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Whoop woop!

Errr.... Gulp!

Currently sitting at Geneva airport waiting for other riders to arrive. Good luck to all doing it on Saturday, including Gandalf and 7ven. Happy riding.

Dude in Regents Park today. I have no problem if you draft me on your £2,000 Cervelo T3, but if you do, please install some back brake blocks first...

Possibly heading to Moscow with work for 3 years. From my brief recent visit, it appears that driving in Moscow is a competitive sport, although I did see 3 guys on fixed wheel bikes on Saturday. Does anyone have any experience of riding in Moscow, and in particular, of getting out of the city on (safe-ish) routes? Thanks.

Attempted L2P<24hrs on the Dover-Calais ferry route last year. We travelled very light (spare tubes, repair kit, energy food). We (or more accurately I) bonked at Amiens c2:30am. Lessons were; pacing, eating, taking it easy and accurate timings are all important. Plus don't be fixing your bike at 2:00am the night before you leave. Basically all of the hotels we called were happy to take us in, and store our bikes when we eventually called it a day.

Hey. We did it last year. Really anywhere. The key is to plan ahead & choose a place where you can head back to the car after they have passed and scoot up the road to a new place. So don't get caught on the wrong side of the race... Obvs Arrenberg and Carrefour will be rammed esp if a sunny day (ps "ride to Melbourne" sounds way more interesting - ask your brother to post details)

Yay, the best ride of the year. It's already been in my calendar since last July, I love it so much.

Personally, I don't know if this made a difference, I'm just glad that I was one who tried to make a difference.

filled out. and then realised that my responses were the spittle flecked, invective laden, green ink kind, rather than the "youramericanlovers" sensible prose...

I'm in with four mates from N London - but none of us are HTFU enough to go fixed.....

Aim for the west coast of Lewis, the beaches are fantastic (although in October to March, the rain might be horizontal...). We stayed in - Blue Reef cottages in Sgarasta Mhor basically built into the hillside, really nice but pricey, and also right next to golf club and beach. There is a luxury restaurant there in Scarista House that i wouldn't recommend (the food is very good, but I hate being told that kids aren't "welcome", irrespective of how "apologetic" they might be). Also a couple of places to eat in Leverburgh. We also stayed at Valasay Self catering, on Great Berneray, which is nice, but not an old house (the owners live in the other side of the semi), and was a bit of a drive to the Beach, but had a nice walk over the footbridge on to the other part of the island, and an interesting tidal "river" in front. Visiting the reconstructed Iron Age house and the traditional village are good. If you are flying in, and hiring a car, why not ask for a covered pick up truck (more fun!). Enjoy it.

Just back from a 10 day ride from London to Croatia. First a thank you to the other posters whose advice here was really useful. To add what I've learnt for others benefit;
1 - used a jack wolf skin gossamer tent and wild camped. Not cheap, but worked perfectly and kept out a very bad all night long thunderstorm in the Alps. The fly sheet removes so you can sleep under netting if its hot. Combined this with a lightweight down sleeping bag. Was nice and warm.
2 - used the Alp Kit bags. Great, tough, and simple. Relatively cheap too.
3 - used a Toppeak QR beam rack, attached to aluminium seat post. No problems, was a little top heavy stationary, but I didn't notice it at all when riding. No drama.
4 - I wanted to strava the entire ride, so fitted a PowerMonkey explorer solar panel and battery pack to the top of the bags. It worked well, giving me enough juice to continue for 2-3 days continuous strava, before I needed to top up in a restaurant (hint McDonalds always have sockets free!).
5 - no lock, so kept bike in grabbing distance at all times (although through much of Europe there was no risk of theft). On the one night that I stayed in a commercial campsite, I tied the bike frame with twine to my wrist, while I slept in the tent.
6 - spares - don't forget spares for cleats, which might be hard to come by - the road cleated shoes made a big efficiency difference (but I like wearing them anyways)
7 - tyres - two quite old continental GP 4000. Still life in them after the ride. No "P" at all. Fantastic.
A great ride, and best of luck to others going away.

