This is a guest post by Becoming Minimalist.

“I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.” – Leo Rosten

Financial success is a powerful motivator. And it controls the lives of many. It chooses occupations. It dictates how time, energy, and resources are spent. It influences relationships, schedules, and families. To some, it even becomes an all-consuming passion that leaves broken people and morality in its wake.

Unfortunately, it is not the greatest call that we have on our lives. In fact, compared to significance, it fades pretty quickly.

Consider the limitations of success:

• Success ebbs and flows with the economy. As recent years have proven, financial success is always at the mercy of a national economy and increasingly, a world economy. When the economy takes a downturn (as it always does), so does net worth.
• Success ends on the day you die. On the day you die, all wealth and possessions will be immediately transferred to someone else. And even if you get to pick where they go, the reality is that person is always someone other than you.
• Success is never enough. Financial success will never satisfy the inmost desires of our soul. No matter the amount of financial success earned, it always leaves us wanting more.

On the other hand, compare the advantages of significance:

• Significance always lasts. Significance will always outlast you. Even when you are no longer present, your significance will still be yours. And nothing can ever take that away from you.
• Significance carries on. Significance keeps on giving. When you positively change the life of another human being…  and that person changes the life of another… who impacts the life of another… who influences another…
• Significance satisfies our soul. While the thirst for success is never quenched, significance satisfies our deepest heart and soul. It allows us to lay our head on our pillow each night confident that we lived a valuable and fulfilling day.

Unfortunately, many people spend most of their lives chasing financial success. And while some achieve it more than others, almost all find it unfulfilling in the end. When they begin to shift their life focus to significance instead of success, they wonder why they wasted most of their life chasing something different.

Don’t waste any of your life. Seek significance today.

Here are just a few practical steps to get you started:

1. Realize that life won’t last forever. Everyone knows that life will come to an end – but no one likes to think about it. That’s unfortunate. As soon as you start thinking about the end of your life, you begin to live differently in the present. You are never too young to start thinking about your legacy. How do you want people to remember you? And what do you really want to accomplish before you die? Make a list. Post it somewhere… because rarely will “drive a really nice car” ever appear.
2. Live a life worth copying. Live with character, integrity, and morality. Your life should look the same in private as it does in public. And while no one is perfect, just begin striving for a life of integrity. It will be noticed.
3. Focus on people. Not dollars. Begin to transfer your life’s focus from your banking account to the people around you. Rather than worrying about the next get-rich-quick scheme, spend that energy focusing on your child, your neighbor, or the disadvantaged in your community.
4. Start with one solitary person. Find one person who needs you today. Start there. Significance may be as inexpensive as one cup of coffee or as simple as one heartfelt question. If you are unsure where to start, try this, “No, how are you really doing?”
5. Find a career outside your job. Sometimes, our day job leads to significance. But if yours does not, find a “career of significance” outside of your job by volunteering in a local organization. Most likely, your gifts, talents, or expertise are desperately needed. Use your job to pay the bills, but use your “new career” to pay your soul.
6. Realize that significance is not dependent upon success. Too many people fall into the trap of thinking, “Once I make it rich, I’ll become significant.” This is rarely the case. Choose significance today. Begin striving for it now. If, then, financial success comes your way in the future, your mind will be in a better place to truly use your new success for broader significance.
7. Reduce your expenses. Learn to live with less. Living with less frees up your life to invest into others. And living with reduced expenses allows you the freedom to not spend so much time at the office and more resources on others.
8. Read biographies of people who sought significance rather than success. If you prefer recent history, read about Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela. If you prefer older stories, give Mohandas Gandhi or Harriet Tubman a shot. Either way, their lives will inspire you to make more of yours.

Rarely do people look back on their lives and savor their professional achievements. Instead, they celebrate the impact they have had in the lives of others. Give yourself much to look back and celebrate. Stop chasing success. Start seeking significance.

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One of the things I love most in life is cooking. It is my gardening, my zen out time and generally, also the time to have a glass of wine. It’s a time to try something new, something different and something that might go wrong. Thankfully, there are loads of take away spots around where I live, so if it’s a total flop, I can just get a take-away. In the quest for real food, I would love to inspire more people to try cooking at home.

