"BMX riders who end up riding other types of bikes tend to do quite well…" and most of the BMX crossovers that made waves in Mountainbiking were not the best of the best.

I would really love to see someone really good like Mirra, Ruben or Cramner at a slopestyle event.

Are these any good if you have really bad eyesight 6.5/7

I like grovskopa, never been a big fan of surgeon. Will have a listen to Exium (looks promising) and Redshape.

Cheers,anyone else?

"Striving for success is a hopeless task. If you were club champion you'd want to be national champion, national champion you'd want to be world champion, world champion you'd want to set new records"

But that is what being good is all about, always trying to improve and putting the effort in to make it happen. Very time consuming though.

Andorra is great in summer, Val Nord has loads of great riding at all levels and has a real buzz. Soldeau/Grand Valira is good (particurlarly the high level blues)but not as good as Val nord. However, here is only 30 mins between the two so you can mix it up a bit.

We are going again this year because the whole family had fun on the trails. If you stay up towards Pal or Ordino it is pretty and there is a camp site just off the main road at Soldeau that is supposedly nice.

There are also resorts about an hour away in France that are good, Les Angles being an excellent location for biking.

Distance running
Judo
Fencing
Competition climbing

Stuff like curling etc I do not classify as sport

What about a stinky? I paid £1700 for a brand new delux. Lots of rhe recommendations above are going to cost £3K+++ to build.

It might be a bit heavy but you will get fit pretty quicky!

will they get 2 mealsand 2 drink rations as well?

Should mention that I went in Feb. I am sure it would be a complete nightmare in summer. April should be fine though.

Its a bit scruffy, but it has its charm IMO. We had an enjoyable week there. But you need a car and I think we were luck with our choice of hotel location.

http://www.goldensands.com.mt/page.asp?n=home

Premiere Classe, Kyriad, Etap are like up market formule 1's ie ensuite toilet and shower Pretty cheap
Formule 1 have communal showers and toilets but clean and I have never been in a bad one
Campanile is overpriced and average
For a cheap roadtrip you wont go wrong with the first 4.

Very small, roads are bad, north side of the island is really blighted with hotels etc.

We stayed at the Golden Sands Hotel which is on its own on the south side and surrounded by nice countryside (decent hotel with spa gym etc. Would recommend it.

Gozo is nice, 20 mins boat trip away. Valetta is nice as is the fortified town in the center (cannot remember the name). The old temples are interesting. Popey village is worth a look if you have kids. But 1 week is maximum I would recommend.

"no it's not my mum"

Dont get upset, only joking!

Utah, Arizona and then into Colorado via Fruita

I presonnaly recommend le gite de la fruitière in arvieux,

is it your mums???

2 things to consider
The last 2 years have been wet pretty much everywhere other than the south.
The south coast has been very hot during the same period and the cote d'azure has been the hottest.

The in laws have a place near Perpignan and I was having to force myself to go riding, it was unpleasant and I had to keep going back into the mountains to stay motivated, and it was even hotter further east.

Other suggestions might be the area south of Briancon, or if you want to risk the weather, the Vosge (metabief etc)

Near Clerment Ferrand you will be bored for 3 weeks, OK as a stop over but thats it. Been to Lioran and Mont D'or.

It is really worth the extra half day to go to the pyranees. From what you want, Les angles is perfect IMO

Les angles/Matamale pyranees orientale. Been for the last 3 years wicked riding and loads to do for any tastes.

I went to a specialist nurse who was operating as a sort of triage for shoulder injuries.

She mentioned keyhole surgery as a final option, know nothing more than that.

Maybe one is more concerned about the sale than another
Maybe one has been priced by someone who has no authority to offer discounts
Maybe one is prepared to do you a favour
Prices vary, businesses have different margin expectations, its not rocket science!

I don't see any of the schools making massive efforts to clear the snow from their carparks and footpaths.

Probably because they do not have the money, personnel or equipment to do so. Thats the councils job.

