Winnersaint

Hope it isn't the case, but feel it will be messy on here at 5pm tomorrow.

Mrs Winnersaint has been doing MITHC and I have to confess it's something I will catch up with. The Bkool trainer has been a godsend. I've tried to steer clear of virtual Alps, but have done the Col du Telegraph and the Col d'Aspin on it. The former was a few weeks back when I was getting used to the system and the thought that it is only the precursor to the Galibier just leaves me gobsmacked. I've got the Glandon, Tormalet, Croix du Fer and Alpe d'Huez scheduled, but have found that it pays to do these climbs sparingly. Col d'Aspin was a good one though.

I know people are out there cycling, even if it's indoors on the trainer. Be interesting to know how things are progressing and what plans people have for 2016.

Great sense of perspective as usual. Shame that some on this site don't have something similar.

Can't lose something it never had!

Brilliant stuff, your insightful comments seem to by-pass a good many on here!!

I love this place when it all starts to go wrong. Bunch of fcking bedwetters. These are consistently the best of times I have had as a Saints supporter in 50+ years. I honestly believe that most of the angst on here is because people have to go back to work on Monday and face the banter of non-Saints work colleagues who give them pelters and they can't handle it. Grow up! Dare I say it's only football?

Villa have to beat someone sometime. Will be a hoot on here if they do!

Happy birthday to Mick. I remember as an eight year old seeing him score him on his debut on Easter Monday 1966 against Bristol City at the Dell. He had just about everything a forward needed, pace, balance, skill and an unerring sense of where the goal was. One on one with the keeper I can't think of anyone apart from George Best who was as good.

The status of my place of work is about to change, Effectively out of the public sector. The benefits to those who really matter will be enormous, and that has to be a good thing.

Skyrim, swords! Fallout, guns! Know which does it for me. A short while in and I've got a minigun, robotic armour and I'm shooting the **** out a ****ing dinosaur. What's not to like, and I don't work Fridays.

Got the Bkool going finally yesterday. Did a Cat 2 climb near Bilbao called Alto de Dima. Got a choice tomorrow Galibier or Madelaine!

Indeed they did. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRByjrFW-Po. Just to enlighten them. Yes there was football in the olden days and strangely it was in colour. Leeds Utd were the first team I ever saw at the Dell in October 1963 in Division 2 . This was the team managed by Don Revie and was a team that was a mix of promising youngsters and more experienced players, and they had a reputation for being a dirty side. The likes of , Bobby Collins, Jack Charlton, Billy Bremner and reputedly the nastiest of the lot Johnny Giles took few prisoners. They were niggling and downright dirty in the day when a tackle really was a tackle. Stuff that would result in immediate red or at best yellow cards today was more tolerated and Leeds were arch exponents of the dark arts on the pitch. They were promoted the following year, and reached the 65 Cup Final, losing to Liverpool. From then on they missed out on the League title on a couple of occasions before winning it in 1969 and repeating the feat in 1974, effectively the end of the Revie era. In between they won the equivalent of today's Europa League twice and were runners up twice, once in the Cup Winners Cup which was replaced and subsumed into today's EL. Strangely some of their fans have yet to get over Paris 75 which is just plain funny. Whilst their history in the past is impressive this gives them no divine right to play at the top level. You only have to look to the period after Leeds dominance at Forest who arguably had a more impressive record. Champions two years in succession, League Cup Winners two years in succession and champions of Europe two years in succession to see how little history counts these days. Leeds were the footballing pantomime villains of the early 70's and have been badly run for years so they deserve no sympathy.

Interestingly watching footage from the 1975 game having reminded myself of this, Yorath's assault on Andersson aside, they were a very competent footballing side that wouldn't look out of place in the modern era. Beckenbaur's trip on Allan Clarke in the Penalty area and the disallowed Lorimer volley both should have stood, but that's football. Leeds were never the same after this. Most of the were 80's spent in Division 2, but by 1992 they'd been five or so years in the top flight and won it thanks to an enigmatic Frenchman and a near retiring ginger haired Scotsman. Since then they have been a basket case of a club with the Risdale and Krasner years and now Cellini. If ever there was a competition for poor football club governance they would have won it most years this century. My own view of them will always be them taking the **** out of us at Elland Road when they beat us 7-0 in 72, and having to endure it on MoTD. ****-em. Nasty team, nasty northern monkey fans apart from the handful I know personally who are good people who happen to be misguided in who they support.

European Cup Finalists in 1975 v Bayern in Paris, the year before our one and only trophy. BTW that was a night of daylight robbery on behalf of Bayern and it really kicked off in the Parc des Princes when they went two up.

