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Sunday, May 31, 2009

I'm Back!

Sorry, it's been a while since I posted anything - but the French Open is EXCITING! I watched Rafa, who reminded me of the Nuggets and the Cavs. Ok, now why, exactly are we here again? And why are those other people celebrating??... Anyway, Rafa was practically in the stands he was so far back on serve receive. Slowest I've ever seen him move.
On the other hand, Andy Rodick looked fantastic on Saturday. Did you guys know that he can volley??? Neither did I. But he can, and did!
Also out - Novak 'Can't take a' Djokovic. Straight sets loss to the 29 seed who's name I can't spell.
In an interesting turn of events in horse racing, the owners of Rachel Alexandra decided not to run her in the Belmont. So Calvin Borel, the crazy, annoying jockey is back on Mine The Bird to go for his own personal triple crown.
Jock
PS. I am not hung-over. Just lazy.

Trying to cover everything.... and poorly at that!

OK - Star asked me to blog on the Giro and Lilly wants me to talk about the French Open, and Jock is probably just nursing a hangover. I'm watching Zack Grienke pitch again today. He truly is a rock star... for a small market guy.
OK - Giro - not sure what happened on Friday or Saturday's stages. I read the results and Sastre won on Friday, but didn't shake up the top five, the Saturday stage was won by a young rider who I hadn't heard of, and today was the TT. With nice weather for the start, and early starting Lithuanian TT champion won the whole thing, with Bradley Wiggins coming in only 1 second back. Menchov biffed in the last K (couldn't find a shot of the crash) but still finished in the top 10 overall and secured the win. Here's some pics: 1, 2, 3. But seriously, Rabobank, spring for a pink aero helmet, orange clashes.
Big news at Roland Garros, which of course we could not see since I don't have Tennis Network, and according to our only non family reader, didn't even show the Rafa match. The big Swede, Robin Soderling, upset the 4 time defending champion in 4 sets. And although I am cheering for Andy, I really kind of hope that this makes the path for Rogerer a little smoother to enable him to finally get his career Slam.
And of course, a big shout out to the nephew V, who, at the age of 13, can intelligently discuss the MLB, NBA, NHL, and still pop off with a "Rafa is killer on clay..." comment. He doesn't even have cable for crying out loud!

Friday, May 29, 2009

Yesterday's sports..ala Mom

Last night Lebron was all like "Is there anyone else on my team?" and everybody pretended they couldn't hear him, until he was "Fine I'll just do it myself" and he did. Then his team just kept drawing dream houses on big sheets of paper and Lebron picked up all their stuff and threatened to burn it.
Dan Haren has nice eyes, and got some stinkin' run support for once last night.
And Andy won (not so nice eyes, but nice other stuff), so did Rogerer & Rafa, but sadly Venus lost.



Thursday, May 28, 2009

GIro Update (stage 18) by star

Yippeeee, it's a zeppelin!
Garmin - Slipstream remembered it's riding this race to win, not just get to visit all of Italy from the back of a bike.
Good job
Danny Pate for getting 3rd and being cute!
Iowa's pride and joy:
Jason McCartney was all over the front of breakaway trying to make something happen, but ended up 7th.
Other then that Chechu was cute too. He was in a
video with Lance before the stage.
No change in the GC.


Check this out: Great blog by Christian Vande Velde.
This is old, but check out his dog and what he thinks of NE. I don't know VdV, now it's not just the mole I need to get over.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Damn Team Kobe...

That's all I'm gonna say. That and Lamar Odom finally pulled his head out of his box of ho-hos and realized he's a free agent this summer. 
Good News for your eyeballs -  Andy Roddick overcame his american-ness won his first round match. And the french love him?!? Sadly Blake lost.

Giro Update (stage 17) by star

I hope the time it takes me to write this post is not longer then the actual stage. Short and to the point. It was 83 k with one big mountain at the finish. It was only 23 k longer then the ITT.
Franco Pellizotti won the stage. He's pretty. It took him only 2:12 to finish the whole stage.
For a short stage, it looked painful. Ask de Luca or Menchov.
Carlos and Levi bombed, and I don't mean they are 'the bomb'. They didn't do very well.
Chechu hung out with the sprinters and finished pretty far back. I think he crashed in the stage. He's now 53rd, 1:31:48 back.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

ZacK GreinKe.....

is a rock star.
And he has dimples.

