Saturday, July 29, 2006
Friday, July 21, 2006
Floyd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Floyd Landis put in one of the most memorable comebacks in sports history yesterday. After getting destroyed and losing the Tour De France on Wednesday after he bonked and lost 10 minutes on the final mountain climb he had the guts, fortitude, and quite frankly the balls and insanity to try a solo 150km breakaway yesterday over four mountains in stifling heat. That does not work for someone that close to the lead of a race. To paraphrase Mr. Spock, in cycling, the legs of the many always beat the legs of the one --if the many care and Sastre, Evans, Kloden, Pereiro, Leipheimer, Menchov --- they cared, or should have.
Simply outstanding. If Landis wins (and even if he does not), his ride will be part of Tour lore forever.
Great Cyclingnews.com summary here
http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2006/tour06/news/?id=/news/2006/jul06/jul21news4
Simply outstanding. If Landis wins (and even if he does not), his ride will be part of Tour lore forever.
Great Cyclingnews.com summary here
http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2006/tour06/news/?id=/news/2006/jul06/jul21news4
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Le Tour 2006
On the eve of the second rest day this year's Tour de France continues to deliver surprises. Of course nothing matches the Day O bombshell about potential doping and the suspension of Ullrich and Basso. Two weeks into the race, Le Tour is on pace to set a record for the number of different yellow jersey holders. Discovery Channel has not had much success either especially Hincapie (after his second in the prologue I had high hopes). On a high note for America, Landis and Hincapie become only the fourth and fifth Americans to ever wear Yellow. However, none of the race favorites seems confident they can hold the jersey (See Floyd Landis letting a guy 29 minutes back take Yellow from him).
I can't decide if this uncertainty makes for better theater than Armstrong's domination but the last week is totally up for grabs in my view. Landis and his hip could easily have a bad day in the Alps, as could Menchov. Frankly anyone within 5-7 minutes could be said to have a decent chance. Funny things happen in the last week of the Tour. Guys with so so form to start ride into shape and guys with great starting form start to fade. Alpe d'Huez will be monumental as always stay tuned.
I can't decide if this uncertainty makes for better theater than Armstrong's domination but the last week is totally up for grabs in my view. Landis and his hip could easily have a bad day in the Alps, as could Menchov. Frankly anyone within 5-7 minutes could be said to have a decent chance. Funny things happen in the last week of the Tour. Guys with so so form to start ride into shape and guys with great starting form start to fade. Alpe d'Huez will be monumental as always stay tuned.
Friday, April 07, 2006
March Madness in Review
Now that the Tournament is over (congrats to my nephew's Gators!) I have to reflect on its continuing diminuation of the college basketball season overall. In my opinion March Madness threatens to make the rest of the season obsolete. I listen to two hours of sports talk radio a day during my commute and I would wager the average amount of weekly time spent dicussing college basketball prior to the end of February is insignificant. Then the tournament kicks in and it goes into overdrive especially during the first week or two.
This brings me to my second point which is the Tournament starts on a high note the first weekend due to all the upsets, the total number of games and the proliferation of mid-majors. The second weekend is still good because a couple of cinderella teams exist and everyone is excited to see if they can go on. By the time the Final Four rolls around people are tired and the excitement seems diminshed and the Championship Game on a Monday night has to be the worst marketing/TV idea of all time (note to CBS - push the NCAA to have the semi-finals on Friday night with the finals on Sunday afternoon). The problem with the tournament is it diminishes excellence during the season and kills the national appeal of games. Contrast this with college football. Fans are focused on college football from the very first games, they matter! Florida St vs. Miami on Labor Day is a huge game not only for the schools' fans, but ACC fans and fans of any team with National Title hopes. Any late season games like USC/UCLA played deep in November matter a lot because one team (typically USC) could be out of the title hunt with a loss. Contrast this with basketball where the season starts in anonimity for most teams and late season games often mean nothing unless you are on the tournament bubble. A classic example is Duke losing to UNC on Senior Night /last game of the year. Great game, fans mayl watch but the loss means NOTHING to Duke in the grand scheme. Don't get me wrong, I like the tournament but the football season is so much more enjoyable than basketball because so many games are relevant to fans in addition to those of their own teams. A great compliment to football would be a very limited playoff structure where the Top 4-8 teams would play for the championship over 2 or 3 weeks. It would drawf March Madness.
This brings me to my second point which is the Tournament starts on a high note the first weekend due to all the upsets, the total number of games and the proliferation of mid-majors. The second weekend is still good because a couple of cinderella teams exist and everyone is excited to see if they can go on. By the time the Final Four rolls around people are tired and the excitement seems diminshed and the Championship Game on a Monday night has to be the worst marketing/TV idea of all time (note to CBS - push the NCAA to have the semi-finals on Friday night with the finals on Sunday afternoon). The problem with the tournament is it diminishes excellence during the season and kills the national appeal of games. Contrast this with college football. Fans are focused on college football from the very first games, they matter! Florida St vs. Miami on Labor Day is a huge game not only for the schools' fans, but ACC fans and fans of any team with National Title hopes. Any late season games like USC/UCLA played deep in November matter a lot because one team (typically USC) could be out of the title hunt with a loss. Contrast this with basketball where the season starts in anonimity for most teams and late season games often mean nothing unless you are on the tournament bubble. A classic example is Duke losing to UNC on Senior Night /last game of the year. Great game, fans mayl watch but the loss means NOTHING to Duke in the grand scheme. Don't get me wrong, I like the tournament but the football season is so much more enjoyable than basketball because so many games are relevant to fans in addition to those of their own teams. A great compliment to football would be a very limited playoff structure where the Top 4-8 teams would play for the championship over 2 or 3 weeks. It would drawf March Madness.
Friday, March 31, 2006
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Great New VT Olympic Sports Blog
Head on over to this new blog put together by a consortium of VT fans. Get insights into the Olympic Sports programs at VT. If you have something to offer on any sport...well you know the old saying...be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Pro Cycling in US Gets It Start in My Hood
Great article by John Wilcockson on early pro races in the Va, Md, DC area.
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