I have a circa-2007 £30 Lorus quartz chrono that keeps better time than all my other watches except for a multiband 6 G-Shock, which is no surprise.
That’s up against quartz/auto/manual from Longines, Tissot, Seiko and Lator!

@ferrals, Markeaton was the East Mids champs. Started snowing heavily just as the women were starting and carried on right through the S/J men.

Album – Darkness
Song – Youngstown, Downbound Train or Racing, depending on the mood I’m in.

If you’ve read his autobiography it’s well worth watching the video for Brilliant Disguise again, it’s clearly a nod to his father but before he went through all the therapy sessions that brought all that out into the open in his mind.

only caught the men’s race

Watch the women’s race! It was great.

Once it’s below 20 degrees I always managed without a drink. Only ever raced at Stadt Moers once but I don’t recall anywhere I’d have really wanted to take my hand off the bars to reach for a bottle in any case!

The last ‘cross I did (three years ago now?) my BC levies were something like £3.50 a rider, plus an extra quid for the Yorkshire League… That was hard to justify for a bit of insurance and a commissaire…

I’m BC’s biggest critic when they deserve it but their insurance costs have multiplied hugely in the last few years. Even at local league CX you need a minimum of two and preferably 4-5 commissaires so that’s mileage expenses at the very least.

28 years of CX and I wrecked three rear mechs in that time so it’s not a given that you break kit.

Mind you I did also break half a dozen frames, three of which snapped during races, one steerer tube that split in a last-lap sprint and I wore out multiple rims (inc several carbon ones) so maybe I was just lucky on the mech front :-D

Under the tailgate of the ubiquitous T5/6 because there’s never enough space for everyone’s wind out awning.

Amateur level – LWB high-roof Transit and set up inside. Toasty warm and dry :-)

Kreitlers every time, no question.

So does that mean nobody will mind if I go to 38mm

Honestly, you can ride whatever you want bar fixed wheel. No one will notice or care.

Run whatever bike and tyres you like (apart from fixed wheel) at any race up to National Trophy level, and even then on the Saturday no one will be checking tyre widths.

What I am I looking at?

Well it should be seven minutes of Fabian Cancellara skimming rock faces and cars in the TdF, but who knows whether the link is showing for everyone? (it is for me)

I’ve had a couple of warranty issues with Orbea (one their fault, one due to a courier treading on the box) and they’ve been resolved quickly and easily with plenty of comms between Spain and my dealer.

Any excuse to post this;

In a way I want him to retire so I don’t have to watch him rolling around at the back, but on the other I want to see him carry on just in hope to see him back at the front again!

In hindsight he should’ve retired in either 2010 or 11 after coming back from his broken leg and showing that he still had it. It’s been downhill since.

Because on lap one when everyone’s in a big group elbow to elbow and it’s a bit nervy it can be the safe option while the race settles down. If one of the riders in front had stalled, fallen, whatever, it gives you more options to avoid them and not lose time or crash yourself. Same as using the B lines on lap one to avoid traffic jams.

Not unless he’s quite tasty on an XC bike!
The Liam Carlin who looked very much like Liam Killeen, but was pronounced as such for a whole 90 minutes during (IIRC) the Commonwealth games a few years ago.

Rochelle Gilmore has form

“Liam Carlin”

My experience (I’d be seriously dischuffed with some of the outcomes above!);

Day 1 – OTB on the MTB, x-ray shows broken clavicle, packed off home with some ibuprofen
Day 3 – Fracture clinic, consultant was 50/50 on operating but this was my preference as 6+ weeks in a sling was a non-starter. He agreed
Day 5 – Plated and a bio-ligament fitted
Day 9 – On the turbo
Day 13 – On the rollers
Day 16 – Riding on the road
Day 30 – Back on the MTB
Day 60 – Racing CX

Granted I looked after myself and did a lot of work in terms of exercises, recovery and so on but the idea of being basically incapacitated for months is madness. I have no issues at all now beyond one specific rucksack strap rubbing the top of the plate. That’s 7 years on.

Not weird but absolutely gutting – the wiring loom of my mate’s Lotus Carlton…

I’ve been using superlight carbon-railed 4ZA saddles road saddles on road, CX and MTB for years with no dramas.