I have found a resource so simple and easy that you are going to never forget the moment you downloaded it. It’s a free cook book with recipes that are easy to make, require 5 ingredients or less and even makes sense to the toughest booitjie out there. Best part is that it only takes 10 minutes to make each thing, and they look so so YUM! You will find it here so click “Save link as” in Firefox and if you are still using Internet Explorer – sis on you!

Have fun. I am going to have it printed out and leave it in the kitchen.

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I had lunch today with a particularly gifted guy. Not only is he an unbelievable mountain biker, but he can write far better than this guy. He is adventurous, wild and very calculating. But the fact that I like most about him, is that he gets it. Plain & simple.

“It” is course, can be summed up for me as follows:

1. Sport for us is a lifestyle. It’s an essential part of our lives.
2. It will never be our profession.
3. We love pushing our bodies as far as possible to see how much we can cope with.
4. There has to be adventure involved. Without adventure, men starve.
5. We LOVE it.

For him it’s about being out there, pushing the limits, often with his brother, in situations which make him a better guy. Admirable that he is willing to put himself into the dark bucket of “How am I going to get out of here” but smart in that he surrounds himself with people he really trusts to be in that situation with. It’s not about one thing, but about participation, being in the mix with the dudes, the guys, the manne and he knows it never gets easier as you get faster, even though he is really really fast.

We were chatting about where we want our sports experiences to go and there was a mutual agreement that it’s the participation, the masses and especially the back markers that inspire us more than the front guys. We have both successfully and through many years of hard work come from the back to the front of races. When I started at the back of triathlons, the front guys were everything I wanted to be. As I am nearing the front, I have to say that the inverse has happened. I have various reasons for this.

1. The gains are smaller and require MUCH more work.
2. There is very little gear left that I don’t have, that doesn’t cost more than my car.
3. To get better, I have to be far more organized, planned, rigorous and meticulous about so many more things. At times, it is exhausting.

I am a true believer in the inspiration of the first timer, the twice a week runner who commits to running their first half marathon and the guy who cant swim more than 50m who enters a half ironman race, throwing caution to the wind and slamming their fists against the table and saying “I WILL DO THIS”. Those are my heroes.

The blogosphere has created this world where there are thousands of pages, no, that would be millions of pages of people who write to boost their own ego’s. Twitter, for me, is about 90% self massage of the ego. I am completely over Facebook at this point as I am tired of seeing how “happy” everyone proclaims to be, but when I see the same people in person their lives are falling apart. Rather be open and honest and contribute something beyond the blob, as I am coining it. Write something beyond a cheesy quote or telling the world (lying) about how fabulous everything is. Share a useful link that inspired you. Suggest an action which contributes.

Beyond the blob relates to all our lives. This crazy ego massage where we are seeking the approval of others by spreading a message that is not necessarily true is the shortest empty cul de sac I can think of. Surely that is the short term outlook on a long term problem? I could totally be missing my seat here but there is something truly healing about humbly sharing something that was given to you today, onwards, with the rest of the world.

For the rest of the week, move beyond the blob. Use your Facebook and Twitter accounts, your emails and sms’s, blackberry messenger and skype platforms to share information which made a change in your week. Don’t be the guy who gives a blind man a set of binoculars, be the guy who gives the blind man a guide dog, something that could change someone’s life forever. It could totally happen to you, if you just take the chance to share.

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It was a Tour that kept us glued to the stupid box, making sure we got home either early or avoided Facebook, Twitter, The Internet and anyone who may have actually watched it live so that we could watch the last 2 hours on Supersport a little later as well, as if it was live. To us, it was. It was a close Tour, one filled with more excitement than the last few put together, where there was no clear winner, even by the time we reached Paris.

We were witness to two boys doing absolutely pure boyish things. Attacking and attempting to destroy the other one only to high five after the stage in celebration of being the best. Its classic boys stuff. So with that, I expected a mistake or two and we got them splattered out in front of the world for all to see the mistakes and personally, I think they handled it like men. There was A LOT of growing up going on behind the scenes at the 2010 Tour de France.

Viva! I cannot believe we have to wait 330 odd days for it all to happen again.

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That is how you finish the biggest mountain in the Tour. Right?

I have been excited lately to do things right, and I mean really giving it everything. I am going into a block of time where not giving everything is just not going to cut it. Big races, big work projects and exciting prospects loom ahead in the next 12 weeks, so I am finding the following and hoped you could use one or two things to help you too.

