Grassmarket

False. Stalin invaded Finland in 1939, Mao started the Korean War & war with India in 1962.

Group of about 40 have got over the climbs with 22k to go, seemingly none of the obvious sprinters, so probably a random sprint winner, or perhaps a daredevil late breakaway. Magnus Cort Nielsen gets the sprint.

Plenty cheap coats, then.

Pouring rain today. Breakaway trying to get over the last climb and win on the descent. Cattaneo is solo off the front at the moment, has a good chance. Weather has killed him, looking like a sprint now. Jesper Philipsen UAE gets the uphill sprint win.

Sad story, he was always a real hard-worker who did at least get a few great moments, notably in the 2015 Het Nieuwsblad. Former British champion Ian Stannard has been forced to retire because of rheumatoid arthritis. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/54821989

Breakaway day - Tim Wellens gets it. Bit of a climb in the last 1k, might get a bit of a fight in the GC in a few minutes. Don’t think there was a gap....

No matter what kind of a day you are having, it is not as bad as these people’s. A Chelsea mansion worth £8.5million has collapsed during mega-basement construction work in the heart of the celebrity-filled suburb. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8908815/Chelsea-mansion-collapses-building-work-create-mega-basement-6m-property.html Not the first time this has happened. Most of London is made of soft clay underneath.

So we’ll hopefully have a three-way battle on Saturday afternoon....

Good change for Carthy. Roglič also much better. Actually, could not be worse. Roglič leads the day by a fraction of a second.

Political correctness is an angry God: like the Gods of the Aztecs, it demands regular human sacrifices. Fejzulai had been jailed in April 2019 for trying to join Islamic State but he was granted early release in December under juvenile law because he was 19-years-old at the time. He was not deemed capable of carrying out an attack, according to a report. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8906871/Shots-fired-near-synagogue-Vienna-police-say-major-operation-underway.html Bet the judge, politicians & civil servants who took that decision have armed bodyguards.

Wonder if Roglič is going to repeat his brilliant coup of changing his bike for the climb... Valverde messes up his change. Roglič one sec down on Carthy, who is whupping Dan Martin & Mas.

Here’s why you don’t want to be the first person to buy a driverless car. Technology in sports is a beautiful thing, but sometimes even the greatest inventions can go wrong. This happened over the weekend in a soccer game in Scotland, when an AI-controlled camera got confused, and thought a lineman’s bald head was the ball. https://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2020/10/30/21541962/soccer-match-ai-camera-bald-head-ball

Well, given that once-respectable publications refuse to cover legitimate stories which reflect badly on their favoured candidate, I din’t think there’s any reason to be snobbish.

Someone’s going to be happy, it goes to Pau again.

This is very weird.....Kamala Harris has a body double campaigning for her! https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/holy-crap-fake-kamala-got-loomered-laura-loomer-catches-kamala-harris-body-double-palm-beach-polling-place-video-photos/

Something a bit unexpected. Massive pro-Trump march in......Lagos, Nigeria. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=639487783409047

Dunno if many of you have access to,US College sports, but here in the UK we are suddenly getting a lot of College Volleyball on ESPN. Half a dozen matches this week.

Certainly earned their can of Coke today.

Hugh Carthy charging for the win.

Let’s just nip back down the hill & see how Valverde’s doing, shall we? Carapaz has gapped Roglič. Kuss is saving Roglič now.

Just about onto the Angliru....Guillaume Martin has wrapped up the KoM smaller climbs for a big lead there. Chris Froome bails with 10k to go, leaving Carapaz on his own. J-V still hammering away.

This one guy was the owner of the shop........and probably about half the town, really. Was actually a very rich guy, but dressed in very shabby clothes & just played all day. Old school Hakka Chinese, not like today. My father worked with his son & actually I was at school with one of his grandsons.

I used to live in Asia & when you went round the teashops etc you’d see guys playing all day every day.

Just spent six hours riding your bike? “You know what, I think I’ll relax by riding my bike for a while.”

Not much Overall action so far, but here we are with 18k to go on the final climb. Might be one of those truce days with a horrible last climb tomorrow.