we have stayed three times in the Crowcombe Arms on tother side. Choice of steep, straight climbs up by off or on road. Good food, beer and rooms and v friendly to everyone.

Blimey, that is terrifying, full commitment needed and just waiting for a pedestrian or car or dog to wander into the path!

Sod off, Hackney is great and doing alot better than most of our northern cities that are suffering from the hit to manufacturing etc. New shops, bars and cafes every month, new housing going up all over, private and social. Been here 20 years and its never looked better.

The wider economy is clearly stuffed however, or at least becalmed to be polite but who really has a sensible idea? Not the gits in Labour that got us in this fix with their freespending ways from 2001 to 2010. I can’t avoid the conclusion that we are all screwed by indebtedness, government, corporate and private and only a long spell of inflation is going to cure it. Japan lost a decade and probably so shall we.

if you take more than ten hours and five minutes you are a wuss.

I also have Crests on Hopes and going fine. I think I may go back to UST next time but thats a discussion for another time maybe. Contrary to the blurb you can’t run low pressures on Stans rims like you can with USTs on Mavic rims and the thicker sidewalls make for more reliability. Stans rims are great if weight is your key objective but unless fairly hard they tend to burp resulting in instant flatness and an unseated bead. This has always been with Maxxis tyres on both Olympics and Crests, not yet happened with Schwalbe tyres. Wider tyre choice with Stans rims though.

seen plenty and heard alot more in France and Italy – only last week whilst doing the Maratona. Not rare at all.

Avids do seem to be much easier with Avid pads. When i had this problem I have sadly had to just wear them out with a ‘training’ ride.

I guess left leaning people hate him for being anti union, supporting Thatcher and generally being a super rich, tax doging tycoon and right wingers despise him for dumbing down so much of the media, making football omnipresent, supporting Blair, being Australian / American and being more successful than them.

Homo and spaz served me well at school. Oh and mongie.

To be honest “gay” sounds a bit, well, gay.

+ 1

Greece will default and quit the Euro and they and everyone else will be better off. Its weird why they dont just admits its inevitable and bite the bullet. Burying one’s head in the sand doe not make the problem go away. Boring but true.

i’m doing jury service soon – will be interesting toactually have to decide for real. not sure if i will be a hang em and flog em or a soft liberal touch.

9

racing taxis and anyone else is absolutely fine i reckon. i laid waste to several taxis and mini cabs on the way home, at least one scooter going into work this morning and buses dont count as they are so slow. Its perfect interval training. only twice in 10 yrs have i been congratulated on my speed by a motorist.

its my ride and i’ll ride how i like.

Register yourself at Ground Effect and they’ll give you a $NZ30 voucher code – my Supertankers just arrived without catching the attention of the Post Office at Mount Pleasant. They build to last (my Ranchsliders are several years old) and the quality knocks Endura, and many others, into a cocked hat

i’ll second that. got a pair 3 months ago and worried they may be too long and heavy but material is tough but light, cut is slimmer than i feared and quality and design is excellent. not v cheap these days due to weak pound but worth it in my view. mine also eluded the postie taxman.

In Riva del Garda in 2008 we had a local guy called Carlo. had a small kiosk down by the lake on the east side of a small tunnel on the lakeside. had a couple of colleagues and wife that helped out. used a van obe day for uplift. and collected us from airport and fixed our hotel. super nice bloke, great rider up and down.

we booked him for a week but you could turn up at the kiosk for about 8:30 AM and go out with a group of like minded riders etc.

no contact details, but google may work.

I had 12 weeks off with shoulder in 2010 winter. hardly a need to sit around watching dvds! once you come out of the sling its pretty much usual life but no risk of injury. i did a bit of turbo work but generally tried to caych up with non cycling friends and do some cultural stuff.

what you want to do is normal IME. some will seal punctures and some inevitably will seal the edges, both are good. you should always add sealant after the tyre has been seated and not before as it will stop the tyre sliding up onto the bead / shoulder. hence the recommendation to use soapy water.

