#thank you so much yr the real mvp

[couriersiccs]

💐🌺 for an oc of your choice

aw wraow thank you! i'm gonna pick Mar, the MC of my Dragon Age fic!

💐 How does your OC handle being unwell or forced to rest in bed? Who cares for them and in what ways? Does your OC enjoy being doted on or are they a terrible patient? Reversed: is your OC good at taking care of others who are ill or in need?

Mar would much rather be the one taking care of someone than being taken care of. She'll push through whatever she can to avoid bedrest, downplay any symptom to not worry others. If she concretely hits her limit, though, she won't try to pretend she hasn't, because that would just look silly. Whoever takes care of her will only ever be someone she trusts when she's vulnerable (the number of people who qualify is uhhh very low), but she'll still try to do as much as she can to care for herself.

🌺 What does your OC do to calm down when they’re scared or after a nightmare? Do they have any special comfort items or need to be reassured by a specific person? How do they handle this if they’re alone?

oh boy waking up in a panic is a core component of my fic's plot! Mar always goes for Ol' Reliable: Timed Deep Breaths as soon as she can. If she's with someone, she may try to get space from them so she can collect herself. If she has her journal with her, she'll start writing before the night sweats have even dried.

For fear in general, she kind of just exists with constant low-frequency background levels of it, so until it gets overwhelming, she's pretty good at outwardly appearing calm. Once it does, she'll typically act before thinking to decrease the level of fear. When it's over and she's alone, crying helps release the tension :')

[leonbastralle]

FINALLY A Flood Of Replies

Hopefully this time tumblr got all of them!

EDIT it didn’t I pulled some out of its ass, if some are missing still I swear I tried ;_;

alfalfalegacy replied to your photoset

I love how these were shot! Really captures the intimacy between them!

skjdgnskdjganskjgbansfasd thank you ;_; I feel like I might have overdone it a little, but it was such a cute scene and I couldn’t not xD so I’m glad my attempt at being artsy was successful!

alfalfalegacy replied to your photoset “Charlotte: Hey Connie, you okay? Conifer: Y-yeah, I guess…it’s just…I...”

I love her so much

alfalfalegacy replied to your photoset “Charlotte: Hey Connie, you okay? Conifer: Y-yeah, I guess…it’s just…I...”

Connie is too pure

sjfhabjhfbajs me too ;_;

monets-pixels replied to your photoset

Ohohohohohooho

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )

monets-pixels replied to your photoset “Charlotte: Hey Connie, you okay? Conifer: Y-yeah, I guess…it’s just…I...”

i love you both

YOU’RE THE BEST

monets-pixels replied to your photoset

Me too Connie

same XD

monets-pixels replied to your photoset

😍😍😍

honestly I think I took these mostly for myself XD I’m crushing on Charlotte so much, I’ve been waiting for this for...more than a year now, can you imagine?? It was the gen 8 of 2016/17

monets-pixels replied to your photoset “Charlotte: Whoa! Um…maybe we should head inside?”

!!!!!!!!!!!! IM SCREAMING

monets-pixels replied to your photoset

HECK YEAH

YAAAAS MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

melien replied to your photoset

I was waiting to see these pics again ;_;

aksjbfaksjfnakjfnasfasd this one is my fave tbh

melien replied to your photoset “B: Hey, do you remember that video you showed me? Not the gaming one,...”

I dare you to show us a toddler Flame (if it wasn't a thing already)

@twinsimskeletons just said the same to me...I think it’ll have to happen at some point xD I peeked at him, but didn’t like him at all...and Aur’s markings aren’t for tots, these are the two main reasons that keep me from doing this...that and time man, always time.

melien replied to your photoset “Charlotte: Do you really need to write on vacation? There’s so much...”

Connie is my spirit animal

this post is one shameless self insert I tell you (that and I’m having her write a lot of books related to gen 8)

melien replied to your photoset

They look so good in this light ;_;

say what you want about ts4 lighting, but it can be great ;_; especially the campfire one man, I can’t believe I took night shots and didn’t have to fiddle with the brightness

melien replied to your photoset “S: It seems I have attracted a following…”

Everyone wants to be bros with Shine

except Salim

alfalfalegacy replied to your photoset “Conifer: I don-”

*cheers*

monets-pixels replied to your photoset “Charlotte: Okay, Connie. You might hate me for this, but I’m done...”

