unclevlad Posted July 6 Report Share Posted July 6 Biniam Girmay doubles up. Takes the sprint for stage 8 for his, and his team's, 2nd win. He also took 2nd at the sprint checkpoint on the road, so he picked up a near-max 67 points for the green jersey. He now leads that competition by 88 points. Oh...my. Tomorrow is a unique, and potentially tortuous and/or disastrous stage. Those tan flags? They're *gravel* markers. Not cobblestone, which is tricky enough. Gravel. Take that out of the picture, and it'd be an interesting day, with the potential for attacks throughout those hills. With the gravel...and if the pace is high? The GC contenders may well be happy to get through this one intact. Then there's the finishing stretch: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted July 7 Report Share Posted July 7 (edited) Anthony Turgis wins stage 9 of the Tour de France https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/articles/cx02yyjv12go It has been seven years since the team won at the Tour Lewis Hamilton wins the British Grand Prix https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/live/cgee94d95eyt Tour of Austria ended by death of cyclist https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/articles/cx02yyjv12go Athletic world records fall in Paris ahead of the Olympics https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/articles/cl4y13kv3d6o Edited July 7 by death tribble Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnia Posted July 7 Report Share Posted July 7 1 hour ago, death tribble said: Lewis Hamilton wins the British Grand Prix https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/live/cgee94d95eyt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hopcroft Posted July 8 Report Share Posted July 8 21 hours ago, Cygnia said: Fantastic race! For once, the bulk of the action was in the Front Six. I wonder what mechanical problem took George Russell out of the race. It's a tribute to the skill and instincts of these 20 men that they were able to give us a relatively safe race in weather conditions whose only predictable nature was unpredictability. At one point Hamilton's team lead told him the rain would stop in six minutes, leaving Hamilton to testily respond "Man, it's not raining!" And we saw the downside of Soft tires -- they tended to degrade so rapidly that their lifespan was only about 10-12 laps. But Hamilton was, for one day, back to his old self -- combining undeniable passion and courage with the surgical precision he showed in his prime. It does my heart good to see other teams are starting to challenge the Red Bull juggernaut. Red Bull is down to essentially one competing driver, as Max Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez has done little memorable this season. But Russell, Lando Norris, and Oscar Piastri are showing the pote4ntial to be great, and will be driving even better races as the season goes on. 2025 will be interesting in Formula 1, assuming the world situation permits a 2025 season. Red Bull and Verstappen need a real nemesis -- and there are several candidates to be one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlord Posted July 9 Report Share Posted July 9 https://golf.com/news/tiger-woods-sports-bar-approved-for-st-andrews/ Cygnia 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted July 9 Report Share Posted July 9 (edited) Jasper Philipsen won stage 10 of the Tour de France https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/articles/c3gwd53xzn2o Spain beat France 2-1 in the European Championships semi final https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/cd1derpyngmt Edited July 9 by death tribble Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted July 10 Report Share Posted July 10 (edited) Jonas Vingegaard wins stage 11 of the Tour de France. A sprint between Pogacar and Vingegaard at the end showed that UAE's tactics had failed. They made the going tough for Visma but Vingegaard, Rogalic and Evenepoel set off after Pogacar after he went over the highest point of the day and Jonas caught him on the descent. He stayed with him and baited him just before the end just beating him on the line https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/articles/c9e9401yldvo England beat the Netherlands 2-1 in the European Championship. They play Spain in the final on Sunday https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/cjern44reddt Edited July 10 by death tribble Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted July 11 Report Share Posted July 11 Biniam Girmay wins stage 12 of the Tour de France https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/articles/cd1r3z1l4jjo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted July 12 Report Share Posted July 12 Wow, that's #3, and now a massive lead for the green jersey...over 100 points. Another nice boost at the intermediate sprint point, 5th, for another 11. At the line, too, no one who beat him at the sprint point finished in the top *10* for the stage, so his net pickup was massive. Story in the Guardian noted that the wear and tear is showing now. Yesterday was Pau with multiple climbs...had one DNS, 2 withdrawals, and one Outside the Time Limit...which has been unusual the last couple years, teams have generally managed to get their sprinters inside the time clock. Today...one DNS, 3 withdrawals, and 3 outside the time limit...on a hilly stage at first, but nothing too nasty, and relatively flat. Dunno if there were bad crashes? But still, the stage