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Good morning, Rosalind!
Sport is rife with folk like Maria.
It is called "cheating"!
Gone are the days of Alf Tupper!
I see two of her sponsors, Nike, and Head, are standing by her, saying she was treated "harshly".
Certainly, Nike is no surprise to me.
Seb Coe was/is on the Nike payroll.
Wonder what his thoughts are regarding Miss Sharapova?

Maybe he will say; up to us what we believe.
Maria can never say she was forced to take the drug.
I know it's about money (and perhaps prestige) but , does their conscience not prick them? How does it feel surveying your wealth knowing you cheated? (putting motors in bikes seems the ultimate in this to me). But on the other hand, many of our great houses and castles were originally built on blood....

Back to the washing up

Hello, Rosalind.
There is a top professional rider, Ryder Hesjedal, a Canadian.
Not so long ago, he was in a race and he and several others crashed.
All perfectly normal in cycle racing.
But here's the thing. He was on the ground and his bike was several feet away. And the back wheel (the drive wheel) and pedals were turning.
Some force was making them turn. A motor was suspected.
The bike was trying to go down the road without a rider!
This story is all over the Internet and YouTube.

I watched the video where just he crashed, I couldn't tell whether or not there was a motor because I know very little about bikes, but it did look suspicious. Also his coment that motors are impossible. Oh, really?

Cheating, backhanders....going back to gardening and childcare!(o, and reading).

Hello, Rosalind.
It is a strange one.
How do the bike manufacturers feel about their bikes being adulterated with motors?
Ryder is either stupid (which I do not think) or a chancer.
Motors can and have been hidden in bike frames.
Nowadays the bikes are checked at the race using tiny cameras.
The cheaters always seem to be a step ahead of the testers.
C'mon, the good guys!

Morning Everyone,

Yes Rusty, pigale remembers PouPou very well indeed - he was my favourite too; Anquetil appeared a little too arrogant to most French people - and he too admitted to taking drugs didn't he? (Anquetil that is)

Very nice weather here and warm - already 24C - Lovely !

Good morning, Rusty!
A beautiful day here! It was lovely out early on - altho a bit cooler today.
Now.....what a morning I have had!
I rang the Freeview Helpline number . I spoke to a very nice Scottish gentleman who did his very best to be of assistance.
First, he requested details of my postcode and house number, and the make of the TV and the Freeview box.
Then he did some local tests.
Apparently, Channels 4 and 5, and Film 4 and ITV4, are all on the same circuit.
So I had to try getting all these up on the screen in turn.
Channels 4 and 5 operated fine. Film 4 wasn't there on that number but a Shopping Channel was - and ITV 4 had no signal (as before)
After that, he informed me that the problem lay in the fact the Freeview box hadn't been automatically updating
So I had first to disconnect the aerial and retune the box, thereby ridding the box of all the previously stored channels.
Then I had to plug the aerial in again and retune yet again.
This was supposed to rectify all problems.......
It didn't!
We tried this and that......the guy eventually ran out of ideas!
"Film 4" is still a Shopping Channel - and ITV4 is still "scrambled "!
I now have a number to ring for the Freeview manufacturer.........
Ah well, at least I tried!
This has taken up all my morning........!
I am now rushing off to "Ladies Who lunch"........catch up with you later.......

Good day, Pigale!
Ah, yes, I think we all preferred PouPou to Anquetil!
I wonder if the drugs took a toll on Anquetil, he died very young, of stomach cancer.
I could not get on the site for a while earlier, and let Norah know.

Rusty, I was relieved to hear that you couldn't get on the site earlier - that happened to me and I blamed my computer and/or my broadband connection.

I hope you liked this clue from today's Times Cryptic...
5 D. Sign impedes worker in the East End (9).

Hello, Malone,
I am relieved you could not access the site either!
I was switching router off and on to no avail.
Seems fine now!
Not heard from Norah, but there is no need now.
I do not know the answer to your clue, Malone...yet!
I have not tackled the crossword yet.