I’ve been with giffgaff for about a year now and had no problems. Their standard PAYG rates have recently increased from 4p text/8p minute to 6p text/10p minute but are still competitive. I like having the ability to buy a “goodybag” when you know you’re going to be using your phone a lot, sort of allows you to use it like having a contract but only when you want to.

Email them directly saying you were a victim of fraud after a CRC purchase and you should get your £30 voucher. I did this yesterday and used my voucher today – paying by PayPal of course!

Due to their rubbish website I can’t see what you’d get for that price but Decathlon would be worth a look I think.

That’s all very well but the fraud against my card did not involve payments to O2…

I’m in the club too. CRC order on 26/2, three fraudulent transactions so far starting from 4th March…

you have actually compressed 2 separate scenarios into option 3, so thats a flawed argument.

No it’s not. The scenarios are only dependent on what door you pick first. Three scenarios for three doors. In scenario 3 the door Monty chooses to reveal is irrelevant.

The easiest way is just to play it out. Consider three doors, A, B and C. A and B have sheep behind, C has the car.

Scenario 1. You pick A. Monty reveals B. To win you need to change to C
Scenario 2. You pick B. Monty reveals A. To win you need to change to C.
Scenario 3. You pick C. Monty reveals A or B. To win you need to stay with C.

So, in 2/3 of the scenarios you win by changing, and in 1/3 you win by staying.

I have a Spesh Tricross Singlecross for commuting and use ACS freewheels. The last Shimano one I had only lasted a few weeks, and the ACS ones can be had off ebay for not much more than a fiver. 1/8″ chain and 3/32″ sprocket here.

http://openiconlibrary.sourceforge.net/%5B/url%5D

Dr r0bh, High Energy Physics

i.e. that big thing in France/Switzerland that spins particles round very quickly then smashes them together.

I had a Superstar sintered pad come off the backing a month or so ago. The pad was quite new in that it had only been on the bike for a couple of rides, but old in that it was bought at the original Hit the North over two years ago (I don’t ride my MTB very much!)

Young Team is not really typical of most of the rest of their work. Maybe have a listen to their latest The Hawk Is Howling

http://videochat.gazzetta.it/index_giro.shtml

Lusso do good arm and leg warmers at a reasonable price. I don't own any 3/4 tights or longs, shorts plus leg or knee warmers are much more versatile.

You can do a lot of it along the canal if you want, quite fun with some ups and downs over bridges and even some pave!

Something like this maybe: http://www.mapmyride.com/route/gb/manchester/862127142409993595

The left turn off Oxford Street is where you drop onto the canal, then leave it at Throstle Nest Bridge. Note the little twisty bit just after the 1 mile mark.

Actually, you can probably cross Throstle Nest Bridge, go a little bit further along the canal and then come off it onto Trafford Park Road, missing out the Trafford Road/Chester Road junction which could be nasty. I'm running home that way later so I'll have a look.

Not this one again…

On a single carriageway road which is not wide enough for a car to overtake a cyclist without moving into the oncoming lane then riding two abreast is preferable, as this will make the group of cyclists half as long and so easier to overtake than if they were in single file.

Such logic is lost on most car drivers though.

If the road is wide enough for a car to overtake a cyclist without moving into the oncoming lane then a group of cyclists should single out to let the traffic past.

Collar bone – 18
Arm – 7
Leg – 6
Jaw – 2
Cheek Bone – 2
Rib – 40
Finger – 35
Skull – 1
Ass – 0
Wrist – 11
Knee Cap – 2
Nose – 7
Big Toe – 3
Metatarsal – 2
hip – 1
elbow – 2
pelvis – 2
wrist – 5
ankle – 6
middle toe – 2
Thumb – 2
little finger – 2
Hand – 1
SCAPHOID – 4
spine – 1
Back – 3

WHy have a race on a busy road, on a saturday morning?

At 7am on a Saturday morning it's not a busy road. That's beside the point anyway. The driver in this case had already passed inches from another rider – on an empty dual carriageway – and the car following her could clearly see Major Rhys-Evans (no problems with visibility) and could only watch as Miss Hart drove straight through him without making any attempt to change course. A tragic episode of driving way below an acceptable standard.

