hippie - still sticking to name calling I see, you just never disappoint, whether it's name-calling or aftertiming, or attempting to discredit.

The "sbi" write-up was mine, that's me Dan, thanks. Ian was very good to post my writing, so no plaigiarising there I'm afraid, pity things didn't work out for all of us, though. Please contact him to confirm that author Dan and SwingingPick is one and the same person, if you need convincing. Keep trying, mate, you'll land one, some day.

Probably the lamest thing on the forum is the humble little aftertimer. My write-up on the other hand was on an influentcial sportsbetting blog, thanks. Ha-ha! Ohe dear, hippie, head-shaking stuff from you, yet again.

red and white - it's in our convict nature, we still identify with that kind of behaviour, I guess. Hehe!

Cheers,
SP

Dope - of course in hindsight it was poor advice as the tips didn't make any money for those that followed them. I've been doing very well in the cycling ever since the Tour ended, my Vuelta futures would be enough to set me up for the start of the next season of cycling, and even in the Champs time-trial I had a solid win on T. Martin -- so riding a winning high in cycling bets, I thought I could pay back Ian (and his followers) after some very good golf tipping recently, which he had furnished the forum and which he posts on his blog at "sbi". He has become a very inspirational punter for me over my short time on the golf forum, and even though I wouldn't have made a stack of money on the tips myself, I was hoping others would. If I wasn't so in awe at how seriously he takes this punting caper, things might have gone differently, but I stand by my analysis because if I had been providing such tips for a while (actually I have, at least on here) then everyone who would have been following them would be stacks of money ahead by now, this being the first loss in a lot of races, indeed. I can state that, because unlike some I actually post my bets prior to the races starting.

It was unlucky that Greg Van Avermaet was caught-up in the crash, D. Martin did try his hand at a breakaway if you recall at about two laps to go, and Lars Boom was there to race, finishing 29th, and improving on his 41st place in Geelong. Wouter Poels didn't do much but at such a price there was going to be at least one who wouldn't make a showing throughout the race.

The fact is that at the end of the day, I stand by my analysis; it was a long-range forecast and it was initially full of value and excitement. Had it come in pursuit of countless bets and analysis prior, those followers of them would have thought... he finally got one wrong!

When you provide such suggestions you don't have the option of changing it, in-play, like a trader might do. In fact, some of the shrewd punters could have layed-off some of the dramatic shortening in the Boom price, but I didn't do that, and would not have taken into account that others might have chosen to do so, either. Also, if Bak was joined by Boom and say one other like Hoogerland, then we might have seen a different race and a breakaway succeed, but I'm not making excuses - Boom was the best in-form rider in the race, and he didn't disgrace himself, and others thought so also as he shortened from 150 to 67 right across the board. One bookie put him up at 24-1 prior to the race, and that caused a little smile on my face, because that was the price I would have put up at the start.

If you recall, and if you don't the thread is still there, I initially thought Sutton's price in his stage win of the Tour should have been 9-1, imagine how much the bookies would have saved if they followed me, instead of pricing him up at over 50-1 in some cases.

You know, it's easy to find fault and talk people down when one bet goes wrong, but to actually have the courage to furnish a forum with your view, and then actually take the time to correspond with someone who is basically saying your advice was poor, or in the case of hippie, aftertiming -- shows that I am a better person than both of you combined, and please understand that whilst I don't use the "block" function on the forum, you have now been placed on my Ignore List, thanks!

Cheers,
SP

Don't let them wind you up SP. Put your head above the parapet on here and it may well get shot off if you call it wrong. It's only metaphorical, fortunately, so you live to bet another day. The fact that these folk upset you proves you're expressing honest opinions (unless you're a genius and I wont allow that after you tipped a break away he he). For me the whole point of threads such as this is to read other opinions before the race. It's up to the reader to weigh them up and decide to use or ignore. This is about fortune telling rather than history. Those who only express their opinions after the fact are at best irrelevant and at worst a royal pain in the backside if they hurl abuse.
ps enjoyed your comment about the convicts!