Bit geeky but using the quali results I had a look at the chances of qualifying for each race depending on your starting row. If you’re on the 4th row or back your odds are only about 1 in 10 of making the main race, but even the front row guys still have a 25% chance of ending up in Affinity

Google Doc Link

It’s more loose than technical though there are occasional difficult bits. He could probably trundle down in last place walking the bike through 10-20 difficult bits no problem

Yeah the lift queue for quali needs time slots like the main race. I only just made my time because I went with friends who had a heat an hour before mine

That’s a great time hob nob. I broke my derailleur cable in the main event so did a lot of walking and just cruised down at the back in 1hr 45. Definitely a time to better next year!

Thanks to some of the tips in this thread managed to get down in half an hour and just make it into the 2nd race which I was more than happy with. The video came out pretty good too, particularly a big stack at 20 minutes in:

Looks like I’m on the 4th row, heat 8, which isn’t too bad. Same heat as Fabien Barel

Me too! I don’t think I’m going to beat him:

http://www.culoz.fr/img/info-tour.pdf

Road up from Culoz closed from 6am, cycling allowed until 10. Have a great day!

Road closures on the tour are generally 3 hours before the race passes, however on mountain passes and suchlike, the prefet for the departement will order an earlier time.

Thanks, that was exactly what I was looking for!

If you’re anywhere near, there should big plenty of signs out already saying what the closure times are

I’m about an hour’s drive away so there are probably signs up but I won’t see them until it’s too late unfortunately

Having broken one and had surgery I’d push for surgery if it’s at all borderline. It’s not much fun but the end result is normally better

If ever a movie needed an alternative soundtrack it was Life Cycles. It’s like they found a 14 year old boy pretending to be stoned and got him to write the narration

Thankfully Chainreaction only shows my total number of orders (a modest 28) and not the total spend

Don’t worry if you’ve broken it on the non-gear change side or drive an auto you’ll probably be back driving much sooner than you think, maybe as little as a week after surgery, but you’ll definitely be a careful driver! Driving or not just make sure you do the physio

On the weather topic the sun out here is so strong and with the altitude it dries out so quickly it doesn’t matter if you get rain every day there’ll still be all the dust and sunburn you could want. It might stay wet in the trees but there’s a lot of exposed stuff that dries out really quickly

I personally think armour will help protect your collar bone. I broke mine playing football right at the shoulder end of the bone and if I’d be wearing my POC jacket (unlikely on a football pitch I know) I’m totally convinced it wouldn’t have happened. I had surgery too dantsw13 and it’s more of a faff but you’re more likely to be as good as new a few months down the line

White wheels work well

To be fair telling a 14 year old kid smoking is bad for him is never going to work. Telling him it’s only chavs and gays that smoke at least has some chance of success

I was there last weekend. It might not be the absolute best track in the world but it’s in ok condition at the moment and definitely isn’t ‘crap’. If it was next to the Cwmcarn downhill it would get more traffic than Cwmcarn does

Chav = Trailer Trash

Not that I’m lazy but I can’t wait until the whole iDave / Slow Carb / 4hourbody thing goes mainstream and I can buy a tin of beans in the shops which doesn’t have a couple of tablespoons of sugar added to it

The Super Morzine isn’t open yet though. Just have make the most of Les Gets

If you have a van you should try a few places. How about 2 days in Morzine, drive an hour, 2 days in Chamonix, drive an hour, 2 days in Verbier? There are loads of marked routes and if you chat to people on the lifts you’ll find more

Are the body fat readings on scales like these accurate enough to be worthwhile?

I only believe it if I average it over a few weeks and I only believe the change rather than the absolute number. My long-term trend looks right to me but the day-to-day fluctuations can be anywhere between 13% and 15%

You’ve a graph of your weight fluctuations over an 18 month period?

Yup, the scale does it automatically and you can see the graph online. What’s not to love?

I’ve been weighing myself most days for 18 months using one of these: Withings

I have 170lbs as my target and if I get above it I cut back on the carbs until I’m back to 170

I went with Planet X for a grand a few years back and have been very happy with it

It’s sad I’ll never get to do that shed drop :(

I was there yesterday too. Conditions couldn’t have been better, clear blue skies, dry but still grippy, braking bumps under control and no lift queues. Good times

Is there any reason why this would work for men better than women? I’m finding it effective but it’s not doing anything for my girlfriend

Yeah, it just sounds like you have tedious friends

On a triathlon I did a couple of years in a row on the same course the times for the cycle leg on a road bike vs. my mtb with 1.25″ slicks on where within a minute of each other. It was quite a hilly course though

Give it to the team that won the most corners conceded by the keeper. It’s simple, encourages attacking rather than just possession, and it’s difficult to deliberately play for corners off the keeper so won’t change the game much. It doesn’t necessarily reward just ‘beautiful’ play too as you can play like Stoke and still make the opposition keeper concede corners

It’s difficult to outperform the market but you can guarantee you’ll underperform it by running up a lot of trading charges, hence you should trade very infrequently. The best strategy is to buy an index tracker with no upfront charge and an annual management charge of 0.5% or less and then forget about it, and make sure as much of it is in an ISA as possible.

Dropper post (I’m happy with it even though it leaks), Point1 Pedals and Five Ten shoe combo

I’m sure they can strip them and sell the parts no problem, and probably for more than they’d get for the full builds, but I don’t see how they can get rid of the frames so easily. I don’t buy them moving them abroad as it’s too much of a risk getting a batch of bikes past customs and they’re not going to make a trip for just one, and if they just sit on them for a year until people have forgotten about them they’d have to be sitting on a lot of bikes at once if they rob regularly, and that’s a big risk if they do get caught. I really hope they’re not just trashing the frames

KFC

What’s your missus’ rationale? If it’s for a week and you want a nice bike it’s pricey

The reviews they get in French or US mags are generally a bit meh but they’re bike of the year in the UK ones. So is it great engineering to build bikes tailored perfectly to UK conditions with a fair price for such a specialised product, or great PR/marketing and a cushy relationship with bike journalists to get us to pay over the odds for a fairly normal bike?

I need to get a better photo as it’s prettier in the flesh

It would be great if there was an online survey for every frame where you could tick the ones you’ve owned and the ones you’ve broken. If enough people filled it out we’d get breakage rates for each frame