Sergio Henao? Sky did a load of tests and said all was OK, and the anomalies were due to living at altitude (or being Colombian or something)

Then he broke his knee in a crash whilst pre-riding the TT at the Tour de Suisse.

Is Strava so ubiquitous now that if you see dozens of people on a route, you expect dozens of strava times? Blimey.

It’s certainly growing in popularity down in southern France. I’ve been playing around with this a bit : http://labs.strava.com/flyby/viewer/

– it’s great for being surprised at who you crossed paths with, and for seeing playbacks of loads of people for big races/events.

I’ve had a couple of days around Najac in the west of the Aveyron. Loads of forest trails and not many people.

The Aveyron is pretty big, but in general a good way to find trails is to look at where the FFC trail centres are http://sitesvtt.ffc.fr/ and then have a poke around on GPS trace sites like http://www.utagawavtt.com/

Can’t help with bike hire, sorry.

The route was marked pretty well. Big arrows for direction changes, red/white tape to follow and most wrong tracks blocked with tape too. There were volunteer marshalls on all the road crossings and clear signing for the points where the courses split for the different distances.

I think they’ve used a different course every year so far (and there’s a few sections that cross fields that aren’t normally open) so careful with the gps traces.

I watched a load of YouTubet vids before the race. They give a good idea of what most of the terrain is like – apart from the technical bits!

You’re on Strava aren’t you?

There are quite a few people who have uploaded their traces, that give a much better idea of realistic averages.

Mine’s here for the 50 : http://www.strava.com/activities/162614395 (but I’m not that fast – especially on the last climb where I was down to 3.8kph !)

Here’s one from a guy who did the 140 : http://www.strava.com/activities/162588163

It’s a tough event. At least for us it was sunny, it must be really gruelling in the wet.

I’ve just been looking at the average speeds of finishers – I did just over 10km/h average, and the fastest over all the distances were around 15 to 16km/h

I think it’s a pretty specific kind of fitness required – you need roadie fitness to be able to do hour-long climbs, and then you need proper mtb skills to be able to do the 20-minute descents without rattling to pieces or losing concentration and crashing out.

10km/h is a good target – but that means 14 hours riding to do the 140. That’d be a big day out riding on the flat!

Thread resurrection!!!!

Well, I went and did it anyway. 50km in just over 5 hours. Not many Brits on the results, but one of them was Tim Dunford who came first in the 100km version. Good effort!

Most of the climbing was tracks and fireroads, some of it up ski pistes (with a fair bit of 20% gradients and a couple of 30% parts but that could be GPS error) it spread everyone out nicely and gave time to enjoy the views of Mont Blanc and the Alpine meadows.

Dear lord the descents were scary. Not much doubletrack at all, just flat out euro-madness down just about every kind of trail I’ve ever ridden: mud, roots, rocks, gravel, meadows, off-camber strips of mud across black runs, more roots, roads, wet roots, stream beds and the rest. In 50 kms there were three big descents – all of them were 20 to 30 minutes of continual descending (except when struggling out of bushes).

The ambience was great – loads of people cheering and ringing cowbells, what seemed like hundreds of volunteers stopping traffic at every road junction for the valley crossings, all with a smile and a “bravo/allez/courage”.

The feed stations were piled up with banana, orange, saucisson and cheese (Beaufort of course).

Although I was signed up for the 30/50km MBClassic race it was a really accessible event. We started near the back and there were people on some really ropey bikes, but all having a good go (and some of them going pretty fast too). I think this also helped me to finish in the top half of the field for the first time ever, but it felt more like the lower places of a French cyclosportive than a serious XC race – everyone was there just to dig deep, give everything and finish.

I really enjoyed it.

Edit : If anyone’s interested, the routes are on this site : http://mbrace.livetrail.net/parcours.php where the full results can also be found

I tried it once – it was astonishing how it transformed pasty pale legs into dead fish-belly near-translucent white.

Now I leave ’em hairy as part of my “not-a-proper-cyclist” subterfuge

Seen on br:

It is nowhere near Mt Ventoux. Unless you consider 5 hours of driving to be nearby.

