Category: cycling

cycling

Today’s Tour update and showdowns to come

Posted on by Beau Dure

Lance Armstrong gave it a good ride, but he hasn’t sprinted at the finish in a long, long time. Fast-twitch sprinting muscles, as I recall, tend to go before the slow-twitch endurance muscles, so at his age, he wasn’t likely to win it. Still, finishing in an elite group of nine was very, very good.

The top 10 all finished in a group of 50, 6:45 back, though there were two surprises — one in the group, one out:

– IN: It’s the Thor de France! Thor Hushovd, as he has done before, earned points toward the green jersey (sprints/points) on a mountain stage. He took back the green jersey, in fact.

– OUT: Ivan Basso, longtime contender who tumbled hard out of the top 15.

Rest day Wednesday, then showdowns to decide everything that’s left. Day-by-day:

Thursday: Brutal climb at the finish that will decide the suddenly competitive polka-dot (mountain) jersey and go a long way toward deciding the yellow jersey and team title.

– Mountains: Christophe Moreau, who’s older than Lance Armstrong, took 60 points for winning the last two climbs today. That puts him 15 points behind leader Anthony Charteau (143 pts). Like American George Hincapie, Moreau married one of the women who present the jerseys on the podium at the end of a race. Other than that, he’s best-known for finishing around 10th but as high as fourth in the decade since his doping scandal. The finishing climb is the last mountain on the Tour.

– Team: Radio Shack maintained its lead over Caisse d’Epargne, which may be distracted slightly by Moreau’s sudden polka-dot pursuits, by matching its performance today. Armstrong and Chris Horner were in the break along with CDE’s Moreau and Ruben Plaza Molina. Both teams had a third rider and more in the yellow jersey’s group of 50. CDE will need to gain an edge here.

– Overall: Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador rode quietly in that group of 50. That shouldn’t be the case Thursday. Schleck isn’t as strong in the time trial as Contador, and he has looked slightly better in the mountains. The youngster will need to race away from the two-time champion on the final climb.

Friday: It’s flat, which means the race for green between Hushovd (191 pts) and Alessandro Petacchi (187) takes center stage.

Saturday: Time trial day should be the final showdown between Schleck and Contador, though it could be anticlimactic if Schleck fails to take back yellow on Thursday. The team title also should be decided, with Radio Shack likely to have a significant edge over CDE.

Sunday: It’s “ceremonial” in most senses and hasn’t affected the yellow jersey in modern history. Sometimes, people hint at a final dash in Paris, and the bad blood between Schleck and Contador could spark such words here. But with several laps of the Champs-Elysees, any attempt to break away for yellow would likely be overrun by the teams racing either for the green jersey or just a final moment of glory. Hushovd and Petacchi may be set for a final duel here.

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cycling

Tour stories: Schleck’s angry stomach, Lance on vacation, Thor SMASH!

Posted on by Beau Dure

So you don’t have all day to listen to the soothing voice of Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen on Versus, you don’t get all the jokes at NYVelocity.com, you find browsing through cycling-fanatic blogs like Podium Cafe a bit like sipping water from a fire hose,  and you find VeloNews a little over your head as well. Yet you’re not quite content with the AP coverage: “XXXX XXXX took the overall lead in the Tour de France today, though XXXX XXXX won the stage. Lance Armstrong finished XXth, X:XX behind the leader. Am I done yet? Can I work on my fantasy baseball team now?”

Actually, AP usually gets some of the action by the time the “optional” version comes in from Europe, you can get a pretty clear picture. That’s about as close as you can get to a middle ground between the dry read on the overall standings and the crowd debating the circumference of Alberto Contador’s crankset.

So if you like the Tour but haven’t had two weeks to digest the events so far, here’s a quick read:

What the heck is Lance doing?: Lance Armstrong came into this Tour intending to win. That’s not as obvious as it sounds. A cyclist’s goals may change from year to year or even day to day. Team goals can be even more complex.

In Lance’s heyday, his teams (Postal Service, Discovery Channel) had a clear goal: Lance will win the Tour. Period.

Not every team is so clear. Some teams have two or three contenders, by design or accident, and they may or may not agree on who takes the lead. A hierarchy might not be clear until a couple of mountain stages and time trials have passed.

Other teams may go for stage wins, the green jersey (sprints and sprint finishes) or just an occasional bit of time in a breakaway to get the sponsor’s name on TV. Sponsors like that.

