JamieD

For about 50 years Rod Stewart has managed to confuse people into thinking that liking somebody's voice means that person can actually sing. The game is up now, Rod. Go to bed.

https://twitter.com/KerryFail
Tims are taking it well.

https://twitter.com/KerryFail
Tims are taking it well.

https://twitter.com/KerryFail
Tims are taking it well.

And with that the Yes campaign has officially collapsed on its arse.

For me, the more time goes by the more unusual Sky's results look and the more their public statements on doping seem to clash with their actions. I don't know if they are dodgy but they say and do all the wrong things and I get a bad vibe. For a "zero tolerance" team they have employed a startling number of dopers, apparently without doing the most basic research into their history. In 2010, when they hired Sean Yates, the doping that he took part in with Lance at Motorola in the mid 90s had been a matter of public record (obviously ignored by most) for six years. Anybody who cared to read David Walsh's book, LA Confidentiel, would have known that Yates had doped as a rider, and therefore broke Sky's zero tolerance rule even before they hired him. They signed Michael Barry, who was implicated by the same book in doping alongside Lance at US Postal. A few months after hiring him, Floyd Landis implicated him and the whole US Postal team in doping and Brailsford basically shrugged it off. Barry kept his mouth shut and kept riding for two years in the face of overwhelming evidence without Sky taking any action against him, before finally admitting it. They hired Geert Leinders, who was Michael Rasmussen's doctor at Rabobank when he was booted out of the Tour for doping in 2007 while wearing the yellow jersey. They hired Bobby Julich even though he probably rode for more notorious doping teams than any other cyclist in history. They told David Walsh (who wrote a glowing book about them but has since questioned their ethics in recent weeks) that they would rather pull a rider from racing than ask for a therapeutic usage exemption for banned drugs, and then a few weeks ago it emerged that they had applied for one for Froome at a race he went on to win this season. I mean, this naivety and inconsistency wouldn't be totally implausible were it not for the fact that the team claims its incredible successes are due to attention to detail. Why are they so good at physiology and so bad at management?Then there's the fact that the physiologist who was permitted by Sky to look over Froome's power numbers after people questioned his performance at last year's Tour had this to say about them:
Basically he is saying that if Froome is clean, he's the greatest natural talent the sport has ever seen. Which is possible, I suppose, except that as recently as 2011 Sky were thinking of letting him go from the team because he was going nowhere. Until his surprise performance at the Tour of Spain saved his career.
People say "There's no way these people would risk their reputations, there's no way Sky would" etc, but then nobody would think that Armstrong would willingly lie to millions of cancer sufferers, nor that a cycling team bankrolled by the US government would cheat, so there's no measure of plausibility any more. People will do crazy things to win. I don't trust them and that's just fine. Cycling can be amazing to watch even if you can't quite believe in it. I'm very sad that Contador and Froome are out of the Tour because it was going to be an amazing spectacle, not because I can get behind the idea that they were involved in honest endeavour

Respect to Messi for showing that award the contempt it deserves. He knows he shouldn't have won it.

Here's all of Tim Howard's saves against Belgium at the same time. Because why not?

Here's all of Tim Howard's saves against Belgium at the same time. Because why not?

Occasional gamesmanship aside, no idea why a lot of people don't like Djokovic. Good bloke.

He's far from alone in that regard though

Here's all of Tim Howard's saves against Belgium at the same time. Because why not?

I have aged about 40 years since the start of this match.

Same. Especially Pippa, who isn't even famous for being the sister of the future Queen Consort, but for her arse.

Imagine how unbearable the English football press is going to be about Van Gaal now

the dutch transformation into villains is complete.

Federer isn't really trying.

Here's all of Tim Howard's saves against Belgium at the same time. Because why not?

Here's all of Tim Howard's saves against Belgium at the same time. Because why not?

desperately wants that goal, clearly. does he really want the record-breaking goal to be a penalty won with a dive though?

Good shout.I backed Quintana e/w early in the year last year,before the hype really got going, and only wish I had put more on.

You've seen the adverts, the guy's an ambulance chaser, I can't afford the aggro

I was sat there quietly fuming about all the times he has done my head in but I was thinking "he has a right to use public transport without some arsehole trying to make him feel bad"

Shat it off big Andy Castle.

You'd prefer Castle to Henman? Jesus wept. The man is the most patronising arsehole in broadcasting. Every single match he has to give us a recap on the last 10 years of tennis history as if we have never watched the sport before.
I sat next to him on the London underground once and was dying to say something about it but knew it would be totally out of order to bother him when he was minding his own business