if you want old skool techno then you cant beat undergrond resistance and red planet stuff.

good sets on the im link from
Santiago Salazar
DJDex
Los Hermanos
rolando

However I have seen pretty much all the big names (US and European over the years and Taakaki Itoh would be my "desert island dj"

Lac Matamale, Pyranees Orientale: Lake, Bike park, Stunning Scenery, nice weather etc 10 hours from Calais

Anyone who climbed would have found that article a load of twee claptrap.

The web site is good but the mag has never impressed.

Winter Park and Keystone are the best. Breckenridge has some but its no where near as good as those two. I think Vail has some stuff as well.

http://i-m.hostzi.com/ click sety

This is the motherlode!
Following are well worth checking out:
Mimi
Luka baumann
Exium
Go Hiyama
Taakaki Itoh
Grovskopa
Oscar Mulero

Believe me, it is way more than an hour.

Also the sections of autoroute A6 before the turn to Quillan are pretty much always blocked during the Summer by traffic going towards Spain.

Via the millau viaduct is a big detour

Orlean, Toulouse, Foix, Quillan is the shortest. Also the A9 from Bezier to Perpignan is a car park during the summer.

http://audioassault.com/liveaudio/

You can do it in a day. We do lille to Perpignan in about 10 hours.

If you do want to stop, somewhere like Bourge is about 1/2 way and quite nice.

Personally I would boot it down and then do your travelling using Quillan as a base. ie Les Angles, Ax les Thermes, Andorra are within striking distance of Quillan.

Baas Moy this morning, top techno for the ride to work

I used to travel down to the south coast regularly, marseilles, in v reg 1 litre ford fiesta with 4 people.

Very few hills dpown to Bordeaux, mostly motorway should be no problem.

you could always try a lighter oil

They are only about 1kg heavier than my old bike so I was not expecting a big problem with weight. I was more worried about the short top tube.

They are way cheap, but it starts to get expensive when new cranks and BB are needed.

Anyway cheers for the feedback

Morocco will be baking in the summer

Massive downhill scene around Malaga (trails all over the place and loads of people riding) but I suppose the owners of posh timeshares in the alps will not be that type of person.

Probably middle age middle managers wanting a pootle so they can say they can feel they got a bit of exercise.

A woodward type facility with added uplifts somewhere warm like southern Portugal/Spain.

24
msc
canyon
Q bikes
asterix
labyrinth
Rage

sure there is plenty of German and small spanish/french brands if you look

"increases weight due to water retention"
"I smell contradiction"

not really because the weight drops off pretty quickly when you stop taking it and the strength stays.

good for weight training especially short intense power stuff, small reps. I take a bit 2-3 caps before going to the gym and I am convinced it improves performance.

there must be benefits for cycling, increased leg and upper body strength should be positive

increases weight due to water retention.

anyone??

"The only time I supported the IRA was when they tried to blow the
Tories up"

+1

I remember chucking eggs at thatcher's car on one of her visits to that economic miracle that was Keighley, West Yorkshire 1983 ish.

I fail to understand how anyone other than an Essex barrow boy could give the tories the time of day.

Up side
Subsidised my climbing in the 80's

Down side
Unemployment
Deindustrialisation
Miners strike
Selling off the state owned industries
Margret Thatcher
CJB
High interest rates
Being kicked out of the EMS
etc etc etc

Too late if you want to see any big increases in share price. If you want a gamble, go with either Land securities or British Land but you will probably have to wait a year or two before you get any decent return.

Most of these suggestions are too far to the west for Nice, unless you are happy to do a massive detour. I would say just boot it past Paris and Lyon on to the A7 then if you want, stop at somewhere like Pont St Esprite in the Ardeche, Avignon, Aix en Provence. Or head off from Carpatras to Apt(especially on a Saturday for a mad hippy market)then Manosque and Mustiers Sainte Marie for the Verdon Gorge then down to Nice.

Thanks folks

Now I just have to worry about the weight limit!

The problem isnt really a lack of realism from the workforce, the problem is that the management has escalated the dispute to a point where they are betting the future of the business in order to win a relatively small cost reduction.

Clubber's point is well made, the fact that BA has failed to come to a compromise with its staff and has created the current deadlock is a lack decent management (or perhaps a need to pick a fight). In most cases or a workforce to vote 90+% for industrial action the management would need to be proposing something pretty unpalatable.

How willy walsh is still in his job after all these years of shite leadership at BA is beyond me.

Time and time again he picks fights that cost the company significantly more than they are designed to save. Current one is supposed to create 84m of savings, probably will eventually cost the business 10 times that. If I was a share holder I would be splitting blood.

Its very easy to slag off workers for self interest but they chose to work or stay at BA because of their terms and conditions why should they give them up because Walsh wants to come over all macho. How many on here would happily give up the car, bupa, whatever else AND take a cut in wages?

Buy shares in commercial property REITS British Land, Land Securities. no real movement in their shares since the slump, really low PEs.

If she is not going to ride anything too bumpy/rocky then deffo go for the isla bike.

All 20" suspension forks are pretty crap but the spesh one seemed better than everything else I looked at (kona, Scott, ridgeback)

"you need a bouldering mat to climb"

Now I know what I was doing wrong back in the 90's.

ride up, go bouldering, ride back

someone must know!

2.35 Michelin AT reinforced from CRC approx £18 pretty good as hard as nails, and big for the size

Its sort of as if the last 2 years never happened!

How many people are in negitive equity or under the threat of repossession due to their desire for the biggest house possible and the most arcane way of financing it?

There are other ways to save for your retirement than sticking a load of money into a house and if you have a small mortgage you can choose which one is best. If things go pear shaped again (deffo on the cards with Osbourne) then a small mortgage gives a large margin of safety. A small mortgage also give the opportunity to get away more, spend more on beer etc.

All the points about advice based on experience of the 70's are right. Borrowing quickly looses value with inflation so it made sence at the time to go big and there was tax relief etc. Its no longer relevant.

If you buy a cheaper house and pay it off early, you will have loads more disposable income rather than the possibility of a more valuable piece of real estate in the future.

Also remember big houses dont just have big mortgage payments, they cost more to heat, insure and in council tax.

Some new ones I came up with yesterday:
Vert skateboarding for skill and committment and you need to be pretty good in order to do anything at all.
Atlas balls for strength, speed and big lads going into oxygen debt.

I think it has to be an individual sport because in team sports there is always somewhere to hide.

"Except CV fitness and courage. And perhaps intelligence. Otherwise gymnastics would be right up there"

Dont tell me theres no courage required for those massive dismounts.
The power endurance for the rings or parallel bars must pretty immense
The intelligence comes during the training/preperation rather than during the competition.

Personally I think stamina should be less of a consideration than power, technique and skill. It is much easier to develop stamina than the others.

"The hardest sport should include speed, CV fitness, power, skill, intelligence and courage" back to Gymnastics then!

said top of game not just drunk climbers who occasionally visit the alps

Andy cave, Al rouse, Jo Simpson?