Posts filed under 'sports'
So after watching Lance go up and down the mountains, I decided to hop up on my bike and go up Old La Honda.
So here’s a picture of the beginning of the ride up:
And here’s a picture of me at the end:
And it took me about 40 minutes to go up 3.29 mile climb that had an elevation gain of 1000 feet.
And after that climb I was looking to the nearest place to stop and breathe.
Couple of fun facts about the ride. So I was like the fattest guy going up Old La Honda. When I finally hit the corner of Foothill and Page Mill I noticed a whole bunch of folks who were bigger than me.
So I felt a little bit better when all those freaky skinny guys blew past me, saying the always friendly: On your left…
July 26th, 2009
Today on Mont Ventoux, Lance Armstrong was able to hold on to his 3rd place finish.
Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador were clearly the best two riders of the tour, but Lance was very much the third best guy on the road.
The real fun, though, was listening to today’s broadcast because Bradley Wiggins of the UK was trying to desperately hold on to fourth.
Phil Liggett was practically jumping up and down cheering for Wiggins. Telling him to stay in there, push harder, and came up with the best phrase:
He’s holding on to 4th by the skin of his bike shorts!
Wiggins benefited from the fact that Frank Schleck didn’t have the legs, whereas Frank benefited from the fact that his brother was too far behind Alberto Contador to be able to mount a realistic challenge for the overall lead. So with Alberto and Andy stuck in first and second, it was a battle for the 3-4-5 positions of the overall lead. Andy tried to create attacks that Frank would follow but the magical legs that Frank had two days ago had disappeared. Instead after every attack Andy would have to stop and wait for his brother.
Furthermore, Frank was not going to benefit from the tactical screw up of the other day on stage 17 that lead to a surprising stage win:
What had happened was that Lance was following Wiggins all day. On the climb to the Col de Romme, Andy attacked and Alberto and Kloden followed. Lance realizing that he wasn’t going to challenge for the overall GC and that Alberto had a team mate let that attack go. A few seconds later when the attack had not yet consolidated, the group behind the leaders more or less stopped. Lance looked behind him, watching both Wiggins and Frank. He didn’t want to be pacing his challengers for the podium. When Frank attacked, Lance was at too much of a dead stop to catch up. Making the tactical decision that he could limit the damage Frank could create on his overall lead, and believing in his performance in the time-trial, Lance let Frank go, deciding to keep his eyes on Wiggins. Lance, correctly, surmised, that the multi-minute gap was simply too big for Frank.
But today with only 30 or so seconds separating Lance and Frank, there was to be no such screw up. And indeed there was not.
At the end of the tour, when Versus finally caught up with the Texan, he looked pleased with himself. Like anyone who comes in third, and realizes there was no chance for first, he was happy with his accomplishment, and said:
Not bad for an old fart like me.
July 25th, 2009
For even the unsurpassed, the great, Lance Armstrong, age finally arrived.
Amazingly able to keep up with great climbers a decade younger than him, Lance seemed poised to triumph in this year’s tour.
But the tour, has a way of separating the champions from the pretenders. For the first time in almost 11 years, Lance Armstrong felt like his competitors must have felt as he crushed them up mountains, leaving them gasping for air and wondering what went horribly wrong…
Alberto Contador looked to his left, saw the group of leaders and then blitzed to the top.
As we watched him sprint on ahead, we wondered, will Lance respond, and the old tired body that crossed over the finish line a 1.5 minutes later told us the story, no.
Lance no longer the Champion, he was now the domestique of a new champion.
July 19th, 2009
First I have to deal with Patrick Roy being honored for being a great goaltender …
Then I have to deal with Robert Lang being signed. Which means we have given up on Sundin
But nothing, fuck me, nothing can compare to the horror show which is Patrice Brisebois being *re-signed*.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
September 12th, 2008
Watching the newly elected Mayor of London Boris Johnson, at the Olympics was amusing. It was obvious that no-one told him what to do, when to do it or how to do it. The optimist in me thinks this was just a normal guy thrust into extraordinary circumstances who was as befuddled as I would have been in front of 90+ thousand people and 1 billion people on TV. The cynic in me wants to observe that for a country that spent so much time choreographing everything, you would think they would take the time to walk the Mayor of London through the ceremony, you would think they would tell him to button up his suit, you would think they gave him a comb… But they didn’t. Was it all done to make the Mayor of London, and the City of London look ridiculous as compared to Beijing?
But I am an optimist so I’ll assume he was just thrust into extraordinary circumstances without his own handlers giving him sound advice.
So here’s what it looked like.
He arrived on stage looking haggard and bedraggled. His hair was poorly done. His suit looked ill-fitting. Couldn’t a tailor in London have given him a proper suit?
He walks onto a stage with over 1 billion people watching, with his suit open looking confused about what he should be doing.
He then stands on stage, and his first reaction is to put his hands in his pockets … only to see that everyone else has their hands by their side … so he pulls them out.
He than stands wondering what is going to happen next.
Then we watch the Mayor of Beijing majestically wave the flag and pass it on with two hands to the president of the IOC, who then in turn passes it to the Mayor of London, who has never waved a flag in his life. The flag is twisted around the flag-pole so we have this anxious moment where we wonder if The Mayor of London is going to drop the flag but thankfully we avoid that embarrassment. Finally the Mayor of London hands the flag over with one-hand relieved to be done with this ceremony…
For a country that understood pomp and style seeing the Mayor of London be so confused with such a simple ceremony was just plain funny.
