From The Sports Desk

The Tour!

The thing I like about cycling is it’s something we watch (for me the highlight reels anyway) but it’s also something we do. It’s not like football where fans watch it — a high school game on Friday, a college game on Saturday and an NFL game (or three) on Sunday — and then they talk about it all week. They never actually do it.

Speaking of “doing” cycling, the STP is coming up next month. The STP is a Seattle to Portland ride that most people do in two days, and it’s not so much a race as it is a traveling party. Oughta see if I can get time off to do it this year.

Hey, did you ever read Bike Cult? It’s probably out of print now, but I think I’ve still got my copy of it around here somewhere.

when I first started watching the tour back in the 80s (I was in paris in 1986, on a bike trip, and saw the last stage there the first year lemond one), most of the coverage then was a little half hour highlight show but for quite awhile now NBC has done a really good job of showing hours worth of every stage, often from start to finish. I don't watch every minute of it all, depending on whats going on, but I keep the telly on and within earshot.

I hope you do it----sounds like a great time and then good memories.

I haven't heard of that book before so I haven't read it, but I have a formal "books I want" list and I just added it.

I recently watched tomb raider with Alicia Vikander. I really enjoyed the movie, and liked her a lot in the role (was bummed to find out if there is a sequel, she wont be in it)---she plays a bike messenger and early on in the movie all the messengers have a game of fox and hounds, she plays the fox and its fun to watch.

I was library sale/used book shopping yesterday and picked up a lance Armstrong photo book. despite his being (heartbreakingly) disgraced, the photos of the tour are great. maybe i'll find a particularly good one to scan and post here.

just a little bit ago I stumbled upon some mlb highlights and apparently the reds-braves game yesterday was a barn burner, 11-10 with lead changes, boatloads of home runs (in one case, I think 3 within the span of 4 batters), and some young fellow on the reds hitting for the cycle.

re: reds-braves - Saw the highlights on CBS sports... the sportscasters took a lot of time in praise of the game... one for the ages :)

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

Elly De La Cruz I think. Just called up. Man, he was fun to watch in that game, and I’m a Bravos fan

Yankees: Perfect... yeah.

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor

tour de france starts tomorrow!!

just found out that nbc is only barely broadcasting the race on the USA network, and often when they do, its going to be on at 2 in the morning! almost everything else is exclusively on nbc peacock, their streaming service.

#()&*@&%$)(@&$O*@P()%(&#@)(%&&%!!!!

It played on my local NBC channel. You might need to have a chat with your cable provider.

Stage One was a gas. The two leaders seem physically to be on a pretty equal footing. Just saying. You’d probably know this, bounty, are those Yates twins any kin to Sean Yates? I remember watching a stage race back in the 90s when he was near the end of his career. The route went through his home town. At one point the entire field pulled back so he could crest a hill in front of the pack. At the top of the hill his mother was waiting for him. He stopped, gave his mom a big hug, and then the race was back on.

What a sport.

I was able to catch it on normal nbc, but after today, its only on at a viewable hour on USA a half dozen times, and isn't on nbc again until the final stage. I don't think I know anyone who could record it for me when it comes on at 2 in the morning. im pretty hacked off at nbc.

they also made some personnel changes I wasn't fond of. they used to have chris horner and Christian vandevelde in the studio with paul burmeister (who does a great job) but they moved vandevelde to the back of a motorcycle, where I think he's wasted, chris horner is out, and they have two guys replacing them who don't have the personality nor the popular appeal and they are not familiar "old friends" that I was looking forward to seeing.

the timing would work for sean to be their father but no relation so far as I know.

yes, professional racing has those little traditional niceties that give it a beautiful flavor not available in other sports. letting riders go ahead when they are racing through a hometown is a really good one.

I don't pay intimate attention to racing prior to the tour, just a long distance view---but from what little I know, tadej pogacar has been somewhat banged up earlier in the season and missed some racing. I liked him as a champion and would be happy to see him win again, but my money is on Jonas vingegaard.

by the way, there might be some sympathy here for me given this is a literature forum and we pay at least a little attention to words and how they are pronounced. for all of my life the scandinavian "gaard" has been pronounced as "guard." think Asgaard, or Kierkegaard for instance. this fellow comes along and all of a sudden its "vingego"---what the heck? it drives me nuts!

and this travesty has gone on for a few years now (we might have talked about this before) they got rid of the traditional podium girls!

