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Untitled[/url] by ianvincent[/url], on Flickr

Pyranees roadtrip bike and pinkbike bargain :D

cant decide what to bring as the second one: jump bike or enduro :?

Linkin Park, Thousand Suns works really well as a complete album, as does Random Access Memories.

Climbing one, first climb of the year so not route fit. decide to work out on a 7c+ at Kilnsey. Grunt my way up to about 2/3 height, slap into the big hold before the crux moves. Eventually decide not to go for the final moves and grab the quickdraw, just as the rope (that I had forgot to tie into) falls out of my harness. Potential 50 foot ground fall luckily averted 8O but I still get flashbacks 20 odd years later.

Riding at Tigne summer before last (with my son 7), went up on the final lift before it closed for lunch. Weather was looking dodgy but seemed like it would be OK for one last run. Que biblical thunder and lightening as soon as we got off the gondola and it stopped. The descent back to the village was pretty intense. It was definitely character forming for my son :cry:

Did the finger in the rotor thing quite recently as well, luckily it just took off a layer of skin and a few mm of nail.

It’s exactly like Ambulance Indirect use to be.

At least you got someone to seemed to have an idea what they were talking about. I had the misfortune of trying to use that 111 service yesterday, in the end I got so frustrated with the obviously clueless operator I went to A+E instead.

Personally I feel that consultants earn their money (generally), especially when compared with others earning way more in other sectors. How many lives can a bond trader, merchant banker, college principal, supermarket manager claim to have improved/saved.

Things I would be considering (if not done already) are:

More use of generics rather than branded drugs.
Tougher negotiations with suppliers, perhaps on a national level.

Also maybe:

Immunity from civil damages court claims.
A restriction on marketing spending by trusts.
Replace that 111 line (bag of S@@@) with something more effective in keeping people away from A+E like NHS direct used to be.

I don’t think another complete reorganisation of the NHS makes much sense in that it will cost a fortune in the short medium term and the advantages are only possibilities rather than probabilities. Most internal markets seem to save less in operational spending than they cost in administration.

Of course the main problem is that we are living longer so we could have a “logans run” type scenario where everyone over say 50 is put down before they start costing the NHS loads of money. Alternatively, a series of “Battle Royales” for any group regarded by STW as a drain on the service; fatties, smokers, elderly, childless couples etc.

http://dirt.mpora.com/video-clips/the-lumberyard-indoor-pumptrack-and-bikepark.html

This looks good, and you even have the obligatory grom to whip ass and destroy people’s preconceptions of their ability level!

Yes definitely, even in summer if the weather was bad.

Fly to Lyon or better still Grenoble, Bourg d’Oisans (50 mins from Grenoble). Ride deux alpes and maybe alp d’huez as well.

or

Fly to Turin, alpi bike resorts (Bardonecchia/sauze d’Oulx) approx 1 hr from Turin (I think)

Hautes – Pyrenees anyone??

If its for road riding there is loads in and around St Lary (and over towards Luchon). Its less good for mountain biking, although the bike park at St Lary is pretty cool.

For a mix, somewhere like Ax les Thermes would be good as you can also go into Andorra pretty easily, and over to the Capacir as well.

Barcelonette. Further south. Hotter. More Provençale. Great road cols and probably great mtb too I think

Great area, also worth a look is Briancon/Montgenevre.

http://trajeco.org/zapt/velos.php

Bike hire in the luberon

http://librairie.vtopo.fr/vtt-provence-nord-experts.html

http://librairie.vtopo.fr/vtt-provence-nord-inities.html

There is loads of riding around apt, including the colorado provencal just to the north east (near st saturine d’apt). I am sure there will be shops in apt that rent bikes as well. I am pretty sure that there is a load of riding between apt and avignon as well.

Colorado Provencal:

http://www.pinkbike.com/video/303796/

30secs ish

2000 heckler was a great bike

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/my-big-fat-geek-wedding-napster-founder-and-spotify-billionaire-sean-parkers-extravagant-starstudded-ceremony-8640196.html

This is an expensive wedding!

Ok, so $10m is nothing for a billionaire but I can never understand how less well off, yet normally rational people, feel that an expensive wedding makes more sense than paying off a big chunk of a mortgage.

I’m sorry, I don’t understand the question, unless it’s a rhetorical question, and even then I still don’t understand what you’re getting at.

OK, so if a boulder problem in the UK is given a Font grade then of course there is going to be a similarity. If this is what you meant then i dont know why you bothered as its obvious. However, if you are saying that a UK technical grade (for the hardest move) is likely to give a broadly similar level of difficulty to a problem with the same Font grade you are wrong. 8a moves are are rare or non existent yet there are loads of problems given higher Font grades, the Font 7c/8as that I have done probably never had moves harder than 7a.

