@tomvet, thats about how all the races are up here, don’t think there are even any 4th cat only races that score points – its madness.

@nath – enjoy the bible, bit outdated now perhaps but a great foundation in the basics of training and planning.

No-one will let Amador get away, end result would be blowing things apart immediately.
They’ll try to get Izaguirre and Rojas up the road imo.

May see the bridge attempt quite early, as the Umbral is steep enough that team-mates wont be that important.

Think it depends what you use the bike for and where. I’d happily go 1x for general daily riding around Fife. Wouldn’t be much use at all though for fast group rides or holidays in the mountains.

We need apps to count to 5 these days?……….

Energy expenditure for training is about 6,000-10,000 calories a week.

I have become obsessed about food

Quite normal imo, when you are burning that many extra calories eating becomes a full time job.

How likely is it that the Tories can reverse Labour’s poll increase?

Extremely unlikely.
Their whole plan was to do nothing, offer nothing, and let JC shoot himself in the foot.
Not only has JC not held up his side of the bargain, but they’ve shot themselves in the foot instead.
To really change things around they need some actual good policies, and its a bit late for that after the manifesto is launched.

Still predict they’ll win, but may find the majority isn’t any bigger than they already have, which will be something of a wasted exercise.

Yes, previously a bulletproof LD seat, but massive swing to SNP in 2015. Sick and tired of leaflets through the door to be honest.

Movistar need to go long

Agreed, they have a very strong climbing team.
2 men up the road asap, then blow the thing to shreds.
NQ is too small to do a very long solo on anything but a steep climb with a tailwind, but with a couple of team-mates to bridge to could pull a nice gap.

Definitely dont use finish line green year round, far too thick and sticky.

I’m using White Lightning Epic Ride doesn’t last as long as i’d like (~100dry miles), but runs very clean and not found anything better so stick with it despite its faults.

Up with the birds, 05:30 start, ride from Fife up into the Cairngorms.
135mi, 11500ft climbing.
Felt like winter most of ride with single digit temps and occasional drizzle – brrr.
Set some decent segment times on Cairnwell and the Lecht without actually setting out to do so.
Quite pleased overall, although bit gubbed after 120mi – not really cut out for this endurance stuff.

Spent ages looking for a set of gloves i like and have recently found the Endura equippe mitt. Instead of two pads designed to relieve pressure on the ulnar nerve they have a massive gel pad covering most of the palm.

Impressive show from TD, although as he said himself, on a climb that very much suited him.

@Kryton, just wait till you see Kulhavy ride that section tomorrow – beast!

I think changes in body shape can definitely play a part.
I’ve put on a few kg of leg/glute/core muscle this season, and just can’t get comfortable on a saddle i’ve ridden 1000’s of miles on quite happily before. To the extent i’ve actually got a new one to try next week.

Yep, comes as standard and colour matched on (all?) their new bikes.

Great course, dissapointing race – may as well be a time trial. If anyone’s thinking of watching it on catch-up, i’d say probably don’t bother.

@OP, i’d probably look up the Schwalbe website and then send them back to Wiggle as ‘not as described’.

The raceguard version isn’t supposed to be tubeless ready, you need the microskin

Womens race on RBTV now.
Jenny R out due to recent loss of family members 🙁

@molgrips – that would be nice, but i found a quote online which summarises political threads on here quite well.

“Supporters of Labour and other left wing parties are convinced they have the moral high ground and that any disagreement is inhumane, as a result any confession of Tory support is shouted down and abused.”

Just because someone shares some beliefs with UKIP or the Tories doesn’t make them inherently evil, it probably just means some life experience has shaped their views that way.

Training plan has me down for a 9hr ride, but feeling a bit gubbed at the end of 3 week block and ready for an easy week, so may ‘just’ be the 6hrs.

Planning a day in the hills from Glenshee to Tomintoul and back. Supposed to be with NC500 group, but they seem to be training for 120mile days by drinking beer. Roll on August 😈

Awesome news XC WC is back this weekend, would love to ride the Nove Mesto course – looks so much fun (in the dry!)

