It’s very difficult to get permission to build a swimming pool in our valley but if you put in a planning application for a water storage facility that is to be used for fire fighting then you stand a much better chance. The downside is that the helecopters can come and empty your pool whenever they want.

Mid table mediocrity for me, was at the finish yesterday hoping for a Blythe win, unfortunately his team fell apart before the sprint. Back to normal service for the rest of the week with lumpy stages and finishes akin to riding up a wall. Off to the Basque company week after next, stage 17 looks brutal, could be the decider.

Yes mackem, strictly speaking Subirats is a district, we bought our van from Vilafranca de Penedes. By close to home, I meant places we have been recently together with living half way between Cambrils and Alcanar. Mrs PB commented today that the N340 that we use almost daily was the road they probably used to get up to Barcelona and Cambrils.

Bad day for Bertie, lost 21/2 mins, looked fed up at the finish.

Catalan news is reporting that he was shot in the village of Subirats which is a couple of km from where we bought our camper. Feels very close to home.

Pains me to say it but this PX Stealth can be built up singlespeed due to the track dropouts and rides well on the road. Mrs PB rides one in triathlons and it’s fine.

I did this[/url] event in June, 50/50 gravel tarmac, crossing the Pyrenees twice 350km with a 20hr cutoff. Not for the faint hearted.

Rally Cataluña comes close to where we live on the friday gravel stages and sunday tarmac. It attracts thousands of spectators, looking forward to getting out in early October.

Aparently 1 mossos shot 4 out of the 5. Not sure what the Catalan for chapeau is, maybe “molt ve!”

Playing the Brexit card will probably mean they feel sorry for you, works for us in Spain.

I’ve held back until now but thought I’d share a bit of local background. I live 20 miles from Cambrils and 25 from Alcanar.
Cataluña has effectively 3 police forces, Guardia Civil and Policia who operate Spain-wide and are controlled from Madrid and Mossos d’Esquadra which is run from Barcelona. The Mossos are the most visible around where we live and are the ones who shot the Cambrils terrorists. I have heard from a reliable source that information sharing on terrorism between Madrid and Cataluña has been until very recently non existant, there is an ongoing independance row going on between Cataluña and the rest of Spain with another referendum planned in October. If, as has been reported, there was intel that an attack was imminent, this would have been received in Madrid but not shared with Cataluña which is pretty scandalous.

Went for a wee sniff around on google maps but couldn’t find it…
We’ll be watching this stage, we’ve found a campsite at San Roque de Riomiera which allows us to watch the stage as it passes then ride up to the finish. The finish line is by a monument to a local breed of cow! Appropriate for a Contador attack methinks.
linky[/url]

Re the roadworks TT situ, there’s no way a TT should have been held on a course with temporary lghts, I’d be questionning the organisers as they have turned it into a dangerous lottery.

One word “Muse”

There’s a 42km ITT along the road from Pamplona to Logroño on 5th of Sept which we’re going to then a mountain stage in the Cantabrian mountains the day after. We’re planning to camp here San Roque as it’s near the finish line.

Diez y media. Ay up Tony. Just working out the plan of campaign for the Vuelta, looks like we’ll be at the finish in Tarragona, the TT in Logroño and a couple of mountain finishes in the Picos, you??

I’d start with the simple stuff, it’s WRONGLY.

Throw those curtains wide,one day like this a year will see you right.
Just seen you’re doing tonight as well, tomorrow will be shitter.

Re the Kennaugh move from SKY, must have smarted not being picked for the TDF team. I was listening to him chatting with Chris Froome whilst warming down after a stage of the Tour of Cataluña in May, they must have thought that there were only Spanish speakers there as he was having a real moan about wanting to get home straight after the race as he was burnt out after several weeks away (doing what most of us would kill for). Not really the best message to be sending to your team leader as well.

This apparent lack of early season form followed by a meteoric improvement at the TDF is one of the reasons for the dislike/suspicion of Froome/SKY by the French etc. The average French fan is far more aware of races like the Paris Roubaix and Tour of Flanders where Ag2r and FDJ teams are flogging themselves against the SKY B team. I watched the Tour of Cataluña in May and on a 1,100m climb local to me, Valverde and Froome slugged it out finishing 12 seconds apart, the following day SKY came in 30mins down on Movistar and had clearly knocked it on the head despite Geraint Thomas lying in 2nd overall. It’s obvious that the TDF is the only event they target due to it’s worldwide coverage and the disapproval of some rabid afficianados is of no consequence. For historical references see US Postal, Banesto etc.

I was chatting to Niel their bike designer when this was on the drawing board, I think they missed a trick not calling it TiTAN.

The tour of Cataluña had a feed station 10km down the road from my house this year. Their musettes contained flapjack and jam butties wrapped in tin foil, a can of coke and a couple of gels. The verge was littered with discarded wrappers and uneaten stuff which stayed there for weeks as none of it was degradable. The race is run by the same organisation as the TDF so I assume the rules are the same but clearly not enforced or tidied up after.

Part of the publicity caravan was a company using ancient Citroen 2cv’s one stalled on the 18% finish straight just where I was watching at Peyregudes, the plume of blue smoke as a crowd pushed it up the hill wasn’t the best advert for the eco credentials of the tour. I sometimes wonder how the riders’ health suffers in close proximity to dozens of slow moving cars and motobikes for 3 weeks.