When Armstrong ran into everything but a plague of locusts on one stage, crashing multiple times and struggling to catch up, he knew his chances of winning were gone. Teammate Levi Leipheimer was still poised to make a run at the top three, where he finished in 2007, but that’s looking less likely by the day.

Armstrong hasn’t seriously contested the last several stages and is now 31st place, 40 minutes and 31 seconds back. Teammates Leipheimer, Andreas Kloden and Chris Horner are ahead of him in the standings.

So is he saving strength for one last dash at a stage win?

The team title: Another competition that doesn’t get much interest each year, at least for U.S. audiences trained to watch Greg Lemond, Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis chase the yellow jersey and overall title, is the team classification. The times of the top three riders each day are added up. Team Caisse d’Epargne has little else for which it can contend, so this is a logical point of emphasis. But with Radio Shack no longer geared up for an Armstrong win or Leipheimer podium, this competition might be the best use of the team’s depth.

Radio Shack took back the lead today with a couple of minutes to spare, with Leipheimer, Kloden and Armstrong all finishing ahead of Ruben Plaza Molina, the venerable Christophe Moreau and Luis-Leon Sanchez. Radio Shack can always rotate Horner into that top three, while CDE has a long drop back to Vasil Kiryienka.

Thor! Green!: The green jersey/points competition is a strange one. For the most part, it’s given for what happens in the last 30 seconds of each of the flat stages that make up half the Tour. Hang out for 4 hours and change, then go for it. Teamwork is just as important for green as it is for yellow — the sprinters line up behind their “lead-out” men, who have taken it upon themselves to start head-butting each other out of the way this year. It’s a messy competition that usually sees the yellow-jersey contenders sitting about a third of the way back in the pack just to avoid the fray.

The contenders here spend half the Tour just trying to survive, making sure they don’t finish so far behind the pack that they’re tossed out of the Tour. Many a first-week stage winner doesn’t stick around for the third week.

But one person took it upon himself last year to prove he can get up and down the mountains, not content to win on a judge’s ruling after a final-sprint incident. That’s one reason why that rider, Thor Hushovd, commands a bit of respect and some fan loyalty in the race for green.

Besides — he has the coolest name in the race.

The race for yellow, or, don’t race on an angry stomach: The race for yellow was effectively whittled down to two people last week. We can all dream of seeing a daring breakaway from someone else farther down the standings, but the last time that happened, the Floyd Landis Endless Doping Saga began.

Andy Schleck, surely the best-known athlete from Luxembourg, is still eligible for the white jersey of best young rider. He looks like he’s 13 or 14, which explains why NYVelocity’s Tour day Schmalz is riddled with jokes about calling his mom and promising he’ll ride safely.

He had the lead over Alberto Contador and was attacking on the giant climb today. But just as Contador was clawing his way back, the chain slipped on Schleck’s bike.

Under cycling’s unwritten rules, riders often wait for fellow contenders when they run into trouble on the road. Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich, the Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty of the early 2000s, had a couple of cases in which one waited for other, including the famous “Hey, Lance! I love you so much I’m going to snag my snack bag on your handlebars!” incident.

Should Contador have waited? Schleck thinks so. He talked of much anger in his stomach and imminent revenge.

My former workplace neighbor, USA TODAY cycling guru Sal Ruibal, raises counterpoints:

  1. This wasn’t an accident in which some fan’s snack bag snagged a rider’s handlebars. Schleck likely made a mistake in trying to shift gears.
  2. Revenge riding can be a really bad idea. A big part of cycling is staying within yourself and knowing what you’re capable of doing.

Contador already was far from a beloved figure, and the boos he received upon taking the yellow jersey today underlined that point. Fairly or not, he’s more of a villain now.

But whatever you think of Contador, Schleck is easy to root for. He rode maniacally up the mountain after his chain slipped, sailing past such experienced riders as … well, Lance Armstrong. Without that, the Tour would be over.

He’ll surely be the underdog. Contador should blow him away in the Tour’s only full-fledged time trial on Saturday. And Contador isn’t easy to shake in the mountains.

So that leaves us with one question — how is it, with all the mechanical ingenuity available to bicycle-makers and all the money spent on Tour bikes, we can’t have a more reliable way to shift gears?

