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Jul 20 2010

Le Tour: Recovery Day

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

The reason they call it a recovery day is you get to rest.

So what happened?

If you’re looking at the General Classification, not much.  Contador still 8 seconds ahead of Schleck.  Sanchez and Menchov about 2 minutes behind that.  11 other people you’ve never heard of (except for Leipheimer) within 10 minutes which is not an impossible margin to make up.

But time is running out.

If you’re a big Armstrong fan he made a charge.  He threatens the same tomorrow on the last mountain stage, but I don’t believe it.  Lance was racing hard from the get and he had about as much support from Team Radio Shack as you can expect.

He wasn’t able to break away from the break away and got outsprinted at the line.  They might try that again but I’m not sure why the results would be different.  If you must get your jingoism on, Radio Shack is leading the team standings by 4 and a half minutes and that’s unlikely to change for the same reasons that the other standings are- no more time.

Tomorrow is the last mountain stage, 108 miles from Pau to Col du Tourmalet.  Two category 1s and then straight up.  This is not as good a scenario for making up time as yesterday when you could magnify the margin over the peak on the finishing downhill.

Friday is 124 miles from Salies-de-Béarn to Bordeaux.  No climbs worth mentioning, so likely our final ‘Sprinter’ finish.

Saturday is the big 33 mile Time Trial where Contador buries Schleck.  Sunday is Champs day and see you next year.

So whomever you like time to get in your last licks, it will all be over soon.

Jul 20 2010

Le Tour: Stage 16

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Well, let’s chat a little about what happened.

Just as Schleck was about to put a move on Contador at the top of yesterday’s big climb (gaining perhaps as much as a minute and maybe more in the downhill) his chain slipped and by the time he was able to continue he was almost 2 minutes behind on the stage.

After resuming the race Schleck made up practically all of that deficit, but he did slip to 2nd in the General Classification and is now 8 seconds behind Contador with 2 mountain stages to go and with Contador presumed to have as much as a 2 minute advantage in Saturday’s penultimate sprint.

I think I’ll give a pass on Contador’s sportsmanship.  Frankly I’m not all that comfortable with ‘unwritten rules’ and I think they move your sport’s credibility from the ‘Olympian Ideal’ side of the scale to ‘Professional Wrestling’/’Figure Skating Political Kabuki’ just as surely as steroids.

As an athelete your duty is to try as hard as you can to win within the rules all the time, every time.

Anything else is cheating yourself and your fans.

I don’t think things are as grim for Schleck as they might be.  It’s only 8 seconds.  There are 2 more mountain stages including today.  There is a recovery day tomorrow.  I don’t think Contador is really 2 minutes faster over 34 miles (that’s actually quite a bit of time given the distance).

But there certainly isn’t much margin for error and none at all for slacking and what we have seen so far in the mountains is that Saxo Bank (Schleck) is not the team Astana (Contador) is.

Today’s 124 mile stage from Bagnères-de-Luchon to Pau has 2 category 1 and 2 Kute Kuddly Kitty Kat Klimbs and a long high speed descent into the finish.  It should be possible to generate huge deltas off the last peak depending on conditions and competition.

We’ll see what happens.

Jul 20 2010

Prime Time

No Keith.  No Jon.  No Stephen.

Ultimate Car Build Off looks like fun, last week (repeated @ 8) they built cars out of the front half of front wheel drive cars.

What I think I’m going to watch is Hornblower.  It’s part of Gregory Peck night on Turner Classic, but the attraction to me is I’m a huge C. S. Forester fan.  The 1951 film is an adaptation of Beat to Quarters, Ship of the Line, and Flying Colors.

Since it’s a Hollywood film it concentrates a lot on his courtship of his second and better connected trophy wife Lady Barbara (sister of Arthur Wellesley) and not his more realistic and problematic first wife Maria.

Later-

Dave has Sylvester Stallone, Rob Corddry, and Robyn.  I wonder if Corddry is going to talk about Children’s Hospital.

Alton does tomatos.  The Venture Brothers has The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay.

Jul 19 2010

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 BP well stays shut despite ‘seepage’

AFP

2 hrs 17 mins ago

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – The US government authorized BP on Monday to keep the busted Gulf of Mexico oil well shut in for another 24 hours despite gas seepage that could indicate the wellbore is damaged.

BP wants to keep the valves on its containment cap closed continuously until an operation to permanently seal the well can be performed in less than two weeks time, meaning no more toxic crude would stream into the Gulf.

But those hopes were dealt a blow on Sunday when the government raised concerns about “the detection of a seep near the well and the possible observation of methane over the well.”

