cycling

Those of you who use the social networking site, Twitter – and if you do, we hope you follow @roadcc – will be aware of hashtags.

For those of you who aren’t yet ‘tweeting’ – using Twitter to send messages of 140 characters or fewer – hashtags help Twitter users track trends, and aid them in keeping track of posts on specific subjects.

Sunday 23rd August

YUSS!!! It's Raining! and horizontal to boot. What? I hear you ask, are you mad?

Charity Galloways, which supports more than 6,000 blind and partially sighted people, have taken delivery of a new tandem machine. Now they are calling for more volunteer 'pilots' to come forward for steering and seeing duties.

The new bike, bought by Lancashire County Council, replaces a worn-out model used by a tandem cycling group based at the Sight Advice Centre in Chorley. The new Thorn tandem has a special coupling system allowing the frame to be split for transport by car. Accessories and two services will be provided by Broadgate Cycles of Penwortham.

Greater Manchester has bid for £29 million to become the country's first 'sustainable travel city' and if successful it will be good news for the city’s cyclists.

The bid includes proposals for an innovative network of five flagship cycle centres in the regional centre, offering cycle parking facilities, showers and changing facilities, short-term bike hire, information and workshop and training facilities. The cycle centres would also function as centres for sustainable travel and smarter driving advice.

Well there was a lot of talk during the tour about the relationship between Astana's two stars, Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong, but radio silence was more or less kept by the team about any internal squabbles, and the Kazakh-backed team went on to score first and third overall.

But if we were in any doubt about the feelings the two have for each other, we're not now: Contador used a press conference yesterday to put the knife in to the seven-time Tour winner, and Lance wasn't slow with a comeback.

If you’re the kind of rider that complains about your saddle digging into you on a long ride, or who gets put off going out on your bike because the weather’s a bit on the cold side, you should stop your moaning. It could be a lot worse.

Because to celebrate Nude Recreation Week, which celebrates its 32nd year this month, travel website TripAdvisor has come up with a list of the top five nude events enjoyed by naturists internationally.

And the World Naked Bike Ride came top of the pile.

The second Giant brand store to hit the UK opened its doors in Cambridge on Monday.

The store, which is run by an independent dealer, is located close to the city centre and train station and is a hot spot with locals.

Managing director of Giant UK Ian Beasant said: “Cambridge is a unique cycling city and we hope to offer the local commuter market as well as give non-cycling customers an experience they can trust.”

Londoners have been invited to nominate their favourite cycle projects for the upcoming London Cycling Awards 2009.  With many cycling campaigns and initiatives in the capital there are plenty to choose from for Londoners.

The annual awards, run by The London Cycling Campaign (LCC), recognise the best contributions to the growth of cycling in the capital.

Martigny - Bourg Saint Maurice 159km

Mikel Astarloza took the spoils on today's mountainous stage, nipping away from a leading group of eight to cross the line alone - and didn't he look pleased. There was plenty of action among the GC contenders as the Schleck brothers tried everything to shake off Contador, Armstrong and Wiggins but at the death all the main protagonists finished together a minute down and there's no change in the top five.

We've seen Ultegra 6700 before, but last time it was pre-production prototypes made of plastic and we had to take Shimano's word for how good it was going to be. This time, however, it was the real deal: a real production groupset fitted to a real bike. 6700 won't hit the shops (or be specced on bikes) until probably the end of August, but on first impressions it's going to be one to look out for... and save your pennies for.