1. I am having to think slowly. TheHousemate always says “less haste, more speed” and this rings super true for me, especially as I get busier. I have to take extra time to write emails, proposals, respond to questions, plan my day ahead (sometimes involves packing 2 sports bags and pre-making lunch and and and…). Taking the extra few seconds or minutes to do things slowly, think about the things slowly can often result in hours saved.

2. New sensations. The harder I train, the more fragile I get & the more regular sleep and simple food I need. I am more prone to stomach bugs, sinus infections, flat out fatigue and the one which hits me the hardest is my tolerance for alcohol. I generally have a very good tolerance. I find that after a certain volume of hours training, I just can’t do more than 2 glasses of wine. Overz kadoverz. The same goes with sugar and all stimulants. Where I would hardly feel a red bull, where I am now training wise, it knocks me for 6.

3. Peace. I am very chill at the moment. Things are on track and I keep hearing comments about looking peaceful. Planning and execution of that plan correctly is clearly good for the soul. Sleeping regularly and eating real food will make all the difference. People will see it.

4. Mood awareness. I am someone who does not do the combination of hungry and tired very well. I am very calm in general but combine the two and I might rip the arms off a small child if it asks that question again. Being busy often leaves me tired, often hungry and quite often, both. This is just how it is. I have to be very aware of my mood and how I react in the office or to email when you add in that it might be Monday and I have trained 12 hours over the weekend.

Hopefully something in there that you can use this week.

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I`m just not finding the words today. You`re going to have to deal with finding inspiration in impossibly cool people.

have a great weekend y`all.

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…

Such a simple thing. Could be a pause to ponder or an eternity of waiting in those 3 little dots.

From Wikipedia: “An ellipsis can also be used to indicate a pause in speech, an unfinished thought, or, at the end of a sentence, a trailing off into silence.”

If that description doesn’t inspire thoughts of beauty in you, you might not be a minimalist at heart or even at attempt. For me, ellipsis is the core of a lot of what I write. I use it more than I use a lot of more pertinent marks. I find it beautiful and insightful and the pause, for me, is the simplest way to evoke.

A pause in speech is silence. Silence is one of the most profound ways to connect with your inner voice, with nature. Silence is the best part of speech. It’s the best part of me, silence. I can ride my bicycle in the forests for 5 or 6 hours without saying a word. My closest friends will attest that I can drive for hours in the car with them without saying a word. Simple comfort in silence is the highest respect I can pay you as a person.

An unfinished thought is any thought, really — if a thought is “finished” it’s dead. We are all of us in transition, all the time, and our thoughts can be no exception. Constant transition. How beautiful.

Trailing off into silence implies that there is much left unsaid … that what is said is only the start. Once we realise we are in constant transition, every end is merely the start and every start is the end. The simple realisation that we never stop evolving is uber powerful.

Intentional omission is the foundation of minimalism: we leave things out because they are unnecessary, and retain only what we need or use or love. Omitting the unnecessary is a thing of pure beauty. Constant reassurance from things which are unnecessary is deemed “consumer” in my mind. Move from being consumer to being provider. Try it out sometime…

…

Say less, and hear more.
Do less, and have a greater impact.
Make less noise, and appreciate the silence.
Send out fewer emails, and make each one count.
Tweet less, and each one becomes more meaningful.
Have fewer possessions, and enjoy the space.
Have fewer “friends”, but make each relationship stronger.
Appreciate the spaces between everything.

…

Ed’s note: I have quoted the last 8 lines directly from another post, they are quite profound.

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There is just something about coming home from a long, long bicycle ride and totally stuffing your face with something that:

1. Tastes fantastic
2. Is stuffed with calories
3. Is accompanied by a fresh smoothie
4. Is ready for you to eat

We can do all those, boys & girls. You are just going to have to make the bread the night before, or get your significant other to make it while you are out riding. I make a variation on the standard version, upping the decadence just a little, because let’s face it, after 5 hours in the saddle, no calories are even going to touch sides. Here we go:

Ingredients

• 1 cup light or dark rye flour
• 2/3 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon honey
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/3 cup soft butter
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup mashed banana (ripe)
• Nutella (liberal)

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees (Celsius). Lightly spray or grease a bread pan.

