From The Sports Desk

[Sancho]

Haha. I get it. In fact after my trip to the watery part of the world, I’m gonna need to read a McManus book too.

[bounty]

the one im getting is a relatively newer one called the bear in the attic.

while im here, didn't know this was a thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qOr1mfxvfg

[Sancho]

I guess I was unaware of the Tom Simpson story. The youtube has piqued my interest, though. I really only follow professional cycling occasionally. Cycling for me is that feeling right before a day-long ride as the sun is just coming up, the weather perfect, the wheels trued the night before. I’ve got a powerbar and a credit card in my jersey pocket, and I’m off to do battle with texting-while-driving people. Ya just can’t beat that feeling.

[bounty]

you can never watch a tour that goes up mt ventoux, or that talks about doping, without tom simpson's dying on the ascent being mentioned. I hadn't known he was as accomplished as he was though.

despite wny being heavily covered in snow just a few days ago, we've had unseasonably weather since and i went out for a ride today. no power bars, or lots of miles, but i think any time you can get on a bike, its a good.

[bounty]

im watching the jets/Texans game and its been pouring down rain the whole first half so far. the announcer, kevin Harlan goes "I don't think the heavy stuffs gonna come down for awhile."

[Sancho]

Haha. CaddyShack has some hang-time, eh?

BTW, I'm a fan of Pro Cycling, about like a guy who's a baseball fan but only watches game 7 of the WS. I religiously watch The Tour of France every year as ride along the Champs - El - Eesees.

[bounty]

no Champs-Élysées this coming season. the race organizers moved the finish to nice because of the olympics.

cant remember if I mentioned before, I was in paris in 1986 the first year greg lemond won. it was the hands down the most exciting athletic event ive ever seen.

[hellsapoppin]

I used to watch road cycling's TDF every year. Same with Giro D'Italia and La Vuelta de España. But when the Lance Armstrong disclosures were made I got turned off completely. Just cannot watch those great sporting events without thinking about Armstrong's corrupt practices. UGH!!!

[hellsapoppin]

My favorite annual amateur sporting event is the IIHF Hockey World Juniors

The 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship will take place Dec. 26, 2023 - Jan. 5, 2024 in Gothenburg, Sweden:


https://teamusa.usahockey.com/worldjuniors2024



This is played annually from late December to early January. Every year it produces future NHL super stars. This year Matt Smaby from Minneapolis will be the coach:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Smaby

[Sancho]

I remember you telling us that, bounty. I was jealous. I remember that tour well. I’ll bet Lemond winning that tour did more to get Americans cycling than all 7 of Lance’s.

I was trying to think of my most exciting sports moment. This might not be it, but it popped in my head because of the Moby thread:

So I took up open-water swimming a while back because the ole bod needed a nonimpact sport for longevity purposes. I was lucky enough to be going to Maui semi-regularly with my job a couple of years ago. We stayed at the Maui Coast Hotel, which is right across the street from a small but nice public beach, which was a good place to swim. I'd go from the beach up to a city park and back. At a couple of hundred yards from shore the water gets gloriously clear and there is always a good chance of seeing some interesting sea critters. Everybody from the mainland gets up early in Hawaii on account of body-clock time, so I was standing on the beach, getting ready to dive in as the sun was coming up. This was probably in February or March, which is when the humpbacks migrate through there. I could see spouts a mile or two off shore.

So I'd made it up the park and most of the way back when I noticed people around me on paddle boards were all more-or-less looking my way. (When you swim by yourself in the ocean you tend to be aware of what's happening around you so as not to get run over by a jet-ski or something) Anyway everybody seems to be looking at me so I stopped to see what was going on. And right about that time, not more than 30 or 40 yards from me, a couple of humpbacks surface. I felt the swell. One of them, with that big ole eye, was looking right at me. Their tails went up and I felt like I was on the sidewalk looking up at a tall building. I know this word gets overused nowadays, but it was AWESOME. I’ve seen whales from the shore, and I’ve seen whales from a boat. I’ve even seen whales from an airplane. But nothing compares to seeing two whales in their ocean, right next to them. (I think one of them said — you in my house now, bubba)

[hellsapoppin]

Sancho,

I’ll bet Lemond winning that tour did more to get Americans cycling than all 7 of Lance’s.