NBA Best in Show...Nugget(s)

The Nuggets were pretty impressive last night even with Carmelo all pukey and JR Smith being a schizophrenic genius/bonehead player, the Nugs managed to pull it out. 
But Jeff Van Gundy, ex-coach, general all-around ass-hat announcer for ESPN drives me crazy. I wrote down one of the more inane things he yelled, regarding the new rule that if a player gets more than 7 technical fouls called on them in post-season play then they are suspended one game. He said " Seven...SEVEN! You can't just pick an arbitrary number out...it should be like 9 or 11" Huh? I guess he thought if he used the word "arbitrary" then everyone would ignore the ridiculous stupidity of his statement. Ugh.
Hubby compared him to the announcer Buck Lauglin (played by Fred Willard) in the movie Best of Show - Now tell me, which one of these dogs would you want to have as your wide receiver on your football team?  or Doctor, question that's always bothered me and a lot of people: Mayflower, combined with Philadelphia - a no-brainer, right? Cause this is where the Mayflower landed. Not so. It turns out Columbus actually set foot somewhere down in the West Indies. Little known fact.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Giro Update (stage 16) by star

Update to the update:
OK, now I've actually watched the stage, so:
Carlos Sastre (I didn't know cowboys were cycling fans) is a monster and pulled out a can of 'look at me ride really fast uphill like I did last July".
Menchov might be the real deal, he kept on Deluca's wheel the whole way up, then took a second on the line. And kudos to Rabobank for replacing the orange with pink on the shorts to match the jersey.
Popo, poor Popo, I think he was trying to coast the last 2 k of the climb after getting caught by Carlos. I have that same feeling the second I walk though the door at work sometimes.

OMG,
Denis smiled. It's a good thing they have cameras over there in Italy or I wouldn't believe it!
Poor
Levi, I think he just pissed any chance of winning the Giro. Maybe he can get on the podium with an attack on one of the remaining stages and a phenomenal TT.
Here's the
video of Levi, Lance and Jens. It's pretty good, but I don't understand about 25% of what Jens is saying and I watched it twice. But I did understand him back when he called me crazy! Pot calling kettle black!
The video from earlier with DZ mentioned him
singing, sometimes I'm glad pictures don't have audio.
Chechu was solid today, he's now sitting 47th, 1:15:51 back.

Not much of a gearhead after all... by boo


Had the best intentions of watching the Indy 500, but man, car racing is boring. There was a minor crash on the first lap, so the yellow came out. So, I switched over to some Lifetime/Family Channel guilty pleasure chick flick while I tried to ride 100 miles on my stationary bike.


Dirtman did watch the whole thing, but he went out to see his folks for Memorial Day, so he can't help me with this report... There was one spectacular crash with two drivers that I didn't know. It was good that the car was facing away from the wall, that sure could have been messy.

But my favorite driver, Helio, won everything.
(Did you know there were multiple things to win? Me neither.) He won the pole. ( I did know about that.) And he won the pit competition. (makes sense.) And he won the race. And climbed the fence. How fun would that be.

NBA, the memorial day picnic version

LeBron tried to beat the Orlando Magic last night while his teammates jumped rope till the jump rope broke, then they just sat around telling knock knock jokes like they were at some sort of picnic. Unsurprisingly LeBron lost, 'cause even though he's the king he can't guard 5 other people. JJ Redick didn't get off the bench and is thinking of defecting to a boy band. And then they showed Dwight's shoulders.
The End. 
Happy Memorial Day everyone.
I've got to go drink by/in the pool. 


Sunday, May 24, 2009

Giro Update (stage 15) by star

Ivan Basso tried to make up some time to the leaders. But all was for not.
Come on Denis, I know this is your job, but seriously,
crack a smile. Maybe if the winner's jersey was dark brown and he was given a bottle of vodka instead of champagne he'd smile. Or he's probably disappointed on how the pink clashes with the blue and orange of the kit. He's just going to have to suck it up.
Tyler Farrar is not going to win a stage at this years Giro. Because he's gone home and taken David Millar and Cameron Meyer with him. That leaves the only riders left for Garmin are Danny Pate (the pride and joy of Co Springs (& cute)), Dave Z (he's crazy), Julian Dean (he's a kiwi), Bradley Wiggins (thank you for getting a hair cut), and Tommy Danielson (he's a pocket rider). They better do something this last week.
Here's a good
video with Dave Z, Lance and Levi. Just slightly awkward, but then again DZ is involved.
Chechu is not doing well. He ended up finishing with the sprinters 22 min back. He's now 57th, 1:03:11 back. He must be sick. Or he misses me.

