crikey, it's filling up nicely again!

Yep: it's the law to overtake cyclists, even if you have to turn left immediately afterwards

or so the bloke in the 4×4 seemed to think yesterday, when he shouted "All I wanted to do was turn left! I even stopped and waited for you to go past!"
THAT'S BECAUSE YOU HADN'T FINISHED OVERTAKING ME YOU F-KING T1T

I genuinely don't think he knew he'd done something wrong.

Oh and he called me a 4 eyed c-nt…

…I don't wear glasses 🙄

No:
Dropped out of a few races that I thought I could do well in
Never felt like I got properly fit
Got a bit fed up at times
It never seemed to stop raining

Yes:
Did OK in a few races/events
Did big long rides, short fast rides, rode with mates, got a bit lost with mates, rode solo, got a bit lost solo
Got shiny new kit to use
Didn't get injured, so got to ride right the way through the year

Overall:
Shows promise, could do better, bring on 2010 🙂

Aren't Epic (the company RATM were signed to) and Sony BMG (Simon Cowell's record company) all related anyway?

Alternatively, read what Mr Agreeable wrote at the same time as me, as it's more eloquent. D'oh 😳

failing that ill just have to MTFU

if i see you stopped anywhere I'll shout at you 😉

I'm just going to wrap some gaffer tape round a couple of standard bottles to help keep anything I put in them warm.

Oh and last year I hardly used any brake pads, think I changed them 3 or 4 times over the whole race – and they were never down to the metal, maybe the course is getting easier 😀

Less than half a lap of the Strathpuffer course in 2007…so that would be about 3 – 3.5 miles 😯

Admittedly they weren't bedded in, but it was just insane how quickly they vanished

That looks smart!

With a pair of 1.5" tyres on it you could get a decent ride in at SITS if it's muddy too 😉

windproof or waterproof ? – and if the latter, do they have a separate inner glove? The reviews I've found seem to rate them fairly highly..

waterproof, with no inner liner, just thinsulate stuff…these ones, in fact.

Not waterproof either!

Would recommend the DHB ones over them any day, or if it's properly cold the really padded sealskinz ones.

They are brilliant for being seen though – the reflective fingertips mean all your rude gesticulations are as clear at night as they are during the day 😀

Not the assos winterplus socks.

Despite having -6 to +6 degrees written on all the packaging my feet slipped, slowly and painfully, into numbness wearing them when it was well above freezing last week 🙁

Altura Night Vision gloves didn't work for me on my short 3.5 mile commute 🙁

Have dug out a pair of liner gloves to go under them for tonight's road ride, hopefully that should make enough difference

Oh, *that's* how you ride the slab then! 🙂

WHAT?
Outrageous claims!

Next time I'm there I shall demand an extra portion for scientific purposes

good chips still for sale at the ladybower inn, in the peaks

not a huge portion or anything like that, but juuuust right (when combined with a lovely pie…) 🙂

IIRC, FSA cranks have a 169mm q factor, so they're somewhere in between…though it would still feel a bit wide in comparison to the s-works cranks

a whopping 4 miles either way each day 🙂

though i do get to practice doing cyclocross dismount/remount things on some steps in the park then chase the buses up a hill, so it's nice and entertaining (and i think the bus drivers are catching on to what i'm doing and speeding up…)

Movin to the country,
Gonna eat a lot of peaches
Movin to the country,
Gonna eat me a lot of peaches
Movin to the country,
Gonna eat a lot of peaches
Movin to the country,
Gonna eat a lot of peaches

Peaches come from a can,
They were put there by a man
In a factory downtown
If I had my little way,
Id eat peaches every day
Sun-soakin bulges in the shade

Take a little naps where the roots all twist
Squished a rotten peach in my fist
And dreamed about you, woman,
I poked my finger down inside
Make a little room for it to hide
Natures candy in my hand or can or a pie

Millions of peaches, peaches for me
Millions of peaches, peaches for free

Look out!