North Derbyshire here and yes, familiar with that one.

Can they not put lanes 200m out and you have to stay in it?

This has been mooted at a very high level but was quickly discounted as basically unworkable – it would restrict sprint finishes to 8 riders max and create a pre-sprint to the cutoff point.
Plus it would change the fundamentals of sprinting to suit the long drawn-out style suiting a particular type of rider like WvA. ‘Freestylers’ such as Caleb Ewan or Sagan who pop up in the last 5m would have no chance.

Absolutely this ^
If I were looking to move to that part of Derbyshire I’d be all over Wirksworth (and Gell school) well before Duffield. I’ve never seen the attraction of the place and the nearby riding is crap.

Disclaimer – my daughter is in Yr11 at Gell and it’s a fine place, Manners was out of the equation immediately for reasons mentioned above.

Isn’t the reason/rumour that it was Marquez himself (or Puig perhaps) who said no to Stoner riding? Understandable but not good for us as fans!

As mentioned already, you can get mint-condition automatic Tissots for that money or just slightly above. The range is wide enough that there’ll be something that suits once he knows what he wants – chronograph, dress watch, whatever.
Classy, nice quality and no misaligned bezels!

Excellent news!

Be careful with matching Fulcrum bearings – the seals indicate otherwise but they usually need an 18mm i.d. 18/30/7 bearing which is harder to get hold of in stainless.

How?
Does it amplify all fragments and discard the ones it does not want?

It amplifies only the specific segments of interest (of the viral genome). Simple version – Part of the reaction setup process is to add very small segments (primers) which match exactly the viral genome and nothing else, these bind to the DNA in the reaction process and means that only these sections are amplified.
In the case of this particular test there are also probe sequences designed in the same way which give a fluorescence signal when the viral genome is amplified and which is detected by the instrument.
Complex version – lots more going on than that, but not really relevant for understanding.

Personally I think it’s great that we can even have such a discussion to compare two such outstanding riders. I made the point to someone the other day that if either had grown up in a different generation, they would have been 7x world CX champ by the age of 26.

Road is entirely subjective, I don’t class Tour stage wins equal/higher to something like Brabantse Pijl but I know a lot of people would.
Flanders is the biggest race of the year for me so that edges MSR, but you’re talking fractions of a percent.

Plus you can add in VdP’s MTB results just for giggles!

Yeah, although historically I think it’s more even, WvA won three world champs in a row before MvdP started his current run?

Also arguably WvA still more succesful on road?

VdP won it first and earliest though (2015).
On the road it’s pretty even, one monument each, one classic each, but then it gets more difficult as VdP has been hoovering up semi-classics and smaller stages/races while WvA acts as super domestique/sprinter for Jumbo.

Flat entry to sand is for artificial sand sections. Natural? Knock yourself out :-)

The WE is likely to come down to Brand or Alvarado but I wouldn’t discount Cant, Vos, Betsema and perhaps Richards.
ME depends on which version of VdP turns up. If it’s the one we’ve seen most of the season then it’s a close race between him and WvA, if it’s the Hulst/previous two seasons version then he’s unbeatable.

We (RG Uni) aren’t charging rent from Jan to 22nd Feb for any of the students that haven’t been able to return.
Some of the local non-Uni accommodation providers are also doing similar.

I’ve got the 120mm travel Oiz and it’s more than capable of being thrashed round at the sharp end of an XC race.

“Car looks like a bag of crisps” :-D

Stolen Goat kit is all made by Bioracer – the Orkaan is just a Bioracer Tempest in one of the three weights that Bioracer produce it in. And you see plenty of pros in Bioracer!

I’m fortunate enough to have both Bioracer Tempest and Gabba kit, and both are great. You can’t really go wrong with either.

I run the stem mount upside down on my road bike – works fine and is very neat with the light tucked away.

Currently on 10,400kms for the year, 50/50 split between road and mtb. Plus about 100hrs worth of indoor rides on top of that. Pretty standard for me now I don’t train for racing but I have done more MTB this year.

20 so far, all outdoors. 50/50 split MTB and road.