Feathers here as well

Faith No More Angel Dust shirt for me

Well he may no longer be a champion cyclist but he is certainly king of the trolls!

Tbh he probably views them as wins as all his nearest competitors were doping (noting above chicken/egg point) as well and he still had to physically complete the race – he won but by the rules of the peloton at the time rather than the sport

Just a word of caution on the almax and pragmasis chains – they are great but you can do a fair bit of damage to a bike with one if you fumble it while you’re locking up – cold hands + enormous chain = dented frame.

I was disappointed at how banal the cheating was in the end, I’d assumed he was probably guilty (despite owning a fair bit of ‘livestrong’ kit in the past) but had thought that we would be looking at a complex system of doping way beyond other teams.

Finding out a lot of it was hiding from testers and pretending to be out of the house has left me wondering just how useless the regime was and how many other ‘semi-smart’ dopers have got through the system.

Its also led me to question if the sport really is ‘cleaner’ today – all the riders claim it is but so what – most of the teams include ex-dopers and its the same inept governing body.

All a bit sad really.

Mrpotatohead – could it be a ‘Bivvy’ Jacket or a ‘fireball’ – noticed they had a couple in a TK Maxx last month – prisms have full zips I think (well mine does anyway), in any event they are all about £80 normally so all is good

They had some of the triple layer e-vent jackets in central london TK Maxx (TCR) as well – £150ish iirc

Love them, have a fairly knackered three year old pair that I ride in most of the time, they are annoying if you wear larger knee pads but I’ve never had an issue with low profile d3o-type pads

Thanks to OP and posters – was going to post a similar query as I’m planning on going next year, this will help with the plan

Thanks for the post – may have to buy that Shut Up legs print

Currently drinking a Struisse Outblack but following it up with a Castle Rock Screech Owl so doing my bit for british brewing. In brussels on tuesday and planning to pick up some belgian rarities (including some mikkeller colabs)

Thanks very much – 2 purchased and the tie was a bonus

160mm full suss bike on a 65km ride around the purbecks yesterday, no other bike built up, surprisingly fun but a little wearing on the ups

That Mikkeller had me drooling, have had two other versions of it but not the calvados. I think ‘To, From, Via’ is my favourite of his to date

Currently very much enjoying bottles from Brewdog, Brewfist, Mikkeller and Flying Dog. Got some Two Ol to dig into at some point but trying to cut back on the beer a bit as part of a fitness drive

On the real ale side Ilkleys ‘Siberia’ Rhubard Saison is currently working for me, and some 6.7% Smoked Porter with Chipotle I homebrewed 🙂

Dolphins fan, its going to be a long season, then again I’ve had lots of practice

Lovely, couldn’t see the point of fatbikes then had a little sit on the on-one prototype and a surly moonlander. very fun bikes

I would either pick up a cheap bladder from somewhere like sports direct (they sell karrimor branded ones fairly cheap) or try those collapsible water bottles rather than potentially wrecking a camelbak bladder. Cleaning anything other than water out of one tends to be a pain.

Oh and the answer is:

Gaggia Titanium

You’ve spelled it wrong, I assume you were trying to type ‘La Pavoni Europiccola’ 🙂

So a professional tax advisor asks us to spare a thought for poor Ussain, his sponsorship deals so massive the tax liability for a single appearance will wipe out his six figure appearance fee. I’m wiping away the tears as I type.

I bet all those athletes in less popular sports, returning home to the twin grinds of training and ordinary jobs must be pleased they don’t have his problems.

Split Flap display?

Dressage is one of the few events in the Olympics where I really can’t muster any enthusiasm at all, its a bridge too far.

That was more tense than the 100m final – fantastic that they got it down intact

Was chuckling today at an old chap (sixties-ish) I spotted with a badly inked forearm tattoo that read ‘PURE SEX’, Tat was badly faded and stretched but I’m betting was never exactly high quality, the old fella certainly wasn’t living up to his advertising

Actually IIRC the tesco reduction was utilising a discount on tesco direct for total basket cost rather than a straight kindle purchase so its possible they are price controlled. Almost certain JL Reading had some labelled up as reduced last month in their clearance event but wasn’t really looking for one – they were 1st generation i noticed

John lewis were clearing older ones out recently, it wasn’t much of a discount but its was circa £75, tesco had them at around that recently as well so there are some discounts out there.