Cycling don’t get no respect in the U. S. of A. You’re right, bounty, I tuned up my local NBC station on Sunday morning, expecting to see the Tour like I did on Saturday, but I saw Chuck Todd instead. The Tour does have a pretty good website though.

So I just finished The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich. It’s set in the 1950s on The Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota. Boxing matches pop up a couple of times in the book. I thought the writer did a nice job with the blow-by-blows. The last match is between Wood Mountain and Joe Woblesznski, a Chippewa and a White guy. It’s held in the community center on the reservation and it’s purpose is to raise funds for the tribe to send a delegation to Washington DC to save their reservation and their status as Chippewa Indians.

This is the last round. No more pussy-footing around, the real slug fest had begun.

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So the round began, but the crowd was muted. Joe opened a deep gash on Wood Mountain’s eyebrow. Wood Mountain dealt a body blow that made Joe stumble across the ring. By the final moments, they were merely clubbing each other, moving in an earnest fog, and Jarvis was silent. There was no strategy, no design.

“It’s just ugly,” said Patrice, looking away. When the gong sounded, people cried out in relief.

They clapped in distress and left in disordered clumps. Wood Mountain did win on points but winning was beside the point. Joe Wobleszynski sat dumb in a chair. Their eyes were swollen shut, lips split, eyebrows taped, ears ringing, noses snapped, brains swelling in their skulls, and every bone and muscle ached. It was wonderful, it was terrible, it was the ultimate. It was the last time either of them fought.

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Spoiler alert! The delegation does go to Washington. The tribe survives — battered, but still alive.

its available on the USA network for a handful of days, thankfully that incorporates some earlier than usual stages in the mountains, starting tomorrow, so im really happy about that.

unfortunately my internets barely usable and seeing anything with photos, and videos and lots of news is impossible for me at home.

I was coaching high school xc, wrestling and track & field. I recruited a couple of the xc girls to work a scorer's table at a home wrestling tournament. they had never seen the sport before and I think it actually hurt them to see boys behave in such a way. I imagine had they seen wood and joe they would have ran into the middle of it yelling "in god's name, stoppppppppppp!"

one of my all-favorite scenes in movies is in Rocky when Adrian comes out of the locker room near the end of the fight and rocky is so battered and beaten up she has to look away, but out of love for him, she knows she has to look and steals herself to do it.

first day in the Pyrenees today, vingegaard buried pogacar, who lost about a minute at the end of the last climb and the subsequent run-in to the finish, despite being a part of a larger chase group.

the fun question for tomorrow is will today's stage winner, jai hindley who won the giro last year, be able to repeat his performance from today.

not quite sports writing, but related, and interesting; from holly golightly in breakfast at tiffany's: "I'm all for horses, but I loathe baseball...I hate the sound of it on the radio but I have to listen, its part of my research. there're so few things men can talk about. if a man doesn't like baseball, then he must like horses, and if he doesn't like either of them, well, i'm in trouble anyway: he doesn't like girls."

for everyone on the edge of their seats wondering what went on today...

hindley got ceremoniously dropped partway up the second climb by the pace being set my vingegaard's team, jumbo visma. eventually (the 3rd climb) it was only vingegaard and pogacar and not only was pogacar able to hang on, he attacked vingegaard, who couldn't respond, with a few kilometers to go before the summit finish and was able to claw back 20ish seconds on him.

Boxing, Baseball, Bicycling, and Horse Racing. That’s almost an alliteration grand slam right there.

I liked the pre-fight festivities in Rocky. Mickey sees the Meat Market ad on Rocky’s robe:

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Mickey - I trained you to be fighter not a billboard. What’d ya get for it?

Rocky - Paulie gets 3 grand. I get the robe.

Mickey - Shrewd

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Later in the ring, Apollo’s got on Stars and Stripes boxing trunks and a big top hat.

Quote:

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Rocky - He looks like a big flag

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