In a bowl combine the flour, cornstarch, flour, honey, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

Mix together with a wire whisk.

In another bowl combine the soft butter and the brown sugar, slowly add the egg substitute and beat till fluffy.

Add in the vanilla and mashed banana and some chunks (yes, chunks) of Nutella. Mix well. Add in the flour mixture till smooth.

Pour into the prepared bread pan and bake for 50 – 55 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing and cool on a wire rack.

+++

Nice. When you get home, merely slice, spread more nutella, heat for 20seconds in the microwave and eat as much as you want while you are lying with your feet pointed towards the sky.

It’s a pleasure. No really.

You`ll thank me later.

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Image courtesy of Nick Muzik.

I recently grabbed the chance to interview Ryan Sandes. If you have not heard of him, shame on you. He is probably one of the 3 most awarded athletes in South Africa. His sport, ultra STAGE marathon running (across deserts no less) is quite niche and like a Greg Minnaar, he is not a household name. I wanted to get some background questions to why he is so good, but in reality I ended up with the knowledge that the guy works harder than anyone I know. Plain and simple. He is willing to out train every single other hopeful ultra STAGE marathon runner in the world. Period. Full Stop. #BOOM Let’s get to the questions:

1. We have as many nerve endings in our feet as in our nether regions, hence the joy of running. Runners “high” is something I am sure you can contest to. Are you more affected when running by what you feel, or by what you see, seeing as you are someone who runs in the beautiful wide.

I would say it is a combination of both, but definitely what I see effects how I feel. When running in places like the Amazon Jungle, Atacama Desert, Fishriver Canyon, and Table Mountain I am on a constant “runners high” and running up a hill, dune or through a swamp does not feel like hard work. I become like a little kid exploring a new play park and I want too see more and hence keep running. One of the main attractions of trail running for me is the awesome environment I get to run in.

2. I have a suspicion that you have an inherent engine of economy. The way you have risen to the top has been miraculous to some, but I would hope to think you spend 10 000 hours doing something to build your engine as a kid. Economy is surely the biggest factor to your kind of running. What was your childhood like in terms of (subconsciously, of course) teaching your body to run/function on as little effort as possible? How much focus do you place in your current training on economy of movement?

My Dad ran a few Two Oceans marathons when I was about four or five years old and some of my earliest childhood memories are of me running around the garden with his medals on pretending I had just won the Two Oceans! But this was short lived and my main focus was rugby as I think it is every South African kid’s dream to play for the Springboks. Playing flank at school I always had to be one of the fitter guys on the rugby field so maybe that was the start of were I learnt how to run far..

Naturally I have quite an unusual running style but it is really economical so I have not tried to change anything, as it seems to be working. I spend a lot of time on the trails getting my body used to running long distances and this definitely helps my body adapt to being more economical.

3. Your sport is so much more niche than mine. Running is the biggest sport in the world, but Ultra STAGE Race Running is tiny. A niche which you are the worlds leading athlete at. Would you move to a more mainstream version of running if the opportunity existed to improve your professional career or are you focused on your niche for the foreseeable future?

I have set myself three major goals that I would like to achieve as an ultra distance runner. That is to win the 4 Desert Series (www.4deserts.com), the Ultra Trail Mont Blanc and the Badwater Ultra marathon (www.badwater.com).

The 4 Desert Series and the other multi day races I have run have been loads of fun and it has put me on the map as a runner but if all goes well I would like to focus on running the Mont Blanc Ultra next year. This is a different style of race to what I am used to…it is a non stop 100 miler through the Mont Blanc mountain range. I see this as a progression from the multi day stage races and the 100-miler scene is a lot more commercial. It will be a huge challenge to be competitive at the Mont Blanc, but I am excited to keep pushing my physical and mental boundaries.

And then in a few years time I would like to end off with a Badwater Ultra or few…. To me this is the ultimate challenge!

Namibia Desert Race pic by Dean Leslie www.wanderingfever.com

4. I talk about solitude a lot. You seem like a guy who understands that. I have never heard you qualify a statement you have made, which is a very rare commodity. Are you someone who runs because it puts you in scenarios of pure solitude, where you may have to question how the hell you are going to make it back home, or do you find the solitude of your sport leaves you craving contact with the “normal” world?