K ISS????

;) ;) ;)

treason-and-plot replied to your post “I AM A TERRIBLE PERSON PLEASE SOMEONE PUNCH ME OUT OF PROCRASTINATING”

lulz this is me rn

this is me all the time mum, how did you raise me??

treason-and-plot replied to your post “Weekly Ask Meme Time (again)”

stay in yr room till you're 40

treason-and-plot replied to your post “Weekly Ask Meme Time (again)”

you're too young to date >:(

bUT MUUUUUM ;_; how will you have a handsome son in law? And grandchildren?? (tho I wouldn’t mind staying in my room for a few more years if that means I can run from my responsibilities)

monets-pixels replied to your photoset “Conifer: Thank you for coming here with me.”

:D

seeing your reactions makes me so happy ;_; you’re the real mvp when it comes to these two!

monets-pixels replied to your photoset

OMG cutie!!!

Ikr??? I love this outfit on her.

monets-pixels replied to your photoset

aaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH

;_;

monets-pixels replied to your photoset “Conifer: Wait…there’s only one bed?? Charlotte: Yeah…is that an issue?...”

OHOHOHOHO

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )

monets-pixels replied to your photoset

pretty girls

they sure are ;_;

amixofpixels replied to your photoset

Conifer's face is one of the best, and I'm not ashamed to say it.

it’s true! But also...I think all the Miracle faces are the best.

alfalfalegacy replied to your photoset

I approve

;)

sugarsimms replied to your photoset

<.< yes

Approval very high

like sir through most of his teens <.<<<

something new for you

you mean the leaf haired boy liked to...cuddle? 👀

amixofpixels replied to your photoset “Granola Falls 8.20 pm”

The berry name for Granite Falls, is just too cute

tbh, this is my version, there are a billion names for all the worlds out there, I think ppl tried to find a consensus, but you know me XD but yes, I, too, am very satisfied with my names!

limericksims replied to your post  “it’s 10 minutes till monday”

Aww, you look so cute and pretty! ♥

amixofpixels replied to your post “it’s 10 minutes till monday”

Look at that amazing face that I just want to squish!

monets-pixels replied to your post “it’s 10 minutes till monday”

😍

aWH SHUCKS U GUYS

bouquet-of-scissors replied to your photoset “S: It seems I have attracted a following…”

Flower beard got sims swarming like bees

it’s true! It just makes everything so much better ♥

twinsimskeletons replied to your post “I Feel Like I’ve Missed A Week - Replies”

I am always okay when Flame is around

;___________; same

amixofpixels replied to your post  “I Feel Like I’ve Missed A Week - Replies”

The good old days of Robin family spam. I miss those days! XD

I know, I know, don’t drag me XD

amixofpixels replied to your post “I Feel Like I’ve Missed A Week - Replies”

Also, my heart is forever stuck with the FOB, P!ATD, and Paramore. They are just getting better with age, man.

:ooo well that’s something new to add to the list of Chelsea facts! I rarely feel this way about bands ;_;

[missingmulder]

even tho i know today is technically my day ( because birthday and all ) , i really wanna just give some love to the amazing x-files family i have because without them, samantha wouldn’t be the character i’ve developed her into. ( no thanks to chris carter )

so a huge shoutout to some lovely people, aka my x-files family.

@skepticreal​ & @believertrue​            \          without these two losers, samantha wouldn’t have even been made, nor would i have ever considered her and honestly, they’re both the driving force behind my characterization. plus, they somehow put up with my immense crying about nicholas lea and the fact that i’m going to find a way to marry him one day because honestly, 32 yrs isn’t such a bad age gap. but seriously, kaylyn & manon are the greatest scully & mulder i could have ever asked for to raise my precious little alien abductee. ( not to mention try and steer her in the right direction and away from krycek ) i couldn’t imagine anyone else to write samantha with aside from you guys because you’ve helped me so much.

@lzirus​              \            honestly, the passion logan has for dana scully is so wonderful and it’s like a breath of fresh air when i see her just cry over dana ( and gillian anderson ) because i can feel the love that logan holds for both babes.

