tinofbeans

the book is excellent though it effectively tells most of us that know about climbers from the 90's ( and indeed most of the General classification Riders of the time). Pantani himself seems the most oxymoronic of characters. not a sociopath like the American guy, but willing to really stick the knife in when things get steep, yet shy, but charismatic off the bike. Watch the film as well, it was clearly shot on a budget, but there are some parts of the film that make you think if he were 10-15 years younger and clean, he would pretty much have been up towards the top of the GC contenders nowadays. i mean these guys were big ringing some of the hardest climbs you can go up... (Big ringing is where you power climb in the 53 or 52 ring). Literally sprinting up some hellish climbs. I'm a huge fan of Pantani, was a real showman on the bike, but blemished as you'll read and see by the time he got into the cycling biz and his associations.

oh dear. not good.

i do lots of medium length rides, around 35-45 miles during the summer at tempo. during that i do sprint drills and other things like climb rubbish hills. its about getting and making time. and being lucky with the weather and getting people out with you who want to push themselves!

I'm there now lads. looking forward to some pm's to organise a ride in the near future. some one will have to put me and the bike up mind!

Glad to see you've all enjoyed the tour and in Gemmils case got out there on a new bike. Sorry to hear about your wrist/ hand Wyki. good FTP btw. Looks like i need to come up there and do some of your hills sometime soon. Gemmil, rather than hitting that segment cold, get your self going for a bout 20 minutes at tempo first, then smash it. stay low as you can, aero helps beleive me. anyone fancy organising a toontastic hill climb challenge?

its boring and predictable but a specialized allez is pretty much good enough to start out on. that has rather racy geometry, but can of course be adjusted. cross bikes are really good all rounders and offer 90% of the full fat race bike experience for not much out lay. other good bikes in this price bracket... Caad8 ( from cannondale), Fuji sportif, Giant defy, cannodale synapse. all are good bikes.

true that. reflecting on that weekend and the preceding tour of flanders.... If you guys were able to get across and do a “European Sportive”, I would heartily recommend either of these. The tour of Flanders sportive, and the Liege Bastogne Liege sportive. You can do lower distance ones so you just get part of the course, such as the 80 mile tour of Flanders course, which has all the climbs and the fast last section... the full one is a bit dull as you’ve got 80 miles of flat lands, then the 80 miles where the course gets interesting. If you want fun, do the flanders middle course, some of the climbs are real sods, and are cobbled, so you need to have good climbing skills. The last 7km is flat and very very fast. I was able to get up to a 31mph average over part of that section. If you want to really test yourself, LBL is definitely the course to go for. Its really really hard. There are 2 or 3 climbs that really really hurt. Having been to a number of UK ones, they really don’t compare. Best thing is if you get a group going over it doesn’t cost a fortune.

got Back From doing the Liege Bastogne Liege Sportive this weekend. 174 miles of hills hills and more hills. some of those climbs are properly painful. 4444 metres of climbing. nasty.

best things to get on the bike are clipless pedals. allow you to transfer power better and use different parts of legs so you don't just stomp. the other important stuff is contact points on the bike. get good gloves and decent bibshorts. ensure your saddle suits you! do a bikefit, the amount of folks i see with too short a seat height and the seat too far back or forward.

Kellys heroes. far out dude!

225 -260 miles a week on the bike (usually in Heart rate threshold 3/4/5). 2 times a week at 5 a side. Gone from 13 stone 10 to 12 stone in 4 months, gone down 2 sizes in my trousers and toned up. Best thing about this is i can eat what i want though i have been reasonably sensible. I've also given up drinking 3 times a week, ( now once a week and only a few beers).

Being based in surrey, i have the surrey hills to contend with, and thats probably one of the primary reasons as to why i haven't been on here much. its addictive getting up hills in a quicker time than you did before ( in most instances). the only trouble is around london there are literally thousands and thousands of people that are new to it and all going to what they beleive is the mecca of hills. Box hill... its not even that steep or anything! can't understand the fuss, but looking at the folks trying it it seems they all like pushing themselves and getting up it (as there is a nice cafe up top!). there are so many nice hilly areas down here but i do need to come up to newcastle sometime soon to look at doing some routes in Durham... any reccomendations. i've virtually given up playing football as the knees and ankles are a little creaky and this gives me a better form of exercise.

some bits for a bike wheel build. dura ace 9000 hubs, racing spokes and tape, and some pretty amazing rims. i'll post a pic when they are built. i'm going to the alps hill climbing in the summer. these will make it slightly easier!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDXuou-6dvg

cycling is notorious for bad backs.... if you haven't gone out on the bike i'd be very careful. any how, have been cycling again now for 4 months and despite the rain its been pretty enjoyable. spoilt myself for xmas and am getting the parts for my own wheels (made by me) delivered next week. 1400 grams ( ideal for hill climbing). can't wait to put them together.

i don't have a problem with any of that.... all good..

actually hit the nail on the head there. most of the peloton in the TDF around his time was on a variety of concoctions...

seems most of the top 10 riders from 96 to 2007 have been on the red meat or the juice (EPO) for some time. they also had illegal blood transfusions to get their blood count up and also some masked the EPO usage with injections of plasma and other substances.... so i've read. effectively Armstrong is the biggest fraud in sport, for my money. he also damaged the reputations of other (more clean riders) and was extraordinarily litigious and very egotistical. his party line with journalists who looked at his record etc was to act as "cancer Jesus" as one journo put it. luckily the testing has caught up with the athletes and wiggins ( i beleive) has won cleanly. he's been helped by what would be the strongest group of riders I think has been assembled in the sport and with Dave Brailsford running the show, they were bound to be very analytical about the whole Tour and the preceding events (also the Vuelta ... running now).

yep, me. its fucking fast.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us even came with pedals. its bluddy fast. love it.

doper.... ? no, Indurain was the poster boy for EPO usage in the early 90's. nowadays these guys are screened for everything. I doubt Wiggins would do that given his history of leaving teams with dopers onboard. also he's got Dave Brailsford and a team of sports science nuts working their socks off and changing the way he rides and trains (he has pushed himself much harder over the last year but in different ways to previous years). its all about cadence and gearing and power usage and transmission. every pre race is analysed in minute detail and then they are breifed as to what they should do. its fascinating. to me at least!

remember him in his pomp. 98 -2002 ish. he was a 10.4 second 100metre runner and used to absolutely murder opposition wingers and full backs with his forward runs. hisleft foot was occasionally great but often he used to over hit passes and crosses. defensively he was suspect, but had great recovery speed and athleticism. I think overall he has done the lot, and played in quite a few leagues rather than staying in one place. remember seeing him vs Mendieta (who was spains best attacking midfielder at the time for valencia) and he made Mendieta look a right mug. probably the best left wingback i've seen.

1 Man City 2 Chelsea 3 Man Utd 4 Arsenal 5 Tottenham 6 Newcastle 7 Liverpool 8 Sunderland 9 Fulham 10 Villa 11 Stoke 12 Norwich 13 WBA 14 QPR 15 Everton 16 Wigan 17 West Ham 18 Southampton 19 Swansea 20 Reading

quickly building a fearsome team. lavezzi, ibra and Nene.... very nice forward line...

seems it does fall flat on a few numbers but overall it does give a view that would sometimes make me pretty incredulous. As Steve says henderson is clearly worth nowhere near as much as Cheik... but these are based on a few variables, not just perception based numbers. I think its a pretty canny resource...