We are not joining as equals. We are the junior partner. We don’t get to pick the rules. ThAt said We won’t get too close not because of any principles we just won’t want to piss the Americans off.

Colnago always seem to have some Ferrari branded bikes in their line. Top end stuff. Seems really naff to me.

‘…miny mo, put the baby on the poe, when its done, wipe its bum, eeny meeny… etc.’

That was my childhood version. Other similarly innocent ones are available. I was well into adulthood before I ever heard there was a racist version (in fact I think it was on here and we’ve done this before). I still find it hard to believe and I’m not convinced that in the UK the racist version has ever had much currency.

all roadie stuff I’m sorry:

+1 for graeme obree
tim krabbe the rider
laurent Fignon’s autobiography is great. didn’t know much about him before i read it but really good prose and you get the sense he did not give a shit and a life lived.
Michael Barry’s book is good. again knew little about him but he’s a good writer and its as much about the weird life of a road rider than it is about him.
death of marco pantani by Matt Rendell
David millars first is good (avoid his second). He doesn’t seem to have especially liked wiggins.
rod ellingworths book on winning the rainbow jersey with Cav is good. Doesn’t seem to have especially liked wiggins. :lol:

All Merckx biographies are all dull. he was just too good. theres no story arc.
Bjarne Riis’s book is pretty dull.

that anodised red on old paces.

Anything klein did.

and molteni orange. edit: **** that what was i thinking bianchi celeste.

On a scale of 1 to 10?

3 anecdotes

land value tax is the missing bit from the planning system in 1946 (edit: we nationalised development rights but not the uplift in value), we are still paying for it. the last two labour governments (70,s and 00s) at the fag end of their terms have tried half heartedly to introduce something along those lines but its been quickly binned by the incoming conservatives

my anecdotal experience of the NHS is that its much worse than it was, say, 10 years ago. As are most other public services.

heard yesterday that after the autumn statement we now have the highest tax burden for 30 years which surprised me. Means all this talk of tax raising is coming from an already high base relative to recent times.

If it’s still a council owned school contact the surveyor(s) at the council (county council if you are 2 teir). They handle buying selling and management of land and property. The head will have a say and will behave like it’s theirs but it’s not. But there’s a slim to none chance that it will be available for what you will view as s reasonable sum.

its because skin suits feel awesome.

its like leg shaving, no one can really say why they first shaved their legs. but everyone knows why they keep doing it.

Trump is widely accepted as a right winger yet he’s been elected on a platform of massive Keynesian stimulus.

haha he’s said a lot of things, lets see what he delivers.

I think we’ve seen the right adapt to twitter and soundbite politics far quicker than the left in the last few years. And also they are much better at claiming the language of the common sense middleground, whilst often delivering far far to the right of that.

Its very hard to figure out what UKIP and Trump are for or against below the headlines but that doesn’t seem to matter anymore as the news cycle moves on before they are tested on it. UKIP seem to be an empty vessel that is enabling a range of people with differing values and backgrounds feel like they can see what they believe reflected in UKIP.

Yes. Also a anticlockwise loop round beinn damh is a good half day

Hmmm WvA knee problem *strokes chin*.
Fully expect that to make no difference this weekend, if there is even anything at all.

WvA and MvP are streets ahead of the rest but have had long seasons, has their tapering worked? I think toon was coming good but that wildcard has gone. A fresh laars has suddenly made it interesting he looked strong on Sunday but as much as I love him I think hes still 3rd best. he’s relying on both the big 2 failing to have a chance And one of WvA and MVP has got to come good.

Oh And boom for top10 please, with a special boom cam on the red button just to see his pain face.

Women’s looks like Vos all the way. U23w has to be Evie? She’s beaten Ellen noble every time they’ve raced this season I thought.

no pictures but torridon is quite possibly my favourite place I’ve ever ridden.

Thursday? take a coat its below freezing at this time of year,

Sol, Plaza mayor, opera and grand via give you the big sights (and they are not that big to be honest). There’s a fab cake shop on the west side of Sol and a great group of food shops and bars in an old iron market just west of plaza mayor.

