Journalism doesn’t exist to inform – it exists for the media owners to have influence and power for their own end. Tabloids obviously exist purely to make money, no intention to inform at all.
Ignore newspapers, TV and all mainstream media outlets, they’re all biased to either the left or the right…
I started reading the Economist a few years ago and it right opened my eyes to the utter bias and misinformation fed to us by even the ‘respectable’ broadsheets and BBC…
Either read something neutral and independent, or read 2+ of the broadsheets and/or a foreign newspaper and you’ll be closer to the truth

He’ll have to stop feeling any satisfaction for all the gold medals the cycling team won – British Cycling have Fiat as one of their official suppliers…

My bad – should’ve read the whole thread first!

My view is that there are a lot of cyclists – prob a majority – who don’t ride safely – same as the majority of drivers don’t drive safely.

But: even tho training and even testing for cyclists would surely help improve this situation, I’m tired of being victimised on the roads by poor/ignorant and bullying drivers – who are a bigger contribution to the problem than bad cyclists… and if you follow the 80/20 rule, tackling drivers would bring about the largest improvement of the situation

Surely we’re not disagreeing with this?

We think that educating young drivers around cycle safety and making them more aware of cyclists is important. We also think cyclists should be supported so they can stay safe on the roads and we provided tips for young people – cyclists and motorists on how best to improve relationships on the road.

or this?

We believe that cycle safety should become compulsory for drivers in both theory and practical driving tests to ensure that motorists have sufficient training to drive safely and so that they are more aware of cyclists.

Both quotes from here: http://www.ingenie.com/blog/2012/08/sharetheroaduk

Aren’t these ideas what we talk about all the time? Better driving?
And personally I ride for my health and because I enjoy it, not to die. So why wouldn’t I accept training on cycling safely?

Cycling would be safer if
a) drivers drove more carefully, thoughtfully and more skillfully (too many incidents to recall…)
b) cyclists rode more carefully, thoughtfully and more skillfully (too many RLJers, too much not looking before moving; at Hyde Park corner this morning, a couple of cyclists appeared to have managed to have a collision all on their own, no cars involved!)

and in London Village at least
c) pedestrians just looked before they stepped out into the road!

I do think cycling training would help ensure less experienced cyclists understood their vulnerability and the generally poor standard of driving they’re going to have to cope with, and rode accordingly

If you’re trying to run as hard as you used to, but don’t have the recent history then it’ll likely be as much your muscles needing to get used to the impact all over again.
Give it time and don’t over-exert yourself until you’ve built the strength and fitness back in
IMO

40 miler road ride from SE London via North Downs, Biggin Hill and Sanderstead.
Bloody hot but a beautiful day to be out

I ran my 10k (39.52) aged 29. A couple of years ago ?(aged 37) I ran 30 secs slower.
I was happy with that
I then looked at the ages of the 20 or so runners who beat me
Almost all were older – 40+, 50+
It’s there for as long as you can keep it IMO 🙂

Cy told me that repeated 2 foot drops to flat would not be healthy (I’m 80kg)
BFe is for bigger stuff

I hope this stops so much money going to football. Look how hyped that is and how much cash it gets in comparison. And look at the results that were delivered…. poor return on investment.

Maybe some of that funding will find its way to other sports that we’ve proved ourselves to be exceptional in.

This could help address the private school/middle-class imbalance in many of the Olympic athletes.

I’m no lover of football but maybe less money in the sport and a greater focus on being good at it would do it some good in the long run.

And great to see the whingers silenced! I wish Brits were more proud and positive. Maybe our athletes have shown us how we can do that and the results that come from hard work, focus and a positive attitude. We will be needing some of that for the next few years…

Grew up in small town in Cheshire, playing in the fields, making dens in the hedgerows etc. Went to London to visit my brother and cousins a few times in late teens and just decided that’s where I wanted to be: stuff just seemed to happen in London, small town had no excitement.
Came down at 18 for uni and still here (now 39) and no plans to leave.
However, in 2010 I moved up to Manchester – primarily to be closer to the Lakes (a few biking mates there), Peaks and N Wales. Thought it would be biking paradise and promptly missed London like I never expected.
‘Luckily’ I got shafted by my boss and lost my job. No work coming up in Manchester so I came back.
I love the buzz and the energy and the fact that stuff happens in London. Manchester seemed really empty and quiet in comparison.
Weather made a difference – so much sunnier down south.
And I overlooked the fact that most of my friends are in London/SE. Even tho most are settled with kids now, not having them on hand for a quick after work drink made a much bigger difference than I anticipated.
Best thing I ever did was leave London, made me realise how much I love it…
And as Hora says, Surrey Hills singletrack – missed that too.
Only major downside right now is Manchester has a velodrome, the London one won’t be available till next year 🙁

