Probably be proven wrong, but don’t think Contador is fussed about being 3rd – he’d prefer to attack from way out on the 1% chance that he gains minutes on everyone à la Landis 2006 / himself in the Vuelta in 2012, rather than ride conservatively and move up a place or two.. it’s win or nothing for him..

No probs man

Will be the outgoing SMTP port setting.. some ISPs block the default outgoing port (think it’s 25) as they want you to send via their servers, so most web hosts (1&1) provide an alternative outgoing port number that won’t be blocked by your ISP so you can still send..

Edit: try changing it from 25 to 587, should sort it..

There were 24 TUE’s given out by the UCI in total in 2014 compared to 239 in 2009. Almost like in 2009 (and before) they were used to cover up positives or something

This implies that
1. TUEs are harder to get due to new rules/change in regime
2. TUEs are no longer necessary – some new drug/doping method has taken over
3. The peloton have miraculously recovered from all of their ailments
4. Cycling is cleaner, so the no-one needs the advantage from the TUEs anymore
5. Some drugs have been legalised to save on paperwork etc

Personally I’d suspect mainly 1. and a little bit of 2, possibly 5 though I haven’t seen any evidence for it. 3 is highly unlikely, and clean or not, people will always cheat to get ahead, so I don’t think 4 would apply.

Regardless of what you believe about today’s riders, the obvious solution is to store blood/urine samples for testing in years to come, when the new testing techniques have caught up with doping methods used at the present time. Each team should have to fund this process as part of their participation in the World Tour. Titles should then be removed as necessary based upon positive results, with no appeals based upon flimsy technicalities.

Yep, 3rd vote for Lezyne.. couldn’t get my track pump to work yesterday, managed to get up to 80psi with the Lezyne with not much effort..

Nice incoherent ramblings there.. I posted his stage race record simply as before 2011 he hadn’t done anything else of note.

Yeah but why hire them in the first place? Particularly in the case of Leinders – what could they possibly need from a doctor who ran the blood doping operation at Rabobank for over a decade?

The same massive anti doping policy that saw them hire loads of ex dopers as staff, riders and doctors?

Froome showed no potential whatsoever (he got kicked out the Giro for holding onto motorbikes), then suddenly turned into a world beater. Contador may well have been (and in all probability probably still is) doping, which leads us to how an average rider suddenly turned world class and started beating known dopers?

Yeah, there’s nothing there – compare 26yr old Froome to 26 year old Contador

You’re right. The last thing I’ll say to the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics: I’m sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. I’m sorry you don’t believe in miracles.

No offence Hatter, but that last post reads similar to the ones five/ten years ago justifying Armstrong’s transformation to Tour Winner.

Froome did nothing prior to 2011, then burst onto the scene as a world beater – what are these impressive results you speak of?

I think it’s more a case of pretty much every other unbelievable ride over the last 20 years has later proven to be due to doping (Vino TT, Landis solo, Armstrong, Pantani etc) combined with Sky’s hiring policy, and huge transformations – why would they hire the world’s leading blood doping doctor? How did Froome go from this to what happened yesterday? The whole bilharzia thing seems to be a convenient excuse for the dramatic transformation of an average rider into the world’s best climber/TT.

If they were transparent and released all racing data so Ashenden and other experts can analyse it, that would go some way to helping.. and stopping with the bullsh*t claims like they’ve never even measured Froome’s VO2 max etc

For me the most worrying aspect of yesterday’s stage is the fact that two Sky domestiques Porte and Thomas were out climbing Quintana, Contador, Nibali, Valverde, Rodriguez, Gesink, Kreuziger, Uran etc – the best climbers in the world, many of whom are or have been under suspicion of doping themselves.

A clean rider who’s never really shown any real climbing prowess shouldn’t be able to beat so many world class climbers IMO, especially when he weighs 10kg more.

I’d love it if they were all clean, but I’ve seen this situation too many times before to be convinced..

The hiring of Leinders was a very strange decision for a team who pride themselves on being clean, given his reputation and history. As per US Postal, if you ignore the PR & spin being produced by Sky, and actually focus on the evidence, they’re no better than any other team when it comes to hiring questionable individuals.

The obvious prediction is one or two of the top 10 favourites will crash out / losing major time in the first week. The commentators will then remark about how there’s been an unusual number of high profile crashes in the first week, despite the fact it happens every year.

I’m a Contador fan but can’t see him doing the double, think the Giro took too much out of him.. Froome to win overall IMO, and poss Simon Yates for the polka dot.. Cav or Sagan for the points

Nice work guys…

I’m getting a bit f*cked off with the posts in this thread.. can some completely non talented people please dilute it with some shit offerings as I’m feeling a bit inadequate here, with my complete lack of talent at making stuff!

Surely that’s based upon the answer, which we have yet to prove.. all we know from the question is that probability of the first sweet is 6 over n, second sweet is 5 over n-1 which when multiplied together equal 1/3?

Edit: nickc changed his post so this no longer makes sense!

Rodgers quote after the Stoke game was pretty funny/deluded..

“I have always said if the owners want me to go I will go.”

Seems to be implying that he thinks his bosses can’t sack him, instead he’ll generously decide to walk..

I presume it’s already been posted, but the RAWK meltdown twitter account is well worth following (a selection of posts by Liverpool fans on the Red And White Kop forum)

I don’t hold anything against any football club, but in my experience Liverpool seem to be have more than their fair share of delusional fans.. couple of genuine quotes from two diff fans in the pub last weekend..

“No disrespect but Liverpool are probably the biggest club in the world, and deserve to be winning the league every year.”