Specialized Tricross Singlecross with slick tyres and full mudguards. Can't imagine why anyone would have a commuting bike without full mudguards!

Forget about Macc Forest – went for a run round there this afternoon and Charity Lane is only just passable on foot, no chance on a bike. The snowdrifts are massive!

I have it! Not listened to it in ages though.

Is it the whole thing or just a track or two you're after?

If you want people to be able to buy them off their own back whenever they want have a look at http://www.spreadshirt.net.

Just done some hoodies for my tri club with them and the quality is really good, and price is reasonable too (20 quid). Sizes come up a touch small though.

My Tricross Singlecross (2008 model) came with V brakes – maybe yours has levers with pull for Vs? I'd try to find the model number of the levers and look it up on the Tektro website to check what you've got.

''pteranodon swoops'' was a bit of a catch-phase round our (rather geeky) neck of the woods

Ha ha, same here – along with "the swamp monster is disturbed"

however Lardy Cake beats the lot!

With you there!

The funny thing about this is that if Columbia had done the sprint properly Cav would have cleaned up and now be odds on for the Green. However, instead they wanted to have their cake and eat it, and try to get Hincapie into Yellow too. Hence the go-slow in the sprint and Cav's relegation. And they end up getting neither Yellow (for a day!) or Green (overall, assuming Cav wins in Paris).

Columbia management then have a go at the other teams – Astana, Garmin, ag2r – for chasing the Hincapie break. Rather than admit that they stuffed it up themselves!

All quite amusing for anyone who has got slightly tired of Columbia lording it over the other teams. Not that I don't like seeing Cav win obviously!

Yep, it was definitely Battles tonight.

I think it’s been really good, with pretty big crowds at most races (Blackpool was the only one that looked fairly sparse on the TV). The team racing format seemed like a bit of a gimic at first but I think it works to keep everyone racing (if there’s a breakaway up the road the bunch still have to race to the line) and make it more exciting for the spectators.

Went to Chester yesterday and it was great, shame about the rain but it made the cobbles a bit more exciting – rather them than me, looked lethal!

Christie may have been cleared by UKA but he wasn’t by IAAF. He received exactly the same sanction as Chambers. From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linford_Christie:

Christie tested positive for the stimulant Pseudoephedrine at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, but he escaped sanction after the International Olympic Committee’s disciplinary committee voted by a margin of 11 to 10. [13] It was reported that one of the judging panel was asleep when the vote was taken.[14] Reference to this is made in a television advert Christie made for Egg online banking in Autumn 1998.

At the 1994 European championships staged in Helsinki, where British team captain Christie won his third European 100m title, he was caught up in a doping controversy after Solomon Wariso, a 400m runner making his international championship debut, tested positive for the stimulant epherdrine. Wariso revealed that he had used an over-the-counter pick-you-up called “Up Your Gas”, which Christie had bought at a Florida pharmacy.[15]

In 1999, Christie was found guilty of using the performance enhancing drug Nandrolone following a doping test after an indoor meet in Germany. He was found to have more than 100 times normal levels of the metabolites of nandrolone in his urine. Various explanations were offered to explain the results, including eating avocado, or using nutritional supplements.[16][17][18]

The IAAF rejected that explanation and gave Christie a two-year ban from athletics, despite UK Athletics feeling that there was “reasonable doubt whether the drug had been taken deliberately”, a decision which ignored the usual drug testing principle of “strict liability”.[19]

Christie has always denied any wrong doing. “If I took drugs there had to be a reason to take drugs. I had pretty much retired from the sport.” Furthermore, he denied that his physique was gained through drug use and promoted an anti-steroid approach: “It does not follow that all athletes who are big take drugs… Only by testing all athletes will the sport be kept clean of drugs.”[9]

Following the ban, the British Olympic Association announced that Christie would not be accredited for any future Olympic Games, in accordance with their regulations.

Not sure how far you are looking to go, but for an hour or so in the evening the lanes between Partington and Dunham are a decent bet.

Bit longer, then out to Partington – Broomedge – High Legh – head South then East to Knutsford (cutting across just South of M6 J19). Back home via Tatton, Ashley and Hale. From Knutsford you can extend it South into the network of lanes between Knutsford, Macc, Congleton, Holmes Chapel and Northwich – loads of options.