It’s the north end of the Massif Central – the central mountains of France. Just south of CF is the Puy de Dôme, an old volcano with a steep road up it (that may now be closed – not sure). It’s where this photo was taken:

Clermont-Ferrand has a Michelin factory and isn’t really a big destination town. The aforementioned volcanoes to the south are lovely, and there’s a Volcano Attraction not far away : http://www.vulcania.com/

I too have had my cornering transformed by this advice. It was the missing part of body positioning for me – foot down, elbow out, look at the exit : all ok, but still not quite there. The hips weren’t right but now they are.

All hail the Lasercock.

French law is that, outside urban areas cyclists must wear a certified reflective gilet at night or in conditions of reduced visibility. ( here http://www.securite-routiere.gouv.fr/conseils-pour-une-route-plus-sure/conseils-pratiques/circuler-a-velo/circuler-a-velo-roulez-en-toute-securite )

“Ccertified” means conforming to EN 1150, so flappy builders vest are OK, but if you’re actually going to be wearing it for more than a few kms something like the Decathlon or Ekoi vests will be more comfortable

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/en1150-approved-vest-7-id_8154018.html
http://www.ekoi.fr/fr/gilets-securite/51-gilet-de-securite-jaune.html

Doesn’t have to be yellow btw – EN 1150 is just about reflectivity so pink, orange, green are OK too

Just get red bar tape?

Oh, and if it’s Christmas then Oysters, Foie Gras and white wine please:

Non-timed mountain bike ride – Baguette and paté (and maybe red wine). Orange segments if it’s hot.
Mountain bike race – One of whatever they’ve got, as fast as possible (small energy bars, fruit pate, bits of banana)
Road ride – Pain d’epice, bananas, bars. Maybe a gel for later.

Mmmm

I will now be starting and finishing all e-mail this way :

Hello sexual prince
…
I hug and kiss you in your lips, bye

Make sure they fit – everyone is a slightly different shape and the pad needs to be in the right place under your sit bones when in a cycling position. Sizing varies a lot between brands. Either go to a shop and try on different sizes and makes (then buy there, to be fair) or order different sizes form t’internet and return the wrong ones.

MT66 is more like SLX I think – Shimano have XT and XTR branded wheels as well.

I had a pair of 26″ MT65s and they were easy to use tubeless, light enough and tough enough. Odd spokes and nipples though. At the time they were the cheapest tubeless option I could find.

I was looking at 29″ tubeless wheels yesterday – apart from the MT66s the cheapest light-ish pair I found were Actionsports – 1720g, about 270€ (depending on shipping) DT swiss 370 hubs and their own Atmosphere SL rims – seem similar to Crests in width and weight, but my German-language googling isn’t good enough to find out what people think of them.

Lots of other choices from Actionsport or Superstar for around 350-400 €, but then you’re pretty much up to the budget for a set of Light-Bicycle carbon wheels (around $600)

5 and 5e?

Call them both Schrödinger, but only when you can’t see them?

Don’t usually carry a shock pump.
Only one spare tube in case of tubeless failure (but backed up with duck tape wrapped around pump, a patch kit and a tubeless anchovy set)
Always carry a spare hanger – I’ve seen loads of people snap them
Always carry ID, health card and credit card.

I don’t have a 20p piece, so the two times I’ve had to preload HTII cranks I’ve used a small rock…

Looks taped to me – you can see the valve at the top.

I guess that being hammered down pretty much all of a DH track might have pushed the thin sticky tape down into the spoke holes a little bit.

I ride lots of singletrack through harsh vegetation. Without gloves I’d probably be down to the bone in about 20 minutes (especially since going to slightly wider bars).

You haven’t threaded the chain the wrong way around the metal tab between the jockey wheels have you?

I did that last time I changed a chain and it took me about 3 rides to figure out where the noise was coming from! I felt daft.

Bye Rik. Thanks…

6-month old Deore clutch mech here (2×10 on 29er ht) – still OK despite over 1000km and a number of interface incidents with savage vegetation.

If I remember correctly, when i did a 3×9 to 2×9 conversion I ended up moving the front mech up slightly – the shaping on the mech cage works best when the bit for the middle ring is lined up, and as I’d made the middle ring taller, the mech had to go up by a couple of mm.

But that was with a sub-Deore front mech. The cage shaping could be different on SLX.

Elliot100, the whole ride gets flagged, but Strava support can unmatch individual segments – they took out one segment from a road ride of mine where GPS blips had given me a max speed of about 120 right over some blokes new segment. I bet he had a shock when the leaderboard popped up!

Ask support if they can do the same, the couple of times I’ve contacted them they’ve been really helpful.

