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7/31/2009

Cricket: You've Just Broken The Ashes' Finger!

Late news from the 3rd test last night that Brad Haddin broke his finger. Apparantly he was facing the last few balls of the fast bowlers warm-ups and copped an injury on the end of his left ring finger. This was after the toss, but Strauss graciously let the Aussies swap in Manou for him, knowing that a one-handed Haddin would still bat better than Manou. He averages less than 25 in first class cricket. Thats less than Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Broad or Graham Swann. Will he bat at 9 or 10? Will he outscore Hilfenhaus? All these questions, and more will be answered during the remaining tests, which Haddin will miss. And Australia will lose the Ashes if they keep this no-hoper in. On the plus side, Shane Watson hasn't been injured yet, wonder if he was the fast bowler who broke Haddin's finger, just passing the injury curse around.

Send an SOS to Tim Paine immediately (ateast he plays like a batsman, even if his keeping is a bit average).

On a completely unrelated note, the Australian soccer world cup bid has a sweet soccer flash game. Check it out.

7/30/2009

Ashes Fantasy Cricket - How To Win

The key to victory in any Ashes fantasy cricket league is to have players from the team that wins. Particularly batsmen need to be from the winning team. Because the poms are cheats, you need some of their players, especially those who claim catches that aren't legit. Because catches are worth 12 points in cricket.com.au and 2 or 1 point for keepers in sbs.com.au. Can't beat that score! If you are in a comp that has a captain, put your kepper (Haddin, because Prior is shit) as your captain from the catch points. Also, don't pick Phil Hughes. He's been dropped! And Shane Whatswrongwithhimthistime has been brought in to replace him. He won't get through the first session. Thats what Australia gets for not bringing a backup batsman (even though Hughes doesn't deserve to be dropped).

Schumy is coming back! The Schuminator is replacing Massa after his injuries. Can he win the championship from here? I reckon Ferrari will suddenly become competive now that he's back.

Port suck! They lost the showdown by 70 points with all their downhill skiers going missing. They gave up more easily than Tom Boonen who left Le Tour early to get high. Speaking of getting high, Aussie pole vaulter Steve Hooker won the London GP recently.


7/29/2009

Cycling: Di Luca Tests Positive

I just found out that Danilo Di Luca, 2nd in the Giro tested positive twice for doping with CERA (the same version of EPO that Ricco used). For more details check here. First of all, what a cunt-face. Second of all, this is a win for the biological passport system recently employed by the UCI. Third of all, a quote from Di Luca after he was found out: "Would I be so stupid as to take CERA at the Tour of Italy one year after (Ricardo) Ricco, (Emanuele) Sella and (Davide) Rebellin were caught." Well, clearly yes, you cheating bastard. Fourth of all, extra congrats to Menchov for beating a drug cheat (despite him falling off about 4 times in Le Tour, maybe hes been taking some happy drugs). Fifth of all, (wow, thats getting a realy tired sentence intro, maybe I should use something else) CNN, learn to quote properly, there needs to be quotes at the start and end of your quotes. Sixth of all, I hope its not 3 months until we find out the cheats from Le Tour (I'm looking at you Wiggo).
Thats almost all for today, just wanted to express my disgust at Di Luca.

Also, respect to George Hincapie, who rode the last 4 stages of Le Tour with a broken collarbone. Now thats tough, and gets him onto the legends list. Not like Nick Riewoldt who just cried when he broke his.

7/27/2009

Cycling: 2009 Tour De France Review


So the main event in cycling is over for another year, with Contador reining supreme. This despite Jens Voigt and Saxobank's radical plan to defeat them in the Pyrenees (see interview below, and ignore non-english subtitles).




The Pyrenees in fact were pretty tame, with only Contador's attack on stage 7 proving at all decisive due to long descents between hilltops and finish lines on stages 8 and 9. And there weren't any bears either.

I can now reveal the secret to the Manx Missile (who won 6 stages, including the Champs Elysees finish) . According to wikipedia, many of the roads on the Isle of Man have no speed limit, while they are all paved. As a result, the Isle has become a haven for hoon drivers, with Jeremy Clarkson, Nigel Mansell and James Toseland all moving to the Isle. This explain's Cav's proficiency in tight, bunch sprints as he madly dodged speeding hoons on the roads of his youth. It also explains why he initially took up track cycling. Despite winning 6 stages, Cav failed to win the Sprinter's green jersey which went to the 'God of Thunder' Thor Hushovd. Thor couldn't match Cav's speed on the pure sprints, but he held his own in uphill finishes and critically, broke away from the field and lead alone over the top of 2 mountains to pick up 12 bonus points at intermediate sprints on stage 17. He beat Cav by 10 points.