1
cycling, general sports, olympic sports, rugby, soccer

Friday Myriad: Morning TV, friendly soccer

Posted on by Beau Dure

I have survived Double Deadline Day. I survived the sauna that passes for RFK Stadium’s press box. I survived the long Metro ride home, which ended with a ranting woman accusing me of using my Blackberry to transmit shortwave signals into her head to make her hair fall out. (Among other problems corroborating such an accusation: She had a very healthy head of hair.)

So what will I be watching now that all of this is done? There’s the British Open, which some will watch for Tiger drama but I enjoy for the spectacle of seeing pro golfers deal with bunkers that look like they’re hiding the Millennium Falcon. The Tour de France has a good two-man race between defending champ Alberto Contador and youngster Andy Schleck. And there’s soccer, soccer and more soccer.

FRIDAY

7 p.m.: Soccer, Manchester United-Celtic. Euro friendlies have always struck me as something I’d much rather watch in person than on TV, but plenty of people would disagree with me on that. Must be a considerable number disagreeing with me, as this game is taking up an ESPN network’s air time rather than filling summer time slots on FSC. ESPN2

9 p.m.: Boxing, Zab Judah-Jose Armando Santa Cruz. Unusual to see a name like Judah’s on the Friday Night Fights card. ESPN2

SATURDAY

3:35 a.m.: Rugby, Tri-Nations, New Zealand-South Africa. See Travis’ preview.

5 a.m.: Golf, British Open coverage starts with multiple angles/holes online, then on TV at 7 a.m. ESPN/ESPN3.com

8:30 a.m.: Cycling, Tour de France, Stage 13. Versus

Noon: Soccer, USA-Switzerland, U-20 Women’s World Cup. Fresh from a stunning 1-1 draw with Ghana, which would apparently frustrate the USA in every sport ever invented, the young Americans try to regroup against the Swiss. Good news for the Swiss: They have Atlanta Beat prodigy Ramona Bachmann. Bad news: They lost their opener 4-0 to South Korea. ESPNU/ESPN3.com

4 p.m.: Soccer, San Jose-Tottenham. Really? This friendly is on TV while Philly-Toronto (3:30), Columbus-New York (7:30), Dallas-Salt Lake (8:30) and Colorado-Kansas City (9) are on Direct Kick and online? OK, then. Columbus-New York won’t feature Thierry Henry’s debut, but the Red Bulls could leap over the Crew into first in the East.  ESPN/ESPN Deportes

7:30 p.m.: Soccer, USA-Sweden women. Tale of two halves when these teams met earlier in the week. The USA dominated the first half and finally got a goal. Early in the second, Amy Rodriguez hit the crossbar, and Sweden scored on a counter. It finished 1-1, with Sweden looking better the rest of the way. That’s not normal for a home game and speaks to a possible depth problem. Fox Soccer Channel

SUNDAY

6 a.m.: Golf, British Open. All feeds live at the same time. ESPN/ESPN3.com

7:30 a.m.: Cycling, Tour de France, Stage 14. Versus

3 p.m.: Soccer, Seattle-Celtic. Again, huge game if you’re within driving/train-riding distance of Qwest Field. Or if you have a fierce Celtic tie. ESPN/ESPN Deportes

5 p.m.: Soccer, WPS, Boston-Washington. The Breakers are making a charge with two straight wins, while the goals have dried up for the Freedom. FSC

7:30 p.m.: Soccer, MLS, D.C. United-Los Angeles. Both teams looking to rebound from a loss. There, the similarities end. It’s worst vs. first at RFK. (Technically, D.C. is a point ahead of Philly, but the Union have three games in hand.) FSC

MORE MYRIAD

  • World Series of Poker: Main Event will be whittled down to 27 players on Friday and then down to the “November Nine” on Saturday.
  • Full soccer listings at Soccer America, including SuperLiga.
  • Selected weekend listings at USA TODAY
  • ESPN3: U-20 Women’s World Cup, Australian Rules football, CFL, NBA Summer League and a ton of golf.
  • Tennis Channel: Nothing live this weekend.
  • Universal Sports: Ironman, some Tour simulcasts and AVP Hermosa Beach.
  • More Olympic sports: U.S. championships in boxing and mountain bike.
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cycling

Cycling, poker and unreal time

Posted on by Beau Dure

We’re spoiled today on so many levels. International supply chains bring us all the world’s goods, from Colombian coffee to Vidalia onions. Our TVs brings us crisp images of live events on the other side of the globe. We can listen to new music on our mobile phones. We get 40-50 soccer games on TV a week.

So we shouldn’t have an entitlement mentality about live stuff.

