Le. Tour. De. France.
The first thing to remember as you watch today’s final stage up and down the Champs Elysees is that it’s not a race anymore.
Unless of course you’re racing for the Green Sprinting Jersey in which case if you’re Alessandro Petacchi all you have to do is finish in the top six, though I expect the Manx Maniac Mark Cavendish to put on a show and push hard for his 5th stage victory.
Another thing to remember is that 39 seconds is not so much over 3 weeks of racing, about 2,263 miles. Andy got within 6 seconds at one point.
There are people who will point to bad luck–
Ironically, it is the exact figure Schleck lost to Contador on stage 15 when the Spaniard counter-attacked him moments before he suffered an untimely mechanical problem with his gears.
He also lost his brother and climbing partner Frank back at Stage 3.
Menchov won the 3rd podium place by overcoming a 21 second deficit to finish the stage 1:39 ahead of Sanchez so there’s your 2 minute Time Trial margin.
I stand by yesterday’s analysis of Le Tour 2010, but maybe next year we’ll be talking about Alberto and Andy again.
In any event I’m open to suggestions about other sport coverage. You’ll be hearing from me about Formula One and Baseball for sure, but I’m also open to World Championship Darts (well, it’s part of the same package that Vs. is in).
Which brings up some important points. You, as is customary, can write about any sport you want including (shudder) Hockey. If you want me to write about it, it has to be available on Cable TV and it has to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. World Championship Poker and Monster Truck Races from 2007 on endless random repeat do NOT qualify no matter how many times I actually watch them.
Nor do Professional Wrestling and Figure Skating because they’re just too political.
3 comments
Author
One of the ESPN channels is going to carry the occassional soccer game but they are carrying English Premier League games and I want to see Spanish/Italian/anything not French or Brit games.
We get a few Spanish language channels and I think they might carry whatever the Mexican version of premier league soccer is.
I confess to being stuck. And that would be fine if it was not so hot. The only thing I really have in common with Lance Armstrong is that I don’t do well in hot weather in terms of exercising outside. Other than the occassional early morning walk all my running is done on a treadmill right now as is other exercise. As a result I am getting the sort of cabin fever most folks get in the winter.
Author
On the other hand, it would be fun to compare and contrast the Lady Volunteers and Huskies.
August…
No Collegiate nuthin’. Pennant Races!
heh.
I’m telling you, waiting around for Le Tour to start, I developed an uncomfortable familiarity with the state of the Monster Truck World Championship.
Better than watching Mets Fast Forward.