Cracking race going on in #TDF2026Femmes; lots of nasty short climbs, breakaway group losing members and in danger of being caught either on or before the last categorised climb.

Looks like Haugset, after her fairly mammoth 88 k time trial, off the front of the race yesterday, is really struggling in today's actual #TDF2026Femmes time trial. Going to lose yellow at this rate.

Ah yes, Runcorn’s finest moron at it again.

Northern & proud 👊@gazlancs.bsky.social · 2d ago

French forces held a fierce defensive perimeter around Dunkirk and lost 18,000 souls. 40,000 became POWs. Without their resolve we wouldn’t have our nation’s story. It’s estimated 20-60k French resistance fighters died during the war. These fuckers really are vile bastards 😡😡

It’s a good thing @LCRC1916 don’t run our club 10 on The Hale circuit any more; 3 contraflows today, on the 4.7- mile lap.

Missed an epic stage of #TDF2026Femmes - just caught up with it. Quite an effort from the Norwegian champion Sigrid Haugset, going solo with almost 90 km to go and holding everyone off to win.

Why do politicians and other obviously 'media-trained' interviewees use 'Well, listen...' or 'Well, look...' as an answer precursor? I find it patronising and irritating and I wish they'd stop.

Was hoping to watch a bit of #TDF2026Femmes before this afternoon's dreaded weights session, but the TNT live coverage doesn't start until 14.30. Ah well...

Echoes of what’s described in this article in my own institution. Probably sector-wide, unfortunately. Mushrooming of the managerial class does seem to have accelerated of late.

Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 5d ago

A deeply destructive and inexpert management consultancy class has emerged whose sole purpose is to shrink Anglosphere universities and to undermine their future - all the better to secure more work. democracyforsale.substack.com/p/inside-bri...

Made a crumble with the first of the season’s plums last night. They’re almost ripe enough to eat but still a bit tart. A higher proportion have been burrowed by insects this year, maybe due to drought.

Catching up with my reading post- #TDF2026. Very cool paper by Gouverneur et al. in Science, persuading the Appel reaction to work for alkyl fluorides, including chiral examples. Phosphorus is such a useful element! ($) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Catalytic Appel fluorination of alcohols with potassium fluoride

Appel halogenation reactions are widely used to convert alcohols to alkyl halides but are not suitable to prepare alkyl fluorides because fluoride is sequestered as a difluorophosphorane. In this work...

science.org

An interesting observation, but this is one study I wouldn't be keen on trying to duplicate! (Benzidines are horribly carcinogenic). chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Acid‐Catalyzed Rearrangement Reaction for Single‐Molecule Junction Formation

Hydrazobenzenes cannot form single-molecule devices with gold electrodes in a nonpolar solvent, but with the addition of trifluoroacetic acid, robust single-molecule junctions are created. Hydrazoben...

chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

So, I noted this book on the ‘help yourself to these’ table at Broadgreen Hospital main entrance last week; today, I saw a middle-aged lady look and then take it!

Just been on the 'revamped' ACS website. It has all the design attributes of a 1990's intern's first go at web design. Are they trying for the nostalgia market?

Kudos to the course planners for that one. Remarkable race. #TDF2026

What a phenomenal finale that was! #TDF2026

Amazing final stage of #TDF2026, with the yellow jersey in the breakaway group; how often does that happen?

I see Veistroffer couldn't resist another solo break but it's come to nothing. Race hasn't really caught alight yet, on the Champs circuit. #TDF2026

Just tried the Col de Sarenne on Zwift climb portal and failed with 3k to go. Should’ve used a smaller gear than my TT bike/turbo combination of 40x28; there are pitches of 15% and some corners that hit 25%. Horrid!

TNT Sports commentators right by the side of the road at the finish, and it's nice to hear the massive volume of appreciation for every finishing rider, nearly drowning them out. All the riders have finished an epic stage, after all. #TDF2026

Jesus, Kuss had a narrow escape there- crash on a descent and a low wall alone wouldn't have stopped him plunging into a ravine- good job there was a safety fence. Horrible. I wanted Carapaz to win, but not like that! #TDF2026

That Col de Sarenne looked pretty nasty, but at least it wasn't rammed with crazed fans- the last bit up the Alpe again will be a different matter. #TDF2026

Col du Télégraph coming up now in #TDF2026. This is one I've done on Zwift; I didn't find it too hard, but I didn't then have to do Galibier straight after.

35:27 for Pog climbing Alpe dHuez?... bonkers. Is that right? Two minutes faster than il Pirata? That's just... ridiculous. #TDF2026

I don't think the break has a big enough gap to beat Pogacar here; the Alpe is brutal and they're only halfway up. #TDF2026

Here we go; Alpe d'Huez Mark 1! #TDF2026

Richard Carapaz is like one of those suicidally-aggressive little dogs, but he's certainly putting everyone else in the red today. #TDF2026

Broadgreen Hospital encourages DIY with the limited choice of secondhand books now available in the main entrance?

Great Aussie nautical slang from Robbie McEwan #TDF2026 commentary there; Evenepoel is 'coming home with a wet sail'. Like it.

64-tooth chain ring for Pog; ye gods. And there's a cat 2 climb to start with in the #TDF2026 time trial. I used to find 54 x 12 or 13 hard to turn over on the flat; these guys are just on another planet.

There should be a special team prize in the #TDF2026 time trial for the most ridiculous over-the-top Star Wars 'aero' helmet.