Happy Birthday to Frankie!!!

Attack of Team Kobe

Like Boo, I watched game 3 of  Western Conference finals and yes, Birdman is something else. I'd take him on my team any day because I bet he's got some great stories, at least those he can remember
Team Kobetron showed up for game 3. Playing with no joy, appearing to not have a heartbeat or any other discernible signs of being human they still managed to win. Pau woke up in the 4th and Kobe stuck a dagger three in at the end. Nuggets need to refer to their copy of WWZ and destroy the brain, perhaps they could borrow a pickaxe from Rocky

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Giro - Stage 14 by boo

OK - Star asked me to blog on today's stage, and since I didn't watch, I just read up on it on cyclingnews.com. And since, I have had a few beers down in the Old Market, I hope I'm not too funny, or fast, or smart. Stage 14 in a nutshell, long break stayed away for 160K in brutal heat. Good for Gerrans, it had to suck. No major changes to the GC, except that Ivan is now 2 seconds ahead of Mick.
Star was right, Cav did bail out on today's stage, and took his leadout man, Mark Renshaw, with him. Probably drinking some wine and trying to figure out if they can get 6 or 7 stages at the TdF.
Watching the LA/Den Western Conference Final. The Birdman, Chris Anderson, is kind of freaking me out. I think that is why the Dirtman won't let me get the 1/2 inch tattoo on my foot. He thinks they multiply. His quote is "... you don't draw a mustache on the Mona Lisa..."

High Fives & Going for Five

Ok, so LeBron's a beast but I'm also pretty impressed that no matter how terrible the Magic play they actually stay in the game. I love the Cavs team chemistry though, which is why I think they'll eventually win the series.* I know its pretty girly of me, but I always watch for team chemistry, like rushing to help a teammate up, congratulating others, bench enthusiasm, etc. Right now, the Cavs and Nuggets have it in spades, the Magic not so much, Team Kobe is way too busy tip-toeing around, worried about receiving a ninja throwing star in the back of their skulls.
* if LeBron stays healthy, of course.
Also, Rafa gets the opposite side of the draw from Rogerer and Djokovic in the quest for his fifth French Open title. More importantly, he now has real shorts not pirate pants and they've taken the extra fabric and given him sleeves. 
Former Royals pitcher Billy Buckner got his first win as a D-back last night. Yes, I kinda pay attention to baseball, only kinda and when I'm all caught up with 30 Rock on the DVR.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Giro Update (stage 13) by star

Mark Cavendish won again today. That's his third individual win in 13 stages, plus he was part of the ITT win in stage 1. To bad he's done for the race. The finish was 15 K from his home in Italy, so he's probably going to bike home and stay there until the Tour de France. Ok, maybe not, but that's what I'd do.

Denis Menchov is still in pink. He must be Russian, even when he's leading a Grand Tour he can't smile. Maybe because he knows that there are pretty much a week of mountain stages left, and he doesn't have much of a team to help him.

Chechu moved up a spot, but I don't know why. I think Universal Sports should have a 'Chechu Cam'. He's 43rd, 32:14 back.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Giro Update (stage 12) by star

Danilo de Luca was dressed like a pink nightmare. Ok, so he didn't have footie pajamas or floppy ears, but he was rather pink.

Levi (he looks so small) did very well, just not good enough to win the stage or be in the top 2 of the GC. But we've got 4 mountain top finishes in the last week. That's right, I didn't stutter, 4 mountain top finishes. This race is far from done.

Ivan Basso was on a bike today. He makes my eyes smile.

Janez 'The Fencepost' Brajkovic got 4th on the stage. (5'10", 127 lb) I think he's gained some weight!

Dave Z didn't really do anything today. But I thought this was a cool pic. At the Tour of CA he had the red, white and blue argyle skin suit, now his helmet is red, white & blue. Maybe by the Tour de France, he'll get the matching booties!!

Oh ya, Rabobank's Denis Menchov won the stage and the maglia rosa. I couldn't find any good pictures of him....but at least he's is better looking then 'The Chicken'.

Oh Chechu, my Chechu is sitting 44th at 32:14 back. And he had a bad day yesterday, that's why he lost so much time.

Happy eyes...NBA version

Magic vs. Cavs
Hubby shoots look of utter disgust last night when I yell at tv during Dwight's post-game interview to take off his jersey - I'm just interested in his tattoos. 