Why?
The 3.0 Chupas will roll as quickly as a 2.4MKII

Only reason to go narrower is to put a proper XC race tyre on, or for mud (in which case the MKII’s would be good).

From what you’ve posted of your riding/racing, i’d have thought 1×11 (32t) will make most sense for you.

You do a lot of your training either on the Turbo or a road bike, so don’t need the high end for keeping the power down on tarmac descents.

And your 12/24 events aren’t epic climb-fests so no need for the very low range either.

For XCO/XCM they are both short enough to man up and push a slighly bigger gear when needed.

Stunning bike.
Reading the article, i called it right on the tyres way back up there 🙂

I wouldn’t put anything smaller than a 2.4 on a 50mm rim.

But more to the point why would you want to put a 2.1 on there? Especially a crossmark.

Just for fun..

https://ge2017.gritdigital.co.uk/#2017-opinion-poll

Had potential until it tried to force me to sell my soul to facebook

^^ That’s lovely
How did you get one in the UK? I thought it was US only

If only the interviewer involved had a history of humiliating people who didn’t know their brief, then he would have known to prepare properly.

You’d think wouldn’t you…..
And somehow these fools actually get voted in to run the country

Who set those centre lines ?

Communists obviously.

Slide the left/right centre to between Lab/LD and that would give a fairly accurate reflection of 2015 imo

Odd results there, TJ, as I’d put SNP slightly right of Labour

Everything that isn’t a communist party is right of JC’s Labour…..
SNP are still a heavily left leaning party imo

I must be the definition of a swing voter with my most probable being UKIP at 64%, with lab/con/lib roughly level pegging in the high 50’s and least probable SNP at 52%

I’d have been very happy with another Tory LD coalition

Me too, thought I was more or less alone in that department.

I’d like to work on getting my HR down a little

Why? Its totally individual and it running high doesn’t indicate anything.

I rode with a guy in the Alps, and his LTHR was ~140bpm, I struggle to keep under 140 getting to the end of the drive.

I’m probably late to the party with this…

Interesting, but not that useful for Cat4’s in the UK – too many racers, not enough races. I’ve argued the point in other threads, but Cat4 is not really fit for purpose as entry level racing – there’s a massive gulf between very fit recreational riders and holding the bunch in a Cat4 road race
4W/Kg minimum for even a sniff of points unless you are a sprinter on a pancake flat course.

@kimbers, quite right they are getting a pasting for it being un-costed with no obvious way to fund many of the pledges they have made.

So we can choose between un-costed to probably be covered by further borrowing and ‘costed’ with giant black hole that can only be covered by further borrowing.

Quite a challenge for sure, and ideal for something to do as a charity event, but a bit of a yawn-fest to do just for the hell of it.

The other element is that the rich will no doubt find way to avoid it where your average middle class property owner doesn’t have the means.

Of course they have the means – its not overly difficult to liquidate some assets and pass them to kids/grandkids before they are needed.

Even at the reduced 7.5km shown in the photo, 35mins is still a really good pace. Think you were doing your climbing ability a disservice in the OP

Another +1, can’t hold any sort of conversation in a nightclub/party environment without someone shouting directly in my ear

I’m not a natural road climber

This part took around 35 mins.

Does not compute!

Maybe I’ve not understood the proposal. How would people loose £100,000’s ? Isn’t it just that the value of your assets plus your home up to £100,000 will be taken into consideration when you “home care” needs are calculated, i.e care you receive when you are still in your own home. When you move into a care/ nursing home your family will be better of because they can keep £100,000.

Yes, that’s correct, but whereas previously you could have free care from the comfort of your country manor house, now you will be slowly devaluing your manor house to a similar level to a garage.
And surely you aren’t suggesting mixing with the commoners in a nursing home? You’d die of shame before then surely? 🙄