Sherminator

1) Absolutely 2) Froome & Contador are clear favourites. Rodriguez (if he is in it) will be close. Evans looked good in the Giro and will only improve. Possibly a surprise from a pure climber such as Uran or Henao. 3) Nope - would love to but most likely the daily highlights on Eurosport or ITV4 for me. 4) I would have liked to have seen him race, although it is probably good for Sky and Froome that he is not there as I don't think that Wiggins would have been content to ride in support. Without Froome, I'd have fancied Wiggins to be on the podium. Looking forward to the Green Jersey battle. Cavendish will start favourite, but will have strong competition from Greipel, Kittel, Sagan and possibly one of the overall contenders.

I'm happy to trust the board on this one. If they think we can manage a European campaign great, if they choose not to proceed I'd accept that also. Personally I'd like to see the club take it on, and use the qualifying rounds as part of pre-season. If we get knocked-out it is not the end of the world, if we get through a run in Europe would be great fun. I'd be surprised if Liverpool did turn it down - it is almost essential for them to be in Europe. Poll?

Fonte, yoshida. Hoiveld + AN Other and we're staring to shape up in this position.

May have been mentioned elsewhere, but Metro this morning mentioned we were interested in Heurelho Gomes from Spurs.

Well said sir.

Yes, I have often used Saints Player abroad.

What a stage yesterday. Roger Hammond on ITV4 was suggesting that Rodriguez made a tactical error - to me he just just looked cooked after a hard race. Great ride by Valverde and his team to limit his losses and take second.

True, the course definately helps the Spanish and Rodriguez in particular. Only one individual time trial and even that had a climb. If he doesn't win this one, I don't think he'll ever win one. Nonetheless it has made for great attacking racing and from Contador in particular. Rodriguez only needs to crack once and that lead disappears.

Anyone watching this? For me it has been by some distance the best Grand Tour of the three this year and on what is by some distance the hardest course - yesterday's finish was evil. Going into the last week now and still up for grabs. Contandor has thrown everything at Rodriguez but still finds himself 20odd seconds behind. Valverde (3rd) is slipping back, and a long season finally seems to have taken its toll on Chris Froome (4th) who lost several minutes yesterday. Would be inteersting to see how a fully fit and rested Wiggins would have fared - possibly too much climbing.

I felt sorry for the two young Japanese girls sitting just in front of me on Saturday complete with 'Lee' Japan replica shirts. They must have been gutted that he wasn't in the team. If they had travelled all the way from Japan (which I suspect they had) and this was this was their first taste of an English football match it must have been an interesting experience. Mind you, they seemed to enjoy themselves in the end, and they got involved with some of the singing (clapping) etc.

Sure I realise that the Yankees are the baseball equivalent of supporting Man U. Not being from NY and barely knowing what is going on with the team, I guess that I fit the bill of Yankee fan pretty well! Sure Clemens was the pitcher. If I remember correctly he picked the broken bat up and threw it back at Piazza at which stage things kicked off. I just read up on Clemens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Clemens) and I didn't realise what an a*se he was. A kind of baseball of equivalent of Teves, Ronaldo, Ashley Cole & Balotelli rolled into one with some drug accusations thrown in for good measure !

Sorry, but Yankees for me. I watched a game at the Yankee stadium on my first visit to NY around 15 years ago and have been hooked since. Other than keeping an occasional eye on results I'm not an avid follower of the regular season, but an annual work trip takes me to NY around the time of the postseason/World Series each year, and I invariably get hooked regardless of who is playing. I'm can't be a true fan as i also keep an eye out for the Mets. I was in town for the subway 'World' series in 2000 which was great. I remember Mike Piazza had one of his aforementioned scraps in this series after his bat snapped, nearly hitting the pitcher.

Lord of the Rings

For me: 1) Cavendish 2) Cook 3) Farah No footballer this year, so I'm not sure who will get the popular vote. Team of the year - England Cricket Team or maybe Red Bull F1?

Nice choice of photo!

This is a useful site if you are planning on doing some cycling in the mountains. http://www.climbbybike.com/

I didn't think that either Schleck had it in him to launch an attack like that. Truly awesome. I'd lost a bit of respect for Andy after the complaining of the last couple of days, but after that he's regained it and more. I hope that he is not cooked for today's stage. Great chase by Evans, who I think is still just about favourite and another brave ride from Voeckler. I'd be happy to see any of those 3 win now. Fingers crossed that Cavendish can make it through the last mountain stage today.

Tomatoe Juice / Bloody Mary. Horrible if I have to sit next to someone drinking it on a plane. Jack Daniels - bad experience when younger.

Yes, what a brave ride by Hoogerland and an equally impressive ride by Voeckler to take yellow. I think the overall win is out of the question, but I hope he can hold the jersey for a while and finish in the top 10. The tour is really on now, just a shame about all the crashes and retirements amongst some of the more interesting riders (Wiggins, Vinokourov etc.). Cavendish looking good and could again end up with 4 stages or more, despite this I think he'll struggle to take the green jersey onceagain. Gilbert is in terrific form and will continue to take serious points on most stages - including the ones where Cavendish can't compete (a la Sunday). Evans is also well placed and will score points in the mountains when the others don't - if yellow is out of the question for him green could be a nice alternative for him.

I noticed that. I was wondering whether it was an act to lull the others into a false sense of security. Early days yet. Promising start to the race from Evans and Wiggins. Would love to see Evans win it - I think he deserves it. Looks like Cavendish was a bit hard done by with the qualification, although i'm not sure he's 100% yet - he has been comfortably beaten on some of the intermediate sprints although good to see him compete. I'm sure he'll come good and win stages (today perhaps), but will it be enough for green.

£46 out of a possible £800. Very disappointed! Bit surprised also, as in addition to some blue ribband events like cycling and, athletics, I applied for a few less attractive tickets such as boxing and diving qualifying.

Thanks all. In the end I part exchanged it and got just £100 less than I was hoping for had there been no falut. Like someone said, the guy barely looked at it, although he did start the engine !

I'll shortly be replacing my horrible Renault Scenic with a similar sized car from anyone other than Renault! Obviously I want to get as much from the dealer for the Scenic as possible. Problem is that there is a fault (fault with dephaser and cam shaft sensor) with car which whilst it is still operational and roadworthy will need fixing at some stage in the relatively near future. Renault have quoted me £1,300 for the work. I'll get it done privately, but it will still be a substantial ammount. Question is am I likely to get a better deal if I fix the fault before trading the car. Or should I take the car to the dealer with the fault, get less for for the part-ex, but save on the repair bill? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

Moghul Dynasty in Ashtead, Surrey. Complimentary starters and liquer every time, not to mention great food. Also very good is the Bengal Forest in Denmead. Fabulous food, including some unusual choices and above a great village pub as well.

Comfortable - I was never worried !?*!