UST tyres and rims are v easy and work well so go for it.

milk in the car park,

then a pastie or similiar driving home, often with hula hoops to follow

then lots of beer when home and washed, bike cleaned etc.

now if she had said ..”I love pussy” that would have been quite interesting.

i find most of the premium stuff a total mystery but loyalty keeps me shelling out.

He came across very well on R4 this morning. He said it’s not a charity thing, they can afford to sell for this price in the 3rd world countries because the guaranteed volumes enable economies of scale and the price they’ll charge will just cover their costs. In return and to compensate they’ll charge more to the countries that can afford to pay more (that article says $2.50 a dose in the 3rd world, $50 in the US for example)

So why did it take so long for Big Pharma to come to this conclusion? He did sound OK on R4 I agree but I think western Big Phrma is dead despite this. I wouldn’t touch shares in GSK. Did no-one watch The Constant Gardener on TV last night?

And you must have a pint of Harvey’s Best, best beer in the world.

this is the best bit.

personally i would go light, don’t carry spare clothes, or 2 prs of shorts or more than 2 litres of water as loads of taps. Just take plenty of powder to keep water as fuel, take some normal food to stay sane and pedal down hills and along flats in big ring to keep up the average speed. I managed 10 hours including a puncture but was in good shape at the time. Over 2 days with big beers would be more fun.

I agree with Kennyp – and i’m in that London. Most motorists are v careful of bikes but obviously there are still minicabs about that need to learn to drive properly. Even a pedestrian stepped back onto the pavement and apologised to me this morning and most pedestrians are tiotal c…s in my view.

given it 10 yrs ago as a work benefit, resented the tax, total waste of time. then i crashed my bike a few times and needed a shoulder op and as others say, all so convenient, a few wks from GP to overnight stay, unlimited physio, brilliant.

For people doing a semi dangerous sport it is probably a good idea. who wants to miss a whole summer’s riding because of NHS queues?

as much as i think the police are a bunch of bullies that have been way too heavy handed in recent demos i don’t think the individual copper should get done personally. his employer should take the hit vicariously. no doubt the cop is a nasty bully but even he probably thought he was doing his job, was tired, stressed, hungary, fed up etc. someone else trained him, selected him for duty, was leading / managing him. The Met should be in court not the individual.

‘hung out to dry’ is a fair description.

“exclusively for Rapha’s highest-spending customers”. Crikey that’s one of the most pompous things I’ve seen in a long time. Looks like Rapha as a brand has finally gone completely up it’s own arse.

+1

as everyone says really, trainers, a merino top or two and you’re on! we were back in KK by tea time no worries using a pre booked mini bus. My knees were nearly double jointed by the time i reached the bottom and walking made my legs ache for 5 days after but in them days i did no sport / excercise at all so maybe different for a superfit STWer?!

the views and flora are ace.

Its nowt to do with fashion and everything to do with comfort and practicality. On the road you are rarely far from a shop / house / garage so why carry loads of stuff. Punctures are much rarer on the road, tubes are smaller, pumps are smaller (its about pressure not volume) and even 100 miles in spring when weather variable you don’t need more than three jersey pockets’ worth. Travelling light is one of the joys of road riding.

I use a Mule Camelbak when off road but you need more stuff off road.

I think Stonor has it covered. your rights are unchanged but you will get a new owner and they may wish to live there rather than rent it out. sit tight for now.

I’m not surprised at 7.2%. you’ll not be able to taste much after a few of those.

I had four pints of Doom Bar at lunch admiring the scenery in Mayfair and can’t take any more now as riding tomorrow. It was a slow afternoon after we finally got back to the office.

a friend has just got a deal on a new Blur by pitting two shops agaianst each other. got an amazing deal I thought.

