[QUOTE Im pleased to know that he has been offered heaps of encouragement by other cyclists. I always feel bad when I hear that its not the case because its a rather catch 22 situation for larger people. Everyone likes to have a go and say why are they not out doing something to loose weight but then when they do people feel its their right to ridicule. It cant always be easy so I admire these riders immensely.[/QUOTE]

Having spent my young adult life being pretty overweight I can guarantee you the ridicule DOES NOT HELP... I didn't need people to tell me I was heavy... I knew that very well! Weight is not something you can "fix" for someone else... that person has to do it on their own... words of encouragement go much, much farther to helping someone succeed...

thanks for the nice words... I will pass them along to my bro! I can remember teaching him how to draft...now I have to draft him to try to keep up... he drops me easily BUT he always slows down without complaining or moaning that I'm going too slow... He's a good big brother!