Cav has just arrived outside my office 🙂

The gendarmes are definitely here too, they were hanging round outside my office earlier.

I will not win this 😉

Saturday – I’m a tourmaker in a fan park 2 miles away from home. We officially finish at 3.30 but they have a big screen so I imagine I’ll be staying to watch the finish.

Then driving from there over to Oxenhope where we’ve got camping booked for Saturday and Sunday nights. We have stocked up on a selection of TdF themed beer. I reckon it will be our 2nd weekend away in a row within 25 miles of home. If it’s not Yorkshire it’s not worth travelling to 😉

We have booked Monday off work. Originally the plan was to go to Cambridge but I’m not sure I can be arsed and I may need sleep by then (I’m out Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with tour related events). And if it’s not in Yorkshire it’s not worth travelling to 😉

At tourmaker training they said there are about 80 police bikes – half english and half french.

My OH watches it constantly, I like it on tv mainly for the scenery. I do like watching races live but mainly because we tend to ride there and work out a route that hits the race route via some scenic stuff, or ride along the race route before the race comes through. Plus it’s an excuse for holidays in different places. So I like it, but not for the sport as such.

I have a super tourist and Ortlieb back rollers. Use them for commuting too (far too big for that really, but as I have them I may as well). I hunted around for the panniers and got them at a half decent price but it was a couple of years ago now and I can’t remember where from or exactly how much!

We were there in march for the last one but tickets are a bit pricey compared to the other rounds so not sure about this year.

The walk is fine. There will be a full velodrome of people heading in the same direction.

I use immobilise – I have a couple of tags I’ve picked up free when the police do events and have also listed my untagged bikes so they’re all in the same place.

I was speaking to someone from welcome to Yorkshire at an event recently and she had plenty of similar tales. People who always go to the supermarket on a Saturday and can’t come up with an alternative plan despite having months of notice.

I just wish it was coming closer to my house – passing a mile down the road means my commute route doesn’t get resurfaced…

i haven’t been asked to change mine since early May.

*cough*.

I was just thinking about that. Of course I’d never take photos of an accident… except…

I went to Northern Ireland to watch the Giro d’Italia. We watched the TTT. I took my camera and longish lens and was happily snapping away getting lots of photos of teams going past. And then Garmin Sharp crashed right in front of us. Indeed I have a photo where if you look closely at the very edge of the shot you can see a bike wheel at completely the wrong angle – Dan Martin himself has fallen sideways out of the shot but the three riders behind him are heading straight towards the wheel.

They crash and I stand around a bit shocked for a moment. Then I notice everyone taking photos, and people jumping off press bikes and poking their cameras into the action. And I look at the camera round my neck and think “hang on, this is newsworthy stuff”. And really, why would anyone want my photos when there are press photographers on the scene anyway. But on the other hand the press photographers and the live tv kind of indicate that there is no real expectation of any privacy.

In the end I did take some photos. I wanted to capture the sense of panic and activity rather than the grimaces on faces or close ups of torn lycra but I’m still not entirely sure whether I should have or not.

I’ve seen your tweet retweeted by my cycling club so had my suspicions confirmed about where you’re thinking of. The thing that would sway it for me (and this is very much a personal thing rather than necessarily being typical) would be opening past 4pm on a sunday to stop in when we get back from club rides – things are usually closing down by the time we get back. I probably wouldn’t stop in mid ride as it’s more a start/finish point for me, but as a post ride refuel I might. i’d almost always stop at the bike shop for tubes etc if i was in the town anyway (opening times permitting). Weekday evenings with cycling on tv or other events might help me drag my OH away from eurosport and would probably be the most likely thing to get me through the door.

Just got back from Fuerteventura – road bikes from the bike centre in our hotel started from about €20 and HTs from €10 although presumably the slightly higher end bikes were more (they didn’t seem to have anything as high end as some of the bike centres in Gran Canaria but it’s less of a cycling destination so not entirely unexpected).

A bit lazy saturday and yesterday – the tourmaker event and shopping on sat then laziness and catching up with some work yesterday. 60 miles along wharfedale on the road bike got the best of the weekend’s weather 🙂

I’d have been a bit disappointed if I’d travelled any distance for that, but as a free event on a rainy saturday it wasn’t bad and I had nothing better to do.

Flip flops and electric hook up. We only bought the hook up this year and it made such a difference – just being able to check opening hours for stuff and maps and all that sort of stuff on our phones during a 10 day trip rather than scrambling around to find plug sockets in cafes. Less of an issue for shorter trips though.

