Surely grounds for excommunication and being black-balled from The Lodge!? 

Check out a movie called The Sin Eater, also known as The Order, with Heath Ledger. Don't pay any attention to the critics; those semi-literates missed all the cultural references.

I think even F-1 fans often fail to realize the high fitness levels drivers possess and the work required to get and stay there in between stints behind the wheel.

Remember David Coulthard's neck? Built like a tree trunk -- a redwoood, at that. It didn't happen on its own.

Nico Rosberg, who was Lewis Hamilton's teammate, and whose own World Drivers' Championship interrupted Hamilton's run of championships for Mercedes, immediately afterwards retired to spend more time with his family. He gave a fascinating description of how he hardly saw his family in the previous year as he worked with his trainer to prepare him to beat Lewis Hamilton, one muscle at a time. I imagine a bicycle racer who wants to win also trains muscle by muscle.

It's not surprising that track racers develop necks bigger than their thighs. The g-forces on a car racer are greater than on a fighter jet pilot, and happens multiple times over a race weekend, whereas the fighter pilot suffers such his top g-forces perhaps a handful of times in an entire career, or never if there are no wars during his career.

I would think that he will be contracted to drive so has no option?

All drivers' contracts forbid bicycling or motorbiking on the public roads, permitting cycling only under the supervision of the driver's trainer because cycling is too valuable a training method to forbid. But Cadillac is a new team and Valtteri Bottas is one of the few available top drivers (ten victories, years at Mercedes, twice runner-up in the World Drivers' Championship) whose experience they need to develop their car. So, while it is unthinkable that even a new team would have overlooked such a standard clause in the contract, Bottas would have had some negotiating clout about a mainly off-road second sport.

Related information from my protege Dakota Franklin, author of the Ruthless to Win set of books: Fernando Alonso, twice world champion, thirty-something victories, universally considered one of the greats, has a clause in his contract with Aston Martin that he won't enter a race where he has unfinished business, the Indy 500, while he drives for them. It seems clout goes only so far.

I think even F-1 fans often fail to realize the high fitness levels drivers possess and the work required to get and stay there in between stints behind the wheel.

Remember David Coulthard's neck? Built like a tree trunk -- a redwoood, at that. It didn't happen on its own.

Still, disappointing to see a ranked gravel rider abandon same for the tarmac and four wheels. The nerve! 

Great article, well found.

Best, Dan.

I'm too saddened by this to say any more. Go read it for yourself:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/articles/cv2d6p9en7wdo

What ratio do you have now and what ratios are you considering?

I wanted to lower my gearing and went from 38/16 to 38/17 which effectively added one extra lower gear and removed the very top ratio.  My Raven has the older screw on rear sprocket and as I am near SJS, Nick there swopped sprockets for me (a special tool is needed).  I was lucky that the eccentric BB was initially almost fully tight (even though the chain had little wear) and by going to the fully loose position I could keep the same chain in use.  Chainglider parts were not changed.

The change was definitely worthwhile.  The lowest gear has changed from 17” to 16”.    I don’t miss the loss of the very top ratio and I can cycle up my local steep hill a lot easier.

Having odd number teeth on the back also means the sprocket will wear evenly as narrow and wide links alternate position every revolution (the chainwheel is N/W so the chain always has the same orientation on that).

I was thinking about changing my current set up to something that gave me a few lower ( hill climbing ) gears. That got me thinking about the pluses and minuses of changing either a sprocket or a chainring. Is it a simple practicality choice; its easier to change one or the other. Maybe its a cost thing or fitting a chainglider issue. Now that sprockets are easier to change thanks to circlips being used perhaps its almost a personal preference thing. I could of course be barking up the wrong tree here but am happy to be corrected and educated.