Grassmarket

Sorry, Thai winter skiing is kind of a running gag here.

Any number of tax exiles live there, so only being a native counts.

& cyclist Mark Cavendish will retire at end of the year. Surely the the all-time best athlete from the Isle of Man. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/65665546

Lucky they have skiing to fall back on, then.

Enjoying the early stages of this. How is it that all amateur club athletes know that if you are being lapped, it’s your responsibilityto run into an outside lane & get out of the better runners’ way? Yet hardly any elite professional Olympic athletes ever bloody well do it?

Well, they’re going over it, but not much happening. Some of the usual suspects in the Big Break. Rain’s on, so looks like it’ll be safe to watch something else for the next three hours or so.

And two more big meets on Sunday - see post #340 in this thread for international transmission info. Yokohama, https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-continental-tour/news/seiko-golden-grand-prix-yokohama-kerley-wang-barber-2023 Bermuda geographically, but actually presented by the T&F Federation https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-continental-tour/news/usatf-bermuda-grand-prix-lyles-grasse-camacho-gardiner-2023

Another very good quality FTA event on Sunday is two Road 10ks from Bengaluru . Many African stars. Here’s the preview https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-label-road-races/news/bengaluru-10km-cheptai-kipkorir-2023

Ugh, Rubio contributes nothing during the final climb, takes the win. Minor shuffling in the top 10, but no big moves.

Two good FTA events this weekend, both on the European Athletics YT channel. Night of the 10,000m PBs from London on Saturday. Whole lot of races, top of the bill races start at 20:00 UK. European Race Walking Team Champs from Podebrady on Sunday. https://www.youtube.com/@EuropeanAthletics/streams

Final climb coming - 5 people in the Pinot Group, honours even in main group.

Over the top on the Croix de Coeur -descending road does indeed look very sketchy. Pinot the big name in the breakaway, gets the KoM points.

We got racing! Lots of activity early on as lots of otherwise unemployed riders & masterless ronin want to get into the early break. Very unusual day with a heavy climb right from the gun, already Cavendish, Gaviria, Milan & Co out the back.

Broken hip for TGH Giro d'Italia: Britain's Tao Geoghegan Hart fractures hip, Geraint Thomas & Primoz Roglic involved - BBC Sport

Friday's Alpine Stage gets a haircut, and the first big climb of the day, the ascent of the St Bernard Pass, has been cut out because of a shortage of hyper-cute dogs with kegs of brandy round their necks risk of avalanches. So the race goes through the tunnel instead, but still finishes with two Cat 1 climbs.

Vlasov also out, riders are mutinous.

Surfing Champion says her sport must learn to do without surfboards, wetsuits, international travel, media coverage. Surf champion Lucy Campbell says her sport must be greener - BBC News

Been around long enough not to share your blind optimism.

Even years ago there were tons of technical support sites that were obviously machine generated. I never touched them!

Used to work in IT at a University. It was childishly easy for us to pick up this kind of plagiarism, using software that's specifically designed to detect boilerplate & stereotyped text that has already been used by someone else. The first student at a UK university has been caught using ChatGPT after they cited a book on 'Leadership Insights for Wizards and Witches' to write an essay on leadership theories. In what is believed to be the first known case of its kind, the University of Bolton student was failed for using the AI-chatbot to cheat their way through the assessment. First known student at UK university caught using AI bot ChatGPT citing Wizards and Witches book | Daily Mail Online

Seems a bit odd that Muslims in Europe always vote for Islamists/Far Left in European elections, but vote for what you are calling "Islamists/Far Right" in their native country. Bit of a contradiction there.

Was a bit lucky that Evie Richards got a puncture & a terrible wheel change when 15 secs in the lead. But obviously a big win for her.

Great day for Ineos as both Thomas & Geoghan Hart hit the top three. Narrow - fractions of a second - win for Evenepoel though.

Big early lead for

Right, that’s enough of the rubbish songs - now for the judging!