Great thread but can’t believe you missed out Rapha kit. as people have said, what is justified (if anything has to be justified that is?) does depend on length and nature of commute. if i did 20 miles on open roads without too many lights and ped crossings I would use my road bike and so wear lycra. but on a 5 miler accross London with 40 sets of lights its hardly worth it so i ride an old hardtail and focus on sprinting and generally enjoying the view, racing cars and cyclists, jumping off sleeping policemen and trying to perfect my route. FWIW I wear Swirve 3/4s in winter and hipsters in summer. and a plain merino top.

Fantastic news and really good on you for having the balls. I hope it goes well for you both.

living in London alot of us thought London would suffer most cos it was a financial recession and not manufacturing like in 1980s but its turned out the opposite. Financial services seem to have bounced back silly quick and tourists have kept the west end hotels, shops and restaurants going really well the whole time due to the weak pound. Despite being wildly overpriced by most common sense yardsticks the house mkt here has not fallen and with low interest rates we all seem to be OK. Pubs are rammed! Rightly or wrongly London benefits from its internationalism. Even the crap stuff in Greece and middle east has helped in an odd way by diverting money over here where it is supposedly safe.

its pretty crap for graduates though. some lawyers are struggling. some builders are struggling. Overall we have been lucky for sure.

Saw Paxman about 3 yrs ago on the track between Turville Park Farm and Whitepond Farm and said hi / excuse me and then saw him at almost exactly the same spot a few weeks ago and I only go to the Chilterns about 3x a year. Must live nearby and makes sense as is v posh and dead handy for White City or Portland Place where he works. I really love Newsnight so would love to caht with him but guess its not what he wants!

I’ve had 819s since 2006 and very strong for xc. Take UST tyres very well although some milk is still recommended. Not v light though.

Above is all solid advice. I rode it in 2009. Pace yourself is the key thing whoever you are. Its not worth chasing someone up the Telegraph however cute their ar$e. For me eating enough is much harder than drinking enough. I wish i had used more gels for their instant energy rather than slow burn and so hard to swallow bars. The savoury stuff in Valloire at base of Galibier was good.

We all found it really painfully hot esp at base of Alpe in early PM with heat radiating off walls and suddenly after that 47km descent you realised how empty your legs are!

Cold first thing but arm warmers should suffiice. Deffo get in a group for the ride to base of Telegraph.

And enjoy, its a great ride.

oh and be careful of cars on the last descent – its open roads and bonkers long, steep, dark, bendy tunnels!!

BTW your training sounds like more than enough.

Running hope and x819 on an fsr as well, totally bullet proof. Also have a set of crests, but still haven’t been able to relax enough and trust they wont explode they are that light !

My Hope XC and 819s are still fine after 5 years with fairly regular use. V good with UST tyres but slightly heavy.

I also have some Crests on Pro IIs and they are fine after one year that includes Afan, Dales, Brecons, Quantocks, Dartmoor, Moab and Fruita. I am under 70 kg and dont get properly airborne so that may be an issue in my favour.

Last Wednesday the bottom half of WL was shut. After Energy that now extends staright into the open traverse section with some bits of board walk / NS and up through a short wooded section we were diverted straight on up a fire road that went past the end of the Black Run and up past the top of the main climb and over the top of the hill and dropped you down to the top of the final descent section of Skyline.

On Sklyline there was a diversion around Granada but it was unclear if it meant you lissed the first cut off and as it was getting late we did not risk it and just went straight down the last Skyline descent.

Wall was as normal and Pinhead was shut as ever.

Hope this is some help.

I support all riding (even Boris bikes) but having done a few sportives can recognise the people described in the OP. I think Brits have a bad reputation on the continent where we tend to be slow and have terrible road manners and be a liability to others on alpine descents. The Etape has turned into a festival of mediocre Brit first year roadies. Your typical sportive rider in UK is a lawyer or accountant in 40s, flash car, flash bike, talks kit all day but rides like $hit and not at all fit.

For racing they are great, say one gel per hour plus energy drink with caffeine gels in second half. I wish I’d discovered them years ago instead of trying to eat a bar while bouncing around some course. Waste of time on training or social rides. Always Torq stuff for me, natural, tasty, effective and he’s a top bloke.