On a recent road ride, I stopped to pick up three used CO2 cartridges.

I was a bit puzzled as to who could have had the kind of puncture-geddon that required three, and who would have been carrying three anyway.

Later, a friend informed me that the local youth have taken to doing “balloons” where they fill up a balloon from a CO2 cartridge, then breath it in…

People are both weird and stupid.

Martin, you’ve really retired all your old hardware? All the advice I’ve seen from manufacturers suggests a pretty much unlimited lifetime for karabiners (if no cracks or excessive oxidation can be seen), but about 5 years for soft gear like slings, harnesses, ropes and quickdraws.

Not shoes though – if you’re the MartinH who was at Manchester Uni then you’d’ve been proud to see your old friend Markie rocking his 20-year old Ballets whilst bouldering near Lyon last weekend!

I’ve been to the Chassezac and Ardeche a few times. Most of the sites around Vallon Pont d’Arc are pretty packed in high season, and not such good value.

The Chassezac sites are a bit quieter, and really good for combining family river time, climbing (sport and bouldering) and mountain biking.

Specifically – Mazet Plage camping is OK, but not that shady. Les Actinadas is shady but a bit cramped and dusty.

Around Chaulet Plage there are more swimming spots, including some fun canyony bits and three campsites right next to each other:
Camping Les Blaches – the biggest, with mostly spread out and shady camping spots. Haven’t actually stayed here but walked through on the way to the river.
Camping Chaulet Plage – smaller, grid layout but with well defined shady emplacements so doesn’t feel too crowded.
Camping La Vignasse – behind Camping Chaulet Plage, so a bit further from the river (this is good if you have wayward children). Similar in size to CP, but Jean-Luc the owner is a local Mountain Bike Guide and an ex-vigneron, which is why the wine he sells is excellent.

After 20 years, you should only consider doing this with the old one:

These are ok :http://www.decathlon.co.uk/black-vioo-usb-rear-bike-light-id_8224154.html

Quite bright, USB rechargable, but not much side visibility and a bit barrel-shaped.

I’m not sure how secure the mounting is. I haven’t lost the one I’m using off my bike, but someone else did – which is how I got it…

Some of the stuff I’ve read recently (especially from Ross Tucker & Tim Noakes) has been pretty conclusive that it’s worse to drink too much compared to too little – Noakes’ recommodation is to never exceed 650ml/hour, even in the hottest conditions (ignore stats from the Tour de France etc – when it’s reported that riders have been through 12l a day they’ve chucked at least half of that over their heads to cool down).

However, the advice to “drink to thirst” is pretty hard to follow, especially if you’ve spent a few years training yourself to have sips of liquid every few minutes it’s difficult to know what proper thirst feels like!

For me, a few weeks of the antagonistic exercises in the article that Martin linked to worked well to get rid of a nasty bout of Golfers elbow (without completly stopping climbing).

Subsequently, occasional sets of exercises help keep it away when I remember to do them. But I’ve found that it comes back if I neglect to do sets of complementary exercises for the upper body – I suspect that if I just go climbing all the time (pulling down) and never balance the shoulders by doing sets of press-ups I start to get muscle imbalance or tightness in the shoulders that pulls on the elbows and makes the tendons likely to be irritated. But I could be wrong.

There are also the Cathar castles between Carcassonne and Perpignan, some of them are really impressive.

Someone on here came up with a great way to decide between “racey” and “endurance” models:

If you can touch your toes, get the Ultimate CF, if you can’t get the Endurance

(Originally applied to Tarmac and Roubaix, but it should hold for Canyons too)

A bit blingy?

Hold on there – back in 1999 we were all rocking neon pink highlights on Boreal Lasers and we’d only just got over lycra.

In my limited experience…

Do at least one 50km ride (about 80% of race length) to make sure that you’re up to the distance.

Make sure that you can ride for that time with the gear you’ll be carrying and wearing.

If you’re going to experiment with different food/drink then do it now and don’t muck around with new things during the race.

10 days before the race start tapering – keep intensity the same but reduce duration.

Sleep.

Check all the mechanical bits before the race (but not the night beofre!)

I’m starting to suspect that SRAM developed XX1 because their front mechs are a bit shit.

I’ve a Fast Trak on the back and Ground Control on the front (both with the “control” casing, run tubeless) – a good combination for dry, dusty, rocky, natural trails. But I’m quite XC.