I am someone who enjoys being on my own and in my own headspace. After about four or five hours of running that’s is when I think most clearly. Running long distances is just a state of mind… I love doing what I do and spending 7 hours on the trails is not hard work for me – I see it as play! I break my longer runs down into mini segments focusing on the present and taking in the surrounding environment… time seems to fly by when I am in the “zone” and I don’t have a worry in the world. Endurance events are all about keeping a positive state of mind and having fun out there…

5. I heard that you sleep on the floor, in tents and have to carry your own food. I also heard you don’t have water to wash your kit in and that its very rough at these stage races. Not quite Sani2c vibes where there is decadence on tap, so to speak. Tell us about the unglamorous side of your races. People underestimate how tough your races are, in fact.

Yeah these races are fully self-supporting, the only thing competitors are given is rations of water and we sleep in massive ten man army tents. To be competitive during the race I go as light as possible and therefore take the bare minimum… I take one pair of race kit so things get smelly (I am not a hit with the chix during the race), I don’t brush my teeth and I live on freeze-dried meals, smash and Perpetuem. I also don’t take a sleeping mat to save weight which has backfired a few times…the Fishriver Canyon is quite a rocky place!

6. I also heard there is no prize money. How are you funding trips, training and all the recovery processes?

Multi day stages races are really expensive because of the remote areas they take place in. The average cost of a race entry excluding any flights etc is $3 000 and my Antarctica entry is $10 000..

Most of the races do not have prize money so when I tell people I run 250km with all my food on my back and pay up to $10 000 in race entry fees I get a few strange looks… my answer is cross that finish line and you will know why I do it!!..

So I would not be living my dream without my major sponsors Velocity Sports Lab and Salomon.

Then there is also Oakley, Suunto, Hammer Nutrition, and Imazine – thanks for your support guys!!

And I have just finalised a Red Bull sponsorship – super stoked!!

7. What was your comrades experience all about? Is it a race you could see yourself competing as a contender? I heard you were rumored to be running?

I did not end up running the Comrades this year…. 89km on tar scares the sh..&%..t out of me! My race schedule got to busy and it was a toss up between the Trans Alpine Trail run or Comrades…. Comrade is on my door step so another year.

I think the Comrades is the greatest ultra road race in the world but as road running it is not my focus and I would not be competitive at it I will wait a few years until I attempt it. But I defiantly will be running it at some stage!

Jungle Marathon in the Amazon – pic by Greg Fell www.wanderingfever.com

8. What are the 5 races you would most love to do and why those specifically?

1. The Mont Blanc Ultra – it is 166km up and around the Mont Blanc mountain range and it the ultimate test when it comes to ultra distance mountain running.

2.Racing the Planet Nepal – it is a one off race next year taking place in the Nepal mountain range. I do not think you will get a more beautiful race than that.

3.The Badwater Marathon – 135 miles (217km) non-stop through Death Valley…the road gets so hot that the racers shoes start melting. This race scares me but is one of the things I have to do before I die.

4.The Skyrun – I was injured last year but went up with Salomon to watch the race. I think this race is the ultimate trail / mountain running challenge in South Africa.

5.An Ironman – I have watched Ironman South Africa for the last two years and the race leaves me with goose bumps. Seeing guys like yourself and Greg Goodall smashing the course really inspires me to get out there one day! Unfortunately I will more than likely watch it from the sidelines again next year…. But a Greg (Ed’s note: Greg Goodall is who I would consider to be my primary rival in my age group in South Africa for Ironman. His balance across all 3 disciplines, ability to focus and do the right kind of training and calm demeanor make him the most balanced athlete out there. We have never raced an Ironman head to head but have raced many other races together. He went to Kona in 2009.) vs Raoul showdown could make for some interesting watching??:)

9. In terms of nutrition, I realize you are a Hammer Nutrition prophet. They make fantastic products, but on your long weekend runs (up to 9 hours I read somewhere), what are you eating out there for that amount of time and do you ever run with music?

Yeah I am a huge Hammer fan, especially of a product they make called Perpetuem. I run for up to 12 hours on only Perpetuem and a few Endurolyte tablets here and there. Perpetuem keeps my energy levels constant with no spikes or drops… I mix it into a thick pancake batter and have some about every 20mins washed down with water.

