Winnersaint

Nice one. I'm having it on my new bike I'm getting when I get my early retirement at the end of August. Enjoy!

Compelling stuff from Daenerys and Tyrion finally meeting up to the attack on Hardhome. That final twenty minutes was just an awesome piece of TV. The only thing I can remember watching that had quite the same feel to it in a similar epic, chaotic, shocking way was the Omaha Beach landing at the the start of Saving Private Ryan. Whereas that film was crap from that point onwards GoT never disappoints.

Good stuff. I did around 34 miles at a similar pace. I'm not getting over anything but I have ridden over 200K since last Sunday which is high..ish for me. I am aiming to match or beat my time for the 3CCR next weekend which is a sub three hour 50 miler.

Hope it went well.

Like VFTT I tend to support local events near me, two in particular The Three Counties Cycle Ride and Wokingham Bikeathon. That said to improve it is always useful to have a training goal, without one you just get stale. Be it Wiggle or any other organiser it doesn't really matter having an event to train for should help.

x2 for full carbon bike, but even there you have to be careful. With bike frames there is a holy grail and it is a balancing act between weight, stiffness and comfort and that is very much dependent on the geometry, tube shape and using the right carbon fibre lay-ups in the right places to achieve it. For example when aero-bikes became more widely used they were very fast in the right hands with plenty of lateral stiffness but at the expense of weight and vertical compliance (comfort). That is changing with the current generation of such bikes like the Giant Propel and the Cervelo S3 tending towards a more balanced approach to their design. The S3 for example has taken the rear triangle from the Cervelo RCA to achieve a level of comfort which far exceeds that of their previous aero-bikes, bringing that sort of machine within the reach of us mere cycling mortals. As far as shorts are concerned, despite it being a company based along the M27, Wiggle is my friend. I've been buying various DHB bibs for the last four years. Never let me down either on, price sizing quality or on comfort. Best of all they are pretty much always on offer.

Don't have a problem with it but it needs a red collar!

Sounds a really nasty one maybe she has a point. Hope you recover well and take it easy for a while.

Nice to hear the bike is OK. Seriously hope the you damage isn't too painful and that it heals quickly. What actually happened? Personally it's one of the attractions of being a lone wolf not having to worry about someone braking in a group without warning and for no apparent reason. FWIW decided on new steed today. Cervelo S3 with Ultegra Di2. Saw one today in the flesh, built up. Gorgeous looking piece of kit. Chatting to owner who races on it reckoned he taken minutes off Alpe d'Huez ascent. 45 mins?? As and when I get there don't think I'll be going up anyway near that fast S3 or not. Only downside is my effective retirement date is 31st August, to ensure payment for summer holiday and break between full and part time teaching contract. Oh well, can't have everything. BTW take it easy tomorrow

Very sad news. Saw him play many times along with John McGrath, Joe Kirkup, and Denis Hollywood at the back. As many say he was a seriously uncompromising defender and seems to have been very different from his playing image. I remember the bit about the retreat in the monastery being reported at the time. RIP "Docker".

We stayed at a youth hostel in Dolgellau. Unfortunately its not about remembering my geography from those A level days as I have a B.Ed degree in the subject and have been teaching it in secondary schools in Berkshire for a substantial part of the last 35 years. As far as the stay in the youth hostel I don't remember much about the food, but the weather was great. It was 1976 and it didn't rain once in Wales while we were there. In fact returning back south we came through the Elan valley, The reservoirs which were at there lowest levels ever and the inter-connecting streams were dried out.

I missed this one, along with the earlier replay at Villa Park and West Brom away. The WBA game was one where we set out but got as far as Bromsgrove, before the van we were travelling in conked out with a burst radiator. The semi-final coincided with our A Level Geography fieldtrip, and I was on the way down from the top of Cader Idris with just about enough radio signal to hear Rag Trade win the National. We were in some kind of radio black hole. Whoever had the radio by chance switched it on, and the first we heard of it was the commentator saying something along the lines of 'and its over to Stamford Bridge where Southampton are now two up.' We didn't even know we were one up. Sod the roche moutonees, boulder clay, glacial striations and hanging valleys we were going to Wembley! Most of us were Saints fans so feck all fieldwork was done for the rest of that afternoon.The footage of that game I've never seen. Trying to find somewhere in North Wales to watch the Big match the following day was mission impossible.

Bought some Shapwick Monster from brewery shop in Blandford recently. Good stuff!

Sound advice, as is that about making sure the bike is fitted properly. I started five years ago on a Cyclescheme Cube Peloton, still got it though it is resigned to commuting and the turbo these days, I have to be honest I am really hard pushed to notice any real difference in speed between that and my carbon bike which is 1.5 kg lighter. The ride quality is definitely not as good and it doesn't climb as well, but for £850 it was a great re-introduction to road cycling and it is certainly enough bike for my modest standard of riding.

Apologies for giving misleading info, but Rose do indeed do the Carbon X-Lite. The CRS3100 comes with Ultegra Di2 and weighs in at 6.9 kg all for £1990. Ridiculous.