I’m planning to go to it. I live in Leeds anyway so no real excuse not to!

66 mile club road ride* in the Dales. Gorgeous weather for it and some spectacular views.

*I say club ride, but it was a select group of me, my OH and one other bloke who knew the route (we didn’t).

We’re going to the Thursday Rouleur event/showing in Leeds. I’m relatively new to watching pro cycling so don’t know a huge amount about him.

Funnily enough we bought some yellow spray paint for precisely this purpose this morning. We’re clearing out the garage and have found two bikes which are beyond repair/redemption so they will be getting the yellow treatment.

I got my old passport back the day before the new onr., definitely sent separately.

For mine I filled in the form, they sent it out to me, signed and sent back with payment/photos/signature and my new passport was back with me within about a fortnight.

I did get my photo countersigned just in case – it’s so easy for me to find someone who’s able to sign that it was worth doing it to avoid them sending it back and asking for it.

I’m mainly a roadie but bought a mountain bike. I hadn’t quite got used to how it handled so chose a fairly easy trail. Parked up and needed to ride about 50m down the road before turning right onto it. A car came up behind me so I indicated right while trying to brake and get used to the effect of wider bars and promptly fell off and broke my ribs before even getting to the trail in front of a rather bemused driver.

Mine goes in my saddlebag. I don’t care what the rules say.

Horrible horrible crash – we were about 10 metres down the road. Martin looked in a lot of pain:(

We are over for the race – headed to armagh and rode the first bit of stage 3 this afternoon. Everything is very very pink indeed.

The bootjump is genuinely brilliant. Justpop it in the car when you need it, sorted in a couple of minutes and surprisingly comfortable. The bikes can fit inside with it if you put them on the back seat although the rack gives a bit more room for other luggage

Using it for the first time this year tomorrow as we start our trip to ireland. Can’t wait!

Tomorrow – slept on an overnight ferry in a proper cabin.

A berlingo swallows (at least) two bikes with wheels on no problem. But we’re about to go on a 10 day camping trip to Ireland where we’ll sleep inside (Amdro Bootjump) so the bikes go on the outside instead

Untitled by helen_goldthorpe[/url], on Flickr

I love this time of year by helen_goldthorpe[/url], on Flickr
Bluebells! by helen_goldthorpe[/url], on Flickr

I’ve just bought a fuji xf1 for £129. It came highly recommended although I’ve not had much chance to test it as yet.

We got away with loads of stuff last year. The bikes were counted as normal bags as long as they were under 23kg so we booked one extra case between us (2 of us), turned up with 2 bike bags containing road bikes and cycling kit plus a case containing other clothes and had no issues whatsoever.

Going to Ireland. We’ll still be there when the Giro starts 🙂

I like the dhb ones. I also love pearl lzumi kit – I don’t actually have the bib shorts but have bib tights, normal shorts and a variety of other bits and pieces and really like it.

I have some decathlon ones – the pad is decent but they’re a bit short and ride up while riding so they don’t quite meet my knee warmers so I save them for warmer days

Ourmaninthenorth – not planning to stay here permanently. But in the general scheme of things it could be worse so I’ll wait for the right move rather than getting out as soon as I can.

I work in a job (private practice commercial law) where working contracted hours is pretty much viewed as shirking. But I don’t go overvoard. I know how many hours I’m prepared to put in for how much I get paid and I try to stick to that. It’s not 9 to 5 but my pay isn’t 9 to 5 either.

In an ideal world I’d take a pay cut for a better balance (and I am looking) but until that happens I’ll stick to my end of the bargain with the devil…

Motorised bike storage shed pretty much describes my car too. Except sometimes it’s filled with other stuff and the bikes don’t fit in (mainly camping stuff) so we pondered roof or tow bar. I ended up going for the tow bar option for precisely this reason. If there’s room they’ll still go inside, but it’s nice to have another option if the car’s full or they’re stupidly muddy.

We are closed, my OH had the choice between taking today off or taking Tuesday off. My mum always used to say that it was treated as a bank holiday in lancashire but not yorkshire, not sure how accurate that is though given I’m in yorkshire and off.

That said, someone needed to come round to the house to do some work. I was working out which day I couldwork from home to let him in when he suggested today so there may be some truth in it.

I’m glad I tried one. Definite positives. Not sure I’d do it again.

This for me. I quite liked the idea of it but now I’ve experienced the reality I don’t think I’d bother again.[/quote]

+1. I do like it in some ways but I wouldn’t get another.

Atera strada, ready for a trip to ireland next month 🙂