sandwichsaint

That's new CB sorted then, just need some pace up front now.

Typical GB, no plan B! Surely we should have stuck somebody in the break? When you look at some of the names in the break surely unrealistic that we could chase down a 6 minute break? With hindsight it was never the course for Cavendish and no other teams seemed to be copying our 'team time trial' tactics, maybe Gerraint Thomas would have done better? Bit galling to see Uran in silver, are we saying none of our boys can beat him in a head-to-head? Missed opportunity, if we hadn't relied on Cav as plan A to Z, Wiggo and Froome could have taken this away from everybody else (possibly?). Top crowds.

Decent effort on a mountain bike: I didn't avg that on my road bike this afternoon though it was 29 degrees full sun and mine does include 1500 feet of vertical, hot + hilly! http://ridewithgps.com/trips/799193 you need to get on this site - ridewithgps.com - it's totally free, just export .gps files from your current app and you can get it all mapped and graphed. It's not helping my cycling but it does give you pretty pictures to look back on.

No Jonah on this thread?

Niemi probably our 'biggest' signing in modern times?

First time buyer me (bloody plastic JCLs!), I ordered three on Monday, got the order all sorted and the guy said they will be ready for collection in a couple of days. I pointed out (nicely!) that I live 150 miles away and I wouldn't be dropping past SMS any time soon, any chance they could put them in the post? No worries he said, they arrived this morning! It's fashionable to knock the TO (I've done it!) but fair play when they get it right - excellent guy I spoke to and excellent customer service to get it sorted in two days ... I'll have to try and watch the dvd when I get a minute, a v. professional package they have put together.

Anybody get on my tip? Unfortunately I didn't! Guess he would have started between 12-1 to 20-1 ??? Big challenge now for Sky to keep him, not inconceivable that Wiggins could win yellow this year and Froome could lead the team next year - great to see the French (Europcar) doing so well. A classic TDF needs some French winners.

Vignall, Guthrie, Mellis, Trottman, Ifell, (this will be unpopular) Euell were all decent for us. Had to LOL the other day at someone who said Chris Perry wasn't very good very for us, he gave his absolute all for us, shot legs or not, and the sides he played in made him look like Beckenbaur. I also had a soft spot for Wotten, right signing, wrong player, but he never gave less than the proverbial 110%. Kudos to Bart for sticking with us. Shame Patterson never made it, saw a couple of decent games from him, ditto Jake Thomson and also McLaggon away at Norwich. I always said Dyer would end up in the premier league. Never good enough for us but pleased that Lloyd James seems to have found his level at Colchester, a real trier and he also delivered a mean set-piece (anybody there will never forget his worldy away at Brentford). It seems to be fashionable (or marmite) to slag Antonio, I thought he was great, rather blocked out by the Ox but wouldn't say no to having had him in the squad the last three years. Papa Waigo was also well under-rated, not sure about Prem but he would have been worth his place in a 22 man squad last season. Gully de Prado is also very good but well under-rated by a lot of Saints fans!

If you are doing a 'long ride' you need a road bike - end of. MTBs are enormous fun off road, passable on road, but massively inefficient and 'draggy' on the road. Hybrids are 'OK' - they will get you across tow paths and 'off road' cycle tracks but again are limited on the road. Road bikes are where it's at if you have any presumptions of covering any distance at any sort of speed - lighter, more aero-dynamic, more efficient ratio of power in = power out. If you can get your employer to sign-up for the Bike to Work scheme - bike and accessories are paid for by your employer, employer claims back tax and VAT and you 'buy' the bike back from your employer for 12 monthly payments plus a nominal final payment. You can get c£1000 worth of kit for about 12 payments of £45 ... result! You can buy a perfectly good entry-level road bike for around £500, £1000 will get you something decent (it bloody well ought to!),beyond that the sky's the limit (no pun inended) ..... enjoy!