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Giro Update (stage 11) by star

It was a sad day for American cycling:
-Levi crashed on today's stage and lost a measurable amount of skin. But finished with the same time as the winner.
-Chris Horner has abandoned the Giro because of a crash on the descent of the first climb of stage 10. He finished the stage, but couldn't walk when he woke up this morning. So he didn't start stage 11 :(
-Christian VdV found 3 fractured vertebrae in his back, so recovery has probably just been extended.

Oh, Tyler Farrar, you are to Mark Cavandish what Rafa Nadal (18 months ago) is to Roger Federer (18 month ago). Maybe some day Tyler will consistently take it to Cav and make him cry like a baby, too!

The nicest guy in the peloton: Chechu is sitting 46th at 24:34 back. He lost almost 8 minutes on the day. What happened, Chechu?

Rogerer gets his mojo back?

Tennis anyone? with the French open starting this weekend. Rogerer appears to have gotten his mojo back beating Rafa in the final of the Madrid Open (yes, on clay). Maybe it was the grainy non-HD footage, but Rafa looked rough, not it a good way. But I think Rafa had a hard time with Djokovic in the semis.
Was finally cleaning my house this weekend - and came across last month's Runner's World. Don't know if you all saw the article about Matt Long, a New York firefighter. If you have time read it - he's amazing and surprise, surprise, he's cute too.
David Stern/Gatorade/Nike can stop buying Houston Rocket voodoo dolls. Sighs of relief all around in NBA head offices, Yes, Mr. Stern your rating bonanza finals is still a possibility. Shane, I'll miss you.
Okay, I'm sure you guys didn't watch SNL this weekend - but on weekend update Seth Meyer and Amy Poehler really took it to ASU. brilliant. Plus Seth Meyer=adorable.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Giro Update (stage 10) by star

The Killer took it to the peleton. Danilo de Luca may be little and wearing pink, but you need to keep an eye on him. It looks like he is planning on riding away with Giro.

Levi lost some time on this stage because he took it easy on the downhill. Normally he would make up time in the ITT, but I don't know if he will. The ITT on Thursday is long and has 2 climbs and descents. I've heard most riders aren't even riding their TT bikes.

My favorite little Chechu is 40th at 16:38 back.

I can't believe KC Royals win tonight, scoring 4 runs off Kerry Woods with 1 out in the bottom of the 9th. This is the year!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Giro Update (stage 9 & rest day) by star

There wasn't a race for stage 9, but there was. The riders neutralized the stage after the first circuit, but then sprinted for the win. No points or time cuts were made. A wise man once said "If you're not first, you're last", yesterday was a perfect example of that.

I'm not a cyclist and don't know how dangerous the stage was, but I'm glad the cyclist stood their ground. Race organizers keep trying to make races more and more difficult, but want the riders to race clean. I would think that any race is as hard as the riders make it. Ok stepping down from the soapbox.

Observations from week one:
-Columbia-Highroad & LPR like to win. A lot.
-Cycling is not for the faint of heart.
-I would be totally digging Columbia if George Hincapie was there. He's so cute.
-I got a lot of funny looks at work when I mentioned the Giro.
-Tommy Voeckler likes to be on TV.
-Chechu is the best looking cyclist in the peleton. Oh wait, I observed that long before this week.
-Nothing against Universal Sports, I'm happy there's coverage of cycling, but really, really, really I miss Phil & Paul. And Bobke!

Can't wait for stage 10 & 12!!!

Go Gilles!!

Go Big Red?!?!

As I sit here, more than a little disgusted with myself over the whole fried food debacle this weekend, (see Jock's upcoming post about the red-neck turkey fry..), I am both happy and sad that the Husker baseball season is over. It was a long and dismal season, alot of "worsts" for the first time in a long time, but they did finish strong with a sweep of a Big 12 team.

Here's to the five seniors that were a lot of fun to cheer on this year.... when they did give us reason to cheer... Especially to Jake Mort, who hit 1 HR in his first 3 years with NU, and hit 2 in his last game as one. And Erik Bird, who threw 27.1 innings in his last 3 starts. (Yes, that's right, he pitched into the 10th inning in one of them!) And my personal fav, Jeff Tezak, who straight-up stole home yesterday on a rebuilt knee. Not so fast, but fast enough.