@fbiisms​             \             god, cait is such a fucking doll and she’s the real mvp for even making doggo dad. honestly, i couldn’t think of anyone else to write doggett and i love the relationship we’ve created between the two of them because he’s honestly the dad samantha should have had ( even if they are like actually some 4 years apart ) but it doesn’t matter because someone cares about my precious alien abductee. also you’re my evita buddy and i cry a lot over that as well because finally someone else who appreciates evita.

@spookakimbo​              \            and then we have this hoe who just makes everything better with krycek. aside from the fact i somehow dragged you into this hell with an insane idea of a ship, i love having you here because we need that asshole in our life and it’s perfect because he just balances everything else out.

lastly, just a shoutout to the other muses who i follow & see on my dash who bring me life.            \            @muldcritsme​ @agcntspooky​ @spookyprofiler​ @campaignoflies​ @scienceisnteverything

[theunsungheroines]

Thank you for sending in this story about your sister @jaqi_jaq Posts like this are my favorite. ✊🏽" I grew up in a small town in the midwest and girls were not allowed to play on the only organized baseball league. There was softball, but baseball meant hardball and our dad raised us on baseball. I vividly remember hitting my first homer in the backyard at 4 years old and my dad cheering me around the bases, and I had no idea what bases were! The soundtrack of my youth was the fuzzy sportscast of Mike Shannon and Cardinals baseball. (we were Phillies fans, just transplants in St. Louis.) When my older sister was 9-yrs old, she was told she could not play little league baseball because she was a girl. My sister petitioned and pushed really hard to get permission to play with the little league organization. They had real uniforms, the best fields and for fucks sake, it was baseball. My Dad was by her side the whole way. We didn’t win this battle, but my sister Patty and my Dad got some press and their picture was in the paper. I can not find the article, unfortunately, but I remember it being amazing. Being recognized was a small victory, but not being able to play ball was hard to take. I was 4 years younger than my big sister and I also hoped to play baseball on a little league team. Softball always felt like a consolation prize. (My sister ended up playing softball for years and was voted MVP a number of times - she was a pretty bad ass player). Anyway, I wanted to share with you the story and the pic of my sister and Dad in the paper. It’s a memory I still cherish. The buzz and thrill of fighting for something is unheralded. It is so great to see all the achievements of the Unsung Heroes. Thank you for making this generation aware of the successes of those who preceded them. To see women succeed and play inspired me as a kid, and it opens doors for the future. Things are so much better when we all have a seat at the table. " #theunsungheroines #gamechangers

[topicprinter]

