Wiggins goes again at 3k

Wiggins attacks with 32k to go

I think the 5 minutes I took explaining the error of his ways was time well spent for both of us

Applauds

I tried Strava but didn’t bother for long. I guess the thrill and excitement of being 137th fastest on a segment just wore off :D

Whoever it is that is going to send me a long complicated email requiring immediate attention 1 minute before I finish work for the weekend.

For emails we have

Regards
Kind Regards
Thanks and Regards
Regards and thanks
CheersI have a colleague who ends all her emails with
“Have a great day!”
She’s American, obviously.

The wife’s habit of giving retrospective driving directions, submerged in a wealth of irrelevant detail
“Look, that’s the road where Auntie Megan used to live. She was married to Bill who worked on the railways. He had a stroke and had to go into a home. It was so sad. You should have turned left back there.”

that change would drop off about 90m climbing and put it at about 103km which just pushes it towards a bit easy

‘a bit easy’ :-)
You could make up most of the difference by continuing on down to Brechfa, left on to the B4310, then left again to join your original route back up to Llidiad Nenog. Worth it IMO to avoid that horrid bit of A road.

TeifiTerror – can I suggest that at 32.4m you turn left and take the minor road over Mynydd Llanllwni? The A485 between Llanllwni and New Inn is a nasty, dangerous bit of road.

Glad its not just me. Probably STW acknowledging its readership is getting older. Ads for beige cardigans, comfy slippers and Werthers Originals to follow shortly.

No definitely not affiliated to a trotting race though rusty

Fair play. Hope you’re faster on a bike than that bloody horse was round a trotting track :-)

Favourite bit is the road around Llyn Brianne, on a sunny day you could be anywhere in the world.

Llyn Brianne to Tregaron is a ride in itself. Start off in a Tirolean valley and end up on a Scottish moor.
Edit: By the way, I once lost £10 betting on a trotting horse called Teifi Terror. Any connection?

160km and 4000m climbing in Mid-Wales

I’ve done lots of bits of that route (or fairly similar), particularly the western end which is just out of my door. Never all in one go mind. Lots and lots of brutal little pigs of climbs. Up, down, up, down till you’re sick of the sight of hills. Beautiful scenery and virtually traffic free roads on the plus side.

Have look at http://www.steel-vintage.com/%5B/url%5D Nothing anywhere near £400, but you can always dream

Gent-Wevelgem race on Sunday. Strong winds causing loads of crashes, including Luke Durbridge who was lucky not to join his bike in the canal.

Was she in Belgium at the weekend?

Bouncing down steep techy descents with your hands a foot below your arse.

Wow, I was wrong!

My money would be on Sagan, rather than GT, but you never know

Why not go the whole hog and make it female specific, you just need to get the marketing right – you could incorporate a popular chocolate into the name* and call it minstrel-cycles!!

Lunar Cycles in London started off as an all-women bike co-op, hence the name.

Eeusk[/url] on the waterfront in Oban is the best seafood restaurant I’ve been to in my life.

Memories of the Marble Factory

Thanks for that. I can remember the 100 star jumps, 100 sit ups, 100 press ups, followed by standing in Shiko Dachi while Sensei very leisurely made himself a cup of tea. Happy days :-)

So Hampstead, I’m trying to think, who was the instructor?

Mark Tekinalp, who took over after Sensei Ted had a heart attack.

Lordy how do you know Sensei George?

I trained at the Hampstead dojo in the late 80s, early 90s and got invited to the Sunday sessions at The Marble Factory. I don’t think I’ve ever done anything so intense, the warm ups alone damn near killed me! Went to a gasshuku in Denmark with him as well and got graded to 1st kyu by Morio Higaonna himself.
A very special place and an absolute legend of a man. I’d never seen a human being constructed entirely of granite before. And I’d never of dreamt of calling him anything but Sensei (to do so would probably have resulted in death by press-up).

Yep – dojo was down the Walworth Road, near the Elephant & Castle. Interesting place.

Not Sensei George Andrews was it by any chance? In the old marble factory?

On a bike like an Inbred with trackends you have a bit more leeway. I used a moveable clamp and simply carried a few spare cogs. Procedure, loosen wheel, slacken clamp, slide cog into line with the front ring. tighten.

A certain Signor Campagnolo had a similar idea but took it bit further. With some quick release clamps and a splined axle he got it so you could change gear whilst riding.

http://davesbikeblog.squarespace.com/blog/2010/4/26/the-cambio-corsa-campagnolos-early-masterpiece.html

Works Components for me.

Life’s so unfair. Terry Pratchett and Iain Banks gone, Dan Brown and Jeffrey Archer still with us :cry:

I use one similar to this. Quicker, safer and easier on the back than using a chainsaw freehand with a log horse

There’s a short diversion near the end of the black (where the logs used to be) but all good apart from that.

None.
and I expect it will be None this year too.
and next.

None.

True. Nothing to see here. Move along. Nothing in Wales worth riding.

Cwm Rheader (I’ve spelt that wrong).

Cwm Rhaeadr. Pretty damn close, a small and perfectly formed thing of beauty. Nant yr Arian is nice as well

My apologies. Can you restate your question in a way in which I can more usefully help?
There is no easy answer. The concrete’s *ed. No way around it. It’s compromising your DPC and anything you out on top of it is just going to shift and make things worse. The main problem you have is getting rid of the stuff you dig up. Concentrate on ways of getting rid of the old crap. If you’re getting rid on the conservatory can you not plan to get it all sorted together?

The extension will be major, probably about £20k job

So get them to do it. Stop worrying.

This is weird anus (is that really your name?) Its like someone who lives in Nepal posting pictures of a climbing wall in Harlow. If you like damp Welsh trails, I’ve got millions of them. Do you want to do a house swap sometime?

Swinley the highlight?

Presumably he hasn’t done the famous trail behind the building society in Swindon.

So if there concrete was to be smashed up and I was just left with soil/rubble, is drainage something I need to be factor in with laying a membrane & gravel?

Drainage. Where does the water go? Do you have a grey water drain you can direct it to? If you have gutters coming of the roof they will go into a grey water drain, you need to set up the new hard stand so it drains into that.

I’m learning as I go and I come here for advice.

Fair play. I’m out in the sticks so getting rid of hard core isn’t a problem, one man’s hard core is another man’s driveway. I can understand that getting rid of the stuff is difficult in an urban environment. But its got to go, putting anything on top on that is only going to make it worse. You seem to have done all the hard work but are stuck on dealing with the spoil. Have you explored any other avenues of getting rid of the spoil rather than paying paying the waste management mafia?

Never mind Wales, Swinley and Northumberland – I want to go to Skaugtuva. Great photos mate.

I’ve come to you bunch of muppets for some advice first

You’ve got a skip, I can see it in the photo. Smash up the concrete and put it in the skip. Please get back to me if there is any part of this you can’t understand. (I’d come and help if you if I was near enough, but fortunately I’m not)
Putting anything on top of that concrete would literally be papering over the cracks. Get rid of it.

My bad aracer (as I believe the young people say these days). :cry: