Blogs

There are many reasons I love this website. The main one being that they have long given me the mouthpiece to spout my nonsense about Albert Timmer, Tony Gibb and fake replica jersey's.

I suppose its like giving the madman the keys to an asylum. Or something like that.

Where this site has come into its own in recent years has been the fantasy cycling competition.

Many a lunch time has been spent agonising over the selections as I scanned the list of 3.5 credit riders looking for the next Thomas de Gendt.

Getting sand in your shoes conjures up images of long walks on warm beaches, romantic sunsets and happy holiday memories. Not standing in a grey field claustrophobic under low cloud with a stiff breeze coming off the North Sea rattling in frequent showers that push wet into the back of the jeans and cold deep into the bones. I have damp sand in my shoes. I’m in Belgium. If there is any romance it smells of beer and embrocation.

The polar opposite to race finery, the gritty bottom feeder in the food chain of cycle clothing. That old, tatty, moth-eaten, patched, worn out but still useful kit that is always just one ride away from being binned.

twitten n. Sussex dialect - a narrow path or passage between two walls or hedges. (see also - jennel, gennel, ginnel, twichell, entry, jigger, snicket, jetty, gitties, gulley, chare, ope, shut, cutting and snickelway in other parts of England)

Emma Osenton rides for the Kinesis Morvélo Project, a cycle team that races all types of bicycles, and she has been bitten by the cyclocross bug. As she explains:

Sitting in bed with a brew it felt like the rain hammering on my window wanted to jump in bed and join me. The glass rattled as the hum drum wet played it's Keith Moon-style drum solo. I tweeted my concern. The response came back from road.cc's own Jo Burt that if the weather was crap less people would show up and I was going to get a better result. With those words ringing in my ears I got my routine underway.

Last day, and the big one: time to knuckle down and braze the frame proper. Well, nearly time. First there's a good deal of scrubbing of flux and filing of the tack points to make the final brazes as neat as possible, given the limited skill I've acquired from three days of intensive learning.

Entries for one of the UK’s most popular sportives – the Etape Caledonia – opened this week. Regular readers will remember this as being the “'charity' bike ride where no money goes to charity.”

We should really give it its full title – the “Marie Curie Cancer Care Etape Caledonia” – as the charity has paid £100,000 to be the event’s “official partner”.

The local branch of the Rapha/Condor cycling club hosted the inagural "Celebration of Peterborough Cycling" last night.

John Herety, team Manager of the pro element to that squad was the guest speaker and told the assembled audience that engaging youth riders and then retaining them was the key to continued progress in the sport.

Day three, and back to the torch. Well, after the small matter of making the chain stay and seat stay bridges, the last two bits of the bike to fabricate. The good news: they're only to hold a mudguard, so there's a 1.5mm tolerance for the position. The bad news: no mitre guides, no help. Just a drawing of the frame, some files, a hacksaw and a ruler.

ip dip, sky blue...