I’m also a wee bit disappointed that the main contenders have been effectively marking each other so far.
Thing is, although there have been HC mountains, you’ve got beasts of climbs going on for 20K+ on 18 and 19 and they know that…. they’ll be planning a big move on those, hopefully not waiting until Huez as it’ll end up a stalemate and TT decider I reckon.
Good thing is Alberto is behind by a fair bit, he HAS to attack the shlecks and particularly Cadel, who may match him on the TT

BigButSlimmerBloke – Member

So in your world hiring someoneone suspected of being involved in illegality is far worse than being involved in illegality yourself and lying about it (Blair) or accepting hospitality from someone you know to be involved in completely immoral actions even when thos actions cause distress to yorself and your family (Brown)?
Really?
Do the trams run on time and to budget in your world?

A reasoned and open minded post. FACT.

TJ

Camerons denials simply are not credible. Thats the issue.

good point- seems he’s been indoctrinated in the Alistair Campbell school of responses- deny everything with increasing agressiveness the more you are made to look like an eejit

Why was Miliband not so indignant a few weeks ago? didn’t lots of shadow cabinet members (along with Torys) go to some slap up evening hosted by murdoch?

better hope his continued appointment of Tom Baldwin doesnt come back to bite him.

mucho political point scoring IMO

WD tommy V and GT for that effort….
Cadel looking OMINOUSLY STRONG
alberto in difficulty this year- not in good shape?

Gilbert has popped out the back of the pack now- should get zero green points today and hopefully have knackered himself a bit more!

Dev, think of it as your gift! get into cycling in every day, or 4 days a week.
you’ll feel better for it, save a fortune and with that distance not get too sweaty if taken easy!
within no time as you finish the day, instead of cramming into a wagon stressed out you’ll be thinking zipping along in the fresh air thikning ‘what was i doing’?….. 😀

yep, will be interesting to see if contador goes on the attack today to get back some of his sizeable defecit to schlecks/Cadel.
will they follow or mark each other?
will be VERY interesting to see if Evans can keep with them comfortably-he’ll get a few seconds on schleck no doubt on the final TT but will he still be in touch at that point?

molgrips – Member

Why? The green jersey’s not meant to be a sprinter’s jersey.

I’d read that the green jersey is actually officially for most consistent finisher, so I don’t get why there’s intermediate points anyway… anyone the wiser?

I’m slightly surprised that no one has mentioned Chipps’ editorial: lycra! tan lines! whatever next- road training for racing? ?? 😯

TheBrick – Member

woody2000 – Member
I’d be interested to see what caused that though – people don’t react like that to idle bystanders

You’ve never been to Bexly have you? (I’m serious it one of those place were people do kick off over you looking in their direction)

yep, THIS.^

yeah, I’d recommend long Mynd too if you’ve not done it, Pook.
Great natural stuff, a bit like the peaks but less rocky and more ‘true’ singletrack I think. deffo do minton batch descent, it seems to keep going on and its one you can pin it by staying off the brakes as long as you dare, just managing to keep on the right line!

you don’t know what mix of lengths of glucose polymer chains you are getting.

sounds like something read off the internet.
why would you want to know that? my understanding is that during exercise you want simple carbs anyway. complex carbs are required some time before, no?

Yep, hoping Cav can get a win in with HTC coming back from their mishap on the TTT yesterday…
Mind you, he’s odds on at the bookies for the win though I’d say thats a little short, even for him- hope I’m wrong

Aye.
Too much of this:

not enough ‘good guy greg’ behaviour:

just out of interest, does anyone have an idea why easyjet decide to bury the magic clause “exempt from any excess baggage charges relating to the weight of the bicycle”???

unless every airline was required to adhere to same rules, why would they allow this yet not openly market it?
?poss tax benefit from certain airports?

the bbc article headine tickled me most:

“Snacking clue to obesity epidemic 😯

I propose an Andy Murray grand-slam-count-in-running totaliser.

I’m happy to take on the task for now:

TOTAL TO DATE: zero

next update shortly 😀

Story of course we can have cases like this that are dropped before jury verdict ….

BY GOD I THINK I’VE FOUND IT

come on then boffins, explain why this one doesn’t work! 😆

I’m not sure that spreading out the hate does anything to dilute it

the aim would be to show a deliberately small minded view against some other values to show up the small mindedness of the original comment….