With that disclaimer in mind, I’ve encountered a couple of frustrations in following Myriad sports in the past 24 hours.

In cycling, it’s a frustration of being so close and yet so far to knowing where everyone is in real time. The official Tour de France site has changed little over the past few years, which is itself a bit of an indictment in the fast-changing new media world. Still, the framework is sound — when it works. Today, it didn’t.

Continue reading →

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basketball, cycling, mind games, olympic sports, rugby, soccer, track and field

Monday Myriad: No soccer withdrawal here

Posted on by Beau Dure

Sixteen years ago, I felt a few pangs of withdrawal. I had been able to watch maybe half of the World Cup games on my little TV in my little living room in my little apartment. After that dreary final … nothing. No MLS. No regular European broadcasts. No women’s soccer.

Sunday, an hour after bidding farewell to the group of friends who came over to drink Dutch and (blech) Spanish beer while we gorged ourselves on food and watched a final that was a little less dreary, I went back into our HDTV room downstairs and flipped to Fox Soccer Channel. WPS — Washington Freedom vs. FC Gold Pride. And while the officiating was just as atrocious as the worst of what we saw from South Africa, I could rest assured that I was still watching soccer. As I’ve said elsewhere, U.S. soccer fans have been enabled. We can watch all weekend. And all week. Sorry, Tim Dahlberg, but we don’t need your permission.

And because we’re sports geeks who watch and comment on every competition shy of the foosball games downstairs (for the record, I was able to play an actual game against someone tall enough to see the table for once, and I won twice by a 10-2 count), we have much else to follow as well.

Women’s soccer: USA’s revenge over Ghana! The USA start play Tuesday in the U-20 Women’s World Cup, and it’ll be an upset to end all upsets if Ghana duplicates its 2006 and 2010 2-1 men’s victories. Dive all you want. Not going to happen.

Cycling: Lance Armstrong is now fourth in the Tour de France … on his own team. We can see if Team Radio Shack regroups to give Levi Leipheimer a push for the final podium, but more realistically, we’re looking at a Cadel Evans-Andy Schleck-Alberto Contador shootout.

Olympics (winter and summer): We’ve seen speedskaters take up cycling. Bobsledders recruit from football and track. So can skeleton veteran Katie Uhlaender make it back to the Olympics in weightlifting?

Volleyball: The U.S. men made a nice run at the World League final six, beating Russia in the first match of two in the final weekend. But the pool leaders came back for a 3-1 win in the finale, and the USA didn’t qualify as the “lucky loser” second-place team.

Basketball: Gold medal for USA U-17 men.

Track and field: Tyson Gay beat Asafa Powell in the highlight of the Diamond League’s stop in England.

Rowing: USA women’s eight still a powerhouse.

Poker: We’re down to 2,557 players in the World Series of Poker Main Event. Exiting gracefully on Day 2B were poker legend Doyle Brunson, baseball great Orel Hershiser, Seinfeld‘s Jason Alexander, Phil Ivey and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson.

Some of the names we’ll be watching on Day 3 (which is really Day 7, but they have four Day 1s and two Day 2s to accommodate the crowd):

– Bruce Buffer, UFC cage announcer
– Hank Azaria, Apu and many, many other Simpsons voices
– Johnny Chan, two-time Main Event winner
– Chris Moneymaker, 2003 surprise winner who helped start the poker boom
– Joe Cada, defending champion
– Daniel Negreanu, top poker pro and lively Twitter personality
– Allen Cunningham, like Negreanu a former WSOP Player of the Year
– Frank Kassela, sure to be this year’s Player of the Year
– Jennifer Harman, top poker pro
– Phil “Unabomber” Laak, one of the better nicknames among poker pros
– Vanessa Rousso, Duke grad like me but obviously much smarter
– Jack Ury, age 97
– Gabe Kaplan, Mr. Kotter

Sunday was a rest day at the WSOP, but they’ll be back on the Tour de France’s rest day Monday. Strange how that works.

Rugby: New Zealand sent what some in the U.S. media might call “a message,” dominating South Africa 32-12 in a Tri Nations matchup ahead of next year’s World Cup in New Zealand.

Cricket: Bangladesh beat England for the first time ever in a one-day international. Carrie Dunn captured some of the late drama.

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cycling, mind games, olympic sports, soccer, tennis, track and field

Friday Myriad: Up all night for Aussie Rules, MMA, Le Tour

Posted on by Beau Dure

No, I didn’t forget. Today was a last-ditch effort to get some progress on two nagging free-lance assignments.