You been watching that TDF? Still sticking with your thought that Alpe d'Huez 'doesn't look that far' Hope the training's going well? Will try and donate before the big day.

Sheff Weds away when we down from the Champs - total gutless capitulation - the least we deserved was the team to at least pretend they were trying. (Honorable exceptions to KD and Chris Perry). Colchester in the fog - just a total no-show from the fans - the single worst away games I've 'ever' been to atmosphere-wise. Swindon away - Pardew just hanging the team out to dry second half (Look Nicola, I NEED SOME MORE PLAYERS!), that tactic worked a treat in the long run! Wolves - 2 nil down in what seemed like the first two minutes, and having to endure another 88 minutes of their promotion party - their fans were top draw that day, and all live in Sky TV! What goes around, comes around WTFILN? I'm truggling to find anymore - it's been a brilliant few years to follow Saints and there's been loads of decent awaydays on the pitch and off it.

You missed Waterfall - an obvious reference to parking charges,ticket taxes and getting rained on from a great height..

Surely the Smiths? Heaven knows we were miserable then, but now, Every Day's Like a Super Sunday.

Calm down dears! There is no evidence that Saints want to sell him and I'm sure we are doing all we can legally/finanacially/vision-thing-ly to keep him - what we won't do is pay unproven teenagers 30k/week - and quite rightly so, that type of silly-money is beyond us at the moment (and only available to two or three others). If the player wants to go (for any number of reasons, and many of which may well not be in his long-term interest) then ultimately there is sweet Fanny Adams that the club can do about it. These are human beings operating in the rawest of free markets, not slaves or tied labourers. If he did want to go (and there is no evidence he does) then on past performance we can reliably expect NC to get top dollar for him, maybe 6m-7m based on the figures reported so far. We could then use this money to buy an established premier league standard left back and use the change to fund the ongoing costs of the Academy. I'm not sure a single case 'proves' anything either way but we can conclusively say that we are continuing to produce some top talent in the academy and long may that continue. All clubs are selling clubs, get over it, console yourself with the fact that Saints are a very good selling club.

Probably he (Hodgson) had more than half an eye on the sh*tstorm that Graham Taylor endured when he took off Linekar against Sweden. Taylor was pilloried for that for years even though it was absolutely the correct thing to do at the time. People don't remember the game now, just that he took off 'our top scorer' 'our best player' ' our match winner' 'Saint Gary' 'he stopped him breaking the English scoring record' etc etc. What a load of twonk: I for one had been screaming at the telly to get Linekar off who was playing complete gash and wouldn't have scored if they had played all night. The joys of international management, damned if you do and damned if you don't - with hindsight we need not have taken Rooney at all and England looked much more coherent at times in the warm-up games with Young playing through the middle - but would Hodgson ever have lived down that call? He played safe and who can blame him? His was a safety-first face-saving appointment and he would argue he more than met his brief getting us out of the group and drawing 0-0 with the eventual finalists .... let's see what he does with a two year qualifying campaign and a WC and with maybe Wilshire to return ... probably lose on penalties in the last 16 .... LOL!

Presumably at his age we face losing him to a tribunal fee if he chooses to walk, and that wouldn't pay anywhere near £4m? Tricky one if he wanted to go; in an ideal world the club would get him on the contract that's needed to keep him here, and give him the ownership of the vision so that he wants to stay. Unfortunately (?) he has the sort of talent that only the very top clubs can afford so any 'offer' will be attractive and we will have to pay the going rate to keep him; I'm sure NC and NA are well aware of this and I've every confidence in them to do the right thing. If the player chooses to go then on past performance we would get top-dollar, use it to buy an established PL LB with several seasons remaining on the clock, and move on. Nothing in this scenario to say we are a 'selling club' - that would only apply if we took the 4m and forced him out, I think that's extremely unlikely to happen.