As the race moved into the alps, the two best climbers were clearly Andy Schleck and Contador, with Frank able to match them when on his good days. Wiggins continued to amaze with his "I can't believe hes not on a cocktail of drugs" performances maintaining his high standing. The top 2 spots were decided from the moment the road tipped upwards. However, the 3rd place was up for grabs until the penultimate stage up Mont Ventoux due to a combination of factors. Firstly Contador's ability, and frankly desire to assasinate his own team members which lead to Kloden getting dropped from the Schlecks and Contador on stage 17 and Armstrong being deliberately left back to watch Wiggins on the same stage. And secondly, Frank Schleck's horrendous (for a GC rider) time trialling ability. This lead to Armstrong just managing to hold onto the 3rd position up Ventoux, despite Andy Schleck sacrificing the possibility of a stage win to try everything humanly possible to get Frank clear of Armstrong. Wiggins just got 4th by 2 seconds after he was dropped by Frank and Armstrong up Ventoux and got lucky to hold on. Contador however, was clearly the best rider in the climbs, and atleast the second best rider on the time trials, finishing 2nd in the prolgoue and 1st in the stage 18 race against the clock, even beating Spartacus. Franco Pellizotti won the KOM, after reassessing his goals during a horrid time in the Pyrenees.

Next year's tour is looking extra spicy, with Lance starting a new team Radioshack (likely to have a lot of his mates), the Schlecks a year older and Contador's team uncertain (any of a weakened Astana, Caise D'Epargne or Fernando Alonso) as well as other contenders (Ivan Basso anyone?). Now, if Contador and Sastre were in the same team that would be great to watch them try to drop each other (Alonso on left, Sastre centre).


But for now, its back to regular sports (Ashes, footy) until the Vuelta (and possibly a couple of classics that SBS might televise). As a footnote, I came about 120th out of 10000 or so in the SBS fantasy TDF competition.

7/20/2009

Cricket: As English as Tea and Scones - Cheating

It seems yet another great sporting contest is being ruined by umpiring that is at best horribly inconsistant and at worst actively biased. Australia had been outplayed by the Poms in the first 3 days of the 2nd test of the Ashes. Those blasted convicts decided to launch a fightback after they were set the imposing target of 522 in the last innings of the game. Well, the poms managed to find a great solution to their general bowling inadequacy. Just give the batsmen out regardless of what the rules say.

Simon Katich was given out despite a blatant no-ball from Flintoff.
The umpires refused to refer Strauss's catch, despite TV replays showing it clearly hit the ground, giving out Phil Hughes.
And then, a disbelieving Mike Hussey was given out despite hotspot showing that he clearly hit the ground, not the ball after a Swann spun past his edge.
Ignoring the rules or the spirit of the game is an English tradition, remember last time they won the Ashes with minty fresh breath and specialist fielders. And its not just unknown bloggers like me who reckon the umpiring was atrocious. Check out Cricinfo or Stuey MacGill. Bring in referrals for any contentious decision ASAP.
You can check out video of the dismissals at SBS. Just ignore the ads which come on at the start (and during the middle of last night's hill-climb in the TDF).
Brad Wiggins continued his unbelievable performance staying with, and even attacking Nibali, F.Schleck and Sastre and beating Evans and Armstrong. His past strong anti-doping stance may have melted a bit I reckon. Another cheating Pom?

Contador blew away the rest of the field, putting in what is apparentley the fastest climb in the history of the TDF (in terms of vertical climb rate). Even faster than the previous record by drug cheat Bjarne Riis or anyone else who was doped up the eyeballs in the Tour's wild days. Makes you think...


7/17/2009

Cricket: Sending the Poms Into a Spin

England somehow managed to hold Australia to a draw in the 1st test, primarily due to wasting time in the final session. This was aided by Nathan Hauritz taking only 3 wickets from 37 overs on the final day as Australia's only spinner (he did have a good economy rate, which is the important thing in the selectors eyes). Now he's gone and buggered up a catch on the first day of the 2nd test, dislocating his finger so he probably won't be able to bowl for atleast the next few days, leaving Siddle and Hilfy our only real options bowling (Johnno put in a day reminiscent of Bryce McGain's test debut yesterday, I bet he doesn't get thrown out and never given another test...). This (along with Hauritz's general shitness) is why we needed to take 2 spinners on tour (and probably a backup batsman would help too, instead of 2 allrounders and a backup keeper). Send an SOS to that Victorian leg spinner who might be a bit old, but he can still play despite a poor debut. Not Shane Warne, the other one. Or atleast Jason Krejza, he can at least spin the ball.