..and got featured on Shopify app store📷3 months ago if someone had told me that I would launch product that got thousands of users and ended up getting featured on a prominent marketplace, I wouldn't have believed them. I mean, I'm an optimist, but this one was borderline surrealist.And yet, that's exactly what happened!📷My micro-SaaS product, WhatsApp Chat Button, was launched on April 24th, 2019 on the Shopify App Store.I built this product together with Sankalp Jonna.Here's what we've been up to in the 40 days (as of June 4th) since launch:💬 Conversations with 100+ Shopify store owners from 10+ nationalities (Google Translate FTW!)🏆 #1 ranked app for WhatsApp keyword🛍️ 2000+ active Shopify stores❤️ Highest-rated “WhatsApp Chat” app on Shopify with raving 5-star reviews💻 2 major iterations launched (v3 introduced a paid plan)🌟 Featured on the Shopify App StoreHow did we do it? I'm glad you asked!Topics covered in this postWhy we built a micro-SaaSWhy Shopify and the e-commerce marketUncovering opportunities on ShopifySolving tech challenges while building a Shopify appRanking on the Shopify app storeMonetising our Shopify appWhat's nextWhy we built a micro-SaaSIn my previous post, I explained "What is micro-SaaS?". In this post, I'll explain why I picked micro-SaaS.I've been enamoured with the startup world and coming up with ideas to startup ever since I joined the industry, back in 2015. I've dreamed and imagined and fantasized about building billion $ startups so much, I was consumed by it.It's a cultural thing - you work for startups, you live in the startup capital of India, you read startup blogs and you discuss ideas with your friends in social gatherings. So of course your mentality becomes one that is constantly seeking and evaluating potential "unicorn)" startup ideas.I never paused to consider that the entire world around me is building small, local, profitable businesses around me.If you walked down the street near your house this morning, chances are you crossed about half a dozen different "businesses" that are operating and thriving (if they weren't, they would shut down, as they do not have millions of $ in funding to burn cash). I started to appreciate the beauty of a business.A startup that is successful often has many things going, including and not limited tovalidation of core value propositionworking channel(s) of acquisitionproviding continuous value or retentiongreat product and customer serviceGuess what, a local business has a clear and well-validated core value proposition, they have a channel of acquisition (street walk-ins, or Google SEO), and they are already providing continuous value else customers would stop coming and the business would shut.As I became increasingly frustrated with the "how do I come up with a Zero to Oneidea", my mentality shifted from the obsession with "unicorns" tois this problem real and validated?is there an acquisition channel we can tap?would users come back?can we build a great product and provide excellent customer service?can we grow a business to $100k/yr in revenues?I also accepted that not everyone, and not all the time, does one have to aspire to build a unicorn. I can just build a business. And having never actually run a business before in my life, micro-SaaS seemed like the perfect launchpad into the world of business.Sankalp and I spent months discussing these questions before we both bought into this concept, and believed in it, and therefore decided to work together towards it.Why Shopify and the e-commerce marketShort answer?My friend Shashank runs a thriving and highly-profitable Shopify app called PushOwl. His journey, his learnings, his success taught me and inspired me and made me believe in Shopify as a platform. He also helped me realise just how HUGE the e-commerce market is (have you heard of Amazon?).📷Long answer?Back in 2017, I tried my hand at building an online store. Dropshipping was the 🔥 back then, and I wanted in.I did manage to build a store that raked in ~$500/mo in revenue, but after multiple copyright violations (that's what happens when you source generic products from Aliexpress) and a lack of general understanding of how an e-commerce business is built, I shut it down.Aftwards, I took the time to understand what makes a valuable e-commerce business. I could understand and relate to people who started out of their homes, packaging their own products and selling to a niche audience, making a livelihood out of their business.I truly wanted to enable and support these people, especially considering that I'm trying to do the same thing.In the previous section, I highlighted how "is there an acquisition channel we can tap?" is an important question. Turns out, Shopify's app marketplace is a potential answer.I also asked "can we grow a business to $100k/yr in revenues?". Thanks to the humongous size of the e-commerce market (in trillion $), the answer was YES.But why Shopify, and not Atlassian or Slack or Google Chrome Extensions?we were familiar with Shopifywe knew about e-commerce due to my past experiencewe knew people in our network succeeding with ShopifyAll these tiny reasons and more made Shopify the most obvious choice for us.Uncovering opportunities on ShopifyIn the first section, I highlighted the questions that need to be answered in order to have a shot at building a successful business. Let's apply them to Shopify.Browsing the app store was a perfect way for us to understand what problems e-commerce store owners face, and care about. Shopify breaks things down by category and sub-category, giving you a very granular idea about the different types of problems you could solve.📷Additionally, you could type in keywords on the Search bar, and that would give you more ideas about what problems to solve. I used Shopify's search autocomplete as a heuristic for sufficient demand.After all, why would Shopify's search team include a keyword in autocomplete if it didn't have enough demand?📷Before narrowing down, we did a very general approach by researching the entire app store. I personally visited every single page on the Shopify app store, under every category and sub-category, which helped me in creating a mental map of the ecosystem.It also gave me ideas on how to evaluate any particular idea.Is there enough demand?is the problem being solved a "keyword" in Shopify's search autocomplete?are the existing apps for that keyword getting new reviews? Since new reviews are a signal that new users are searching, installing, using, and liking the app enough to write a review.Who are the competitors? Can I beat them?what is the average rating and #reviews that my competitor has?how strong is their recent reviews? is it all 5-stars? if so, is there a way for me to beat them?What are the competitor's strenghts and weaknesses?what keywords do people use in positive reviews? what keywords show up in negative reviews?are there enough negatives that give a newcomer an opportunity to make a better product and acquire users?