When are you going? I live 40 mins S of Salou and if we’re here happy to show you around.e mail in profile.(I think)

BITD I was up in the hills S of Machynlleth, had to stop to open a couple of gates in a farm yard so was pushing the bike. Sat in the farmhouse garden was a bloke who definitely didn’t look like a farmer, very lived in face and long curly hair. Had the usual chat about where I’d been riding, the weather etc. Couple of weeks later I’m watching telly and there’s something on about Led Zep, recognised the chap as Jimmy Page, doh!

Love will tear us apart left an indellible mark on my soul.
This charming man made me fall in love with jangly guitars.
Teenage kicks for the pure joy of being 18, I definitely was one of the 10+ million listening to Peel when he played it twice.

Pedant alert Cougar, it’s striven not strived.

Funky, Don’t give him any more ideas.
Having spent 30+ years in the packaging industry, specifically making shrinkwrap for the beverage market, I know of several bottled water companies whose product is bog standard tap water and the filling lines are just a row of taps hooked up to the mains.

Since when has idle uninformed speculation been an issue on STW?

We start from Tarragona next Friday, 1,000km to Bilbao off-road, self supported, should be fun. I’ve also entered the Pirinexus on 3rd of June, 350km in 20 hours from Girona over the Pyrenees and back into Spain on gravel roads and off road cycleways. I must be mad. Trish won her category in the double olimpic race last weekend and has an Ironman in 4 weeks. Think we’ll need a bit of beach time in July.

Well, we’ve finally become legit. Yesterday we had an appointment to register as resident in Cataluña, the process involves assembling every single bit of paperwork we’ve collected since moving here 18 months ago and taking it to the police station to be checked. Our first try was last week when we simply rocked up in our local town, Tortosa, with all our papers. We were told to sit in the waiting room while a steady stream of people came and went, we assumed they were applying for Passports and DNI numbers. After about an hour a policemen came over and asked what we wanted. We explained that we were there to get Residencia, he said oh you need an appointment which can only be made on line and not available until next week!! Oh how we laughed.
So we returned yesterday having made the appointment, paid our fee and gone to the bank to get proof of payment. We also needed proof from the bank that we were solvent.
We marched into the police station, full of confidence, 5 minutes later we were ushered to the clerk who started going through our papers. Heath insurance? Check, we both got out or medical cards for which we pay €70 a month each. No I need the policy and proof you have paid the premium up to date
Shit, that’s at home and as we do online banking, there’s no monthly paperwork. Cue racing the 40 minutes home whilst on the phone to the bank to get them to print the relevant receipts.
We got back with everything about 20 minutes before the clerk went for the day and she was willing to issue our little green cards which replace our tatty photocopied NIE forms which should have been changed 3 months after we moved here.
Happy days!!

You should do what my father did back in the 50’s. The now run down place just off Langsett roundabout at the end of Woodhead pass used to be quite a posh hotel. My father and a few mates, all with partners, arrived for a meal whilst out on a motorbike run, he was refused as they didn’t serve motorcyclists. A week or so later they went again, this time in cars and wearing suits, all ordered food and when it arrived announced that they’d just remembered that they didn’t serve motorcyclists so got up and left.

Not boring now!

Yep, that suits. Just got back in from watching the Volta, wheels seem to have fallen off the Sky bus. Rode up to a spot 500m looking across to the Priorat, it has snowed in the night. Telly showing roads clear but about 6″ at the side. Very unusual to have snow this late in the year.

I rode through La Molina in May a few years ago on a Trans Pyrenees trip, it snowed then too. Just off now to watch Stage 6 in the Terra Alta.
Speccie, any thoughts on coming down to see us?

Yep, I was there in person. Caro or Lo Port is our local road climb, it’s a brute, it goes from sea level at the river Ebro to 1400m in 16 km, the race finished at 1000m as the final bit is a bit rough. Movistar had recced it over the last few weeks, I was riding up a couple of weeks ago and was passed by Marc Soler who led out Valverde today. I had a brief chat with Chris Froome as he was warming down, seemed a bit glum. Tomorrows roads are lovely as well through the vineyards of the Priorat.

We live in Southern Cataluña so cross the Pyrenees SW of Toulouse, theres a nice campsite just off the autoroute at a village called Donzenac. It’s at the exit for Brive La Galliard. If your camper has toilet facilities it is possible to park up just outside for free. The village is lovely to have a walk around and a meal and there’s a Casino supermarket across the road as well. About 7 1/2 hours from Calais via Rouen and Chartres which avoids Paris congestion and too many tolls.

Had to give up Plusnet broadband subs when I moved to Spain 18 months ago but kept my email service via webmail. This month to date, they have sent me 11 emails telling me they are taking the March direct debit. The email has also gone pear shaped, frequently timing out and giving error messages. I emailled them to inform them and they replied telling me to contact them by phone, 3 times.

Pop-up shop in Hebden Bridge? Trews and Glues? Kits and Keks?

I did the DT Swiss wheel building course as part of my Cytec level 2 training, the final exam demanded that you built a wheel that was true and round to industry tolerances within an hour. Charging for 3 hours work is ott in my opinion, if it took longer than expected, provided you supplied the correct length spokes then the shop should suck it up.