But Madrid is more about the vibe for me. A wander linking plaza santa ana, fuencarral, plaza de san ildefonso over towards plaza de las comendadoras will give you good range of the vibe giving atmosphere and people watching.

so his sister was queenie from blackadder?

road bike with a compact. Its the land of 33% climbs.

All Enduros are non sanctioned. Fill your boots.

I think every other racing format is bc or tli who have doping policies

I think a fair few people up there ^ would test positive for placebos though.

I thought the man city case was interesting. In football it’s Team responsibility for whereabouts info? Lol

I bet there are more than a few track and field and cyclists grinding their teeth at that. How does that work with wada’s codes about individual responsibility?

+1 alpkit gourdon waterproof, bright colours, good harness, cheap. Sorted

Artisan penis beakers

My ‘favourite’ is that all our current problems are caused by an apocryphal brown rice metropolitan lefty elite that are said to have got us into this mess and only a swing to right will fix it. As if Cameron, Blair, major and thatcher were some pinko commies and what we need is a man of the people like murdoch, fox or farage to lead us to some sunny upland of shared wealth, more public services and job security.

I’m a bit overweight with no stamina so a TUE for Bute and EPO would help put me back on a level playing field.

Interestingly that was a scolarly view held by some researchers in the 80s that EPO would help level the heomicrit playing field and help athletes recover and maintain health therefore making for safer, fairer racing.

It’s got a lot more fundamentalist since then

Grassington.

Be warned dales walking is gentler and more at the rambler end of the sectrum.

If it’s a BC regional race 20%-30% of the Field are big hitters – national riders you might have actually heard of, good young riders and decent local riders. After that it’s a lot less serious. Also if it’s this weekend a lot of big hitters will be racing nationals at Bradford so it will be even less serious.

Go off hard, attack the middle, finish strongly.

Is that where it was? I’ve been in many a time and noted nothing especially rude.

When the agricultural revolution and industrial revolutions happened in the U.K. There was huge upheaval, unemployment, exploitation, illness, famine death through the adjustment. Marx and Engels were directly influenced by the shithole that Manchester was. It’s better now yes but bloody tough for those living through it. Even then living standards improved in a select few western countries at the expense of the rest of the world. In the long run of history this is actually an anomaly as Western Europe has been a violent backwater and central and east Asia was where it’s at.

We are going through another big change and will it be life be better on the otherwise of it? Probably. But there’s no reason to assume that it won’t be as hard and unpleasant as previous adjustments for our or the next generation or that the west will emerge the ‘winners’.

Don’t be bloody obtuse you know it’s harder to dope.

Nope. It’s medium term at best. Whatever will replace it is sat on someone’s 3D printer in Taiwan now waiting for model year 2019/20. Model year 2023/24’s amazing new solution is being worked up on CAD just now.

Has she just downloaded the iOS update but not installed it? Could be clogging it up?

That landis comeback was amazing though wasn’t it? One of the greatest things I’ve seen on a bike. The doping version of go big or go home.

As for wiggins His garmin 4th was a revelation and we will always have 2012. If I’m being picky I wish he had given the classics more of a stab he always seemed more of a natural Rouleur.

That looks to be U.K. sport not funding rather than BC’s call. That said I suspect BC didn’t cry a river.

How about mint sauce on a dune buggy? Everybody loves dune buggies.

Climb up to deadwater fell at keilder. God it’s long. God its dull.

Greggs. Greggs make the best mince pies.

If you are lucky they have picked up a faint flavour of whatever was in the oven beforehand for that perfect sweet/savoury combo

let them have their nice things and go home and read your daily mail.

People buy new-builds like STW forum members buy T5’s.

nice work. :-)

Idiocracy is soooo on the money its scary.

+1 idiocracy is brilliant and tragically prescient.

votes also for EdTV and Mystery Men.

Howies sizing is all over the place but normally runs massively large these days. Weird for an outdoor brand.

It’s big with the hipster tryhards in North America but less so in uk. I have pondered ss carting broken 2x bikes with a metric tonne of mud on them around muddy playing fields but have had a lot of luck with srams new 1x stuff which has silenced the ss devil for the moment.

What ratio are people using for racing?