What a bizarre opening stage but maybe a good move by the organisers? The massive uphill finish avoided the big pile-ups we are used to seeing in the first week with all the top boys getting home in level time, the only one missing out was my EW bet Froome who punctured very late and lost 1.25. Good day for Wiggins tho.

45 posts and only I nomination for BT? About 12 months ago my mum moved about 500m down the road. She's very organised and got it all sorted, she wanted to take her number with her and filled in all the forms etc. Top and bottom - BT didn't stop her old phone nor move her number over. They then issued her a 'new' number for the new house. Interminable phone calls and correspondences later they then disconnected her phone at the new house. When she then contacted them to say that this wasn't what she wanted they tried to bill her for a whole new line to reconnect it. Fair play to her, she's 71 and she stuck at it and after 6 weeks she got her old number back and no reconnection fees (having followed their procedures to the letter it should have been there the day she moved in). Even better she then binned them and went to plusnet who have been excellent. Mother-in-law is 85 and best described as 'doddery' - we pay her phone bill on a rolling direct debit. The credit on this reached +£200! before we decided to do something about it. I phoned and asked to get the payments reduced - would be easier to get blood out of a stone. I asked for the £200 back and to reduce the payments to what they should be based on the last two quarters - I was on the phone to Indian call centre for over an hour until it was resolved. Absolutely shocking (and the cynic in me wonders if they target older people?)

Wiggins has to stay out of trouble in the first week, and remain competitive while he's doing it. No easy thing, especially considering how windy it's been recently. If he gets through the first week he's got a great chance - the Tour won't be won in the Nord Pas but it could be lost here. Hardly outsiders but I expect Menchov and Valverde to go well on this course, think Cav will struggle to keep green (his focus is on the Olympics and he will have to do his bit for Bradley too). What about Chris Froome E/W for a place in the first four?

I thought it was a noun? How come I can manage this without going to Uni but you can't?

This is what an old man looks like on Alpe d'Huez, maybe we can get this Saints-raid going next year? (I can't do anything this year unfortunately). Just joined ridewithgps.com this week and loving what it can do ... totally free to join! The files are slightly corrupted for the bottom km of ADH but you still get the picture! Relentless!! Came down in a group of 4, reckon I could have gone faster on my tod. Isoard was probably the prettiest climb I've ever done, Cas desert is absolutely as weird and wonderful as they say (not helped by them having had a big landslide the day before we were there and half the road having slipped over the edge!) http://ridewithgps.com/trips/741009 Alpe d’Huez ascent http://ridewithgps.com/trips/741010 Alpe d’Huez decent http://ridewithgps.com/trips/741007 I’soard ascent http://ridewithgps.com/trips/741006 I’soard descent

Guess there's nothing to pay to old or new Rangers but there will still be agents' fees and signing-on money to pay? Maybe we can get mickey mouse Scottish players for 1m rather than 3m-4m? Personally I would have thought we could do better?

I can't see either of the rides in 'mapmyride' .... it just goes to your profile ... where are the rides? I've joined this today, totally free, http://www.ridewithgps.com Import a gpx file from the iphone and you get full profile/speed/gradient graphs and superimposed on google maps. http://ridewithgps.com/trips/738471 don't know if this in my area or it's public access?

Walsall, how didn't we score? Southend in the pouring rain on a Friday night. Hartlepool... Alan Carr, Alan Carr, Alan Carr Derby play off semi The 5-2 at Ipswich last season... Saints do a Brazil on one of the more fancied sides in the Lge. Total capitulation at Hillsborough as Saints go down with a whimper and not a bang. 2-2 midweek at Norwich with goals from the Saga enigma. Celebrating in the concorse at Midds as Pompey's relegation is confirmed. Midweek at Brentford on the terraces, worldies from Lloyd James and Super KD. Dagenham, just surreal watching Saints with KD, RL, AL, MS playing in what is 75% a non-league ground - felt like a cup tie. That's a few of the more memorable ones, happy days (I couldn't get near tkts for any Brighton or B'muff games).