Which reminds me — if you or someone you know is a male caregiver for a spouse or loved one who has breast cancer AND you’ve done the Komen 3-day walk, could you please, please get in touch with me?

On to the weekend (all times ET):

SATURDAY

12:01 a.m.: Australian football, Geelong-Hawthorn. Nice to see this sport making a comeback on U.S. airwaves. Still have no idea how anyone has the stamina to run for two hours while being pummeled every time the ball is nearby. ESPN2

3 a.m.: MMA, Dream 15, lightweight title fight, Shinya Aoki-Tatsuya Kawajiri. Also in action: Gegard Mousasi, Melvin Manhoef, Gesias Cavalcante. If you can’t watch live, check recaps from my colleague Sergio Non. HDNet

7:30 a.m.: Tour de France, Stage 7. To the mountains we go! Well, sort of. Just a couple of category-2 climbs today. The Alpine stages this year aren’t quite as torturous as usual, with most of the massive climbs coming in the Pyrenees in the third week. Versus

8 a.m.: Davis-Cup, quarterfinals, France-Spain, doubles. France leads 2-0. They’re playing without Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, but Spain is playing without someone named Nadal. Gael Monfils outlasted David Ferrer in a five-setter Friday. Tennis Channel

Noon: MLS, Toronto-Colorado. In case you need a warm-up for the big one. Some of CONCACAF’s best attacking talent is on display in this one, even if one of the defenses tends to play with what Bob Dylan called “a little too much force.” Direct Kick/MLSSoccer.com

2:30 p.m.: World Cup third-place game, Uruguay-Germany. These games are often entertaining. Near the end of a World Cup that has brought some excellent games but quite a few dreary efforts, can that be so bad? ABC/Univision

3:30 p.m.: Women’s basketball, WNBA All-Stars vs. U.S. National Team. Really? You couldn’t have waited another hour, when the Cup final would likely be over? ESPN

6 p.m.: MLS, Philadelphia-San Jose. The Earthquakes could be interesting this season. Fox Soccer Channel

7:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.: MLS, the rest of the Saturday games (four), with the New York-D.C. United rivalry among the highlights. Direct Kick/MLSSoccer.com

SUNDAY

7 a.m.: Davis-Cup, quarterfinals, France-Spain, singles. Tennis Channel

7:30 a.m.: Tour de France, Stage 8. Two category-1 climbs, including one at the finish. That’s more like it. Will we see the virtual end of Lance Armstrong’s career here? Versus

2:30 p.m.: World Cup, final, Netherlands-Spain. I picked Spain over Brazil in the final, and I’m sticking with the team that never loses possession of the ball. ABC/Univision

6 p.m.: WPS, Gold Pride-Washington. Wonder how the Freedom will adjust after practicing all week in 100-degree temperatures. I went out to practice today, and the artificial turf field felt like a frying pan. FSC

10:30 p.m.: MLS, Seattle-Dallas. I don’t usually list all the Direct Kick games, but if you’re going into withdrawal just six hours after the end of the Cup, here you go. Direct Kick/MLSSoccer.com

MORE MYRIAD

  • World Series of Poker: Main Event runs all weekend.
  • Full soccer listings at Soccer America.
  • Selected weekend listings at USA TODAY
  • ESPN3: Australian Rules football, CFL, NBA Summer League and lacrosse.
  • Tennis Channel: A few re-runs and the France-Spain Davis Cup match.
  • Universal Sports: Beach volleyball (FIVB Grand Slam), track and field (Diamond League, British Grand Prix) live online, delayed on TV. Swimming (Grand Prix season finale, Los Angeles) online-only. In beach volleyball, the top U.S. teams were upset in pool play, which doesn’t happen often, but still advanced.
  • More Olympic sports: Why is no one Webcasting the last weekend of World League volleyball pool play? U.S. men hosting Russia in Wichita. Wait a few weeks, and you can watch (see PDF).
  • Rugby: Tri-Nations (Southern Hemisphere) gets underway this weekend, just in case South African sports attention can be diverted for a moment.

HEADLINES

Chess/poker: Chessboxing just seems strange, but chesspoker has possibilities. Jennifer Shahade takes us through a matchup.

Soccer: 3rd Degree is basically the grandfather of independent MLS sites, so it’s nice to see Buzz Carrick take the operation into ESPNDallas.com. Could also bode well for ESPN’s MLS Draft coverage? Maybe?