That was a result – fantastic ride

Damn, such a shame.

On the empty seats thing you could get the £325 ones (or thereabouts) this morning on the ticket site, I guess they are unwilling to discount the top class seats so we’re still seeing empty rows.

Done! thanks for the heads up, at last I have my own name

+1 on junkyards list,

Propose/encourage/arrange/ride legal mass participation events – see if your local council can be persuaded to encourage cycling and invest in local facilities or things like adult cycling proficiency to improve participation and hence the cycling lobby

Hold politicians (local and national) to account

Help your local planning office – writing in, responding to public consultations, (legally) protesting poor decisions

Report bad/dangerous driving (to the police not the forum!) and then hold the police to account – follow up, pursue, FOIA etc, community policing priorities can be shaped by enough people complaining

All of the above can be dull/time consuming but little wins stack up.

Great result today and compelling race, watched most of it from the gym sat on a spinner but managed significantly less than the participants!

Oh wow – heres another one, this ones far more detailed, turns out the disabled man isn’t actually so disabled that he can’t engage in a spot of grappling the police – he is the one who actually plants the policeman on the car bonnet in the first place.

This rather longer video of the incident at youtube suggests things were a little more complex than ‘OMG nazi cops’

So chapeau CM London, the streets are a little safer for cyclists thanks to your ‘legal’, ‘non-violent’ and ‘fun-loving’ protest.

Poor result, was surprised Team GB made no effort to get someone into one of the breakaways, the strategy of protect Cav at all costs only works if everyone else plays along

Getting bored of this, the total lack of time split info combined with the commentators struggling to name anyone unless the monitor tells them is getting wearing.

Really enjoyed the first third or so, the forging of the rings was impressive and the whole thing looked fantastic.

Wasn’t impressed by the Rowan Atkinson bit at all and the ‘music through the decades’ bit didn’t need that phone-loss sequence

McCartney bit was rubbish, lazy and turned into a football chant-along, in a toss up between his performance and his daughters golden tracksuits I’m going out on a limb and suggest she had the better night.

Cauldron was fantastic, really really good.

Dull match, disappointing outcome, see it is proper football

I wear full finger gloves for protection from thorns/brambles mainly, I have a bunch of faint scars down my right hand from riding too close to thorn bushes gloveless while at uni. Pulling lots of tiny thorns out from my skin with tweezers got a little wearing after a while and I’ve ridden in gloves since.

Have felt concious of it – only got one bike in running condition due to living in a small flat and its currently the 150mm travel Marin, riding along a fireroad with some mates I do occasionally reflect on how overbiked I look.

Is it just me or does he look like postman pat

and like postman pat he delivers

Which coasting, greasy, government contractor is in charge of this particular shambles?

That would be the wonderful Ticketmaster

Must admit many of the posts on this thread ring a bell, the absolute worst bit of my commute is past a primary school, normally I’m early enough that there is no-one about but on occasional days when I’m late or coming home very early its no fun.

The school has a combination of yellow barriers, yellow bollards, signage about not killing children, indicative speed warning signs and creepy-as-hell concrete child statues lining the roadsides as well as a lollypop man, lights controlled crossing and speed bumps. Its also got a cycle lane in the road next to the main gate that forms the main link for a safe route avoiding two major roads into town. I should stress that despite the road safety kit its not a busy road outside of school hours

Unfortunately the school was expanded a couple of years back so the car park is now home to new classrooms, parents have responded by making a concerted effort to walk the kids to school noting its a small primary with a limited catchment and parking only in designated bays in the local area putting their hazards on, parking on the pavement, parking in the cycle lane, reversing down the road at speed to grab a prime spot on the pavement by the gates, performing 37 point turns in traffic and generally acting like utter pr**ks. The really fun part is the combination of child safety barriers and other pavement features like the bollards with morons pulling into the cycle lane to drop off their kids – you can’t do much other than slam on the brakes and hope as you can’t go right (back end of 4×4/people carrier parked at an angle in way), can’t go left (leering face of concrete kiddie and/or neon barrier) and straight ahead puts you into the passenger seat of the vehicle, fun times.