Star (rather sleepy and a tiny bit crabby) and I dragged Jock down to witness the final game. Beautiful day, and a win, marred only by the exceptionally loud and annoying fan seated behind us. (Jake, Jake, Jake, WOOOOOOO!!) Star and I are used to it since we have dealt with it for two seasons, but we often self medicate with a little C&V to take the edge off. After a weekend of "moderate" drinking, but too many late nights, that was not an option.

Sooo, we left early in order to fry MORE stuff. Frankie's husband was in trans-fat heaven. Axel and Mr. T (the offspring) showed the family ability to eat til it hurts, and still power through it!

boo

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Giro stage 7 & 8, Rachel goes Beyoncé

Since the rest of my sisters are way too busy drinking and deep-fat frying all kinds of food items in celebration of our Niece's graduation - I have to hold down the Giro coverage. (by the way, Melski - Congrats! No more high school is worth a celebration)
Stage 7 - Team Columbia-Highroad's new mini god of thunder won going away, after going up and then down to the finish. Also Team Astana traded out for new kits. They faded the non-paying sponsors logos back so you can't  read them...snap* take that! And also Ivan was there (trust me, click on that one...dreamy)
Stage 8 - Again, Team Columbia-Highroad pulls out a win with some utility player coming off the bench. I guess they came to win. Very scary fall by Rabobank's Pedro Horillo, going over the guard rail and down a ravine about 60 meters- breaking 2 vertebrae and puncturing his lungs. some seriously scary shit there. In other sad news, no pictures of Ivan today, mis ojos son tan muy triste.
In the "sport" of horse racing. Rachel Alexander channeled her inner BeyoncĂ© - check that- Sasha Fierce to put the smack down on the boys - going to the front and staying there, despite being pushed 4 wide on the turns, to win the 134th Preakness. Becoming the first filly since 1924 to win the race - you go girl. Derby winner Mine that Bird made a gallant run from the back of the field to try to catch her, but to no avail. He showed alot of class by finishing second and in doing so proved that his derby win was no fluke. Now Jock's least favorite jockey is going for a personal triple crown.
NBA note: Phil Jackson is going all mind-meld-zen-ninja on Team Kobe, you know the usual LA shenanigans...go rockets! 

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Milkshakes & Team Kobe

I only watched the last 1:23 of the Magic/Celtics game, Magic won. Dwight Howard makes my eyes happy. Paul Pierce & Big Annoying Baby will drown their sorrows in milkshakes & double cheeseburgers with everything...again. 
Now Rockets/Team Kobe, I actually watched. kinda. Here's my first half, half glass analysis. Team Kobe came out and watched Kobe try to single-handily build a retaining wall (or maybe a chimney) under his own basket. But of course, his team totally let him down by not shooting bricks fast enough to really help. Shane Battier was stellar (again) and sorry for not being clearer in my previous post, his last name is pronounced Batty-yea silent french r. 
Pau Gasol appeared to be slightly distracted by basketball from the easy listening jazz concert that was playing in his head, so Luis Scola went all crazy up in there. NBA Explainer: Scola, who is from Flopistan, like Manu Ginobili, has traded his soul to the basketball god(s) which is why he has black eyes. 
Best part of the first half of the game is the shot of Kobe walking in to the tunnel at halftime berating Sasha Vujacic for some major screw-up, like chewing watermelon gum- when everyone knows that on Team Kobe for game six we chew spearmint gum! argh...seriously. Can he get some teammates!?!*
*sarcasm
update. Rockets win. Wow-just think if they had their best player, and/or their second best player, and/or their back-up center.

Giro Update (stage 6) by star

A little late on the update due to the fact that I just got back from Wicked with Boo and Fifi. As a review I give it a tall glass of cranberry juice with a double shot of Grey Goose!!

Today's stage was compared to that of a Classics race. So fittingly a breakaway won the stage. Nothing of real interest happened. The GC contenders finished all together. So moving on....

Astana is going to change kits before the end of the week. It's not because of a new sponsor....it's just a new look. I wonder how the riders that haven't been paid in weeks feel about that. Maybe they can sell the old kits to put food on the table.

Just to take a closer look at the top ten GC right now:
2 riders from an American Team (Columbia-Highroad) are in the top 3
2 Americans in the top 10, but they aren't on the American team

The last rider in the GC (at the Tour de France is it the Lanton Rouge, I'm not sure what they call it in the Giro) his name is Bart Dockx, a Belgium rider for Silence-Lotto. How many nasty nicknames was he called at a child? It's almost as bad a Pieter Weening, but not quite.