So which is harder according to you? 6b in the plantation or or 6b in Fontainebleau? I reckon they’re about the same.

Do you think a boulder problem like Gioia 8c+ has an 8c/9a move on it? Never :roll:

I climb 6a or 6b (on a good day!) indoors, but I don’t think I’ve ever led a trad route which has above a 5a technical grade, it would most likely be way above my ability.

French grades are about the overall difficulty of getting up so you might get a long sustained route with easy moves graded the same as a short route with much harder moves. Climbing wall routes tend to be more sustained in nature and as such will usually have very positive holds, on a cliff this might be different and I am pretty sure I have climbed 6a/b (technical moves) on French 6b/+. I have also climbed 8as with no move harder than 6a but steep and sustained. Bouldering grades are just an extension of this as the difficulty is squeezed into even fewer moves.

English technical grades are roughly the same as French bouldering grades

No way.

Five 10 Anasazi in your normal shoe size. Really like them, like an old ninja but better rubber.

The jokers are fairly clumpy.

My advice would be to do as much of your driving on the Friday. All gites change over on the Saturday so roads tend to be really busy with long queues at the payages. From the south coast you can easily get down to, at least Bourg en bresse if not further, in a day.

Not all of the petrol station machines accept them, so be careful.

This doesn’t seem to be the case any more, used to have this problem quite a bit, but never in the last few years.

Not gozo but I stayed at this hotel on Malta, really nice, away from the more crowded north shore and about 15mins from the gozo ferry .

http://www.radissonblu.com/goldensandsresort-malta

Zillertal maybe?

http://www.zillertal.at/de/sommer/bergsommer/rad-bike/bikeparadies/

http://www.zillertal.at/de/sommer/bergsommer/klettern-klettersteige/

http://www.poundland.co.uk/product-range/a-z/shaker-bottle/

work pretty well and top value

26 inch wheeled bike will be too big for a 9 yr old, unless he is a giant.

It wouldn’t be my first choice.

Finale could be good, there is a free campsite apparently and riding all round. The tet valley in the pyranees orientale would be good as well, there is loads of trails and i reckon you could wild camp pretty easily. Lagos will be hot and the best riding is some way from the town.

Does antur justify bringing a full on DH bike? It would mean a second bike in the car and wondering if it is worth the hassle.

My normal bike is an enduro evo so its more than capable but would the DH bike be much more fun?

I think it’s interesting that barel was riding with clemenz, who must have seen him, yet apparently said nothing even though it could have got him the win. Yet, a couple of guys that got their asses well whipped, and didn’t really feature in the results, are whining.

It seems really petty and smacks of badly bruised egos.

http://www.ffc.fr/a_VTT/a_SitesVTT/index.asp

davidtaylforth – Member
I dont need too

Did WG manage to sneak back under an alias??

No but the area is rad.

Last year I tried to do one of the routes outlined on the website (the big one in the mountains up to the lac du diable). It turned into a right epic with loads of late season snow difficult route finding and mad torrent crossings. I am sure it would have been ace later in the year.

I like it and love the moroder track. There seems to be a lot of jean Michel Jarre influence running through the album (in a really good way).

Ime, the good stuff in the alps without jumps tends to be slow and tech. If you want to go fast you need to get on the proper downhill tracks, these have jumps but are often big tables and therefore mega ( but totally safe) fun.

Go down to the nearest Bmx track and get comfortable in the air, your trip to the alps will be much more rewarding. Les Deux alpes, Orcieres, Tignes, Valnord ( pyranees) are the best resorts that I have ridden for fast fun trails. Pds is ok but the weather is generally hit and miss.

What about getting in touch with ride sheffield and the Eckington Trail collective throught FB??

Or go to Wharncliffe on a weekend?

Another Llandegla victim, I broke myself on the freeride 3 weeks ago, broken arm, ribs and torn muscle off my shoulder.
The shoulder is by far the worst and most painful.
I managed to get to my van and drive home though.

Thats pretty hardcore, good effort 8O

Winter house in the var. Summer house, ordino in Andorra.

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96[/url] by ianvincent[/url], on Flickr

Trigance to the Verdon Gorge

PS I have done that descent at Quillan and this one totally kicks its ass

I cant think of anywhere that is fast and not jumpy. Why no jumps?

If I lived on the continent, I don’t think the uk would be my cycling destination of choice. Crap weather, different currency, less convenient access etc. Trail centres are all well and good, but how many ffc centres are there in a sunny part of France, plus 80+ lift assisted resorts for the summer? And if you not bothered by the weather you have awesome areas like the Vosges.

The uk trail centres are only ever going to attract a very niche type of foreign nutter, considering the quality and attractiveness of the alternatives nearer to home.

Bombers every time for me. Have used all 3 and the Marzocchis just feel better and more solid.