profile doesn't usually suggest anyone will get hit with OTL. Ergo, got to read serious fatigue. Plus...tomorrow's another sprint stage, but after that...it's hammer time for multiple stages. AND, the Olympics is only a couple weeks away now. The sprinters' part of this year's Tour is...not quite over. The last stage will be a sprinter's stage, sure, but it's NOT on the Champs, so the cachet may not be there, to work through the brutal mountain stages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted July 12 Report Share Posted July 12 The last sprinter's stage is stage 16 on Tuesday. That is the last on the flat. Today is a sprint stage before the Pyrenees and the penultimate for the sprinters. The Alps are stages 17, 19 and 20 while 18 is hilly. The last stage is a time trial as it was in 1989. Grimay has has a break out Tour. He was not the 1st choice sprinter for his team but he took destiny in his hands and has gone for it. I recall seeing him on the Giro where having won a stage he was hit in the eye by a prosecco cork and had to retire. Still racing for the same team though. Who now have their first 3 wins on the Tour. They have one of the smallest budgets and they have the most prize money so far. The battle between Pogacar and Vingegaard has been wonderful. Both have won stages. UAE are trying to do to Visma what Visma did to them in 2022 when UAE lost riders and were not in good shape. Visma were thus able to pressure on Pogacar and metaphorically beat him up. After a stellar 2023 they have had an awful 2024. Van Aert and Vingegaard taken out in crashes. Sepp Kuss losing form and losing two of the prospective team in the Dauphine. Vingegaard has stuck close to Pogacar and one upped him on stage 11. The race will be fascinating from here on in. If Vingegaard does lose he will have gone down fighting. The 100th anniversary of the first Italian to win the Tour and celebrating Bartoli and Coppi has been good. Some racers are not here as they are preparing for the Olympics principally Alaphillipe. Quickstep have been rather muted despite Remco Evenepoel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted July 12 Report Share Posted July 12 Jasmine Paolini will face Barbora Krejcikova in the Ladies' Final in Wimbledon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted July 12 Report Share Posted July 12 (edited) The English Bowler James Anderson retires after England defeat the West Indies in the first Test match. He is now 3rd on the all time bowlers list with 704 wickets taken. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cm5219z2dd9o Jasper Philipsen wins stage 13 of the Tour de France https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/articles/cg3m2yy0l88o Edited July 13 by death tribble Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted July 13 Report Share Posted July 13 (edited) Barbora Krejcikova wins the Women's Wimbledon title https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/live/c0ddm4pvn8nt Tadej Pogacar wins stage 14 of the Tour de France https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/live/cg64qyknz9kt Edited July 13 by death tribble Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted July 13 Report Share Posted July 13 2 hours ago, death tribble said: Tadej Pogacar wins stage 14 of the Tour de France https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/live/cg64qyknz9kt Pretty handily too. Picked up 40 seconds today. Lead's now almost 2 minutes on Vin, 2:20 on Evenepoel...and the rest of the field's all but out of it. Almeida is 4th, but 6 minutes back. The podium isn't locked up...one really bad day can drop anyone down, or unfortunate timing on a mechanical issue. Or, of course, a crash. Still, without something bad happening to the top 3, the rest of the field has little chance to close that large of a gap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted July 13 Report Share Posted July 13 Withdrawals are also picking up from the TdF, which isn't that surprising as the race gets harder. Roglic is out after 2 crashes. Also, apparently COVID is a problem in the peloton. One of Pog's domestiques wasn't feeling up to it and dropped out early on stage 13. Peloton's lost 20 riders over the last 4 stages, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if 2-3 more don't start tomorrow...saying that due to the strain of the stage, and figure, anyone with COVID won't recover that well. Tomorrow is beyond brutal: Steep climbs, and LONG. The leaders are expected to take around a half hour longer to complete the stage, than the last sprinters finishing today's stage...only 3 minutes inside the time limit, I believe. It looks to be the hardest stage to my eye, between the distance and the multiple climbs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted July 14 Report Share Posted July 14 Pogacar and Vingegaard rip through the rest of the field on the final, HC climb...and as the summit approaches, Pog puts together another surge that Vin can't match. Inside 5 km to go, Pog's got 15 seconds now, and it's growing. Evenepoel is way back. This is looking like the signature win to all but clinch. EDIT: Pog stretches it out throughout the last few km, and wins by a bit over a minute, so his lead overall will be about 3 minutes. Evenepoel loses 3 minutes, so he's over 5 back. The major remaining question is whether Cavendish's group...3 teammates, a total of 10 riders...will make it under the time limit. Pogacar hammered the climb; they won't. They were about 35 minutes back; the