I have been at work all week, since monday I have been "teaching" classes of 4 or 5. I had no say in whether the college stayed open just like school teachers (or sometimes even headteachers)have no say in what happens.

If the people who are slagging teachers are unable to get this, then maybe they so go back to (special) school.

"think youll need to eat your hat then mate"

I remember seeing mashinga on an episode of drop in tv, there were people like that darma joe and tyler klassen shitting themselves as they tried to work sections of the trail.

But then again, I am sure there are loads of better riders than them on here! right??

Its just like climbing really, why climb some way overhanging route that needs bolts for protection when you could walk round the side of the crag to get to the same point?

Because its harder, more challenging and some people get a kick out of stuff like that.

I can imagine that a hardtail would be a PITA (in more ways than one) in the bike parks.

I was there about 5 years ago and the breaking bumps were pretty brutal then.

Conditions no where near as good as at a Uni, money poor, workload can be pretty heavy depending on whether you do night classes or not.

level of benefit depends on the courses you will be teaching on:
If its the pre 16 stuff you will have a load of chavs chucked out of school
If it A levels you will have reasonable kids (in general, though you will still have a contingent of school rejects)
If its BTEC then you will have a mix of the above.

The hols are not as good as in school but class contact stops at summer half term for most courses.

There are better places. The comment about blokes going fast on the easy runs is spot on. My GF was getting really intimidated being buzzed by downhillers on easy runs.

IMO pick somewhere quieter, and better, like Andorra and the Pyranees Orientale (GF loved it there) or some of the less frequented Alpine resorts.

"not so sure – think Head has ultimate responsibility for children in their care – LA can only advise"

My next door neighbour is a head, she was on her way to work when she heard that her school had been closed!

Its not just about the teachers anyway, my college was open yesterday, I got there eventually but none of my kids bothered to. My GF's school (1000+ local secondary)was open, 40 kids turned up.

All school bus services were suspended in West Yorkshire yesterday. Local authorities are scared of litigious parents etc etc. If something goes wrong in a school there is potentially more serious consequences than a telephone in an office not getting answered.

Pulling kids out of school for a cheap holiday is way different than kids missing one ore two days due to adverse weather conditions.

Thanks folks

"It's like saying because some teams get relegated no footballers should be paid their goal-scoring bonus."

Its more like saying that the players did so sh!t that they were relegated to a division with no other teams in and were still paid a bonus to score into an empty goal. Anyone with half a brain should have made money this year in equities.

Gee, Dan atherton or perhaps Jamie Staff (I bet he would be pretty good on a mountain bike if he tried)

But, the most awesome rider in Britain (in one discipline) has to be Jamie Bestwick IMO. He has dominated vert BMX for ages.

I just wish they did 20" bikes with decent suspension. We had to get something else as the rigid fork wasnt really suited to the riding my son is doing.

There is often links on http://www.theorbituary.com loads of techno as well if thats your bag

As Ash said, those french lads are doing what the vast majority of europeans regard as freeriding. They are riding down a BIG hill and having fun (probably didnt have to ride up either).

Read Big Bike (french mag) and they have loads of articles on descents like this catagorised as freeride.

eamon mccabe for sports photos

There is a great one of a boxers hands and one of a table tennis player

Just about to put on some Luka Baumann for the trip home

tailwhip 360 would be good

The any comment was not made to make anyone feel bad. It was made in response to the comment at the top of this page that the OP should be climbing 6a but 5a and work through the grades.

Still thinks its true though!

6a indoors is quite a lot different than the same grade on a crag, I would not make the same comment about routes outside.

The 7c comment is probably pushing it a bit though! Although I once knew a guy who went from beginner to 8a in one winter.

20-30K is not going to get you very far if you want to be well prepared.

Any beginner with a modicum of physical ability should be capable of climbing 6a on a wall quite quickly.

I personally never saw the difference, there may be if you are heavy.

The main advantage was highlighted to me when my QR wheel fell out on a downhill last summer.