Saw some of the entry numbers heading North this morning on our Sunday Ride through Epping, and wondered "could that really be the LEL ride?". Good luck to all, for this mind boggling ride....

To all those that make this happen (Oliver? Miss Mouse? The helpers at the food stops and many others I'm sure) - thank you, for, as ever, the best ride of the year. Terrific ride.

Yes, did it last year, back for more (more pave and more teeth chattering) this year. But will be happy if avoiding result as a DNF, but that's down to luck a bit.... And a healthy dose of HTFU.

Fewer cars today I thought. Quite nice really. Probably because they don't understand "HTFU, it's a wee bit cold" (outside your metal box)

^ Agreed, in my experience, the Regent's Park loops are only enlivened by the pitying look of the coppers with the guns as you pass them at 2am in the rain for the 11th time. All for a badge - what am I, a Cub Scout?

Well done to the guy on a white road bike going towards town this morning at 08:35 at Holloway Road/Hornsey Road lights - the bunny jump on to the pavement behind the line of traffic, followed by the hop off in front of the tipper lorry as the lights turned green (and the lorry moved forward) was very impressive - I'm sure the pedestrians on the pavement were pleased that you didn't have to wait at all. Oh, and ps, I meant what I said to you....

Lawnet - good for you, taking it all so calmly. I'd probably not be so calm. I live in the same part of London as Bringmemyfix and I probably over estimate the risks to my kids here and do the same type of shouting, and un-cool-ness generally when cycling with them (err, or maybe not, given MY joyful ride to work this morning :-) . Looking at the streetview you posted that's exactly the sort of road I'd encourage my kids to cycle on....and then be scared about what might happen. For me its the hard choice of giving them room to grow, even if it feels scary to you...

I think it makes a difference. I ride through Islington every day, mainly on A roads with bus lanes. I dont see a noticible effect on those main roads, of having the side roads with a 20mph limit. And that 20 mph limit has been in place for a while. So if Camden are planning to enforce this (and key here is enforcement) on ALL roads, that would be beneficial. It would certainly encourage me to take my 9 year old out on the road, rather than have her on the pavement (Daily Mail readers feel free to flame me with how she's a law breaking lycra lout, RLJ'er, etc, etc)

or you can go to the motor insurers bureau website, pay £4 and type in the vehicle registration plate - it will tell you the name of the insurance company and you ring them and tell them there has been an accident, get a claim number and then direct them to the video (plus the sensible comments others have made here)

rip

Clara - if you have the vehicle registration details, go to www dot mib dot org dot uk where for £4 you can find out who insures the vehicle, and therefore consider taking out a claim against the insurance company for loss of earnings for your 4-6 weeks off work.

Rogan - I agree. I ride Old St Roundabout North to South and vice versa, and this is generally OK. However, I started to hand out flyers for Londoners on Bikes at the Eastern and Western ends of the roundabout before the summer. I was amazed at how aggressive the drivers are coming Eastbound from the Western approach into the roundabout - it feels like they see a wide space, after the confines of Old St and "go for it". Cyclists are either made to ride like the wind away, or are given a close pass. It may be that the subsequent Traffic Light sequence encourages this behaviour (I may test that theory out when driving through there myself). Seems to me that there is a role for appropriate signs and the police being made aware of the risks (otherwise nothing will ever happen)

Treeman. Dead easy to enter. Go to website - www dot aso dot fr ASO run the etape. All the instructions/prices/etc are in English. Look out for the date 2013 entry opens, and get on the website at opening time on the day. An organised tour has the benefits of hassle free, but £££. I did it myself, low cost flight, hire car, get hotel. Biggest challenge was getting hotel room in Albertville - left it too late. So we stayed up a hill from the start (ie in Megeve), so we had a nice easy 20km downhill to the beginning. Good luck. S