Davide Bramati (Etixx DS) suspended from todays stage for not wearing a seatbelt. Videos now ‘removed by user’

Whilst there will be the inevitable Breton Sache’/Cofidis/Bora punt off the front

You psychic or something?

we can already see two riders on the attack. They are Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) and Pierre-Luc Perichon (Bretagne Seche).

What hope of improving driving when elite cycling is setting the poorest example possible.

The riding is pretty shocking as well. You can clearly see them taking up the whole road with a long string of cars stuck behind them :-)

You mean the “greatest stage racer of his generation”?

Stop it. You’ll drag Frenchie over from BikeRadar, and we really don’t want that

Sorry hatter. Enjoy the highlights, was a great days racing.

Froome’s performance today should lay to rest some of the criticisms about him just being a lightweight climber with no bike handling skills.

Well 3 proper stages, 3 stages of hard racing can’t complain about a first week so far

Froome does know it’s 3 week race doesn’t he? I thought this stage was going to end with Thomas leading him out for the sprint :-)

at least you dont have to suffer the shit ads like that annoying nationwide one.

I use Alepecin shampoo because I like the feel of thick hair :-)

Martin wins and takes yellow (puts bikebouy out of his misery)

Martin goes long

Thomas still pulling on the front, Froome 2nd wheel

Cav in the front group

Froome attacks! Trying to take time on Contador

Stybar goes for it

Roche and Thomas bring Froome to the front for the last section of pave

It’s like a track sprint out there – elbows, shoulders and nobody giving an inch. Exciting stuff.

My problem with Froome is that he rides like an octopus falling out of a tree. Wiggins in TT mode is an object lesson in style and control. Froome on an uphill attack is devastating, but looks like a teenage on his first bike – pedaling away like mad and glancing down as if trying to work out how to get out of bottom gear. Very effective though, not really anyone in the world who can stay with him when he does that.

Rode with him once, many years ago. He was on a very nice handbuilt Pete Matthews. Not the fastest (or slimmest) rider around, but he obviously enjoys it.

A heated towel rail? In summer? What’s up with you people?

So ultimately I think age has actually little to do with it

Have a look at some of the VTTA records (and weep)
Roger Iddles, 50.36, age 61
Terry Icke, 52.14, age 68
John Woodburn, 54.21, age 71

Escape to Victory. Class acting and an almost documentary accuracy in its portrayal of the enormity of war.

Possibly Pele’s greatest ever war movie :-)
More seriously, Enemy at the Gates.

There was an ACC stripey at Stennelager who’d done P-Coy and wore his wings on his chef’s whites. Rumour had it he could kill a man with a single sausage.

It’s defense which for most parts of the time is to stand there looking a bit scary bored

I spent 5 years holding back the Soviet hordes using that technique. The most dangerous bit was when a German DJ in Paderborn thought it would be amusing to play God Save The Queen by the Sex Pistols to a disco full of pissed up squaddies. Now that was scary!

Conservation headlands – the area between the field edge and the first tramline doesn’t get sprayed with herbicide or pesticide to encourage wildflowers and insects to improve biodiversity. Usually gets some sort of payment under an agri-environment scheme.

I can recommend the Swrve shorts – comfortable, well made and smart.

Had this in a trendy bistro we visited recently. Very nice lamb cutlet with new potatoes and ‘heritage’ veg accompanied with a generous jug of gravy (or ‘jew’ as the staff described it), all artfully arranged on a slab of cold stone.
Managed to persuade the 12 year old waitress to put it on a proper plate, which was a shame really as my next step was going to be to pour the full jug of gravy over it and watch it spread across the table and drip onto the floor :-)

Nibali seems to fancy pushing it today – away with Tony Gallopin, Alejandro Valverde, Tony Martin and Rui Costa. Pretty tasty breakaway group

Got to be at least the 3 main tubes, as that’s how the tube sets were supplied. This one has a respray sticker, which could have come from anywhere, and 531 stickers are easily available on ebay.
In this case its as convincing as putting a Ferrari badge on the front of a Vauxhall Astra :-)

See if there’s anything suitable at the Bristol Bicycle Jumble on Saturday?

There’s no way on earth that’s a handbuilt 531 frame as the seller is claiming
-Pressed steel fork crown
-Lamp bracket boss on forks
-Stamped drop outs
-Machine crimped chainstay
-Appalling brazing (or welding?) on the seat stay bridge
-No brazed on cable guides
It’s a typical mass-produced gas pipe job. It’s got rubbish components and would have been crap when it was new (when it would have sold for a lot less than £150). It has no retro value and will be a pain to ride and maintain.

rick powell is a legend and made frames for victoria pendleton

No way he made that.

If that frames 531 I’m the Emperor of China

He’s just explaining (in French) why he’s resigning even though he’s totally innocent.

Monday:
Batsman Joe Root says England can do “something special” by chasing 455 to beat New Zealand in the second Test at Headingley

Tuesday:
Root c Latham b Craig 0

Plus, if he did it in Mexico City or somewhere, the velodrome wouldn’t be packed with ageing mods and club cyclists cheering him to the rafters. All part of Sir Wiggo’s ‘just a poor boy from Kilburn’ stuff :-)

Blame the CEN / ISO tests also, to be fair

That was the reason for the changes to the Soul wasn’t it? I’ve got a Mk1, which is definitely a ‘you can prise it from my cold, dead hands’ job.

Wiggins saying that air pressure is crucial

A lot of the hour record is dictated by temperature and air pressure. Air pressure is everything. The weather forecast for the first week in June is abnormally low pressure for London for that time of year, which is fantastic. That has dictated everything. You could go a kilometre either way depending on air pressure

Unfortunately the current forecast suggests high pressure centered just west of UK, with pressure in London on the night likely to be 1030Mb

SOMEONE DID IT ON A CHOPPER LATELY IIRC

Henley cyclist attempts hour record on Raleigh Chopper[/url]
31.9km

You want to generate series of random numbers that are normally distributed according to a given mean and variance?
The Box-Muller transform is the usual way to do this

How do you want to do this? C/C++? Excel?

Some links to start with :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution#Generating_values_from_normal_distribution
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2325472/generate-random-numbers-following-a-normal-distribution-in-c-c
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/generate-random-variable-normal-distribution-excel-74203.html