Jul 19 2010

Monday Business Edition

It’s a very good country for the rich man. Chauffeurs, servants, big houses. The question is, who is suffering? The common man.

This is the tax policy that DC elites, Republicans and Democrats, want to see adopted.

I on the other hand favor moderate, mainstream, FDR tax rates of 90% on marginal income; and if corporations have the right to speak like individuals they have the right to be taxed like them too.

Who wants to be long on a July weekend anyway sucker?

From Yahoo News Business

1 Moody’s downgrades Ireland debt rating

AFP

2 hrs 2 mins ago

LONDON (AFP) – A top rating agency downgraded Irish debt on Monday, saying that the once Celtic Tiger is being greatly weakened by radical action to fight debt and rescue banks but may be stabilising.

Moody’s agency cut Ireland’s debt rating to Aa2 on Monday, blaming high debt levels, weak economic growth prospects and the huge cost of rescuing banks.

“Moody’s Investors Service has today downgraded Ireland’s government bond ratings to Aa2 from Aa1,” the group said in an official statement, but added that it had switched its outlook to stable from negative.

Ireland has gladly adopted a strong austerity policy.  This is what happens.

Jul 19 2010

Le Tour: Stage 15

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

I suppose I should try to avoid  any sentence that starts- “What really happened yesterday…” especially when it comes to Le Tour because I really don’t have any special insight except that which comes from watching each stage about 16 times in preference to the crap that normally infests my TV, particularly the Sunday Morning Beltway Bozo Shows.

It is a shame that I will take to my grave that I ever thought they made me better informed and worse that my persistent addiction infected my parents who have yet to recover.

But back to professional bicycle racing which, even with doping, is so much more legitimate than Wrestling, Roller Derby, or Politics.

Yesterday’s subtext is that Astana, Alberto Contador’s team, is going to try and drop every other contender by pushing the Peloton.  Schleck and Saxo Bank are keeping up so far, but Lance and Team Radio Shack have nothing to race for but pride.  My prediction is that unless Saxo Bank puts an a move (which will be quite difficult if Astana stays aggressive), Contador leaves the Pyrenees seconds behind and counts on a blistering Time Trial the penultimate stage Saturday.

Or there could be flaming hunks of twisted metal, that’s why you watch anyway isn’t it?

Stage 15, Pamiers to Bagnères-de-Luchon, is 117 miles ending with a Kute Kuddly Kitty Kat Klimb.  If Astana is serious, and there is no reason to believe they aren’t, the Peloton will again be 10 or more minutes ahead of its expected pace before that final climb even begins.

Jul 19 2010

Prime Time

Later-

Jul 19 2010

Evening Edition

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 BP hopes cap can stay on for good

by Allen Johnson, AFP

Sun Jul 18, 3:53 pm ET

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – BP raised hopes Sunday that no more toxic crude will leak into the Gulf of Mexico, saying it intends to keep its runaway oil well sealed until a permanent “kill” operation later this month.

The US government is granting extensions to exhaustive well tests on a 24-hour basis, but BP said the valves on the containment cap that is staunching the flow will remain shut as long as no leaks are discovered.

This could mark the beginning of the end of what estimates suggest is the biggest oil spill ever, although the true damage from one of America’s worst environmental disasters might not be known for decades.

Jul 18 2010

The Week in Review 7/12 – 17

206 Stories served.  29 per day.

This is actually the hardest diary to execute, and yet perhaps the most valuable because it lets you track story trends over time.

Jul 18 2010

Le Tour: Stage 14

Le.  Tour.  De.  France.

Today could be the end, or the beginning of the end, if either Contador or Schleck break down.

The 4 Pyrenees stages are the last places on this year’s Tour that large chunks of time are likely to be available.  Contador is counting on his time trial superiority for some fractions of a minute in the next to last stage, but it shouldn’t come to that and we may know everything by the time the Peloton mounts Port de Pailheres, one of those Kute Kuddly Kitty Kat Klimbs.

I don’t expect Leipheimer or Sanchez to put on much of a move but they are positioned, you can make arguments for others and many will.  Climbs like this can produce 15 minute deltas (for the quants).

There is that recovery day Wednesday and then one more of climbing and then it’s sprinters to the Champs Elysees.

It’s still more exciting than golf even at The Royal & Ancient because of the flaming hunks of twisted metal.  When was the last time you saw someone break a bone in a pot bunker?

Today is 115 miles from Revel to Ax 3 Domaines.  Only 2 climbs, the last one is just a category 1.

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