On the subject of Poms, the first probable drug cheat of the Tour De France has been identified. He hasn't tested positive for anything yet, but I've got a record of getting these guys right (I picked Schumacher after his ITT last year). Bradley Wiggins has gone from a time trial specialist who couldn't climb a ladder to suddenly sticking with the heads of state on the climbs in the Pyrenees. Even when the group thinned down to about 15 riders at the top of the Andorra climb (dropping riders of the quality of Kim Kirchen and Roman Kruiziger), Wiggins was there. This from a rider who finished 71st, 2hrs and 20 minutes behind in the Giro earlier this year, and couldn't drop Fabian Cancellara in the Tour of Switzerland. Just wait until a few stages time, when he gets done, and his Olympic samples are re-tested. There'll be a real shit storm.

7/08/2009

Cycling: Lance In Yellow... Almost

So we come to the first of my mid-Tour De France reviews. Fabian Cancellara still has the Maillot Jaune which some observers expected him to take in the first individual time trial and hold until the roads tip upwards, probably giving up the jersey after stage 7. However, The Lance almost managed to take it from him in the team time trial stage 4 last night (Australian time). Astana put in an awesome TTT, to take 40 seconds from Saxo Bank and put The Lance exactly equal with Cancellara (to the second atleast). After the race, the judges decided on a countback (don't you hate countbacks) to give the Jersey to Cancellara again.

Biggest Surprise

Team Columbia-HTC split the peloton on stage 3 around the 30 km mark, and the 28 or so riders in the front of the split (including contenders The Lance, Cancellara, Rogers and Kirchen) picked up 30 seconds on what was a flat stage. The Lance may or may not have the climbing legs to win the Tour, but he can still motor on the flat and pick the right move.

You Idiots!
Bbox Bouygues Telecom had a mass crash in the Team Time Trial after someone forgot to tell them that they weren't riding mountain bikes.



Sprinters
The Cav has dominated the 2 sprints so far, with wins on stage 2 and 3. He was helped by a crash which limited his opposition in stage 2. On stage 3, The "God of Thunder" Thor Hushovd (best nickname in all of world sport) was the only other sprinter in the front section of the split and couldn't pass the Cav. He should be a certainty for the Green Jersey if he can be bothered to climb the mountains. Or maybe he'll decide to quit half way and give the Poms a hand figuring out when to declare in the Ashes (after Haurtiz has sent down about 60 wicketless overs probably).

The Heads of State (GC)
Fabian Cancellara (1st, +0 s)
Has held the Yellow since the 1st stage, but wont be able to cut it in the mountains.
Lance Armstrong (2nd, +0 and a tiny little bit s)
Looks very strong, putting in extended shifts in the TTT. Mountain legs still uncertain.
Alberto Contador (3rd, +19 s)
Hasn't done anything to dispute his pre-tour favouritism yet. Missed the Columbia split but put in the 2nd best ITT. May be the Sastre to Armstrong's Schleck in a repeat of CSCs strategy last year.
Andreas Kloden (4th, +23 s)
Forgotten man of Astana, should just oplay a role for Armstrong and Contador, but may make an ambitious attack at some stage to try to take the team leadership.
Christian Van De Velde (12th, +1:16)
Has been coming back from injury, so his mountain legs are uncertain. Team Garmin put in a great 5 man TTT for him. Still paying $80 for the win and $14 for a podium (paying better money than Cancellara!?) , get on him now.
Roman Kreuziger (15th, +1:31)
Liquigas put in a better than expected TTT to give him a real shot at a podium in the finish.
Michael Rogers (16th, +1:32)
Had mechanical issues in the ITT which has him below where he could be. Won't have the mountain legs to catch Contador.
Andy Schleck (20th, +1:41)
Has improved his ITT abilities, but Saxo Bank were a bit disappointing in the TTT for him. Still a genuine contender.
Kim Kirchen (24th, +2:16)
Isn't up with the contenders on the ITT, but could still surprise on the mountains.
Carlos Sastre (29th, +2:44)
Has atleast got the TTT out of the way without race ruining damage, but will need to attack, and hard to beat Contador and Asrmstrong from nearly 3 minutes back.
Cadel Evans (35th, +2:59)
He would have been spitting chips when he heard there would be a TTT in this year's Tour, Silence-Lotto aren't nearly good enough to contend with the big guns in this discipline. Like Sastre, will need to attack to have any chance. Unlike Sastre, attacking is not Evans' strong suit.
Denis Menchov (72nd, +3:52)
Had a poor ITT, then fell during the TTT, costing him and his team time. Surely has no chance from here.

My tip is still Contador, but The Lance may be able to foul him up if he gets the team working for him.

7/01/2009

Tour De France Dream Team Cycling

I've started up a Tour De France DT League in the SBS competition for this blog's readers too. A bit late notice obviously (the Tour starts in a couple of days) but SBS= obscure, cycling=obscure and yet theres about $15,000 in prizes.
Crowmaniac.blogspot.com :
Pos. Team Manager Mn. Pts.
Last Updated: 01/07/2009 08:33:33
http://fantasytdf.sbs.com.au/
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