To get some hills in out to Alderley Edge via Northenden, Styal and Wilmslow, or Cheadle – Bramhall – Woodford – Adlington – Pott Shrigley will get you to the bottom of some proper hills in about an hour.

You’d be best off ringing them up and booking you and your mates on a taster session. It was very busy through the winter with quite long waits for track time, might be quieter now though.

Once on the track, don’t stop pedaling! It’s almost inevitable that in the first 10 minutes you will try to freewheel a couple of times, normally you’ll get away with it though.

Always look over your shoulder before changing your line. That and riding too slowly on the banking are what might make the coach a bit anxious (i.e. shout at you)

Once up on the blue line riding in a line you need to think about riding at constant speed (cadence), not constant effort. So as you come out of a bend you can ease back a bit as you are going downhill, conversely going into a bend you need to press a bit harder as you are going uphill. If people don’t do this then everything goes pear shaped as the people at the back of the line who are coming out of a bend will be going quicker than the people at the front going into the bend, and will catch them up. Bad news.

On roads which are narrow enough that to overtake a cyclist a car will have to move into the oncoming lane then it is actually more considerate for a group of cyclists to be riding two abreast, as this means the group will be half as long as if they were single file. It’s only worth singling out if this will allow cars to pass without having to move into oncoming traffic.

For a 10k I wouldn’t worry about eating anything special in the lead up to it, it’s only a short race and your body will have ample energy reserves. As for how long to leave between eating and racing that’s quite a personal thing; 2 hours is a good starting point (and works for me) but I have friends who need 3 or 4 hours.

I’m running 70″ (42-16) on mine at the mo which is fine for a flat commute (although a bit of a slog if a headwind is blowing!).

If it’s hilly maybe try 42-18 (62″)

Jesus wept, even for STW there is an amazing amount of uninformed nonsense on this thread.

The right to hold Time Trials is enshrined in law – the MoT regulations of 1960 to be precise. As such no permission is required from the police to hold one, they just need to be notified in advance. In addition every time trial course has a rigorous risk assessment performed that identifies likely risks and how they are going to be mitigated (here are some examples from my area http://www.manchesterctt.org.uk/risks.html).

Unlike most people commenting here I have actually ridden the course where Sunday’s tragedy occurred; it was no more or less dangerous than my everyday commute to work IMHO.

It really saddens me that the reaction of fellow cyclists to this tragedy is to question the right of us all to use the public highway, rather than the behaviour of motorists putting us at risk.

There is an alternative school of thought that suggests you should actually run slower to run faster. Google “Maffetone” for more info but basically you do all your running at a fairly easy pace, using a heart rate monitor to regulate your effort. What you’ll find is that over time you will be able to run faster at the same heart rate (effort), as your aerobic “engine” develops.

I think this approach is much more sensible for relative newcomers to running as high intensity intervals carry more risk of injury. After a few months of aerobic base building maybe throw in one faster run a week but it should still make up a small proportion of your overall running volume.

I don’t follow the Maffetone theory religiously but I’ve been training for a marathon over the last 4 Months and the vast majority of my running has been at roughly Maffetone intensity. Along the way I have set new PBs at 5k, 10k and half marathon!

If you’re getting one bike for training and racing get a road bike. Possibly size it up a touch smaller than normal and stick some clip on tri bars on it, short ones like Profile Jammers.

Stoner – not wanting to be rude but IMHO those tri bars really don’t go on that bike. The tri bars are long and very high above the handlebars and I can’t imagine that the position on them is very good at all.

It has a super-quick half marathon course which got me a big PB yesterday!

I was on the bus today (the bike still being in work). On Oxford Road just near Edin Bike Co-op, I looked across to the cycle path (wiching I could be on my bike) when I saw some guy lose it fully on the ice and thump down onto the floor.

I came in via Oxford Road this morning and didn’t notice any ice at all. Was it where the cycle track goes through the park? That can be dodgy so I carried on along the road this morning, but I looked across and it seemed to be OK.

I almost weeped when my Dad got rid of an Alfa 33 for one of these.