Saw it on Strava. Kudos duly given.

I was tempted. This is the best PS3 series bar none. Played them all and each time was blown away. If you've never played Uncharted before do so. Got a feeling this might be a Xmas pressie from my daughter, she is a huge fan of them too. In the meantime I think I'll invest in The Witcher 3 £37.99 at Sainsbury's.

Nothing worse. Went on Monday overdressed with full fingered gloves. Suffer with cold feet and hands but having wet clammy hands for half a ride was seriously unpleasant.

During my own education I experienced both sides of the coin. I can remember all the 11+ coaching and practice we did at when I was in North Baddesley Primary School, a couple of years before prior to what is now Year 6, and then in 1968 the junior school was born and that slipped off the radar, to this day I cannot recall ever sitting an actual 11+ exam and I believe that we were the victims if that is the correct word to use of HCC's move towards the comprehensive ideal in the county. All of us year bar one ended up going to Toynbee instead. The one, a girl somehow got into Mountbatten which opened in autumn 69. My folks were not wild about Toynbee, with its split site then either side of Leigh Road, but I liked it and my mates were there and we were mostly in the A stream so we got a good education. Aged thirteen, my family moved to the Fordingbridge area. Being close to Wiltshire bright kids were creamed off by Bishop Wordsworth's and South Wilts, but already in secondary school I was given no other option but Burgate, essentially a less comprehensive school than the one I left in Eastleigh. It was shyte. I remember being only one of four kids who did any O levels, but the ones I did get got me to guess where for the sixth form? At BWS I found that I really didn't fit in there any better than I did at Burgate and looking back I think that had I gone to an actual comp as they exist now I would have done considerably better. For me a secondary modern was not suitable and having been at one for three of the five previous years it ill prepared me for a Grammar School Sixth Form, where I felt attitudes to be pompous, superior and extremely judgmental towards those who hadn't been in the system since 11

Not sure the Dutch job is the one he really hankers after. Maybe his sights are further south and west of St Mary's.

BKOOL ordered.

I find the Garmin useful to keep the effort within Z2, but I keep forgetting to disable live segments. I have grown to ignore them, but the wind conditions yesterday on that segment were unusual. The vast majority of time there is a headwind along that stretch of road, and even if there isn't it is rare that you get a tailwind. It wasn't that windy but it was enough to assist. The seconds I lost due to traffic at a right turn probably cost me a PB. I agree about riding slowly and I prefer to ride without having to think about knocking the effort back. I think the main worry is that by riding endurance pace I will somehow get stuck there in the future. My base pace stuff on the turbo is rather a misnomer as it is a tempo session, which can stray into sweet spot territory quite easily so I cant envisage what endurance stuff would look or feel like like. I am going to use the turbo for lower cadence, strength work though. I might treat myself to a BKOOL Pro if I can get the internet into the garage to make this more interesting.

I've just put a Z2 ride up on Strava and I was almost reluctant to do so. I think there might be a few things going on here. Strava itself for starters, competitiveness, and whatever cycling obsession needs satisfying. Take Strava for example, those of us who upload to it do so for a purpose, but our riding is out there for others to see, personally there is a reluctance to upload what on the surface might look like a poor ride. This links to competitiveness, our strive to improve segment times, overall times and to show what you can do compared to others on a bike. This in turn links to the obsession part of it and it afflicts every cyclist I know. Whether it's power, gradient, distance or average speed for example, it is easy to get hung things which look quite good but don't necessarily make you a better bike rider. There are always articles this time of year about leaving the Garmin switched off and forgetting Strava and there may be something in it. Take my ride today, within the last ten minutes or so of is a segment which is getting on for 4 kilometres long. The Garmin beeps and tells me the segment is just about to start and I hit it at about 35kph, for much of the next 3.7K I am around 5 - 10 seconds shy of my PB, which was perhaps a little too far to make up but seeing it made me go for it to see how close I could get to the PB. To do this I've immediately gone outside Z2, probably into Z3/4 thus defeating the object of the ride

Greece - Olympiakos. Met them on the way to Cyprus for UCL match in old Athens Airport. I was wearing a Saints shirt so almost got invited with them. Mrs Winnersaint wanted to go home as did Miss Winnersaint. Made the wait home very entertaining though. Spain - Athletic Bilbao. Germany - Eintracht Frankfurt Netherlands - Feyenoord and have done for many years, I think with them and Bilbao it's the port city link.

He was one of those who didn't have raw 100m pace, Wallace more so but he was 4m quick running off the shoulder of the defender. John Sydenham was quick as was Mick Channon especially in the earlier part of his career.