I listen to a bit of music on my runs, but this is more so on my road runs where things can get a bit monotonous. On the trails I like to be able to hear my surroundings like a hissing puff adder I am about to stand on.

10. I am a gear head. I have seen some siiiick gear that you have had going at African X with that snazzy back pack Salomon have developed. What is the testing process like with them for new gear and how custom is the stuff you are using from them? How much do you think the gear affects your training and racing?

Going to France and testing out all the new Salomon gear was awesome. I got to meet the guys who make the gear and you see just how passionate these guys are about making the lightest, fastest and best fitting shoes and gear for the athletes. The Salomon international group is relatively small and everyone is treated like family. They have gone out of their way to make me prototype gear to keep warm in Antarctica and are also making me custom shoes to fit the exact mould of me meet (I have fat feet!).

Endurance trail running is all about comfort while running and looking after your body so that it can recover as quickly as possible. Salomon have gone out of their way to achieve this and so I definitely feel it affects my training and racing in a positive way. A Salomon athlete wins one in every three trail races around the world so they must be doing something right.

That was that.

Ryan was off to run shortly after the interview (seriously) for a 7 hour run in prep for his Trans Alps run. 7 hours??? The guy just gets the work done, which is probably his biggest secret. I would reckon its taken him less time to get to his 10 000 hour mark in this sport than anybody else, which is why he is so ahead of the competition. His training partners are there for his shortest runs only, from what I have been told.

His results are incredible and he is the leader in ultra STAGE marathon races so far in his career, in the world. Someone equated it to walking into the ring as a first time fighter and knocking Ali out in the first round. He is easily comparable to an Armstrong, a Shumacher or a Wellington. He is local, he is lekka and we should be proud of his achievements so far. I do, however, feel that they are just the beginning.

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So there we have it. Bert is sorry for what happened yesterday. After the absolute plethora of abuse he took from the Twitter universe (although, really, how much do you think he cares about that) after yesterday I thought to give as neutral an opinion on the matter as humanly possible. Right from the offset, I need to clearly state that neither of these riders even make my Top 3 favorite riders at the 2010 Tour de France. So far my favorites have been Chavanel, Van den Broeck and the always giving Jens Voigt. I have nothing to gain from either of these riders winning Le Tour even if I have had the privilege of riding with one of them for a few days here, in Cape Town. If anything, I should favor Andy. I think they are both young and will both continue to make mistakes, much to the delight of the cannon fodder with 140 characters to comment without considering all angles.

So here is the rundown, in my opinion, of the said events.

Andy attacked, without success, the first time. He couldn’t hold tempo high enough to keep the followers and quite quickly, the group swelled to about 15-20 riders again. Stupidly, Bert and Andy were sitting near the back of this group. A gap appeared and Andy went right, Bert was left and seemingly attacked just a few seconds later, following Andy and wanting to go by as he slowed. Andy got a gap on the group by virtue of having the clean line. As I saw it, Vino was the only Astana rider on the right and followed. Bert launched the same attack on the right, but was a few seconds behind Andy, invisible to the camera angle. Then came the stupid mistake, but we need to go back in time a little, just quickly.

As any decent rider will tell you, a power shift (read: shifting a few gears while applying massive power or even worse, changing front and rear derailleur at the same time) will result in catastrophe. In this years Cape Epic, we saw many of these and even experienced one within our own team that cost us roughly 90minutes in overall time. Read here about it too. It often happens when you are in a rush or when you are not 100% thinking. Now, 15 days into a Tour that has been marred by crashes galore, 40 degree heat and record speeds has left the riders a little kaput. I bet 99.99% of people who watch the Tour have no real idea how big an effect this has on the riders. This, from one of the smartest guys out there, Garmin Team Director Jonathan Vaughters:

So the guys are a little fried, very antsy from being so close, a little frustrated at not being able to drop each other. Andy sees he has a small gap on an Astana rider (Vino) on the right and sees Bert coming on the left. He knows he has to shift to the big ring to keep momentum (he was visually slowing at this point) as Bert is coming hell for leather with the red mist going full tilt. He, from what I saw, was trying to move from the small to the big ring, as well as shifting the rear derailleur. STOOPID. His entire rear wheel lifted as the chain buckled under the pressure at the back of the bike. It then came off the front as well, as a result of this.

Rookie error. Power shift. Heat of the moment stuff. It happens.

