tony_farrelly's blog

On Wednesday it was reported that deputy leader of North Somerset Council said cyclists were "arrogant" for using roads instead of adjacent cycle paths. Elfan Ap Rees was complaining about a petition asking for the council to redesign a £1.2m cycle path, half of which is being paid for by the national lottery.

My first covert scout around the Eurobike halls involved dodging tooled up tattooed blokes and fork lift trucks manoeuvring pallets of bikes still to be put on display ready for the show to open in less than 24 hours time.

"Nobody said it was easy,
ah it's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy,
no-one ever said it would be so hard
…i'm going back to the start"

road.cc guest blogger Geraint Thomas takes time out from eating Welshcakes in the back of the British Cycling van to reflect on a successful day at the Track World Cup in Manchester with a gold medal ride in the team pursuit, and to look forward to a five day stage race in Sardinia riding in the Team GB colours…

Well that was a pretty successful weekend!! I was a bit gutted after the individual pursuit, mainly because of the way I rode it (smash it and die!) But it was a good ‘hit out’ for the team pursuit today.

Is there a better time for riding in Britain than dry autumn days? it's not too hot, not too cold the rain hasn't turned the fallen leaves to slippery mush. This year partly because in these parts its been very dry and cos most of the leaves still seem to be on the trees. Even as November looms it's all still relatively green. One good storm will take care of that I suppose but that's another reason autumn scores for me over the change from winter to spring - it's just that bit much more colourful. 

It had to happen… Thanks to Vecchiojo for not having anything better to do all day and spotting this

So, the Tour de France, there's Jens Voight, here's Dave Brailsford and his crew, moving past the Radioshack support crew and assorted Livestrong types, and a big chunk of the AG2R team… and there's Skippy of road.cc forum fame, yep I'm pretty sure it's him. We're in Rotterdam and all the various members of the cast are assembling fast bit part players and big movers and it doesn't start for another three days.

Aaaargh! Not the new bike!

Days, just days and already the shiny new Roadrat has acquired "character" in the shape of a down to the metal scar and a dent to the top tube… sob!

Loads of you have been telling us about your bike(s) in our Kinesis Tripster Schwag Grab, which has prompted me to extract the digit and tell you about the latest addition to the road.cc team, our new company bike, well frame, it's a Cotic Roadrat and we're going to be using it to test kit and generally have fun… well I am, everyone else in the road.cc