I found a website with some cool videos from the Giro, mostly riders interviews. I found out Chris Horner loves In N Out Burger. I guess he does have taste!!

The cutest rider in the peloton, Chechu, is 46th, 8;25 off the leader.

Horse Racing anyone?

Probably not. Because it is a bloated, corrupt, 'sport' that may just have more doping than American baseball. Except these athletes don't have a choice.
Anyway, with the Preakness coming up, the favorite right now is a filly, Rachel Alexandra who will be ridden by that mostly annoying, really good rider, Calvin Borel. He's ditching Mine that Bird for Rachel because he thinks she is the best horse he's ever ridden. That's saying something.
Here's to the girl running with the boys, and hopefully doing better than Eight Belles.
Jock

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Giro Update (stage 5) by star

I have forgotten how much nicer it is to run to a mountain stage. It makes my suffering so much less when I see these riders going up a 11% incline after 3 hrs in the saddle. The carnage was up and down the mountain, everyone was digging down into their suitcase of courage. Boom boom and out go the lights! And the elastic has snapped! He's stamping the pedals in anger! Oh how I miss Phil and Paul.

But what's up with these crazy Italians, 2 mountain top finished and it's only stage 5.......do they know it's a 3 week race? This is the 100th anniversary of the race, I think they've done it before.

I'll tell you who looks good: Levi Leipheimer. It looked like he was out on a Sunday afternoon bike ride. I don't think he was even sweating or breathing hard.

Dear,
Chris Horner
Zip your jersey up.
Thank you,
the audience of Giro

Avis is one of the sponsors of Barloworld.....why would a rental CAR company sponsor a cycling team? Curiouser and curiouser?

The best place rider for Garmin-Slipstream on the last two stages was Bradley Wiggins. This is the rider that is a time trial and track specialist....I don't understand. What happened to Tom Danielson, I thought he was part mountain goat?

Everyone's favorite super domestique,
Chechu was awesome again today. He's up to 43rd, 7:46 back. He would have done even better if he would have stayed with the teams actual GC contender (Levi), not the most famous rider (not Levi, but it starts with an L) on the team.......I didn't know he (not Levi) needed 3 riders as body guards to ride up a mountain.....sigh

reason # 2,451 to lik Shane Battier

You don't know it yet, but you want Shane Battier on your team. He plays tenacious D on Kobe, is a captain who is okay with coming off the bench, can use 3 syllable words correctly, is adorable, pronounces his name the correct way, knows his game and doesn't try to play beyond it, great team guy...I could go on. Did I mention he's adorable
Then he says this...courtesy Truehoop: 
Battier then went on to credit the Rockets' cult status among stat geeks to Rockets' general manager, Daryl Morey. "It's who we are," Battier said. "I don't think we're going to get the love of the six foot blonde bombshell. That's what the Lakers are here for. It's alright, I like our demographic." 
yes, adorable.
Another note- Glenn "Big Baby" Davis is catching some flack for pushing a kid aside during the celebration of his winning shot after game 4...kid's dad wants an apology. Half glass analysis? First off, why does the little 13 year old get to use the $1000 courtside tickets? Second, I can think of 15-20 other reasons to hate "Big Baby" Davis...I don't need this one.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Giro Update (stage 4) - by star

Oh Jens Voigt, it would have been soooo awesome to see you take the stage after being in a break all day. It was very hard to watch Jens get caught with 3 K to go.

I need to check to see who's all in this race, it seems to be Columbia and LPR....they've taken all the stages and worn all the pink jerseys. Hhmmm.

Ivan Basso was on the front for parts of this stage, he makes my eyes happy.

Solar tried out his impression of Vino...it was pretty dead on. That had to be the longest last K of his life, and then to get passed up by Di Luca in the last 200 meters....pretty heartbreaking.

It was kind of funny to watch the pictures on the last climb the difference between the from of the leading peloton and then the autobus in the back. Just looking at the faces I would have rather been in the back, they looked like they were having fun, and Dave Z was there to tell stories!

My little mountain goat Chechu moved up a few spots, he's 55th, 4:40 back.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Giro Update (stage 3) by star

Well the maglia rosa has found it's second pair of shoulders to rest on. A crash (no one was hurt) with 10 K to go kept Mark Cavendish and most of the rest of the peloton out of contention of the finishing sprint. LPR's Ale-Jet ended up getting the sprint and the pink jersey over Garmin's Tyler Farrar. Update: Tyler broke his rear derailleur in the same crash that took out Cav. Layman's translation: he couldn't shift gears on his rear tire for almost 10 K. And after watching the stage, in the last 500 meters Tyler could have taken Ale-Jet for the win!!

