I think Ali could be the man of the series if this carries on.

Math are hard, eh?

Ah Woppit, the ultimate man of Unreason.

My point wasn’t UK specific. It could be applied to the whole of the EU, that is, if you have an open-door policy towards immigration from North Africa, you will encourage the smuggling trade.

Although I would point out the UK is a particular culprit because it has had a very loose immigration policy, particularly under New Labour.

Need a good knock from Ali and Broad. Boycott’s advice is golden in these situations. Protect your wicket!

Give them a legal entry and the need for smuggling goes away.

‘Fraid not. It encourages more people to take to the boats and fuels the smuggling trade.

Unless that is you want to do away with the concept of a sovereign border altogether.

Immigration needs to be controlled. It’s a question of scale. Many members of the STW socialist republic seem to hate the political right with such intensity that they are happy to sacrifice the country to “rub the right’s nose in diversity”.

Partly our colonial legacy in Africa,

It’s a French legacy in North Africa, not British.

O’Neils advice is wrong. By accepting the migrants, you send a message to the people back home in North Africa, which encourages them to take to the boats risking life and limb.
What to do? Stop invading and getting involved in other peoples countries. This is very much the aftermath of Iraq and also Cameron’s interventions in Libya.

Is there such a thing as a non-fad tattoo? They are ultimately fashion accessories and fashion by its nature changes. But unlike clothes you are stuck with it. This is the reason I wouldn’t get one, even if I did like them in the first place.

Working on my cars, hanging out with my buddies at the local diner, chatting to Mrs Cunningham…no wait, that’s the Fonz.

When I were a lad, tattoos were reserved for people who earned them, i.e. sailors and pub landlords.
They were also a useful indication of social class, e.g. if so and so’s old man had tattoos you didn’t go out with his sister.
Oh brave new world!

We look back at the Victorians and think, how could they wear such stupid hats?
We look back at the Georgians and think, who’d want to wear powdered wigs?
They will look at our time and think, why did they get tattoos?
I blame David Beckham, comprehensive schooling and Channel 4.

so lets say Cardiff size

I’d go for….Cardiff, that’s pretty Cardiff sized.

I pay £59 a month for two interval classes a week.
The group size averages around 6.

I get the security certificate coming up too, on an Android.

Did you see the womans race? The amount of bodies on the floor at some points reminded me of the D-day landings, or the Grand National.

Still find it hard getting my head around someone dying at Swinley from crashing, but I’ve seen a few offs there and I guess it takes a series of very unlikely factors all combining at once to turn a normal scrape-your-arm crash into something fatal.
Re on the subject of riding alone, would it have saved this poor man if he had been with fellow riders? I can’t imagine it would have been long until another rider came by.

What are you currently doing at the gym? Lifting on your own?
I do standard circuit training/interval training in a gym as part of a group these days. It’s a lot slower than cross-fit but works for me.

There is some kind of doping in most professional sport, cycling has been at the forefront of it, and Lance A is the most infamous sports doper in history.
The main reason people find it hard to trust cycling now is the governing bodies swore to clear it up in the 2000s, but didn’t, infact the doping accelerated.
I.e. the governing body, along with the teams, was corrupt.
In Sky I think we have a team which is not corrupt. I’m still not sure about the governing body.
But overall I think cycling is now finally on the right path re doping – which is not something I would say about most professional sports at this moment in time.

Excellent tour overall. Agree with the itemisation above by forzaf.
Very good coverage by ITV4, I particularly enjoyed the feature/voiceovers by David Millar. Importantly they don’t overdo the emotional musical montage like the BBC these days.
Froome a worthy winner, I’d like to see a non-Sky winner next year, Quintana in particular, or Romain Bardet, who has the most “classic” bike riding style you’ll ever see.
Until next year!

Biggest crash I ever had was at Swinley, it can be deceptively dangerous in sections, although we obviously need to wait to see what the cause of death was, RIP.

As a bike rider, as a competitor, and as a character, I much prefer him to Wiggins.
I don’t see him as PR groomed, I thought the ITV documentary revealed about him, he has a good bunch of friends and that’s often the best sign of someones character.

