is too short to worry about bye gones...or irate responses...

PPS...Cheers Blob....sorry for being a prick.

Moz, we really need to get back to the main topic of conversation, instead I see you're being distracted by the painful blithering Buffoon, Koosie. Although I admire your patience and tolerance you must surely realise at some point that you're wasting and have wasted a lot of time on the drug-infused, Stupid. Man he is thicker than thick....get over it mate. Just how thick is he?.....brick thick!

When you're ready I'd like to cover a few more interesting points about homing pigeons......like for instance their fitness training and foods etc

I had a severe macaw...he wasn't a great fly er either, but had quite a vocabulary...still miss Fred.

Now where were we before we were rudely interrupted, Moz? 

Aaaahhh Yes, the training, another exciting chapter in the homing pigeon.....loved it. But just before we launch into that we should mention the three seasons which takes up the life of the homing pigeon.......probably all pigeons. I'm not quite sure which one to roll out first, guess it doesn't matter as long as I get the order right. 

There's the molting season, speaks for itself in that they shed feathers and grow new ones, safe to say it's the least exciting time for the pigeon fancier, followed by the breeding season, it has to because the birds will build their nests with the feathers they had dropped.....nature working nicely by adding the dots and  lastly there's the racing season. I guess the last two were the most exciting times for me, matching up the pairs, keeping a close eye on the eggs being laid and then watching the nestlings grow.

Then came the tricky part, homing the young bird, watching a frightened youngster step out onto the roof for the first time without taking off and losing it to the unknown. I did find a solution to that one though.....a simple and effective one.

Yes that's right. An echelon forms in cross winds because riders have to move to the side to stay out of the wind and eventually you run out of road width. That means that the next rider is completely unprotected which leads to gaps. Road captains have to be absolutely on the ball to ensure they don't get caught out because a team with decent roulers will just head off down the road and put massive time gaps into the field

Game set and match. Stay down peeper.

'When the pure sprinters opened for the line'.....except one sprinter who finished 126. Obviously not ingesting enough contaminated gel caps. Waaaaaaaaaaah.....game, set and match.

Cheers for posting that   really interesting