Box Hill was a MAMIL zoo today.
Rest of the roads didn’t seem that much more cyclist-heavy than usual

seems to be tarmac. Just way smoother than anything else you’ve ridden in the UK. Much easier to focus on the effort, which is nice 🙂

The surface laid will be to highways specification and not to olympic spec due the skid resistance etc.

Have you ridden it?

No way it’s a standard road surface. Never ridden anything that smooth in the UK anywhere…

Interesting insight into the whole culture of pro road cycling.
From the narrative, it doesn’t like his results got any better when he did dope…

Superb club road ride this morning. Sunny, dry roads and feeling fit 🙂

The 20 Most Popular Cities[/url]

London leads the world in the two key criteria MasterCard considered: as both the most popular destination city for overseas travelers (they’re expecting 16.9 million foreign visitors this year), and in the average amount each visitor spends (their total spending there is projected to be $21.1 billion)

Not sure the facts bear out your negativity tbh.

I do wish people would celebrate the UK instead of moaning about it.

Err if she’s the same level and doesn’t have the best rep anyway then grow a pair. Call her on any bullshit she does (directly)

That’s pretty much what I’m doing now she’s same level. Am trying to get some ideas from STW how to do this without it turning into an open bunfight – she’s not comfortable with being challenged.

She really doesn’t like it – now she can’t use hierarchy to hide behind my challenges. It’s quite embarrassing actually, watching her trying to twist her way out of sounding like she doesn’t know what she’s doing, and just digging herself deeper…

This place is like the corner shop in a small village sometimes!

Why do you give a s**t? As a contractor you don’t need get involved in politics, just take the money with a nod and a smile.

That’s my plan. But because she’s threatened she’s bringing it to me!

Good advice re recording things and I will start. But all that does is give me a record if I take it to HR which I’m trying to avoid, it’ll make matters worse, not better.

I have been making sure I add value in as many places as possible. Some of my colleagues have been clients of mine in the past so I’m sure whatever negative whispers she’s putting into the Head Of’s ear are countered by the positive feedback he hears from everyone else.

The new boss and I also have a similar approach and he likes what I have to say.

I think the fact she’s realising her games aren’t fooling the Head Of are part of the problem…

I guess all I can do is make sure my relationship with the new boss and Head Of are good (which they are) and let them make their own judgement and let things play out. They’re not fools…

It’d just be nice to be allowed to do my job in peace without having to deal with the failures of someone else’s parents!

As a lyricist Morrissey is one of our very best. He describes the world as he sees it, and has he knows a lot of people see it but are unwilling or unable to say openly. He has human nature and the reality of living described better than any other lyricist I know.
But when it comes to songwriting his output was IMO far better when he worked with Johnny Marr than as a solo artist.
He also has a weakness for saying deliberately provocative things and standing back and watching the inevitable frothing that follows…
I;m always amused by the number of people who go mentally angry at the first mention of Morrissey but when you dig a little you find they don’t actually own an album or have spent any time listening to his songs. They respond to the provocative persona he plays, and completely miss the fact they’re being played with…
We need more artists like Morrissey

Who said there was any plan to systematically remove all the technical bits?

We had to make the trail as sustainable as possible, because of rider numbers, all of varying skill levels,

It’s about sustainability in the face of a massive rise in riders, many of whom are new and don’t always ride so smoothly, meaning the trail is getting torn up…

Friends of Hurtwood don’t exist to build trails for you! Who gave you that idea? Go to a trail centre if you want that. The work going on is to try and maintain the existing network which will become unrideable without significant maintenance – look at YP.

Ever thought of turning up at one of the dig days yourself instead of griping from the sidelines and building trails elsewhere against the wishes of the landowner? You know, help to solve the problem?

