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I don't usually berate road cycling adverts for getting it wrong because I think the standard is so ridiculous across the entire industry, stretching from shamefully bad to well-intended disaster.

I've never understood the obsessions with Tron pseudo-science and heritage in road cycling advertising. They are at the root of why road has failed to grow and compete with BMX and then MTB, both of which seem to have realised that fun and excitement are what the vast majority of people want and aspire to when it comes to bicycles, not vertical compliance, lateral stiffness and watts.

I digress. What made me write this was this image in the Probikekit email today.

Really Danilo? I thought your current "favourite weapon" was third generation EPO products.

Either this is one of the most ironic adverts ever, in which case I missed the funny, or it's just a rubbish and ill-judged space filler.

I'm not missing something here am I?

Sunglasses are one of those things that go in trend waves in cycling. More often than not it's Oakley who are responsible for it with their saturation marketing of the pro peloton.

The Oakley Radar, which became widespread in 2007, has become near ubiqitous at every level of the sport so they have to come up with something else to keep the punters coming back. Even I've got a pair now and I really like them. Certainly an improvement on what I was wearing before in terms of comfort and coverage.

Which is where the Jawbone comes in. Prototypes were worn by Thor Hushovd and George Hincapie last season and this season Lance Armstrong and Mark Cavendish have become the highest profile wearers of the production models.

Currently Cav is wearing the white ones at the Giro and although they aren't available in shops yet, you can buy them from Amazon.co.uk

He wore the silver ones to win Milan-San Remo which they don't seem to have. There's also a Livestrong version which Lance has been wearing and which are obviously going to get plenty of airtime this year

So if you want to get ahead of the trend curve, now is the time to start purchasing. And if anyone at Oakley UK is reading and would like to send me some to test, then I am easily contacted at alex at atomicecho dot com.

My head's a bit mashed after my first race of the season so rather than try and write, here's five songs I frequently listen to when I'm out riding. A mixed bag and all available as DRM-free downloads from amazon.co.uk for around 79p.

I recently posted about some of the issues when it comes to buying a woman's bike and how frustrating my girlfriend was finding it. Great response to it from readers on the issues as well.

Today I can announce that she is the very happy owner of the Bianchi that she had set her mind to getting. And it's thanks to Geoffrey Butler Cycles in Croydon.

Not only did they have the bike in stock and held onto it for her for over a week while we tried to find the time to make the trip across town (3 different trains to get there, taking around an hour and a bit) but when we got there they were helpful, attentive to her needs as the customer and delivered a good experience for her as a first time buyer. The first of those is obvious enough but the other two might need some explaining.

By taking me along there was the risk that I could have got in the way and suggested things that might not have been entirely helpful. I know what I think she needs to buy, but is that the same thing as what she does need to buy? Possibly not, which is why it was great that while the guy (apologies for forgetting his name) serving us listened to what I had to say, he focused on why my girlfriend was saying more closely.

I remembered to bring along the Shimano M324 Combination Pedals I'd bought her ages ago and we got them fitted. I might have picked up a few shoes to suggest but it wasn't me who sensibly suggested a pair of Specialized Road Shoes which mean she can now upgrade to any three-bolt road pedal she likes when she wants to move on from the SPD fitting on those pedals. They were also considerably less costly than any other pair of shoes she owns.

It's been said of the bike trade that it doesn't traditionally cater for the needs of women, something which was confirmed by what we we've seen and heard about the availability of clothing and accessories for women, but the quality of service at GB Cycles was totally contradictory to that received wisdom. My girlfriend is now happy to make the trip round to Croydon again if we need anything because it was such a positive experience.