🙂

Drive Drive it home right now
Drive it home know how
Take it from my heart
Gotta tear yourself apart
From hell…sinking hell
Like disease where I dwell
Burning kidneys where I roam
Never taking you back home
Let it out ride tonight
Drive Drive it home right now
Drive it home know how
Take me from my heart
You gotta tear yourself apart
Drive it home right now
Drive it home know how
Told you from the start
Tear your **** head apart
Drive me home right now
Drive it home know how
Take it from my heart
Take me from my heart
Ground, turning ground burn it down burn it down
Crucify my nation Crucify the population
Time dollar line try to find where you gonna run to hide
From my eyes from my mind
Into my children's face… their faces
Stay away! Goddamn it Stay away! Never come back!
Disintegrate, Decision and the popular creation
Let it out, ride tonight
So he loed and you lied and that bitch she knows she's gonna die
Keep it hiding, deep inside, she lied to swallow her pride
That bitch knows where it goes, Down Incineration
Incinerate My Mind
Incinerate My Nation

Punishment? Exiled. Punishment? Exiled.
Watch it fall… Watch it fall… Watch it fall

with teams cycling from one to the next using public roads, public footpaths or other rights of way.

that sounds extremely dodgy unless they've got all the landowners permission(s) 😕

quite possibly[/url]

😉

its got a different fork and rear wheel on it at the mo' but it's still rigid (and fast) 🙂

The marshals were excellent, properly cheery and encouraging to everyone racing, top stuff!

Big shout out to the hecklers at the bottom of the climb too – some top banter going on
"just do a really fast lap and you'll win"
cheers guys, hadn't thought of that 😉

Oh and taa muchly to the organisers for getting all stressed out and knackered to make it all happen (and for letting me leave my stuff in the back of a car during the race)

if you can stump up the extra little bit of cash, I can heartily recommend the Hope stainless BB.

The one I've got has lasted since January in my race bike, it's done 1000s of miles in conditions that have written off more than one drivechain and has been treated appalingly, yet is still as smooth as silk…unlike all the shimano and company-whose-name-must-not-be-mentioned-for-fear-of-octopus-pron predecessors

It's one of the few bits of bike kit I think is actually worth the asking price…and I'm a right miser.

well I enjoyed the course, after a summer of riding round field edges and along race courses made by mowing grass across a field it was a nice change and had some genuinely fun bits in.

yes there were some long, straight climbs, but they were good for getting yourself into a rhythm (and good practice if you were using the race as a top notch bit of training…)…and only lasted too long if you were riding too slowly 😉

shame on anyone throwing gel wrappers etc away on the course – there's just no need!

yup, that makes for scary reading!

glad you're all on the mend, hope everything from here on in goes smoothly!

time to dig out the ice tyres 🙂

and then to bed 🙂

terry – i think i've got an old scandal frame knocking about if you need one (not SS though)

oh and yes
hopeful soloist again!

I'm enjoying it so much I'm not even worried about any brickwork/decking/gravel/weeds/tyrelogo-rim misalignment issues 🙂

(in it's 3 peaks guise)

yup

soloing on what i'm hoping will be a proper course, rather than round a load of field edges 🙂

there won't be any midges will there?!

god i love/hate that race! 🙂

3 ltr camelback for me (and most of the soloists) there's nowhere to leave bottles on the course (unless you just hide them somewhere beforehand). Most of the riders with support will have their helpers pass them bottles at strategic points on the course like you mentioned

there's a drinks station at the bottom of whernside to grab a cup or two of water from the marshalls and usually some utter heroes who carry jerry cans of water halfway of pen y ghent too (thank them lots!)

plus you'll often get offers of water/whatever they've got with them from specators

I have nothing to add but more photos

🙂

wirey young men too

and the girls

expertly…

😆

nowt I can do until the headset arrives except fondle it and begin rubbing ibuprofen gel into my shoulder 😉

they look a bit like this before you stick them together 🙂

OK

1) iced gems are awesome

2) lemon puffs are grim

3) those pink wafer things look…you know…a bit…limp wristed in the biscuit tin AND coat everything else in annoying pink dust. crap things

4) wagon wheels and penguin bars shouldn't be in individual wrappers, cos they're not awesome enough

5) viscounts have become way too small to still be classed as classy biscuits

I could go on for hours…

"shut up or you'll get a smack"

worked a treat

i wouldn't know!

you should do another one, then i could tell you 🙂

you might be doing more of the work, but you're getting more of the benefit – you'll be the uber fit one in the end, so let them hide in your shadow 🙂

and if you're really that bothered about them being there, go up some hills and make them suffer! 😈

damn it all!

the old berlingo test has got the dimensions for the pre-facelift shape