Brexit blamed as London-Paris organisers say next year’s edition will be the last

Have you been to Essex? Horrible, backwater of a place.

As to Preston.... its railway station is the only place a pigeon has tried to mug me for my bike!

Hang on - I thought Essex was a crime free utopia where undesirables were turned away at the border and speckled unicorns roamed free. Have I been misinformed?

That's the "real" Essex, inhabited solely by people with an FTP of 320 who have a merit at grade 4 piano and were milk monitor at school at least twice. I was informed long ago on here by someone who for some reason no longer seems to be around, can't recall the name, that the belt of nasty Barratt homes inhabited by minor gangsters, local radio weather forecasters and accountants who don't have the talent to make it in London isn't the "real" Essex but, and I quote, "Just an outlier of London where its poison has seeped out into the counties."

essexian wrote:

As to Preston.... its railway station is the only place a pigeon has tried to mug me for my bike!

It was in a hurry to get home.

I am sure wtjs has some advice on how to report the incident to the finest members of Lancashire's Constabulary

essexian wrote:

Have you been to Essex? Horrible, backwater of a place.

As to Preston.... its railway station is the only place a pigeon has tried to mug me for my bike!

Tried? In Preston? That was a dove, mate. If a Preston pigeon had 'tried' to mug you, you'd have stayed mugged and he'd have had it on Gumtree before you could board a train to Carnforth!

Aren't you supposed to start on the dock of Tiger Bay?

As the problem stated was £1.7mil of bikes were going through and the majority are road bikes, they can deal with the lesser numbers and cheaper costs from the Gravel/MTB riders. I imagine reducing the amount of road entries to make them manageable loses them money with the need still for the outriders, closed roads and rolling roadblocks they mentioned they used.

AlsoSomniloquism wrote:

As the problem stated was £1.7mil of bikes were going through and the majority are road bikes, they can deal with the lesser numbers and cheaper costs from the Gravel/MTB riders. I imagine reducing the amount of road entries to make them manageable loses them money with the need still for the outriders, closed roads and rolling roadblocks they mentioned they used.

I disagree, I think the road event had probably had its day, there are many ways of doing this route now, and I remember reading an interview with Hotchillee a couple of years ago (wish I could find it again) where they were saying that road sportives were becoming passé, and the future market in this sector was based around experiences rather than challenges, and as an organisation, their future was in gravel. So therefore I don't think the numbers will be less. Regarding the value, the carnet for 350 gravel bikes costing £3k will be the same for 350 road bikes costing £6k. The value will only come into it if import duty is due, and that's what the carnet avoids.

I don't doubt there are other business conditions, as they mention in the article, but I expect it isn't the cost of the carnet they are mentioning as a factor but the organising of it. They get all the paperwork, then 3 people don't turn up, or someone pulls out in the first leg to Dover/ Felixstowe. Paperwork suddently needs changing? Maybe the customs people want to account for each bike against the paperwork on a random check. Several hours of waiting. What happens if someone pulls out once in France due to whatever reason?

The line about Gravel is also on in 2024 is a bit of a red herring as the road event is also still on in 2024, the difference is they are seperating them into two events. This might have been down to the main draw of being on the Champs for the final isn't happening, or Paris getting full due to the Olympics, or just away of having less paperwork hassles, or just to have less people as the Road Captains can then do the gravel rides instead of doubling up. 

How would the potential problems with the carnet be any different with the gravel ride?

One more tariff will fix it. 

If you'd said 'cutting one more tariff will fix it' it would have both made sense and demonstrated that you at least understood our previous discussion.

As it stands that post does neither.

Nothing you said made any sense, so I went with the catchier version. 

Still, the gift keeps on giving huh?

I tried to explain it in very simple terms but I guess even that was too much.

Where are my Brexit benefits? 

simple enough. 

Simples - someone has put together a (no doubt 6000% accurate) Brexit benefit calculator here. Now they just need to hook it up to a bus-sized printer:

https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/brexit

If you refuse to engage when I post clear explanations and links to objective analysis then continuing to post the same question starts to look a lot like simple trolling.

If you can't see that lower prices for bikes and bike components is a benefit for cyclists then I can't really help you.

But it's just jam tomorrow.

Hirsute wrote:

But it's just jam tomorrow.

it's not even that. 

Well low alcohol wine is going down as well as sparkling wine. A brexit benefit !

Let's gloss over the change to 27 rates of duty, the highest increase in duty for 40 years at an average increase of 22% leaving us the highest payers of duty in europe.

(already informed my wife that her sherry will be rationed from now !)

Big whoo, Jeremy. Of course if you drive to the pub, you receive an enormous government subsidy.

Sky News : "For beer drinkers, Mr Hunt is cutting the duty on draught pints across the UK by 11p.  It is seen as a measure designed to boost pubs, many of which have been closing."

Puts me in mind of the old Dover-Calais booze (and fags) cruise. 

David9694 wrote:

Puts me in mind of the old Dover-Calais booze (and fags) cruise. 

Borders are good for that - and smuggling of course! IIRC the lack of a *nearby* border didn't stop smuggling of booze and fags (or people manufacturing knock-offs to avoid local tax) though.

That's a bit of a specious argument.

Once we left the EU it was always going to take time to negotiate new deals whilst the disruption was going to be entirely front loaded. Those new deals are slowly building up now and that disruption is now reducing.

The India deal appears to be on the cusp of final sign off, if it gets over the line the debate about "benefits" will be settled.

It wasn't an argument, just a description of what's happening.

Enjoy your more expensive wine, something touted as a Brexit benefit.

which are you? 

If someone is still defending Brexit, then they must be deriving some satisfaction from it. Since they cannot name anything that is better in Life for Brexit, that only leaves their taking some kind of twisted revenge on the world. 

Unlikely to be settled, except possibly by future historians.

There were certainly those arguing at the time benefits would appear in short order, if not immediately. Equally some analysis suggested that it would be "too early to say" until a generation or two.

As we get further from the point of departure any effect becomes harder to separate from (or it's easier to invoke) "other stuff" - pandemic, not-so-local war etc.

Good and bad likely oversold back when. But thousands of instances of change (or not) being haggled over for decades? Absolutely.

A big trade deal will give a clear benefit (that can't be dismissed or ignored) to point to when debating pros and cons and will end the 'there are no benefits' line of argument.

Rich_cb wrote:

A big trade deal will give a clear benefit (that can't be dismissed or ignored) to point to when debating pros and cons and will end the 'there are no benefits' line of argument.

Any idea when we're going to see that?