“Liverpool have the best fans in the world, far more devoted than any other club.”

This looks pretty good value: http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/sunn-shamann-s1-suspension-bike-un-premium-2013/rp-prod121791 – 61% off in Medium

Why? I presuming bicarb isn’t on the banned list else Dowsett wouldn’t be talking about taking it, and there’s always doping stories in the news, cycling or otherwise?

Some v cheap Rebas at Merlin at the mo – apologies if posted elsewhere – at the moment showing as out of stock, but have changed a few times over the last few hours, so worth keeping an eye on:

Rockshox Reba RL Forks – 26″ OEM – was £479, now £179

I ride with 600mm bars so clearly well out of touch!

Dirtyrider: Nope, nothing to do with me, nor Hot UK Deals, I just follow them..

Be interesting to see the mark up on nutrition / energy products, as they always seem to have substantial discount codes – I remember a program on BBC before the Olympics where Obree was fairly scathing of the advantages they offered..

In case anyone hasn’t seen the separate thread, Thrustyjust (excellent username!) found Merlin are doing XT disc brake sets for £99.

Ah haha might be a bit narrow.. or a typo by me!

Edit.. actually I’m being a bit slow.. surely that’s 68cm?

Yeah I’m not sure how many people would actually buy them at the RRP – look pretty good for the current price tho IMO..

Ah never knew that about Decathlon, will have to investigate!

Some more for Tuesday! Firstly Chain Reaction have some cheap Crank Brothers carbon XC riser bas (155g!) – was £149.99 now £49.99 (31.8mm / 680mm)

Also some very cheap Cratoni helmets for those with smaller heads:
Cratoni Bullet – was £99.99 now £29.99 (S/M only)
Cratoni Terrox – was £219.99 now £54.99 (S/M only)

And dhb’s Seamless Base Layer Tight – was £29.99, now £5 at Wiggle

All found via either Cycling Bargains or HUKD

It’s easily possible – if you’re really on a budget, check Wiggle, Chain Reaction, Planet X and ebay etc for each part you need – arrange each category (i.e. handlebars) by either cheapest or (preferably) biggest discount – you can easily find £40-£50 RRP handlebars for about £10-15, same with stems, seatposts etc.

Some more Monday bargains – Cheap inner tubes, a £1.99 Stem and reduced Jackets!

Very cheap inner tube 2 pack at Wiggle – two Schrader 26″ (1.75-2.5) tubes for just £2.47!

A couple of jackets – firstly the Shimano Windstop Zip Off (was £137.99 now £54.99) and also the Shimano Stretchable Windbreaker (was £94.99 now £35.99)

Need a cheap stem for a hack bike? 3T MTB Bono stems was £32.99 now £1.99 at PlanetX – choice of lengths and colours too!

Can’t take the credit for these, all are via CycleBargains and HUKD

40% off Science in Sport.com – voucher code: SISMAY40

Some very cheap Carnac Gloves at Planet-X (was £35.99 now £4.99!) – a few other models also reduced – here’s the full range (used tiny.cc as forum doesn’t like the “and” symbol in the url.)

and

dhb waterproof jackets at Wiggle (was £22.99 now £10)

via CB Twitter

Edit: Also not really bike related, but a few products on the Quiksilver website are being further reduced when added to your basket (possibly glitch, possibly intentional?) – example: Small shoulder bag – was £22.99, reduced to £11, adds to your cart at £6.60 – might be of interest to some of you? – via HUKD

Cheap Northwave Jerseys at Wiggle (£10.50, were £34.99),
and
Heavily reduced FSA stems at Chain Reaction (£44.99, were £169.99)

Ah sorry to hear that Picton, glad you’re still happy with the purchase though!

Just seen @CycleBargains Twitter, very cheap Truvativ 9 speed chainset at Planet X – was £139.99 now £29.99 – only 3 left at time of writing – not sure if includes BB or not?

Some more I’ve come across..

Selfcof Alloy Riser bar – was £39.99 now £9.99 at On-One.

half price Lusso jackets at Merlin (was £70 now £34.99)
and
cheap ladies Shimano Performance tops at Chain Reaction (was £79.99 now £26.99)

both via CycleBargains.

Also, not bike related but cheap AAA LED torches – £1.13 each inc postage
via HUKD

Glad you guys saved some cash..

Ahsat – not sure if you meant

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/gore-bike-wear-womens-contest-short-sleeve-jersey/%5B/url%5D – was £49.99 now £15.00
or
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/gore-bike-wear-womens-power-30-jersey-ss14/%5B/url%5D – was £79.99 now £40.00 ?

Stepping on a three pin plug / Lego?

Tried to separate two pint glasses and one shattered in my hand when washing up at the weekend.. tried stopping the bleeding with a styptic pencil, had to give up, hurt too much..

Missed the crash, but aftermath looked pretty bad.. hope he’s ok

Found a few more in my lunch hour!

A few very cheap Geax tyres at On-one – reduced from around £40 to between £5 and £10 each – mainly 26″, folding – mixture of tubeless and normal – not many reviews but look good for summer use?

Also has anyone tried any of their Agu stuff? Seems v cheap – I’ve tried a few Biemme products from there, which were heavily discounted, and was v impressed. Can’t link direct as the On-One URL has a plus symbol in it which the forum doesn’t seem to like – so here’s a tiny.cc url which will take ya there instead.

As pointed out above (Thanks cp!), the Helly Hansen base layers at now £15 at Wiggle, reduced from £50 – same link as before

Finally, some ladies Race Face tops at Wiggle[/url] – reduced from £39 to £12 – (found via CycleBargains twitter)