I'm sure we will have a new leader tomorrow since they are heading straight for the mountains tomorrow.

On a sad note
Christian Vande Velde went down in a different crash midway through the stage along with Dave Z. Dave got up and finished the stage, unfortunately Christian didn't. Poor VdV ended up in a ambulance with 2 broken ribs and a bruised and strained back.

My main man
Chechu got caught up with Cav's group and is now sitting 55th, 1:56 back
Star, via Lil's non-blocked work computer

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Giro Update (stages 1 & 2) by star

Stage 1: Columbia took it to Garmin, Cav put his money where his mouth is. JV is cussing him now though. Kind of disappointed, I was hoping that Garmin would paint the Giro argyle! Maybe they'll get a stage later on.
If these where what they were riding, it might explain why they got second.

Stage 2: I think that Maglia Rosa must have some wind resistance for lil' Cav. Ali-Jet was all over that finish. Unfortunately I think they just poked the bear and Cav is going to go all "look at me, I'm super fast" on them.
My main man Chechu is 11th in GC!!

Half glass observation: When you get passed out drunk, don't do cocaine and then get out of competition tested. Ask Tornado Tom about that little mistake. oops! update: make that his 3rd mistake! Just say no Tom

Tomorrow: Stage 3....

The Underdog

OK, so, it's apparently mandatory for all human beings (except those from the Soviet Union) to root for the underdog. After one drink yesterday, I discovered what my little sisters knew 30 years ago; I'm either 1. not human, or 2. a Soviet.
Because I really want to see Tiger Woods come back 5 strokes and beat Alex Cjeka.
I know - Alex is the only golfer EVER from the Czech Republic, and he's got a somewhat lovable pudgy face, and 5 days ago he couldn't feel one of his arms.
But I still want to see Tiger stalk him down and hit a miraculous 25 foot put on the 18th green to put it away.

Does that make me a bad person?
Also;
I enjoyed watching Lance deliver seven body blows in a row to the entire French nation.
I cheered for the Steelers in the superbowl.
I wanted Michael Phelps to win a record number of gold medals.

Is it because chaos makes my brain sad?
Or that I want to be a tiny part of a dynasty?
Or is it residual 80s and 90s Husker football mentality? It's OK to lose to Oklahoma, but if they let Mizzu score a touchdown, I'm going to punch somebody. (sorry Bones)

Anyway, just a 1/2 glass analysis of my sports psyche....
Jock

Saturday, May 9, 2009

a better wingman needed...asap

Dirk Nowitzki has recently been going through a crazy time, despite averaging over 30pts a game during the Mavs current series with Denver, all everyone wants to talk about his recent shit-tastic disaster of a personal life(and I don't think thats an overstatement). Got me thinking (that and the 2 strongbow I just consumed) that maybe his point guard/wingman is leading him astray. I mean, Jkidd is great but doesn't have the best track record in relationships. Now, I'm sure everyone remembers that back in the day our own Stevie was BFF with Dirk, and Steve has a pretty impressive track record for a short, limp-haired canadian. So, I'm thinking in the long off-season va-cay that Dirk with soon be on (sorry, Dirk but I saw the game today, that fork is firmly stuck in Marc Cuban's hair plug infested scalp - D. U. N, done) Dirk might be best served to hang out with Steve, if anything it will result in more drunk athlete photos showing up on the web. Athletes - they're just like us! they make stupid faces when drunk! fall off bar stools! hug strangers! yea!
In related NBA news, yes, Ron Artest is as tough as I thought he was. When he said game 2 against the Lakers wasn't the most physical game he's ever played, 'cause he played in a game where his friend got stabbed with a broken off table leg. For real. Ron Artest, not like us! not at all! way, way too tough & scary.
Note to nephew V: sorry for doubting your admiration of Chauncey - he's awesome. Okay, not as much of a tree-hugging, war-hating hippie as stevie, but still very cool. Even Sweet Melon isn't as annoying as he once was.  Go Nuggets!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