He certainly did quite a lot to popularize road cycling in the States. I remember how he was the anchor that secured a couple of wins for Hinault (can't remember offhand the name of the team). He was in a hunting accident but bravely came back to excel in more international events and served as inspiration for millions of hopeful youths world wide. And he blew the whistle on the cheating Armstrong.

The popular Eddy Merckx (Belgium) did a lot to popularize road cycling back in the day. He was extremely popular in NYC though he was not quite so well known nationwide. Growing up in Gotham, I well remember how so many New Yorkers were greatly obsessed with just about anything that came from Europe in those times.

[bounty]

i was able to follow-up the 86 tour finale with a later trip to the world championships in Colorado springs. not as grand as the tour, but still pretty neat.

if you are looking for a sports-minded vacation, I think the tour is a good destination. something that combines a famous mountain stage, along with a sprint finish type stage, and then the finale in paris.

id disagree with the lemond/Armstrong influence comparison. id hedge my bet toward armstrong, while its true his cheating, bullying and subsequent confession, was very unpalatable and broke lots of hearts (mine too poppin), along with a lot of blind eyes, he was the beneficiary of at least two things, one was lemond's success and the other was a much broader mass media than lemond enjoyed. by the time Armstrong was coming into his own, the tour was getting more attention in the states, and the internet was making the world lots smaller and more accessible. but the questions a really good one and would make for a great masters thesis/doctoral dissertation.

on another point though, if someone told me greg lemond "doped" too I wouldn't have a difficult time believing it.

that's a neat story Sancho---if you havent already, go back to the moby thread and look at the link I last posted. you'll enjoy it.

I spent 4 yrs in Minneapolis at the university of Minnesota and one of those years coincided with the men's hockey team winning the ncaa back to back. hockey in Minnesota is like basketball's march madness in the much of the rest of the country.

[hellsapoppin]

bounty,

I spent 4 yrs in Minneapolis at the university of Minnesota and one of those years coincided with the men's hockey team winning the ncaa back to back. hockey in Minnesota is like basketball's march madness in the much of the rest of the country.

That's super awesome!

I well remember the 2002 Championship because of Johnny Pohl's great work in it. Saw him play at Red Wing high school and he later became a pro. Today he is athletic director at prestigious Hill-Murray school.

The 2003 Championship ended in a massive four goal onslaught by the Gophers in the ending period.

Back to back Frozen Four trophies for coach Mike Lucia who is now head of the Conference. I liked Doug Woog cause he was a really good guy, one who was very approachable. This especially so when he was home in South St Paul's Dakota (now, Woog) Arena. A great high school coach but not really a good college coach. His recruits were good high school players but not always good college players and they lacked size and finesse. Lucia changed all that.


You're right when you say that folks here love their hockey. Am reminded of the movie "Slap Shot" which remains a highly popular classic in these parts. I've seen it several times but gotta see it again.

[bounty]

i had lots of athletes in my classes over my years there, but oddly enough, no hockey players, so i didn't know any of the players or coaches and i don't think i went to a game.

youre in Minnesota poppin? one of my hockey memories was just simply going back and forth to campus in the winter time and one of the parks i went by had 2-3 rinks and it seems there were pick up games galore.

meanwhile, i just stumbled across this that i'll look forward to checking out later:

https://pluto.tv/en/search/details/s...77ead/season/1

[Sancho]

Oh yeah, bounty, that post you made of the sperm whale at the beach in Australia is what reminded me. It also made me wonder if their population is recovering.

I agree, Lance got more press and still has better name recognition. And I suppose it’s a question that has an unknowable answer, but I think LeMond has a multiplier effect whereas Armstrong has an inverse multiplier effect. Guys my age got excited about cycling while Lemond was riding and got their kids excited about riding and those kids got their kids excited. Lance got a lot of people on bikes while he was riding, but then there was his mea culpa moment with Oprah after which I think a lot of people left the sport, thinking it’s dirty. Anyway, might be a good hypothesis for a thesis, but I don’t know you’d go about testing it.

I actually saw Lance ride once. It had to be in 04 or 05 when he was still hanging with Cheryl Crow and I was living near Atlanta. He was riding in the Tour of Georgia and the race came right by my house. So we all went out to watch the peloton go by. And there he was. It was pretty cool. We were real close. So close in fact that we could smell him. He wore Brute Aftershave and reeked of Lavoris.