I’ve had my fair share of work and housemate troubles.
Whilst most people I spoke to agreed both situations were pretty unpleasant and the people unbearable, I made it harder in the way I dealt with it… got stressed, told myself I could do nothing about it…

Moved on from both and life definitely got better. But learnt a lesson to deal with it dispassionately rather than get angry and upset…

There are some utterly unpleasant people out there, and you can’t avoid them all the time. But you can adapt you’re own response to them

I’m going to carry on running, gymming, riding my bikes, enjoying my sports regardless. Up to others if they choose to participate or not…

Very much looking forward to getting on that track when it opens to the public and making the best of whatever legacy there is…

It won’t make money, promises will be broken, it may not turn us into a nation of participants but who cares… why not just make the best of it?

Depends on how hilly your commute is…

I’ve just put gears on my s/s commuter. Simplicity and lack of maintenance was great. The steep hill at the beginning and end of every ride, less so… I’ve been commuting less as a result.

I had a Genesis Flyer a few years ago and moved it on pretty swiftly. It has very very steep geometry which meant I was looking down at the tarmac, not at the traffic ahead of me. Terrible with a rucksack and not ideal for commuting IMHO!

There was a time when Barry did know best, but with the continuous sanitisation of the trail Barry has kinda lost his way.
I expect most of this is down to ensuring the trail can hold up to higher traffic volumes though so perhaps its not entirely his fault.

Exactly. It’s not sanitisation for the sake of making it easier, but to help reduce wear and tear from excessive braking, massive volumes of riders and subsequent water damage

I see a society that doesn’t value public participation in sport, that is happy to cut funding, that is happy not to invest in sport, that sees playing fields as prime real estate, that watches Premiership football and the national team disgrace itself in every competition. A society where no one cares at all about sport until it gets put on primetime TV.
I see a society where I stand out because I do a sport, where people think I’m special because I ride a bike or run or do anything.

A couple of weeks of the Olympics on telly changes nothing.

Crikey: 100% agree with everything you say up there. I’m bored of being called a freak because I like exercise, I like to push myself and compete.

But I don’t agree with your conclusion.

Most of the efforts from the government so far appear to have failed to turn around the capacity of the majority to leave unhealthy lives (I would exempt the amazing progress made against smoking here though).

Maybe some sporting glory is what we need to get people into the habit of participating instead of watching sport. It provides some awesome role models and can be inspiring to see the results of people pushing themselves to achieve. You won’t see an immediate turnaround but I do think there’ll be some longer term cultural change from our successes. Some people will refuse, there’ll always be idiots like that. But I don’t think the effect will be zero

Pour enerver les Anglais

Value? I think not.

Um. Who ever said it was a money-making exercise?
It’s about sport, competition, bringing people together, national pride, display of excellence.

No-one’s ever positioned it as an investment… it never makes money for any host city… Regeneration and legacy are just brought into it to show it has some kind of long term benefit – they’re not the aim

Personally it makes me want to go out and succeed at something. We need a bit of that right now

Great to have some positive British role models. Proof we can do things excellently, world class, when we set our minds to it…
We need more of that attitude in this country. Positive, competitive, dig in and get on with it when things are tough…

Never has a clearer statement been made about the state of UK football and the general culture – best day in UK sport for a century. And the football team lose to South Korea…

Maybe the country will start to pay attention to other sports now..,

Or maybe football can take a good long hard look at itself and realise it’s become a self-regarding circus destroyed by people trying to make money for themselves

The winter roadbike:-(

I’m single but if I had a girlfriend who resented me riding then I’d resent her!

That must have hurt. What a finish

This is getting repetitive 🙂

Someone’s tried bamboo I believe, and wood’s been used many eons ago.

Personally I love my plastic bike. Really stiff but much more comfortable than ally – takes a lot of the road buzz out

The interview here – take a view for yourself

I think it’s a young lad who knows what he did was within the rules but didn’t think thru how it might sound to the public

Not sure why this is a problem OP?
It means cycling is likely to become more popular, which surely is a good thing?

Although a guy at work today got really confused by me talking about mountain biking. He thought it meant riding a road bike up a steep hill, he didn’t understand the concept of off-road riding. tbh I think he was a bit embarrassed by his lack of understanding…

David Millar’s Autobiography?
Wiggo’s is interesting
Anything by Matt Seaton

Just wait till all the newbies learn ‘the rules’ and Silly Commuter Racing. It’ll be carnage!

The Rules[/url]

Silly Commuter Racing[/url]