cutoff is about 53-54 minutes, but these are all sprinters and they won't match the pace up the LONG climb left. Plus...the live data is only showing 145 riders now...when the race center showed 152 at the start. So the field may get rather smaller, particularly if the last group, which is about 10 riders, fails to make the cutoff time. EDIT: ran pretty close...Cavendish beat the cutoff time by about 2 minutes; the last finisher beat it by about 1 minute. That's after, for them, 6+ hours. So, only 1 withdrawal noted at this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted July 14 Report Share Posted July 14 While that was going on, over across the water...Alcaraz torches Djokovic in the first 2 sets, 2 and 2...barely losing a point on his serve. Third set was much more tense. Alcaraz broke at 4-4 to serve for the match; it was actually a race of its own at that point, to see if the TdF stage or Wimbledon would finish first. But Djokovic *finally* broke back, and forced a tie-break that Alcaraz took. Alcaraz doubles up in 2 different ways: back to back Wimbledons, and the Channel Double...French and Wimbledon in the same year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted July 14 Report Share Posted July 14 (edited) The BBC's take on the Tour de France with Pogacar winning. Vingegaard tried to take Pogacar to the limit from 10km out but Pogacar stayed with him and then went around him and sailed away https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/articles/c9e9mdd830lo Spain beat England 2-1 in the European Championships https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/cp68zzx8x4rt Edited July 14 by death tribble Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted July 15 Report Share Posted July 15 Argentina beat Colombia in the Copa America 2-1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/clwy1ljp971t Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted July 15 Report Share Posted July 15 7 hours ago, death tribble said: Argentina beat Colombia in the Copa America 2-1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/live/clwy1ljp971t The result itself was the least significant aspect of the story. The organizers utterly botched things. https://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2024/7/15/24198873/copa-america-final-disaster-video-reports-world-cup-2026 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slikmar Posted July 16 Report Share Posted July 16 That doesn't even cover that my wife saw the 1 1/2 hour delay so set our recording on FSN for an extra 3 hours just in case, then watched game and halftime show and were told to now switch over to regular fox to watch the rest of the game. fortunately, we tuned over and they were in the first extra time, so all we missed was the 2nd half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted July 16 Report Share Posted July 16 Outside of the NFL, I'm generally not a big fan of Fox's broadcasts, particularly their studio people. From the sound of things, they didn't make any friends on that front here, either. And switching to Fox? That seems a singularly foolish move. Why? Anyone wanting to record it would get hosed...and by the time the second half rolled around, it was quite late in the Eastern and Central TZs. I mean...at that hour, all live sports should be long over, or still several hours off, for, say, the Euro finals. So, fine, if you wanna put it on Fox cuz there's nothing else there? Cool, but why take it OFF FS1? They can run the signal to both. Oh. Right. Herbert. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted July 16 Report Share Posted July 16 (edited) Jasper Philipsen wins stage 16 of the Tour de France https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/articles/c51yljq0z14o Edited July 16 by death tribble Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted July 17 Report Share Posted July 17 Richard Carapaz wins stage 17 of the Tour de France https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/articles/cy68v8vg4pxo His team now have a win at this year's Tour after lots of tries. Carapaz is the reigning Olympic champion but has not been picked by his country to defend his title which he is not happy about. He also now hold stage wins at all of the Grand Tours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclevlad Posted July 17 Report Share Posted July 17 I missed the key point about stage 16. Philipsen won the sprint stage...and Girmay got NO points at the finish line. That made the green jersey now a 2-man competition. After today, where there were no big shifts...Girmay has 387 points, Philipsen has 354. I don't think the TT has any green jersey points...? Pretty sure not. Tomorrow's stage has 5 cat 3 climbs, and a long, if relatively mild, uphill climb for a good ways before the last couple km. This looks like a route where a breakaway can seize control, but it might end up in a sprint. I kinda doubt it'll be a full-field sprint, but it could be a small pack finish. Winning would be huge, missing out if it's a small pack could be disastrous. 19 and 20 will only have the points at the sprint point, and Girmay's been very steady at getting good placements in those, for the entire race. It'd be hard to pick up 30 points on him, other than at the finish tomorrow. 2 sprinters left, as did Gaviria, who plans to prepare for the Olympics. And one rider left to be there for the birth of his son. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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