I am an out and out roadie, but have heard excellent things about Bird in around the local bike shops I use. My advice would be to get to a LBS near you. If by 'the forest' you mean the New Forest then you won't be too far away from a branch of Hargroves. Looking at their website they have access to a large range of road bikes from a variety of respected manufacturers so it might be worth going in and having a chat. Alternatively if its bangs for bucks you want then look to either of the big German direct sellers Canyon or Rose. This is worth a look. http://www.canyon.com/en/roadbikes/series/endurace-cf.html. Rose only do aluminium frames where Canyon do both aluminium and carbon fibre. Regardless of material they both make some excellent bikes. Also get a copy of this month's Cycling Plus mag. It's the bike of the year edition. Hope this helps.

Fantastic out today. Nothing spectacular but a ride round some of my favourite bits of Berkshire where stupid names abound. Crazies Hill and Cockpole Green. Out to Twyford and then through Wargrave towards Henley. Right off the A321 up the side of what is effectively Remenham Hill. Back to Wargrave via Crazies Hill, where there really isn't any noticeable hill at all. A loop around Wargrave village to take in Wargrave Hill (only 2 seconds off PB - not bad for early season) and then down over the A4 towards White Waltham village, a short climb up past the church there and then home. A couple of uphill drags on the way to and from Shurlock Row were helped by a tailwind but I was pleased how I was gaining speed on the flatter bits even when the wind wasn't behind.

Whilst on the subject of silly roads. This is the Pas de la Confession between Villard-Reculas and Huez. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@45.080332,6.041431,3a,75y,175.8h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sLs4CXr6MX76juHjULZa94w!2e0?hl=en This is the D219 on the opposite side of the Romanche valley.https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@45.033334,6.041979,3a,75y,4.62h,84.52t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1smc27aTJ_9UeiOQsyfHu8AA!2e0?hl=en This is the road you can see on the mid-right of the above image. It is the D211A between La Garde and Auris.https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@45.049771,6.06105,3a,75y,189.64h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1svW-DVElqgWGJrekeg6TEyg!2e0?hl=en you can see the D219 on the opposite side. How about the D220. I believe this used to be the old road to Les Deux Alpes. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@45.029708,6.095352,3a,75y,5.87h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1swmKpfjGmTi3Yx41mEIRtHw!2e0?hl=en And finally in the Vercours the Combe Laval near the Col de la Machine. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@44.999378,5.334063,3a,75y,9.21h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1srSnjb0o_fm2DwjlA2aY2bw!2e0?hl=en article in this month's The Cyclist mag.

Aren't Shamals basically FR Zero in disguise. Got to honest though would have Shamals with any Campy groupset, but that could just be a hint of OCD in me

If we've learnt anything from last year anything can happen and probably will. My gut reaction is we will lose Alderweireld, Clyne, Schneiderlin and Wanyama, probably Rodriguez and have to resist overtures for Mane. I can also see a promising youngster like Reed doing a Chambers. The simple fact is that the 'Sky Six' do not want to become the 'Sky Seven'. Unsettling players initially and then dismembering the team if they can is probably the only way they can stop the rise of Saints at the expense of one, two or even three of them. I don't think there is any conspiracy going on as such, it just the other teams protecting their interests and at present they can afford to outbid us in terms of pay due the inequalities created by FFP. Our players as Champion League/Europa League contenders have an even greater stock than they did last season as upper mid-table players so hopefully transfer fees if they become relevant will be fixed accordingly. I am sure the club do have a plan to stop as much of this hemorrhage as they can, and a plan for the worst case scenario should it happen. We can only hope that with a manager hopefully staying rather than the situation last season there will be some degree of stability that wasn't there in 2014. Additionally these sort of things tend to be cyclical coinciding with World Cup and European Championship years.

Wolf Hall. Had it downloaded to the Kindle before I knew of the TV series.

Caught Reginald D Hunter's Songs of the South on Beeb 2 over last three Saturdays. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Fantastic visuals, great music, much of which is new to my uncultured mainstream ear, a great car and insightful commentary. Great stuff, all round.

Actually surprised he didn't join the exodus last year. However, he will have done us proud for three seasons by the summer so have no real issue with him taking the next step. As England's right back for potentially the next 10 years to improve further he would probably need to be playing Champions League regularly to cement this position as his once and for all so a move in the summer makes sense. As far as valuation is concerned, who knows? He is worth what another team is willing to pay so a potential auction between United and Chelsea can only be to our benefit. That said, moving to Manure at present is just as likely to achieve CL football as staying at Saints would. They are certainly not nailed on qualifiers, so Chelsea could emerge as front runners especially as he is a Londoner.

Grow up!

Exciting times VFTT. Looks like I'll have to wait until later in the year for my new steed. Pretty much undecided, but narrowed it down to either Cervelo R3 with either Di2 or better wheels, but not both, or a Storck Scenero, Scentron or Visionar C. There are pros and cons for each. Retirement plans have gone a little awry so trip to Alps has gone by the wayside regrettably. Looks like July finish now to allow me to go back on P/T contract in September. Happy days!