The FT website, company research section lists the ex dividend date for each company. You will have to go through each company one at a time though.

You have to look at the high end sports people not 'average practicioners (sp?)'. So for mountaineering,its not those that have summited Everest etc…

No its not but when I lived in Sheffield at Uni I knew lots of the better English mountaineers and they were essentially underperforming rock climbers. You could never take 6 months off from sport climbing get back to it and be pushing grades forward yet that is what happens every year in the mountains.

In fact, any sport where people can take time off and then be back at the top with a bit of training has to be discounted IMO ie boxing

Whatever you do, give yourself plenty of time. Its a nightmare at busy times.

Really do not think mountaineering comes near, most big mountain outes are technically easy and its only the cold and the altitude that makes it hard.

Very hard sport climbing al a http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lr_5m443WI or hard onsighting might get a shout nowadays but NOT mountaineering.

When I think back, the most complete all round athletes I have known were gymnasts.

You could start with Salagou and Pezenas, both FFc VTT Centres.

Some nice riding round Salagou, there is some GPS files on http://www.utagwavtt.fr.

Head further inland and you are in the Tarn, loads of stuff there as well.

I was wondering about this combo today, its becoming increasingly popular.

Whats the point of the shorts over the lycra, is it a fashion thing or is it to hide a big ar$e?

I was thinking parcour or whatever its called, very close to gymnastics in terms of skills, longer periods of power endurance and the high risk of injury if it goes wrong.

http://www.detroitluv.com/index.php?board=21.0

For some techno action

It will not go all the way down as there is a bend in the tubing before the bottom bracket. I have about 4-5inches of seat tube showing when pushed all the way down. Kona seat post, 15.5 stinky.

I read an article somewhere about exercises for golfers elbow. Get a dumb bell about 10kgs to start. Wrist up, arm flat on a surface, with 2 hands pull it up till the wrist is bent 90 degrees upwards. Let wrist drop slowly all the way till 90 degrees facing downwards. Repeat 3 sets of 10-12 each day. Hope that makes sence.

This really worked for me.

Deffo road bikes for winter!
Climbing, Gym for cross training but they wont keep the weight off.

I get a massive dose of deja vu from stuff like this.

The media talked up the crisis in the first place, people got way too scared and the recession was worse than it needed to be. Now the same seems to be happening again. To make matters worse, the to&&ers that are talking up the recession and putting forward the idiotic economic policies are now going to influence the outcome of the next election.

"As the long term trend is around 3%, similar to inflation, doesn't that mean that houses never really get more valuable in the very long term?"

I have heard this argument before and there is probably a lot of truth in it. I think the problem this time was that people were far quicker to remove the perceived extra capital from their homes to buy other luxuries and/or to trade up.

The government cannot be blamed for peoples greed or the banks willingness to feed it. The government cannot also be blamed for suffering the contagion of a US problem. Personally (await flaming but), I think Brown and Darling have made a pretty good fist of reacting to the crisis and things could have been much worse without the monetary policy decisions they they have made.

If a firm is already in administration then as far as I know the debts are not at risk. As said above, its the firms that are on the way that are the problem. Only way you can find this out is by talking to other firms and possibly checking county court judgements.

Some would say we need high inflation to inflate the debt down to a manageable level –

A lot of the debt has been generated by bailing out the banks, buying shares etc. As the economy improves, this debt will dissipate and the sale of shares might even make a profit. Osbourne on the otherhand seems to want to stifle recovery, and flog off the shares at a discount, we lose two ways there.

The level of UK debt is not actually that high anyway when compared to other countries.

If Osbourne gets his hands on the economy we will deffo have a further recession. Cutting expenditure as we are trying to get back to some level of growth would be a total disaster.

http://www.eurocampings.co.uk/en/europe/andorra/

We stayed at Borda de Ansalonga, decent site, bar and a pool 30Euro per night tent car 2 adults and a kid
We met some people who stayed at a site near Grand Valira just off the main road from france, not sure which one but cheap and nice
The one towards Pal seemed to have lots of bikers (nearest to the Valnord lift) but didnt get much sun.

Have been thinking of this for Easter, how much descending gets done in a day?

It would be a pretty expensive trip and I would be pretty pissed if I was only getting a couple of runs in each day.

65kg me, bike 18.2 kg= 3.57:1

Can be hard work!

Camping du lac, Matamale near Les Angles both lifts and all mountain, ace place.

Vallnord and Grand Vellira (sp?)for lift stuff, good for all levels. Camping up the valley from Ordino and also towards Pal

Boutique bike prices take the Pi"" at the moment. Go for a previous year model from a big name to get the best deals. eg:

http://www.rutlandcycling.com/10981/Marin-Wolf-Ridge-6-7-2009.html

Rodin Museum near les Invalides or The Pompedieu Centre gallery

Its doable but depends on the kid. First time we went to the South of France we had to take two days and have the music on VERY loud to escape the noise from the back seat.

After the first nightmare though it was easy.

Same problem here, they are truly the most crap gloves I have ever had. They also appear to have been made for someone who has lost the first joint of every finger.
Almost went in the bin yesterday.

I found the article and can scan it for you if you are interested/can translate French.

Have a look at your home insurance policy, they usually offer some legal cover and advice and representation.

Personally, I think that as regards consumer law (supply of goods and services act) you have a reasonable case to tell him to do one but dont quote me on it.

Way more "incidents" in the morning.

Re Les Angles, They have some good lift accessed stuff between 5 and 7km, about 6 trails + there is all the stuff off the back of the mountain + the yellow train + its not far from La Molina or Andorra as part of a roadtrip.

I suppose it depends on the definition of freeride.

Andorra, La Molina, Les Angles Pyranees

One of the French mags (VTT Mag I think) did an article some time ago. I might still have it, will have a look.

They had a few rides, talked about a chair lift , a local guiding company etc.

This might be useful as well, BTT = MTB http://eng.theessenceofthepyrenees.com/home.html

Andorra is ace for downhill stuff, as is La Molina Both not too far away

Is 6 too young? He is a pretty decent rider. Is it restricted to welsh riders?

If no to both could be interested.

If you are only climbing on resin you dont need super sticky, technical shoes as the holds are generally positive.

I would go for something that is reasonably comfortable, easy to slip on and off and is not too expensive. Something like a modern update of the old boreal ninja.

Bit of an French update!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z014I7FvDCo

I hung out with Afrikka Bambaata at the Berlin Love Perade

There is apparently good riding just outside Calais, Cote d'Opal

Also Val Joly near Mauberge, and Saint Amand Les Eaux are OK but just for a short trip.

Chair lifts/Bike parks

Its always funny to hear parents explain that the fact they are taking their kids out of school is because they intend to educate them in a far off exotic land (like florida or benidorm). Yeah right.

Agree totally with john drummer on this one.

I have a 99 Heckler, 100mm rear suspension with 130mm Marzocchi Freeride SL's up front. Works great.

The staff sargent in Full Metal Jacket

Well checked out exium and redshape, exium is exactly what I was looking for. Redshape never kicked up that extra notch.

Does Surgeon play this type of techno now, he always did my head in back in the day messing around with levels etc.

Rob Hall tracklisting on his site looks interesting.

Cheers for the heads up all