Best: vajazzle kit for secret Santa
Worst: washing up liquid – no bubbles

Ardent on the rear and third place for me. Must have scrubbed most of the nobbles off on the steep stuff!

In compression wear on the sofa, olympics on, contemplating accessorising with a cold beer! What a superb day out yesterday though, makes all the aches and pains worthwhile.

Hypnos

I think all the leadership courses have been amalgamated under BC as MBLA awards- there’s a list of courses on the BC website. I would recommend Al Seaton, who I did my training with, good banter and very thorough!

We did a tour day tour with overnight camp with these guys http://www.njord.as/trips/trips-from-flam
It was awesome-
Can recommend staying here if you’re going to Flam. They have their own brewery and the food is great http://www.flamsbrygga.no/

This is what we’re going for in the bike palace (currently under construction)

Home Page

Check that the DofE organiser or AAP doesn’t loan stuff first, as that will be cheaper than buying. Her DofE info pack should have a list of suppliers that give a discount for doing DofE (Go Outdoors definitely do).
Tents wise we use these for Bronze, which have the added advantage of being able to replace individual poles when they break http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/vango-tempest-300-3-berth-tent-p139967
but these for Gold as we camp higher and at the edges of the season (March to October)
http://www.vaude.com/en-GB/Products/Tents/3-Person/2/?locale=8&pagination%5Bsize%5D=12

I don’t think it stops thieves, especially as the marking they did on ours was invisible- one of the selling points! It does help with reuniting bikes though as I did get 1 out of four back.

I’m angling for a pair of these
the MTB SHORT

A virus? I had exactly this on the etape Cymru a couple of years ago- as soon as it went uphill I went backwards. Was fine after a week though.

Sponge on a stick soaked in vinegar?
That’s what the Romans did for us.

Use them for the second half, by which time your thighs will be hench and you won’t need gripper? Awesome looking event btw, good luck and I hope the weather gods are with you.

Not odd. Sounds like you are being really sensible in a tough situation. 19 is still young.

Dogtag cover diving from a diving board (unless your 12 year old is doing cliff diving?!)
List of sports covered here
https://www.dogtag.com/sports/
Give them a call re competition; they covered us for mtb racing but we phoned to check.

I’ve used Dogtag for many years, claiming on it for the first time last year for curtailment. Really good people on the end of the phones, claim paid no hassle.

Dogtag are excellent, cover you for downhill as well.

https://www.dogtag.com/

Spain

That staging was amazing!

That was dreadful

http://www.plymouthbikehire.co.uk/

There’s a paintball place back near the A1
The rowing boats in Knaresborough are pretty fun
Mooch round stif
Cinema?

Red Leicester and mature cheddar. Make a proper roux for the white sauce, then add fried onions, garlic, cheese, salt, pepper, English mustard, al dente mac, bake for 20mins until golden on top and beckon the goodness in,

But it clearly hasn’t been a company for all that time come to think of it, so I lose.

1389 years

Had a great days riding with Freeride Madeira. Suspect we only scratched the surface, but our guide, Roberto, was excellent, combining tour guiding with mad skills. We did four tracks with a great lunch, the last one included part of the Avalanche race track. Riding through eucalyptus forest on dusty trails having been out in the snow two days before was awesome, whole operation seemed very slick.

Fish finger sandwich.

I have a 2015 strive. Currently waiting for a replacement for the shapeshifter which will be about another 3 weeks, but can still ride the bike with it in DH mode. Did use it as an excuse to panic buy an orange crush though! Found communication to be very quick, although the initial steps they sent me for ‘fixing’ the shapeshifter resulted in a hydraulic fluid fountain over the dining room floor.

Not sure about camping options, but last year the lifts in tignes and val d’Isere were free as they were trying to encourage summer use: don’t know if it will be the same this year but might be worth checking out? Lift passes can get expensive

Most women’s tights have the opposite problem of no drawstring and just a high waistband- could be the answer?

I’m picking one up on Sunday so will let you know!

French press (obsv)

We’re off to Madeira for half term, and free ride Madeira have been great with sorting us out a single day of riding. Will report more when we get back!

1 x something for the road
1x pisspot for commuting as it keeps my head warm
1x giro hex for night riding
1x bell super 2r
1x 661 fullface
1 x giro ski helmet
1 x petzl climbing helmet
1 x motorbike helmet

This seems a lot!

Garburn Pass was holding up well in the weather recently.

Like the Equal Pay Act, it often takes intervention from the top to make change happen. When I was rowing at university, we spent years trying to get our boat race ‘equal’ to the men’s, i.e. The same distance on the same stretch of water rather than a quarter of the distance on flat water. Never mind the other inequalities of toilets in a car park vs heated floor in the boathouse, paying for you boats rather than empacher sponsorship. The ONLY thing that changed it was when an equal opportunities employer refused to sponsor just the men’s race, and made it possible for women to compete on the same terms.

York is lovely! We live in the centre, but my boss lives in Wheldrake, commutes in 6 days a week and has no problems. It’s best if you get in before 8am though. Trains everywhere, London in 2hrs. Peaks, Moors, Dales, Lakes all day trip distance away. York is pretty flat, but makes commuting by bike easy. If we were to live out it would be Haxby, as lovely viable with good road biking from the door. Pubs, pubs, pubs!

My shapeshifter died in September, and I’ve been riding the bike loads since then-it is fine in DH mode and front end still stays down on the steep up stuff. Haven’t investigated fixing it yet tbh, and sounds like I’ve saved myself a lot of angst! Looking at getting a more xc bike anyway for the moors stuff, so could then keep the canyon for racing and not bother with a fix at all!

But also women’s cycling is a different ball game. Even now there’s less support, less sponsorship, fewer opportunities…and it’s almost impossible to make a living. Therefore less need, less ability to dope?

p.s. none of this is right, and will hopefully change soon

p.p.s. obvs not the lack of doping. That is ok!

I’ve done it. I survived.