New (to me) CX tyres bought from the Classifieds arrived on my desk today. Had to collect another parcel from the local MyHermes lockers so stuck the new tyres on and went for a bit of a spin round the lovely mainly dry local trails. First proper offroad ride on my Cotic X and I spent most of it grinning my head off.

Gratuitous bike pic time:

Westra awarded the Combativity prize for the day. Good on ‘im!

4 from OPQS up front. Renshaw vs Cancellara vs Sagan for the sprint?

Boom and Vanmarcke have been caught, Nibali group about to catch the remaining 4; Martin, Clarke, Hayman and Gallopin.

Talansky is back with Bertie & co.

Nibali group, from letour.fr coverage:

Porsev (Katusha), Nibali, Fuglsang, Westra (Astana), Sagan (Cannondale), Kwiatkowski, Renshaw, Trentin (OPQS), Cancellara, Rast (Trek), Lemoine (Cofidis) and Keukeleire (Orica).

Nightmare. Bring Porte up and see what he can do!

poo… one brit left? Geraint?

Two – Simon Yates at OGE

Cool, thank you folks. Saves me sticking both bikes in the car!

Additional question while we’re on the Llandegla subject:

I’m heading over to CyB on Sunday to help out at the Rhinog Raptor Adventure-X event. Since I’ll be driving over at a leisurely pace on Saturday and might stop off for a spin on the way, anyone any thoughts on doing Llandegla Blue and/or red on a CX bike?

oldagedpredator – Member
Probably the only bad bit is day three isnt the Wolds, Moors and coast with a finish in Hull.

We wanted them to have a good time in Yorkshire, not leave with syringes in their wheels and the eternal reek of decaying cod in their nostrils… ;)

Good: Cracking ride out to Harewood, red kites and Red Arrows along with the riders, nice ride back via Harewood bank and Eccup reservoir.

Bad: Nowt.

Ugly: The two daft idiot drivers on the way home who couldn’t possibly hold on for 10 seconds and just had to squeeze through next to a traffic island even when I was sat in primary position. So, nothing new.

Try and pre-book before going high street/post office – you’ll get a way better rate!

If you’ve a Nectar card, Sainsbury do a pretty good rate as long as you’ve pre-ordered and paid by Debit, not Credit card. Best I could find a few weeks back.

Oh, tonight, I was stood by the University for the start of the Opening Parade.

Cav didn’t look that cheerful:

Geraint seemed to be more interested in filming the crowd:

(A few more pics HERE)

Stage 1: Riding from Headingley to Harewood area for the start, then mebbe train to Harrogate to see the finish
Stage 2: Wandering into Leeds city centre for the Yorkshire Bike Show and to watch the stage on a big screen, probably with a pint of Magic Spanner in hand.

Slow speed into the back of a bus, coming down the Otley Road in Leeds. He was slowing down and indicating, I started looking over my shoulder to spot a gap in the traffic to go round him, next thing I know he’d stopped and I’d walloped the arse end of a double decker. No damage to me or the bike (or the bus), but a good giggle between me and the driver as I dusted myself off and rode past him sheepishly.

I marshal for Rat Race occasionally, and if the Crossing’s anything like Road Trip was last year, the catering van was open in the morning doing porridge pots as well as bacon butties. I don’t remember any charging points being available, but that may have changed.

All their bike events as far as I remember have had a secure storage area, but they tended to recommend having a cable lock with you anyway – people occasionally stopped at village shops, pubs etc for an extra top-up and it was worth having a ‘deterrent’ lock just in case. Same goes for overnight I guess, just a double protection.

You should get a better response by email though, hopefully!.

Yeah, as above – Reims, Troyes, Dijon, Lyon, Grenoble. We did the same drive a couple of weeks ago, headed beyond Bourg d’Oisans over the Lautaret for a kayaking trip. It’s a pretty easy stretch, long and a bit boring but not horrific. We switched drivers twice – once at Reims, once at Lyon – after leaving Dunkerque at 4:30 in the morning.

Positive Contact is awesome, and named after a rather spiffing Deltron 3030 track as well. Apparently Dan ‘The Automater’ Nakamura’s recipe, talented chap.

Yeah, as kiwijohn, pretty sure it’s 1-1/8″. I had an Indian Fire Trail of a fairly similar vintage, raw silver frame, purple decals with Manitou 2’s on it. I got the LBS to strip the headset out and stuck an A-Head, Marz MXCs and a new stem on it. A mate is still riding that frame a good 7 years after I sold it on!

What other birds have a similar colour way? Red top, black and white bottom?

A kinky upside-down Newcastle fan?

I’m off to the Alps for a couple of weeks kayaking and got a short-term breakdown policy through QDOS. Worked out about £55 for the fortnight, which’ll be split between the three of us in the car.

It’s been a bad day. I’ve been on autopilot all day…

To paraphrase, its like shitting nettles.

If it’s anything like the night I made the mistake of having a doner meat and chilli pizza, napalm was a closer approximation…

Do you, by any chance, mean ‘over-pronating’?

I’m no expert, but I’ve never heard any biomechanist ever refer to anyone’s gait as ‘over pronounced’

/?r?n?s/, according to the dictionary…

That may well be true, however I can’t help how I feel? After all, its me looking at it, not them!

I don’t think anyone had a problem with you not liking their tattoos. You’re perfectly fine not liking people’s tattoos, as long as you’re not doing the online equivalent of standing in the middle of pub venting your spleen about how everyone with any tattoo of anything anywhere is a retard.

You can’t control how you feel, but you can control how you express those feelings.

NB. I don’t have any tattoos, but am sort of half in the process of designing one and one day I might grow the cojones to actually have it permanently installed upon my skin…

They’re few and far between. In theory you can get RockShox and Fox G2 forks and crowns, but I was buggered if I could find any aftermarket. The only difference is in the crown offset though (52mm in the G2), so I went for a set of Manitou Tower Pro’s, which are 48mm offset anyway. That’s on a Marlin frame and feels great.

Mine’s a bit pointy, but it’s definitely not a ‘peak’ as such.

reverse selfie and instagram to see yer own tat puts it right up there with biro checking tat and partially legless scorpion tat in the pointless stakes.

I’ve a feeling the point isn’t to look at it yourself…

Could be battery or GPS chip related. I had a Defy a few years back, but it was on the straight Android/MotoBlur OS. I always assumed it was too low specced to cope with modding. The battery life on it wasn’t great even with everything run as low/efficient as possible. I sacked it after a while and got the Razr I instead.

Everything from Corvus Corax to Breakbeat Era via a lot of country, folk and the odd bit of metal. But no **** dubstep… Ever…

I tell people what pay band I’m on (NHS AfC banding) but not where on the scale I am.

Freeload/Thule Pack n Pedal rack and an Alpkit drybag (since they have loops on’em, makes them easier to attach.

Your shinbone still has dents in it from when you owned a pair of ‘beartrap’ pedals 15 years ago.

Odyssey Sharkbites, actually…

Natalie Merchant / 10,000 Maniacs

Imogen Heap / Frou Frou

(also look up her tracks with Urban Species – Blanket and Predictably Unpredictable

Ane Brun

(also look up her collaborations with Anna Ternheim)

Best tip I got for motivated was Vaseline or E45 cream…

Help reduce the amount the bucket handle chafes the back of your neck.

Now where did I leave that coat…

Bloke at my old office couldn’t cope with the feeling of grease or oil, which always seemed strange to me. He was the office practical joker, until the day he pushed one of the other managers too far and came in the next day to find his keyboard and mouse covered in Vaseline…