Allesandro Petacchi won the final stage of theTour of Britain in Liverpool today to seal a hat-trick of stage wins on this year’s race, but it was Geoffroy Lequartre ( Agritubel) who took the big prize. The Frenchman came home safely in the pack to win the general classification, and the yellow jersey, from Steve Cummings (Great Britain). The Briton started the day with a six second deficit on Lequartre but could take back no more than a second . The other competions were won by: Matthew Goss (CSC Saxo Bank) who took the points title; Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia) – the sprint crown; and Danilo Di Luca (LPR Brakes) king of the mountains. Today’s stage started with an audacious break by Tyler Hamilton (Rock Racing) after the first kilometre, he built up a 16 second lead and was soon joined by Magnus Backstedt (Columbia), but the pair could not escape the the gravitational pull of the peloton and were easily swept up. Russell Downing (Pinarello RT-Candi TV), Backstedt (Columbia), and Malcolm Elliot (Pinarello RT-Candi TV) then broke after 29Km and quickly put two minutes into the chasing pack. However, it was not enough and the trio were caught on the run in to Liverpool with Olympic hero Bradley Wiggins making a surprise move to the front on the final lap of the city-centre circuit. Petacchi was not to be denied though and timed his sprint perfectly to take the stage win from Julian Dean (Garmin Chipotle) with Robbie Hunter (Barloworld in third spot). Overall the organisers of this year’s Tour of Britain can give themselves a pat on the back for a well organised race with a strong field, which was also genuinely competitive – for the first time in it’s short history. The only negative was that British crowds were denied the chance to see Tour de France sprint hero Mark Cavendish in action. Not to say that we weren’t treated to some top-class sprinting but it would have spiced things up even more had Cavendish been in the mix. The young sprinter would surely have won some stages and been in contention for the sprint or points jerseys – instead he opted to ride in the Tour of Missouri, where he won three stages. Maybe next year. Tour of Britain Stage eight results:? 1 A Petacchi (Ita) LPR Brakes-Ballan, 2hrs 19mins 25secs? 2 J Dean (NZ)Garmin-Chipotle, same time? 3 R Hunter (SA) Barloworld, same time? 4 M Goss (Aus) CSC-Saxo Bank, same time? 5 R Hayles (GB) Great Britain, same time? 6 C Sutton (Aus) Garmin-Chipotle, same time? 7 R Hammond (GB) Columbia, same time? 8 J Van Heerden (SA) MTN Energade, same time? 9 R Downing (GB) Pinarello RT-Candi TV, same time? 10 K Lisabeth (Bel) SKT An Post M.Donnelly, same time Final general classification:? 1 G Lequatre (Fra) AGR Agritubel, 27hr 21mins 49secs ?2 S Cummings (GB) Barloworld, at 5secs? 3 I Stannard (GB) Great Brtain, at 14secs? 4 D Martin (Ire) Garmin-Chipotle 27h22’04" at 15secs? 5 G Bosisio (Ita) LPR Brakes-Ballan, at 16secs ?6 B De Schrooder (Bel) SKT An Post M.Donnelly, at 20secs ?7 D Fleeman (GB) SKT An Post M.Donnelly, at 25secs? 8 F Veuchelen (Bel) TSV Topsport Vlaanderen, at 29secs ?9 E Berges (Fra) AGR Agritubel, at 50secs? 10 R Downing (GB) Pinarello RT-Candi TV, at 1min 25secs
Tour of Britain Stage 8: Petacchi takes stage, but Lequartre wins the overall
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@Rendel Harris we used to rent an allotment in a village near Basel and there was an annual autumn party/festival organised by the gardeners. One year as we were about to leave we went to ride our (unlocked - never a need here) bikes and my wife’s was missing. Our allotment neighbours were outraged and were getting ready to get the police in when… up the road rides a gentleman on my wife’s bike, weaving around in a drunken manner.. He gets back and receives the wrath of our neighbour (not us we were in giggles) and he explains that he had to go home to feed his cat and just needed to borrow a bike!
The physics principle exploited is that opposing forces equal applied forces. Conventional power meters measure applied forces--very well but admittedly not cheaply. This app appears to measure acceleration and slope to determine two of four important opposing forces. Notice something missing? Wind...the dominant opposing force when riding on the flats or in a pack. This app assumes that wind speed equals bike speed in order to "guess" the critical opposing wind force it does not measure. If you always ride solo and never ride when the wind blows maybe this app will work OK for you. Otherwise you are wasting your money. There is no such thing as free power.
Not gonna lie, when I saw the name LAP I thought 'Here we go again, yet another pretentious brand like MAAP, PNS, ASOS and Rapha that wants to grab a piece of the 'bragging rights' cycling category. But, to my surprise, what they bring to the table seems pretty well considered. Let's see if this idea gets some traction.
The difference in the UK is that the police don't try to hide their pride in paying no attention to bicycle theft, in order to maintain credibility with their motorhead mates. When the British Transport Police actually declared they weren't interested (OK, there were some provisos to that, but what they really meant was: cyclists can get stuffed) in cycle theft, they were forced to retract that officially but continued in practice to teach cyclists a lesson by making no effort to catch the thieves (I assume - no personal experience of this particular police-encouraged crime wave)
Might have been usefull to describe the bike / brand etc..?
Operation "Sorry Not Attempting Prosecution"? Certainly some forces see it as a success!
I have some Assos gear and generally like it but at 295 GBP, trouser legs that slip upwards while riding are most definitely unacceptable. That's a kill right there in my book. Hell, I own several bib shorts that cost me 1/4 th of that amount and while they are not so supremely comfy as Assos where the pad is concerned, no slippage.
@mdavidford "We should all love one another and I know there are people who do not love their fellow man and I HATE people like that!" Tom Lehrer. Thing is Tom was being satirical...
Bristol City Council is hell bent on turning the former railway line into a so-called relief road for the A4. Van dweller pitches are simply a ruse to bide it time whilst it plots its next manoeuvrers.
@BaselGooner In the early '90s a friend of mine was working in Geneva, his girlfriend had her (unlocked) bike stolen one night and two days later it reappeared in the same rack outside her flat cleaned, oiled and with flowers and chocolates tied to the rear rack and a note saying, "I took your bike because I was drunk and had no money for taxi or bus. I thought it was funny but I was wrong. Sincerest apologies." I've always remembered that and thought what a great place Switzerland must be for cycle ownership if that's representative, sorry to hear it might not be.