In my opinion, he is lucky he lost 40 seconds yesterday. If he had been a big rider like a Hushovd, he would have snapped that rear derailleur into a hundred little pieces. His team car was about 5-10minutes down the road behind the group. I still believe it was a mistake on his part and he is a lucky boy to have got back on his bike. Had my Fretten been shifting like that, we would have seen a crying man on the side of the road.

Add to this the confusion of Bert, who goes by Andy as he is shifting (watch the video) to get his chain back (not even realising the problem lies in the back of the bike yet), has just launched his attack.

Menchov called it: “I can’t explain [what happened with Schleck] because I didn’t see what happened. We know that Alberto and Andy play with each other. We have to follow one of them. I saw the reaction of Contador and I thought it was decisive, so I tried to follow him,” Menchov said.

So Menchov (The Russian), who was behind Contador, couldn’t even see Andy’s problems. Dirty (Sanchez) followed too, as he is only 13seconds clear of The RussianI felt so bad for Shleck as his mechanical could not have been timed worse. His main rival had just launched the best attack he has made all Tour, taken the two guys in 3rd and 4th overall with him, and he is left to ride back to them on his own. If I were the yellow jersey, I would have been mad, at that moment, for a few things:

1. I should not have shifted like a tool.
2. I should have got the chain on the first time.
3. I should have shouted that I had a mechanical.

But these pro’s don’t all think like me. I am tough on myself.

By the time Bert, Dirty and The Russian would have realised there was a mechanical, they would have been 40 seconds up the road. Were Dirty and The Russian going to wait? HELL NO. If they get within 2 minutes of Andy both of them could see the podium in Paris. They know that. So they pushed on. It’s not like previous tours our there, even Big Tex agrees with this comment: Armstrong recalled when he waited for Jan Ullrich in 2001 and when Ullrich waited for him in 2003. However he pointed out that the race was ‘on’ and so the unwritten rules of fair play and sportsmanship do not count in the heat of the moment, when other riders are attacking and other placings and jerseys are at stake.

At this point I felt bad for both guys. The perils of yellow, the win at all costs and the confusion of being tired, burnt, frustrated and finally getting the break you need. They were both making silly errors even if the blame was going to go one way at that point.

Asked for their opinion on the incident, Laurent Jalabert, Bernard Thévenet and Bernard Hinault all described Schleck’s incident as an inescapable part of racing and said they were looking ahead to see how Contador and Schleck will respond. Those are 3 of the most respected names in the cycling world. They are not on the couch at home rooting for a favorite underdog. I think the reactions were very one sided when there were 4 guys involved here. Shleck, Bert, Dirty & The Russian. When 3 guys are off the front going hell for leather there is no way they stop to ask where the 4th guy is. They are going to keep going and ask afterwards what happened.

If you have ever raced that deep into your limit you will know this. I hardly remember talking to people at Ironman SA this year. There are people I passed who I don’t even remember seeing. When you are “all in” there is a tunnel vision that occurs.

Nobody waited for Chavanel when he had two mechanical incidents in yellow on the cobbles. Fabian was on the front, killing the pace. He came back the next day and took it in style, with panache and determination. Further proof of being tunnel visioned is Vino riding Bert off his wheel on the same stage when Bert punctured, 1km to go. Vino was so in the zone he didn’t even hear his radio over the noise from the crowd and the deafening pain in his legs. That cost Bert 20seconds as well. Being so in the zone, you hear nothing. 50 000 people in that last kilometer, limited radio cover, I don’t think they knew until it was too late and even then the info would have been sketchy. With less and less cash to go around for sponsors, the podium is huge in Paris and the Team Directors in the cars would have been driving their guys to keep pushing.

To give you a full idea of how complicated and emotional this situation was for the general public, even Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen were at war, live on air. Paul was lambasting Bert as if Andy were his long lost love child who held the keys to Atlantis. I thought we might hear a big crash and no more coverage as they were in fisticuffs. I would be willing to say that the dinner conversation was light and short after the show.

Overall, a great stage filled with confusion, rookie shifting errors and desperate hot headed guys in lycra. Viva le Tour. Headline news, trending topics on Twitter and public apologies via YouTube so we can all see it unfold in front of our eyes. If anything, be grateful for the most exciting Tour in the history of me watching it. Feel free to comment below.

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