Winnersaint

Permission to speak, sir? Don't panic!!! They don't like it up-em sir. Don't suppose anyone could get away with referring to people as 'fuzzy-wuzzies these days. RIP.

Walk away Nigel. No recriminations nothing! Just walk with your head held high and considerable dignity intact. Back to back promotions will always be your legacy, just a shame this bit of it isn't working out.

Don't you mean 4 from 10. Been a Saints fan for a long time nothing surprises me. Too much bull**** spouted on here (what a surprise!) before the season started so everyone has had their expectations dashed to smithereens. Without wanting to be patronising it kind of goes with the territory of being a Saints fan.

Hmmmm! This place gets so entertaining when the chips are down!

Almost certainly going to do this in April. http://www.cyclosport.org/event/21-Apr-2013/UK/4th-annual-chilterns-dipper-sportive---little-big-dipper.htm

Awesome stuff!!

This gives you a taste of opinions. Many posters on this site are from the US and I believe it is hosted in Australia. It has a very anti-Sky agenda and there is a lot of suspicion amongst those who post about Wiggins, Froome and Brailsford, who in some posts is portrayed as an evil Svengali figure manipulating both Sky and the British Cycling team through misdeeds. The reality is that Sky Pro cycling made some pretty bold statements at its launch with regards is stance on doping which in hindsight were probably not achievable given the period that cycling had been through in the previous ten years. Now to some extent cycling is in a position where riders from the doping era are now heavily involved in today's teams. Sean Yates roomed with Armstrong and worked with him on the Discovery Channel team. Bobby Julich allegedly has a history also works for Sky. You have Johan Bruyneel, until the brown stuff hit the fan a couple of days ago at RNT. Both Rolf Aldag and Brian Holm formerly DS's with Columbia/HTC/High Road and architects of the majority of Mark Cavendish's stage wins at the TdF including his Green jersey in 2011 admitted using EPO in the 1990s. I could go on, Jonathan Vaughters at Garmin was a USPS team member in the Armstrong era, so whether there is a doping past or not the sport finds itself in an invidious position at the present time because of its recent history and Sky and its British riders are a victim of the hangover of suspicion. http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=18802 http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=17412&page=647

Ullrich was implicated in the Puerto case as was Ivan Basso and both were chucked out of the 2006 TdF. In some respects although I don't condone what was done I kind of get the fact that at the very highest level at around the turn of the Millenium EPO and blood doping were a sporting fact of life for cyclists. Most of his contemporaries doped or were implicated in doping scandals. Pantani had a haematocrit level of over 60% and was kicked off the Giro for it, Zulle and Virenque amongst others were implicated in the Festina Affair. Amidst all of this was this man who'd survived cancer and who effectively came off his sick bed to win the most gruelling of sporting events. I think people want to believe in modern miracles even though in our hearts we knew something wasn't quite right. The longer it went on the more I think people wanted to believe in the Armstrong story and the 'Livestrong' doctrine with its inspirational stories of survival (or otherwise). My take on the whole thing is that as a cycling fan we always knew that there were issues with regards to doping and that as testing became more sophisticated so would the lengths that riders would go to avoid detection, I think given the back story a lot of people naively hoped he was better than that. Am I surprised? Not particularly. This looks like turning into the biggest sporting fraud of all time and that is the real disappointment. I don't think we'll ever hear an admission from the 'horses mouth' but any sniff of post-comeback doping will put Armstrong right in the mire. Looking at the sport as an outsider it is easy to dismiss cycling as the preserve of the doped up cheat, but it is a question of perspective as pro cycling at an elite level takes place in a very small fish bowl compared to the vast aquarium that football exists in. His 7 TdFs I'd just scrub them from the records.

Nothing like a good ride up and down chalk downland. Hope it goes well. Jealous as still recovering from broken shoulder. Got back on turbo this week. Hard on the backside and left arm though. Can go for about 30 mins at moment.

Good luck for tomorrow

Maybe look at the Sportives for 2013 and co-ordinate some sort of get together

Not vanished Doc. Glued to La Vuelta, much more exciting than TdF. Bad off a week ago triple fracture of ball of humerus. Not going to be on a bike for a while. BTW only a week left for you and Mrs Doc cut the distance but try and keep intensity. Continued good luck in your last training week and best wishes for next weekend.

Rabbit pulled firmly out of hat by Albert the Accountant. Remarkable stuff. Don't often see that sort of thing in Grand Tours these days.

Purito nailed on unless Bertie has a rabbit to pull out of the hat. Shame Froome has struggled, but he is still learning and gaining in maturity and nouse. He may turn out to be one of the best 'BRITS'. Wiggins was 3rd last year behind Cobo and Froome, a great performance considering a few weeks earlier he'd been sat on the ground with a broken collarbone in the TdF. Horrible climbs those. Have a few around here in the Hambleden Valley that push similar gradients, but are so so so much shorter. Howe Hill out of Watlington is my nemesis. Was literally seeing stars at the top of that last time up, and I'd only done 30 miles not 100+

Thanks for the good wishes. Dropped car off for service at local Ford dealership on Friday. Cycled home the longer way round to get miles in. Was only about 200m from home (small estate - lots of cars) was going on outside of cars but got blinded by low sun and clipped a Volvo . Outside of left leg caught rear light cluster - dumped on ground shoulder first with Rooneyesque rip in thigh. Cue visit to Royal Berks A&E stitches in leg injury and a shoulder that looks like I've daubed myself with woad. Pretty immobile at the moment. Felt very Bradley Wiggins (2011 tdf) sat on the road waiting for the ambulance. Evidently my mum did same racing in the early 1950s.

Good luck. take care. Had bad collision with stationary car yesterday. Fractured shoulder, bit of a bummer. I hope you enjoy it.

Seriously hope everything goes all right. On a lighter note I'd be tempted out to the LBS to see what nice bike bargains are available before they start ordering and stocking 2013 models. Extra time for training. L2B should be a breeze. Good luck!

Easter Monday 1966... Channon ... end of!

Our daughter got 3As, 4Bs and 3Cs, not bad considering she has been struggling with glandular fever since March.

Good stuff! Looks like it's all coming together nicely. You should ace L2B.

Lowro spot on it seems

Always proud to be a Saint, Even through the bad times.

Terry Paine?

Possibly a mix up between Steves namely Messrs Moran and Williams, who was a cheeky chappie from London.

Don't think so! She's not Irish and really isn't very good on a bike.