August 27th, 2008
First let me congratulate the Chinese people on throwing a fantastic party, and for winning 51 gold medals. Truly an outstanding performance!
Now, let me offer my condolences to every athlete who had aspirations to any of the 119 gold medals that the Chinese government has targeted. Now it’s obvious some of the gold’s are in high-profile events, but some are not so high profile. And I am really talking about the less high-profile sports. Where people with few resources who had talent could compete on the global stage.
It’s almost comically unfair. You have obscure sports, that by the nature of their obscurity, have marginal amounts of money, are labors of love, and don’t immediately attract the best athletes.
These sports exist on the fringes of the Olympics. Some people care about them passionately, but for the rest of us, they don’t exist. And in many ways, I believe those sports represent the best part of the Olympics.
Unfortunately, the Chinese government has decided that they want those medals. And the Chinese government will apply the full power of their resources to get as many of those medals as they can.
And you have to believe that although it will take time, they will win those medals. China has the people, the money and the determination to win those medals. And that the amateurs, who did this as a labor of love, who could aspire to a medal will be consigned to even more obscurity. Yes talent counts for something, but so does training, preparation and coaching.
So I feel sad, because on the fringes of the Olympics were sports where the true amateur spirit of the Olympics lived, free from the over-the-top professionalism and over-the-top-jingoism and now China’s Project 119 will make those sports just as professional and jingoistic as the rest of the Olympics…
August 25th, 2008
How could I have missed this beautiful exchange:
Robinson, commenting about the imposing look of a Russian diver who had shaved his head: "I feel like I’ve seen this guy in a James Bond movie."
Potter: "I think I’ve seen him in some other kinds of movies."
Robinson, stunned into awkward silence: " … "
Potter, as replay of the Russian’s dive rolls: "Those other movies were about violence, not anything else."
Maybe this woman is a credit to her profession, and maybe diving fans love her, but oh-my-God, she needs some help with her color commentary ….
August 25th, 2008
I just finished reading Ann Killion’s article in the SJ Mercury News.
She asked the same question I was asking and arrived at a different conclusion, that Usain Lightning Bolt was the real star of the Olympics.
And I must agree with her.
Usain won the prestige event, the 100m race. That is the event that has 90,000 people in the stadium and a billion world wide holding their breath to see who will win. I know I’ll be talking about Bolt with my cousins in Greece. I know they won’t care about what Phelps did or did not do.
Phelps is undoubtedly the greater champion, but Bolt, by virtue of coming later, by virtue of winning the biggest races in the grandest of style is the star of these Olympics.
And perhaps the problem is that Bolt’s victory is surreal but understandable. I mean he ran fast and he won three gold medals, and we understand that. But Phelps, well Phelps won the moral equivalent of the 100m, 200m, 400m, 110m hurdles, 4×100m, 4×400m, 4×400m hurdles, and the long jump. That’s incomprehensible. You just say it and want to go: no, can’t be done…
So yes Phelps is the champion, but Bolt is the star.
August 23rd, 2008
P
Poor Usain Ligthning Bolt, if it wasn’t for Michael Phelps, this would be his Olympics.Three shattered world records, three gold medals, and an obvious unparalleled expression of joy with victory.
The 100m sprint was the greatest 9.7 seconds in sports.
With 20 meters to go in the 100m, Usain chose to start celebrating his victory… and the world stopped and wondered why? And he answered, quite plainly, he didn’t care about the record, he just wanted to win. And of course the world said he was show-boating, but maybe, just maybe for him winning the race was the point, not setting some record.
And maybe he was as surprised as the rest of us with his victory. And maybe if we found ourselves 10m ahead of our competition in the greatest race on the planet, we too would want to celebrate our victory…
It was an insane sprint, an awesome sprint, an unbelievable sprint.
And in the 200m where apparently the record was more important,Usain didn’t let up until he cross the line, breaking an age old record by Michael Johnson.
And in the 4×100m, he was so determined to win and break the world record that he chased asafa powel around the track.
But Mr. Bolt, Phelps was there first, so your accomplishment is Phelpsian instead of Mr. Phelps’ accomplishment being Boltian …
August 22nd, 2008
So one of the more interesting(?) aspects of the Chines diving program is the monumental focus the Chinese diving program has.
The diver’s childhood is sacrificed on the altar of potential Olympic gold.
In America, that level of dedication is viewed with a certain dose of healthy doubt about whether the trade off is worthwhile.
But the reality is that the focus, the training and the dedication of the Chinese was creating a two tier diving ranking: The Chinese and everyone else.
The US team confronted with an inability to win anything in the last few Olympics has decided if you can not beat them join them.
So now we too have a sports academy where children go to try and be Olympic champions. Sacrificing their childhoods on the altar of a diving championship.
The children are home schooled, the parents are uprooted, everything is done in the name of victory.
And I don’t blame the American athletes. This is what it takes to win now that the Chinese have raised the bar in terms of training.
I just wish that an authoritarian state that had no concern for the lives of it’s citizens was not forcing the rest of us to be as heartless…
August 22nd, 2008
Previous Posts
