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"Gay sex is against my religion."
"Don't do it then." :)

Thanks for this, just learnt how to play Sheela-Na-Gig properly. Not difficult, but y'know...

Also I can recommend playing a 12-string guitar to improve technique going back to a 6-string. Feels like my left hand is stronger and my right one more precise. :)

Crikey! Vancouver's a lovely place for a run, took my running shoes when I visited my bro, but his heat map is putting mine to shame.
Anyway, 338 miles on the bike over four days for the bank holiday, so I really should get out for a jog later to remind my legs what running feels like. Weird, probably.

...This has been a most excellent jaunt so far. Already made it as far as Pershore for a leisurely lunch and I can see the Malvern hills. :)

Nice one, cheers! Just done some re-routing whilst my porridge goes down.

Excellent dad jokes!

Yeah I did take a look, but going either way is adding on maybe 10 miles to get to Stow-on-the-Wold compared to a more direct route through the middle, and I'm saving my legs for Hay Bluff. :)

Speaking of Cotswolds, how does this look for getting from Oxford to Malvern tomorrow? Not an area I know at all, purely mapped out on Google. Any better idea than the A46 into Tewkesbury or just put up with it for 3/4 miles?

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/30035913

Not a joke but a real-life encounter with a client, an engineering manager who had a prosthetic right arm. When I asked him if he still gets involved in the technical side of things, he said with a straight face, "I like to keep my hand in." I held it together pretty well, I think.

Bicester village

Sounds nice.

Cheers! :)

Anyone experienced with Chiltern Railways out of Marylebone on a Saturday morning? I'm on the 8:06 to Oxford, bike reservations not possible. I'm hoping that's early enough not to be too much of a risk??

Love a bit of harmonium. This conjured up memories of one of my favourite obscure folk albums:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jh7AUcBl0A

From The best British press photography – in pictures

Some cracking photos here. WARNING: Contains a naked Chris Froome. :-0

Pacers should essentially run even pace. In practise, when I've paced half marathons (and marathons) my tactic has been to run marginally inside pace (~5-10s/mile) to build up a small cushion, no more than a minute, by halfway, then run at target pace to finish just inside target.

Noted, cheers!

I'm always open to a good pub recommendation, especially if the biggest climb is already out of the way. :) My mate's also pitched in with an improved route over the Malvern hills. Getting there...

By some lucky coincidence, joining up @owl's route between Hay-on-Wye and Chepstow with the Google recommended route from Malvern to Hay-on-Wye adds up to just over my 90-miles target for the day
(with a couple of nice big lumps to get over along the way). Will run it by my Malvern mate to see what he makes of the first bit, then crack on planning the rest. Thanks again for the input so far.

So Gary Barlow has decided to block me on Twitter...

Whatever I said, whatever I did, I didn’t mean it...

Ah, my old Stronglight chainset. Not seen one of those for a while.

This is great stuff, cheers all!

@owl - Looks like I can borrow heavily from your LEJOG route all the way from Hay to Cheddar Gorge. I did LEJOG this time last year and did similar route from Chepstow to Monmouth but following the river more closely. (We headed north from Monmouth towards Hereford.)
Re: Severn Bridge-to-Mendips, I don't know that part of the world very well. Would you recommend your route through Bristol rather than bypassing via Portishead/Clevedon? Is it a bit industrial along there? I did go through Bristol on LEJOG, but just following the Bath-Bristol cycle path and turning right at Avonmouth.

I'm planning a 4-day solo mini-tour for the late May bank holiday. The only fixed element at the moment is visiting a mate in Malvern on the first night. Other requirements are finding nice roads to ride on, including riding up Cheddar Gorge, just cos I've never ridden up Cheddar Gorge before. And judicial use of trains at either end to avoid boring/busy bits closer to home.

So, something like:

• Day 1: train to Oxford, ride to Malvern (~60/70 miles)
  
• Day 2: Malvern to Chepstow, via Wye Valley and possibly Brecon Beacons (~90 miles)
  
• Day 3: Chepstow to Chippenham, via Cheddar Gorge (~90 miles)
  
• Day 4: Chippenham to Reading, train home from Reading (~60 miles)
  
  

Probably B&B'ing it the other two nights, so will be able to travel quite light. Intermediate locations based on a very rough Google Maps route sketch.
If anyone's got any route suggestions, either based on the above or different suggestions, would love to hear. (Especially if GPX files on ridewithgps!)

"Avez vous un cuppa?"

Franglaisist!

^ Pretty much how I read it.

(His son's a top fella as well!)

I assume the photo is some confiscated items in a police raid or something, and the joke is Jack Laws thinks it's a prize being advertised on the police's social media channel.