The Irish bullet...by Lil

So, 3/4th of us here on the blog have run half marathons (the other one just runs up Pikes Peak). One of our brother-in-laws, lets call him Flex - just finished his first half last Sunday. I sent him some questions and here's his answers - now, I'd love to post my nephew's responses too since he was Flex's racing partner, but he's way too busy taking finals this week...I told him to be an art major.
Anyway, a couple things. First off, Flex is one of those super fit, played sports in college people. But he does make a mean margarita so if we ever get too brooding and jealous of his ridiculously low body fat he just starts mixing us drinks and soon we are all happy as can be, well maybe not happy but are so busy snarfing down salsa that we can't talk then we pass out with Nugget. Another thing, he finished in 1:38 - which is fast, way fast - like a smidgen under 7:30 splits. So here's the questions...
Why did you decide to do it? Do you hate yourself?
Did for these reasons: to test my physical and mental limits to a new place--someplace I've never ventured.  And I only mildly dislike myself. 
What was the hardest part of training?
The hardest part of training (mentally) was running for such long periods and (physically) running for such long periods.  It was both mentally a challenge to combat boredom, and physically tough for the body to acclimate to all the additional mileage.
If you were going to start your training again what, if anything, would you do differently? What was your average mileage?
Done differently, I would have done more training at the actual time of day the race took place (0700). I only trained after about 1000 and my body was not accustomed to running at that hour--mainly nutritionally. I was used to running only after about 4 hours after eating breakfast--not 1 hour. Average mileage per week was 20.  Long run was 12.
What would have been the absolute worst thing to eat right before the race?
Worst thing to eat before the race would be Chilli's Big Mouth BBQ Bacon Double Cheeseburger.
In the race what was your easiest mile/section? Hardest mile/section? Easiest mile was probably mile 4-5.  Hardest was 10-11
At the hardest part of the race, what did you do to ignore the pain & finish? 
To ignore the pain and finish, I called myself bad names, asked how I would feel if I slowed down and missed my goal by a few seconds, and told myself I only had 7-8 minutes to go and I could do anything for that long.
Did any of the course, spectators or other runners stand out to you? 
The parts of the course that stood out to me were the ritzy homes in the nice neighborhood, the golf course we ran past, and the nearly full sidelines of crowd along the entire course.  Other runners that stood out were the ladies (and men) who continued on for the full marathon as I was turning off towards my finish line.
When finishing, how did you feel? (physically & emotionally) What body part hurt the most right after the race?  The next day? 
When finished I was physically sore already (my legs) and mentally relieved to be finished. My quads killed me for 2 days after.
Can you compare any part of the training or race to any of your past athletic endeavors? 
I can somewhat compare this event to other times playing a sport (football 2-a-days) where it would have been nice to just drop out and sit with the folks drinking mint juleps.
What percent of the whole thing was mental? 
I feel like the entire experience was 90% mental.  I was already in pretty good shape.
Would you do it again?
I've at least moved from "I'll never do it again" to "I don't think I'll do it again."
Congrats Flex - great job. I'm not even going to think about how fast you ran...I'll take that margarita now. 

Happy Day - by star

This makes me so happy.......

http://velonews.com/article/91723/universal-will-have-daily-online-and-cable-coverage-of-the

Now there goes the next 3 weeks :)

USC vs Penn State

No, this is not about football, but the semifinals of the NCAA Mens Volleyball tourney. Not liking it so much. Thought I would, but it doesn't seem like real VB.

I am used to watching the sport played at a very high level at NU all the time, but this just seems like too much. Too tall, too big, too strong. The court seems too small.

The kills are unreturnable, and I have yet to see a volley. No finesse to it at all.

Also, you would expect the Southern Cal players to be WAY hotter than they are. They look like nerdy gym rats. With bad hair cuts.

(Had to throw in the physical descriptions, just for the Dirtman.)

boo

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

The Cavs

NBA:
The Hubbie said something last night about not minding watching the Cavaliers play, because Lebron is fun to watch. I agreed fully, but the reason he makes my eyes happy are probably quite a bit different than his....
MLB:
So Joba was a perfect 5 for 5 for his first batters yesterday. No, wait, the first five batters were perfect. Ouch. But he hung in there and got 12 strike-outs. That part is good.
NHSAA
The prodigy niece is getting ready to compete for the conference title in discus. Brings me back to the days. Can you believe they make special shoes for shot and discus throwers? And have coaches? And fans? My, how times have changed.
ATP
Did you guys know that Andy got married? Not to be out done, Rogerer got married like, the next day to his girlfriend of 18 years. And who knows what Rafa did - eloped with his biceps maybe.
That's all I got for now - Star, I like your predictions.
Jock