📷(screenshots from my research spreadsheet...ssshh)📷What is the business model of competitors?are they charging a very high amount (say >$50/mo)? if so, is it because of costs, or can I build the same product and price it 5x cheaper at $10/mo?is the app free/freemium? if so, are they using this app to drive business to another? can I compete with a different business model?what features are my competitors charging for? can I make those features available for free and find a way to monetise with something else?What is the tech effort involved?can we build an MVP in 2 weeks? can we build out the entire product and feature set in 2 months?What keywords, categories, and sub-categories do they rank for?how do I acquire new users? Is there a keyword where they rank #1? If yes, can I beat them? If not, can I rank #1 for a different keyword in the same domain?Market outside Shopifycan I launch the same app for other e-commerce platforms like BigCommerce, WooCommerce etc. in the future and expand my market size?Solving tech challenges while building a Shopify appIf this is your first time building a Shopify app, I highly recommend that you start from their excellent documentation.During development, you are sure to get stuck at many places. If you are unable to resolve something on your own, your first response should be to check the documentation.It's not very likely that you would find answers on Stack Overflow, hence I recommend joining a Facebook group full of helpful Shopify App Developers.This group was recommended to me by Shashank, and it helped immensely as the other developers are friendly and helpful. And now I'm paying it forward by recommending it to you.Ranking on the Shopify app storeShashank helped us understand the lifeblood of any Shopify app - ratings & reviews.How to get them? The answer is no hidden secret.build a beautiful and easy-to-use productprovide 11/10 customer serviceoptimize store listing for right keywordswin!!??From Day 1, we were obsessed with serving every user with the best possible customer service. In the process, Sankalp and I ended up chatting with 100s of Shopify store owners from countries like Brazil, India, Mexico, Colombia, Spain, United Kingdom, South Africa, Morocco, Chile, China, United States, United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, Denmark, Pakistan, Netherlands, Costa Rica, and more.Sometimes, we spent hours talking to customers about their business and trying our best to help, even when it wasn't related to our app! This is a perfect example of "do things that don't scale", as our customers were overwhelmed with how far we were willing to go to help them.As a result, we have 100+ reviews on the app store, and are rated 5-stars.📷From Day 1, we also ensured that our app was simple, and easy-to-use. We paid extra attention to the first-time setup, making it a breeze. All the fields that a user needs to configure would be pre-configured out of the box. Only the phone number field needs to be populated, and our user is good to go!In the store description, we made sure to include keywords such as "whatsapp live chat" and "customer support" in an organic manner.We were also very clear on the search terms we wanted to rank for, and our store listing reflected that.📷Monetising our Shopify appIn order to acquire users, we launched v1 of WhatsApp Chat Button for free. Our aim was to provide a bare minimum feature set that every other app was providing, but give it away for free in order to attract users.This set a simple flywheel in motion:more users > more conversations > more reviews & ratings > higher search ranking > more usersIn v2, we added the most common feature requests which included basic customisations to the button design, display position, etc.In v3, our focus was to provide premium features that users had been asking for during conversations. We also wanted to ensure that a paid plan didn't affect any of the existing users, so we decided to keep the base feature set free forever.📷By keeping the free plan, we essentially want to ensure that our acquisition channel remains strong and that users prefer us over alternatives.v3 with our first paid plan was launched on June 3rd, 2019. Since the plan comes with a 7-day trial, we are still awaiting results on trial-to-conversion % at the time of publishing this post.What's nextOur immediate plan is to launch v4 and v5 in the month of June.To collect information about what features to build in an automated manner, we designed a simple Google form and added a link in our dashboard saying "Vote for the next feature".Here are the results:📷The goals behind of launching v4 and v5 areprovide more value to our user baseto make our product more resistant to competitioncharge a higher monthly subscription amountThis is how we will do it:1. Abandoned CartE-commerce shops already send abandoned cart notifications using push, email, SMS. But what about doing this over WhatsApp?Since this cannot be completely automated (API limitations), we are focused on building a solution which allows a store owner to send ~100 abandoned cart messages per hour manually on WhatsApp.Our feature will remove all the manual work except one - actually hitting the send button from inside WhatsApp.In our survey, we found store owners more than willing to spare 30 mins/day to send abandoned cart notifications. Why wouldn't they, when it could lead to >$1000 in additional revenue every month?2. CRMStore owners want to stay in touch with their customers. After all, it is more valuable to retain customers than spend more to acquire new ones.This could involve sending lifecycle messages, follow-ups after a product is delivered to ask for feedback or review, or informing customers about new launches that may interest them.We want to build an easy way to enable this behaviour over WhatsApp.3. Pixel RetargetingWhat if you could retarget people who were interested in a product, but didn't see through to a purchase? Retargeting ads for e-commerce is no new concept.It's proven to work and there are several great companies such as Shoelace that are built on top of this concept.The key is to understand context: who to retarget? what to retarget them with?4. Better designs for WhatsApp ShareCurrently, we offer 10+ premium chat button designs to our paid users. We plan to make them available for the Share feature, so that a store owner can have matching buttons.📷We also plan to add new templates like a sticky button, and a pop-up message. The aim here is to help shop owners initiate more conversations with their store visitors.That's all folks!I hope readers of this post find value, especially if you're planning to build your own Shopify app.If you have more questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Just drop me a message!​Originally published on my blog - https://www.preetamnath.com/blog/shopify-micro-saas-growthWe are live on ProductHunt - https://www.producthunt.com/posts/whatsapp-chat-for-shopify

