Not just pros run those gears Goan most decent club riders will run 53/39 12-25, 11-23 depending on the roads they ride. 13-29 seems a bit excessive imo.

Not just pros run those gears Goan most decent club riders will run 53/39 12-25, 11-23 depending on the roads they ride. 13-29 seems a bit excessive imo.

Easiest solution would be train more and get fitter, failing that change your cassette or more expense go compact.I would suggest a combination of the first two, particularly more riding.

I was expecting to hear you were at the bar of your local boozer.

1 word speedplay, without doubt the best particularly if you have been used to mtb spd's.

It's a cheap carbon frame with cost of complete bikes being its major selling point. Buy it and ride the thing into the ground, loads of people race on them without too many complaints.They are £400 FFS! so don't expect too much.

For light rims I would take a look at IRD, very light very high quality too. They are made from niobium! I kid you not.

Hard to beat Ambrosio rims excellight or evloution. Mavic open pro's also good.

Forget about it vortexracing, be aware of it, but forget about it. There is probably lots of riders on here who are riding road bikes with toe overlap and don't even know it. If the frame fits and you are happy with it do not let toe overlap stop you buying.Lets face it your 5'4" toe overlap is gonna be an issue.

Definately respray to gios blue, Gios are class bikes! My dad had a super record which was a fantastic bike.

If you are looking for some good handbuilt wheels give Derek McLay a call at wheelsmith.co.uk he will sort you out.Excellent handbuilt wheels.

Anne Widdecombe or
Norman Tebbit ( you could just see these two happily working at aushwitz )
or perhaps Ken Clarke ( the human face of national socialism)

The bike you would be buying would have cheaper groupset, wheels , fork and seatpost apart from that it's a bargin 🙂

No we're blaming you Manchester Trev its more fun 😆

He has no respect for anyone? He has no respect for the tour? Or the jersey and what it all stands for?
On what do you base the opinions?
cocky and brash yes but the other comments?

As steve said, veloriders.

Where do you stop? At you legs

Ive had enough.

AndyP how come nobody else is agreeing with this profound expert analysis of yours.

I still think Andy is talking nonesense ( not about a contador win, very possible, just the sewn up bit), not sure about all his aliens crap but

Contador could miss a break ( Oh hang on he's already done that on Monday)
He could bonk ( Oh hang on he did that in Paris Nicethis year and lost shed loads of time)
This is on top of the having a mechanical, fall, illness, team implosion etc etc
Its like going and watching a football match seeing a team score in the first few minutes and then saying they have won the game.

No it wasn’t! Also much stronger GC in 2009 than in 1999, US postal wasn’t a divided squad unilke Astana and the mess at that causeway splitting the field had big effect on GC contenders which isn’t sewing a race up. 1999 didnt have the ventoux at the end of it either! you can look back at a race and say that was the impact day on the GC but you cant say any grand tour race after 4 days its sewn up!

and how is it sewn up after 4 days?

After 4 days the tour is sewn up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WTF ARE YOU ON ABOUT

Hey stoner the one in green won today! Cearly I have upset you,that wasn’t the intention ( no really) i just thought the thread was funny thats all.

mr Ligget F*** off Stoner,I really thought you were taking the piss! You sounded like the wife watching football ” Who’s winning?” ” The team in red I think” I thought it was very funny and didn’t realise it was genuine, sorry. Still think you should add your insight to every stage win, you would have me gripped.Stoner your Funnier than Ligget already ! and probably as incisive.

“take out the blue team” “one guy in orange” “mid pack” Superb, clealy very knowledgable, expert analysis you should be working for the BBC. I look forward to your future race analysis Stoner, very very funny.

As they say a fool and his money.

Nice, totally agree with JoB

Boonen no good in the mountains? in what way would you expect either Boonen or Cavendish to be good in the mountains? Boonen got to Paris with Green jersey so he can’t be so crap.To say Cav is better on the evidence of milan san remo is complete nonesense Why? san remo is one day not 21 also you can’t compare the cipressa with climbs such as the tourmalet etc. Cav is a far better climber than 2 years ago and hopefully will get to Paris.

Dirty girl I’m sure the roadies will have told the very best thing you can do if you are serious about training and looking for real improvements is get yourself a good coach- it really is the only way if you are serious -defined targets, proper training specific to you ( maybe weight maybe not), and you should see real and dramatic improvements ( the problem with most advice on here is they dont know you: fitness, physique, goals,riding, time you can train etc so it maybe useful or it may not)

no you dont have to be a member of BC to buy tickets for the meet and yes you can buy tickets for others

Funny mine broke yesterday on a ride, I only use mine on my road bike and it’s lasted 18 months so perhaps I shouldn’t moan too much.

As you have suspected your unlikely to notice much difference if any.There maybe some on here that will talk of noticing a loss of power or talk about cadence, but frankly you here a lot of nonesense on here.

Daffy the majority here are just taking the piss out of you. Eg. campag for italian bikes, campag for retro bikers campag shifting is agricultural, (truly a load of shit) etc.The truth is there is now very little difference between manufacturers equivilant groupsets, it comes down to personal choice and what sort of discount you can achieve.Oh and calling campagnolo campy indicates your either american or some no nothing dipstick ( probably same thing really).

big-n-daft- its a bit early mate to be drinking, Im sure when you’re sober you will realise your rant doesn’t make sense “we need truthful reportage but journos who write books about drugs are leeches” WTF? :lol:.

Sorry mudshark I hadn’t woken up, as you can gather not this years, recently, well probably last years, as Prudhomme made it a big part of the race that there were as few transfers as possible.

Mudshark- the most continuous loop? There is nearly 300 miles between Tarbes and Limoges and 400+ miles from mont ventoux to Paris, in what way is this a continous loop?.

Lot of good books recommended. I would add Boy Racer- Mark Cavendish Biog. I was a bit sceptical,but its very good- extremely current, great insight into how BC runs ( prob most interesting bit imo) and life as pro in the peleton, a lot about last years tour and well written as ghost written biogs go.

In what way would a CAAD9 be a proper winterproof commuter?

Poor sleep patterns can be a symptom of overtraining, elevated resting heart rate is also a big indicator, along with feeling f****** all the time and even depressed ( hence why monitoring resting heart rate is important). The important thing is to sleep and eat well while you are training because if you aren’t sleeping well and training you will struggle overtraing or not. You need to get into a pattern with your training and sleep, so your body gets used to it.This means have a 4 week plan with recovery periods not loads for week or 2 then F**** all, this is not effective and doesn’t do your body good.