But yeah, I agree with some there’s no changin them sadly

portlyone – Member

on the plus side the economy must be looking up if people are turning down paying jobs…
^THIS

I usually try to question such daily-mail fuelled racist comments as the OPs case by injecting a similarly controversial contrasting view along the lines of “its not the hard working immigrants you wanna be worried about- we’ve got far too many thoroughbred english dole scroungers grabbing money off the ordinary working man” – gets ’em thinking at least…. 😀

note that if yer going this saturday there’s a car rally on- I think a fair amount of trails may be shut for a fair part of the day…
MIght get down there and mix a bit of MTB/ rally viewing myself tho. 😆

Deffo worth reporting IMO. your incident is more serious than one i reported recently (guy right hooking me causing emergency stop and swerve whilst on his phone)..
at worst even if it just goes on their records you’d hope that by the 4th, 5th etc time someone reports a particular driver the Po Po may start to crack down…

That stem is slammed, how dare you. And nothing wrong with a 5mm spacer up top, in fact the rules state that’s how things must be done.

thats a 5mm spacer? you sure? OH yeah this is STW after all!

anyway, all my stems are slammed, but have 1 or 2 spacers.
I think the overall concept is called ‘buying the correct sized frame’ 😀

I’m off for a quick ride.

better SLAM that stem first- steerer could do with chopping down a touch 😯

If a man speaks his mind in the forest, and no woman is there to hear him, has he still said something wrong?

anyone know off hand what size socket tools suit as a make-do drift for these please?

after having had two bikes nicked over the years when i lived in london i finally saw the light and decided to just get a crappy old commuter bike (covered in tape and a bit of dodgy spray paint).
you’ll spend the same $ required to get a decent lock and then you never worry about leaving it locked up with a ‘normal’ lock- happy days. that one even survived a couple of overnight stays on the streets of islington. obviously good to not have QRs etc.
even the toughest lock wont stop some rotters if they are that determined…..

Thanks all for advice 😀

I’m hoping the warranty repair this time will do the trick- they have always been helpful so far…

used them for a year technically yes, but they have had to be off the bike and sent back thrice….. getting a bit owfish if you ask me.

DIESTE, URUGUAY

MONEO, MERIDA

How ‘hardcore’ is it? Full-face and armor mandatory? Do they do skills training there?

hardcore enough for most of the kidz there to be in DH gear and big rigs.
but all doable on a 100mm hardtail also, depends how much you want to rag it, full face useful if so.
its a small area but they make the most of the gradient with the DH runs packing in a lot of ‘features’ that come at you quite quick one after the other and getting steeper and more techy down to some reasonable sized drops at the bottom..
firecrest MTB coaching did me a good one-one session there.

my preferred route on that particular trip (and the reverse) is to just walk above ground to moorgate (5mins max) then northern line straight up.
job done.

well done for getting into the racing side of MTB, dodge.
Shame about the crash but you’ll be back for more no doubt!
Did you do a practice lap? always good so that you’re not hitting tech stuff the first time a race speed.
As you say its quite an eye-opener just how quick the top people are, both up and down, descending faster than most people who’d call themselves good at the downhills.
Skills course deffo recommended- much quicker to learn from a good teacher than just putting your own practice in..

5= barcelona (with the white curvy tower).

prep and advice above sounds good. Usual proper nutrition and hydration strategy of course. There’s actually quite a few water stops on the course, make sure you top up at every one.
Deffo pace it, if you want to try to up pace then save that for the run in to and up the Alp, you’ll either be grinning as you fly past people or more likely hanging on and thinking ‘i’m glad I went fairly easy till now, otherwise I’d be sat head in hands by the side of the road like that poor chap, and that one’…..
There’s a long flattish boring bit between Glandon and the Telegraph- try to work in a bunch as much as poss during that bit, it seemed a killer when I was alone for most of it.
Also, what is your bottom gear? You be in it quicker than you’d have imagined- my super granny last hope bailout was deployed a few km into the first climb! gulp. You’ll enjoy it though, I’d like to try to get silver one day….. 😆

good luck to the SNP and the independent scotch!

I trust we’ll no longer have them sending any more of the likes of Brown, Darling, Kennedy etc down south to opress us southern softies 😆