[becauseiamnotanelephant]

MacVelo Day 3: Big Day - and night.

Big day on the bikes. It was freezing this morning so I was bundled up for a big day of riding. 100 miles and 10,000 feet of climbing. Not so crazy in the grand scheme of my cycling adventures, but what an epic day it became! A good breakfast, and then up a gravel driveway (a climb up a hill to start, naturally). Within 30 minutes we had lost and then found the fast group, had two punctures, lost one person off the front, missed multiple turns, biked on a hiking trail, and then started the first big 12 mile climb of the day. The groups had split fast vs slower and there was some constant regrouping before the first stop after a great descent followed by another climb. A mish mosh of skills - slower climbing vs lethargic descending kills any effort to keep people together but after the next big climb, we were four - me, Fergus, Aymee, and Ros. We stuck together pretty well until the roads got narrower and way steeper. I am so glad for all the crazy rides I did this summer to get me ready for the 20% backroads. Aymee had issues with her bike and after having fallen twice and walking up two climbs, ended up with a bent derailleur hanger and got in the van. The climbs were seriously a little nutty for anyone; not really possible if you’re bike isn’t working well. There was no real way to avoid these hills to get over a ridge, but they were even a shock to John who had planned the route. None of us saw the cobble stone climb coming, but luckily there was some pavement along the sides that we could ride on. The three of us carried on and the constant up and down, with some wind and rain, beat me down and I arrived at the next rest stop a little out of my mind. Waiting for lunch until mile 70 on a day like this is not ideal and I pretty much collapsed upon arrival at the lunch stop. By then, it was 3 pm, and we still had 42 miles to go with another 3000 feet of climbing. I ate a big lunch very quickly and then we set off again. The climb out of lunch was ridiculous and we lost Adam to the van; another man down. The fast crew had waited for us so we were about 16, and quickly separated until the next stop, where we met Chris’ family, including his awesome 93 yr old grandmum who used to race bikes! Amazing! What an inspiration. (Side story: on the last trip to Venice, Chris’ friend Hamish was supposed to join us, nut had broken his wrist on a descent (that we will be doing on this ride). Chris told his grandmother about it and her response was “bloody hell” and that Hamish should know that she used to do that descent in the winter on a fixed gear bike. The badass title officially goes to her). With 26 miles to go with not much daylight left, we set off and again, immediately separated because the concept of “easy up” is just not in some of these guys vocabulary. Fergus wins MVP again on this trip for hanging back with the slower group, now me, Ros, and Jaime, and taking the lead of the paceline for over 15 miles. Still lots of up and down, so it wasn’t fast, but we had a fabulous and delirious time. We accused Fergus of being a murderer, we herded hundreds of sheep in a field (which was fucking hilarious), and we leisurely ate a snack while I freaked out about the sun setting before we finished the ride. Which it did. We of course had one major and never ending climb left to do, which we finally finished in the middle of nowhere, in the dark. And then did a 2.4 mile descent in darkness. All I can say is thank you to whoever made that a perfectly paved section of road. Because otherwise, that would have been really terrible. And then there was a beer, dinner, and catching up with everyone. It was an epic day for everyone. Our group descended in darkness, but we made it in the nick of time. Anja’s group was not as lucky and ended up way behind; the van had to drive back along the route over 30 minutes to collect them. And Pov’s carbon wheels overheated on a descent and stopped working. Jeff’s fear of descending in the Pyrenees was well justified. Pov flew past John on a big descent and ended up wedging himself between two stationary objects to come to a stop. I had to do that once because my clips had worn down too much and I couldn’t unclip, but it’s a totally different thing when you’re going 30 mph.