Looks like Aidan Harding has had a bit of bad luck – has cracked his frame so trying to sort out a new one. He was up to 4th in the southbound race too at one point. Think he was riding a pegasus too.

Cracking race so far, not surprised that Jefe Branham couldn’t keep that pace up on a singlespeed.

Oh, and christ those on ones are ugly!

is it law that if you own a mojo you have to put horrible things like front fenders or a saddlebag on it? are they the new marins?

yellow pins are people who are itt-ing and blue are for grand depart racers.

and the thread on bikepacking about it too: http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,2179.20.html

Looking forward to the first call ins on MTB Cast[/url]

MikeT – Member
There are six pics of me on photo-it

9 of me Mike – you should have done more laps 😉

Mr Agreeable – Member
is John, who sadly had his bike nicked later that day. Keep ’em peeled people…

Bummer, I saw that on facebook and wondered if it was that John’s bike. 4th place and getting your bike knicked – not a great day then!

The lower bit was always a bit meh though tbh. I was quite glad of the change by the 10th lap or so.

thebunk – Member
Grain Barge for post ride steaks and pies, and proper Brizzle Ale, none of that Bath rubbish!

Don’t think i’ve heard anything more singletrack than post ride steaks apres ride at the Grain Barge.

What’s wrong with a pint of thatchers and a sausage and egg sandwich in the nova?

@clubber – one arm purple, one arm gold surely!

pedalhead – Member
I’ll be there riding SS solo on Saturday. Still I think the only person with questionable enough taste to have a Lefty on my Pegasus

I thought a lefty was de rigueur for a pegasus, or is it all about niner carbon forks now?

clubber – Member
I always thought it was quite a good spot to grab a drink and a gel if you needed it…

Seconded. Especially when soloing as there are already very few places to refuel on the course…

exact same thing happened to my sister just after she passed her test. The insurance companies went 50-50 due to the excessive speed of the driver on the major road. i think he admitted this though.

Junkyard – Member
The default position, following a failed test of a and b samples, should be a ban till a decision is reached and a decision within a certain time frame.

I agree, which is why this case stinks so much. They had the results for quite a long time before they were leaked to the press and then REFCE took an age to make a decision (which they seemingly changed at the last minute from a year ban to nothing). I think WADA and the UCI had no option but to contest REFCEs decision, which shows massive naivety on REFCEs part (unless they felt they had to give no ban as the Prime Minister had got involved and suggested Contador was innocent and they receive government funding…).

I’m doing it, solo SS lvis too to keep Kingtut company (hopefully wearing my new jersey Clubber 😉 ). Although if it lashes down with rain you might find me in the beer tent…

Just returned from a training camp in Italy so feeling suitably knackered.

i imagine they’re effectively self employed.

too early. I fear for some of the sprinters today – 20 min cut off time apparently.

She writes: “When she was first stolen, paedophiles were all we could think about and it ate away at us.

“The idea of a monster like this touching my daughter, stroking her, defiling her perfect little body, just killed me over and over again.”

Aside from the merits of having kids/not having kids, does no one find the above extract from her book more than a little creepy?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/12/madeleine-mccann-parents-pm-review

the ones i have used are.

RIP. Very sad news.

i really wish i hadn’t looked for that on youtube. there really is a lot of blood.

molgrips – Member
It’s a path in the Himalayas that goes across a sheer rock wall and around a big bluff using nothing but a few pegs bashed into the rock and some planks between you and a stupefying void.

Nah, it’s in China

even better than that, go down to your local motor factors and you’ll get a litre of LHM for about a fiver.

Awesome news, shame they’re starting with the best bit first though!

Sorry, what I meant to say was: and so the sanitation of the trails begins. I can’t believe the trails group are undertaking this work without consulting bristol mtbers first… 😉

i like the cheapy lucozade ones from the supermarket.

@pdw – sorry, misinterpreted your first comment. What I was trying to get across in my first statement was that 7/10 of the people all wanted the same thing (beer) in the first place which is not the same as choosing between three very different things.

slowjo – Member
As Ian Hislop pointed out, we are being asked to vote for AV on a FPTP system so will the AV peeps be able to claim the result was fair, based on the premise that they believe FPTP is inherently unfair?

You do realise he was joking? You can’t have AV on a two horse race…

pdw – Member
Yeah, all works very well when you have seven people who want to go to the pub and three people who want coffee…
Sounds pretty much exactly like what you get in our elections. If you had a three-way split between Tories (34%), Labour (33%) and LibDem (33%), then even if all Labour voters would rather have LibDem than Tory and all LibDem voters would rather have Labour than Tories, you’d still end up with Tories winning even though 66% of people would prefer either of the other options

Doesn’t work like that though – Lib Dem (assuming 32.9%) would have their first preference eliminated and their second preference counted so labour would win with 65.9% of vote…

Nick – Member

@pjt201 It works fine regardless of the number of choices or people involved as it works towards identifying the candidate that has the broadest appeal.

It works really well in that example (where 7 people want to go to the pub, three want coffee – what about if there were three completely different options at the start [like in UK politics] rather than 2?), but there are other examples when it doesn’t work so well. You can make any voting system look rubbish if you try hard enough! (i’m voting yes btw but that explanation is as bad as the no campaign imo)

Yeah, all works very well when you have seven people who want to go to the pub and three people who want coffee…

audiophile – Member
Anyone get the Chief Scout Award? Rode across the Penines for mine ( on a road bike, sorry ), also got the Patrol Activity Award for which I got a fancy metal woggle. The badges certainly look better now, but they do have to suffer Bear Grylls as Chief Scout.

I got my Chief Scouts Challenge, got a fancy enameled belt buckle for that. Walked round the Isle of Wight to get it.

I think Bear Grylls is a good thing for the scouts, certainly better than an ex blue peter presenter. You might find him insufferable, but the kids are bound to love him.

Yes, because what i’m interested in when selecting a material my bike will be made from is it’s strength in a direction that has no bearing on it’s suitability for manufacturing a bike from. I also like how the ti tube is un-manipulated. I’d guess that any manipulation a frame builder could do to a ti tube is only to make it weaker.

Hmm, didn’t realise my new sunnies were that red…

He wasn’t an eastern european bloke who had started in Bristol was he? Bloke from the news agents next door to my office set off a couple of weeks back on a very similar trip and the same bike…

it really does amaze me how stupid some people are. I was buying a car a little while ago and one came up on auto trader at a ludicrously cheap price. I emailed them, they said car is in London but they are in Spain and can I paypal them the money and they’ll get the car delivered. erm, no don’t think so.

As above I can’t believe people fall for this type of thing. I don’t think I’d ever sell a car to someone who didn’t at least want to look at it first – either they’re dodgy or I’m not asking for enough money!

clubber – Member
I got the first issue. It sent me to sleep. I won’t be buying issue two unfortunately as I think the concept is ok.

Completely agree, I like the idea but I think the reality was that it was a bit rubbish. Not a massive fan of rouleur either both much more style than substance. Otoh the ride seems to achieve both really well.

Cheers! (Kingtut, it’s Paddy btw)

I’ll be there, singlespeed too kingtut.

Clubber, could you bring that jersey if it’s not too much trouble?

I’d blame it on the rain rodents personally 😉

use a dumb bell rather than a kettle bell?

they aren’t advertising them to sell them, they’re raising the general profile of the brand so people buy their cheaper offerings. do you think audi made money on the R8?