Reminded me I must get back to Exmoor, my favourite national park for mtbing. Loved Horners Wood in particular, the granny run!

He will be able to buy individual tickets on Stubhub on the day, but he won’t be able to get two seats next to one another.

Watched all of it, some excellent adverts with the odd bit of road cycling in between.

I’m in bed, working on my laptop.
Edit: this is not an invitation.

I’m not sure it’s as clear-cut as drinking = bad, and abstinence = good.
Drinking can be used to relieve periods of stress, obviously this shouldn’t be a permanent solution but it has helped get me through some very difficult weeks.
There are studies showing that Jewish and Muslim men have higher rates of depression than the gentiles/infidels because they DON’T drink.
Pubs can also play an important role in promoting “Social capital” – networks of friends, helping to alleviate the loneliness of modern life for many people.
The problem is BINGING/EXCESS. This goes for everything – food (as big a killer IMO), booze, smoking, I’d also include exercise in this.
Rather than promoting a culture which heckles against any type of pleasure, we need a network of friends, who will occassionally say “lay off a bit big fella” when it starts to become a lifestyle of excess.

The problem with the “just go into the office and coast it approach” is the fact that you still have to be in the office.
I think there are too options:
a) get a freelance role where you can work from anywhere and avoid the office for the rest of your days (my choice)
b) get an office job which is generally challenging and enjoyable (hard to find, but they are out there)

As a Camra man, I receive the regular Camra newsletter, which is often fronted with a news article listing the health benefits of beer.
The rest of the newsletter is obituaries, mind.

Wiggins wasn’t lucky, he deserved the win.
He was lucky to have Froome as a support-man.
Froome is now lucky to have Porte and G. Thomas as support-men.
They are both exceptional riders but Froome is the better rider, hence why Wiggo hasn’t gone back to Sky.

Sounds like a rough time. Get well soon.

Generally I think the crowds really add to the atmosphere and I think it’s great the event isn’t over policed and people can get really close to the rider.
I think Froome will keep his cool, and although Porte looks like he’s on his last legs for the mountains, Geraint Thomas is stepping up to the plate.
Unlike Armstrong, the French media are not insinuating Froome is a cheat, I think it’s more the fact they are fed up with Sky’s dominance and are aching for a French rider like Bardet to win next year.

I used to ride with clubs, my favourite club was at my university and I enjoyed it because I got to ride with like-minded student folk.
I’ve tried a number of non-uni clubs since and for the most part I find the chat/banter tedious and predictable (work, wives, drinking, shagging about covers it).
Re road cycling, there are some crazily big groups riding around these days, I know about safety in numbers but surely that’s a pain to manage, especially across ability levels.

That’s a result, nice to end the working week with good news.

There are only three legitimate reasons for eating out:
Easter
Christmas
The last night of your summer holiday.

Everything else is luxury and extravagance which goes against every thrifty bone in my body 😡

Under the rules of PC, you are permitted, nay encouraged, to call a non-PC person a lunatic.

I’ve been lucky, no serious injuries, one where I was heading face first into a tree at speed after a dropoff but managed to wrap my arm around another tree just-in-time.
Ive always ridden within my ability, which is fairly average technically, and not fast. The best rider I know does the same, his ability level is very high, but he’s not had a serious injury either.

Croatia is reasonable price-wise, partly because its not in the Euro, and partly because its full of deal-hunting Germans.

It helps it, massively. Relatively low-impact on joints, no major twisting, good all-round cardio.

An Oxford theologian once told me aggression is frustrated creativity.
Next time I see a dust-up I will provide the protagonists with some paper and crayons and ask them to draw me a vista.

An Oxford theologian once told me aggression is frustrated creativity.
Next time I see a dust-up I will provide the protagonists with some paper and crayons and ask them to draw me a vista.

I’m working on a theory that most psychological ailments are a result of information overload, which the human brain has not evolved to process.
We have to process more information on a single weekend than our ancestors working the farms had to process in a whole year.