Shape Matters: A Comparison of TT Saddle Shapes

When we designed our V8 TT + Tri saddle, we paid special attention to 3 areas of the saddle's design to relieve soft tissue pressure, support the pelvic bones, and prevent thigh rubbing.

1. Channel Width: The V8's channel width provides ample soft tissue relief, whether riding on the nose or upright towards the rear.

2. Nose Width: The V8's nose width supports the pelvic bones - it’s not so narrow that the nose sits between these bones and increases soft tissue pressure & discomfort, and not so wide as to rub & chafe the inner thighs.

3. Transition: The V8's transition from rear to nose quickly tapers to get the saddle out of the way to maximize thigh clearance and reduce the likelihood of thigh rub and chafing.

Take a look at our side by side comparison to other TT + Tri saddles to visually inspect how we paid attention to these 3 key areas. (nose widths measured at the furthest point forward that the rider can sit on the saddle - saddles with rounded noses are measured further back for this reason) afnews.co.za

Saddles Compared: Wove V8 • ISM PN 3.0 • Bontrager Hilo Pro • Gebiomized Stride • Dash Stage Narrow • Dash Strike

Paris, France: ChatGPT and Claude are betting on Spain. Le Chat from France's Mistral reckons Les Bleus will clinch it. And China's DeepSeek and Qwen have a fondness for Argentina.

The 2026 World Cup is the first with widely available generative AI chatbots, and fans and researchers alike are turning to the systems in a bid to predict the final victors.

This year's fad for non-human answers recalls Paul the Octopus, the cephalopod who divined winning teams by eating from food containers marked with their flags during the 2010 contest.

With OpenAI's ChatGPT released to the public only on November 30, 2022 -- in the midst of the last World Cup in Qatar -- few outside Silicon Valley had generative AI on their radar during Argentina's ascent to the title.

But institutions from banks to universities are today testing out generative AI systems' football foresight.

Bank of America analysts found that their Microsoft CoPilot chatbot favoured Spain equally with France, who were tipped by around 40 percent of fans.

Meanwhile tech news site Tom's Guide asked Google's Gemini, ChatGPT and Perplexity -- with Spain predicted as the winners each time, and France as the second pick in each case.

Another news site, Decrypt, received similar results from western chatbots like ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude -- but found that Chinese competitors DeepSeek and Qwen both tipped Argentina.

And researchers at Germany's Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) are running a more scientific analysis, publishing how accurate each AI model was in game-by-game predictions on a public website, LLM SoccerArena.

"The question of whether language models can reliably support real decision-making situations is critical," LMU management researcher Stefan Feuerriegel said in a statement.

"That's why we need benchmarks that don't only test abstract tasks, but how models deal with dynamic information, uncertainty and results that can be checked later" against the real outcome, he added.

The Munich researchers are testing both the AI's forecasts based on their internal knowledge, as well as their ability to integrate information found online about factors like injuries, squad selections, and even betting markets into their predictions.

Beyond the fun of weighing up the final outcome, AI is also supporting coaches, medical staff, referees and even ticket scammers, researchers from Australia's University of the Sunshine Coast wrote for online outlet The Conversation.

"We won't see an AI agent scoring a goal, or a robot coach calling the shots (at least not yet) but there is no doubt the winner of the tournament will have relied on AI along the way," they said.

وسط الأجواء النابضة بالحيوية والنشاط والتفاعل ومشاركة المزيد من الأطفال، تنطلق صباح غد الإثنين، بصالة لوسيل الرياضية، فعاليات الأسبوع الثاني من الجولة الثالثة، لمعسكر الرياضة للجميع الصيفي للأطفال 2026، الذي ينظمه الاتحاد القطري للرياضة للجميع، تحت مظلة وزارة الرياضة والشباب، للأولاد والبنات من الفئة العمرية ما بين 7 و11 عاماً، ويؤكد المعسكر مع كل جولة جديدة، تأكيد مكانته كأحد أبرز البرامج الصيفية المخصصة للأطفال، بنجاحه في استقطاب أعدادا متزايدة من المشاركين، بفضل ما يوفره من بيئة رياضية آمنة وتفاعلية، تجمع بين النشاط البدني، والترفيه، والتعلم، وسط أجواء تعزز من المشاركة الأسرية، وتمنح الأطفال تجربة صيفية ثرية وممتعة. وقال السيد عبد الله الدوسري، المدير التنفيذي للاتحاد القطري للرياضة للجميع «يمثل الإقبال المتزايد دافعاً لنا لمواصلة تنظيم العديد من الفعاليات الرياضية، والترفيهية، وتقديم المزيد من الأنشطة الجاذبة للأطفال، والتي تمنحهم تجربة صيفية مميزة، تجمع بين النشاط والحركة، والتعلم، والترفيه، وسط بيئة آمنة ومحفزة.

Doha: Qatar U-20 team recorded a convincing 7-0 win over Austrian side Kapfenberger today in a friendly during their training camp in Slovenia.

The team is preparing for the AFC U-20 Asian Cup qualifiers, scheduled from August 25 to September 6, with the finals set to be held in China in 2027. Qatar are in Group Five with Saudi Arabia, Oman and Hong Kong, with Doha hosting the matches.

The 32 teams in the qualifiers have been divided into eight groups. The eight group winners and seven best second-placed teams will join hosts China in the finals.