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cycling, mind games

Midweek Myriad: Mind games

Posted on by Beau Dure

You may have noticed from the last post that Sports Myriad has a new contributor from across the pond. Carrie Dunn was part of the legendary crew of Guardian minute-by-minute and over-by-over commentators, though she’s more charitable to Americans than most of them. She’ll write about a lot of sports — darts, cricket, women’s sports — that I’ve wanted to cover at Sports Myriad but haven’t had much of a chance to cover because I’m just not quite as plugged into those sports as I am elsewhere.

We’re also expecting a rugby preview from another contributor soon.

All of which means you should be adding Sports Myriad to your RSS readers if you haven’t already.

A couple of items of interest so far this week, starting with games played with the head rather than hands or feet:

Chess: Vishy Anand has retained the world title, but the man to watch is 19-year-old Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen. He is already No. 1 on FIDE’s rating list and is gaining on Garry Kasparov’s all-time high. NYT blogger Dylan Loeb McClain tells us he wins with creativity rather than encyclopedic knowledge of familiar openings. And he already has some celebrity appeal, joining Liv Tyler for some sort of fashion shoot this week.

Another youngster, 22-year-old Czech grandmaster Viktor Laznicka won the World Open, a top U.S. event. Lubomir Kavalek takes us through a wide-open game Laznicka won with black.

Poker: Daniel Alaei won the pot-limit Omaha world title for his third World Series of Poker bracelet. (Not this year — only Frank Kassela, who win Player of the Year honors unless one of his pursuers can reach the November Nine, has two bracelets this summer.)

Pros and semi-pros (Kassela is considered semi-pro) have won most of the events this year, but one of the last event winners before the Main Event is a Dutch physicist named Marcel Vonk. Good week for the Netherlands.

Day 1A of the Main Event (the tournament is so large that players start on four different days — 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D) featured Chris Moneymaker, the amateur who helped launch the poker boom with his unlikely Main Event win a few years ago, and cross-country skier Petter Northug, perhaps the only World Series of Poker participant whom I saw in a press conference tent in Whistler this year.

My former USA TODAY colleague Gary Mihoces has landed in Vegas and tells us Ray Romano has busted out. He also has details on Phil Hellmuth’s planned MMA-style entrance, featuring Wanderlei Silva, King Mo and the man himself, Bruce Buffer.

ESPN has a video interview with one of its own, former baseball pitcher Orel Hershiser, who comes up with some clever analogies between baseball and poker:

http://espn.go.com/videohub/player/embed.swf

Cycling: One day after the cobblestones rattled Lance Armstrong and others, we had a much less eventful day at the Tour de France and the usual first-week sprint finish.

Soccer: Hey, there’s a game on.

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cycling, mind games, olympic sports, soccer, tennis, track and field

Monday Myriad: Want U.S. world titles? We’ve got ’em

Posted on by Beau Dure

Even with an extra day, the weekend was overstuffed:

Soccer: No disrespect to Uruguay and the Netherlands, but isn’t the Germany-Spain matchup as good as it gets? The most explosive team in the Cup against a team that has spent the last three and a half years as the Harlem Globetrotters of world soccer?

Closer to home, MLS had terrific goals in the Seattle-Los Angeles matchup, and Conor Casey is playing like he’s still auditioning for the national team. Or like he thinks he’s Marta.

Tennis: Serena and Nadal winning Wimbledon isn’t the surprise. The surprise is that Roger Federer has fallen all the way to No. 3.

Track and field: David Oliver set an American record in the 110 hurdles at the Prefontaine Classic, which also saw Walter Dix outrun Tyson Gay down the stretch in the 200. Field events were less kind to Americans — Dwight Phillips finished second in the long jump and pulled up with some sort of strain, and Jenn Suhr no-heighted in the pole vault.

Softball: Not all of the games were easy, but the USA trounced Japan 7-0 in five innings in the World Championship final.

Water polo: Soccer isn’t the only sport settled with a penalty shootout. The U.S. women tied Australia 7-7 in the World League final and won the shootout. Brenda Villa was named top player; Betsey Armstrong was top goalkeeper.

Gymnastics: Bronze for U.S. men at Japan Cup, featuring mostly A-teamers.

Cycling: The Tour de France is underway, which means it’s time for one of the funniest annual reading activities — the Tour de Schmalz. If you prefer drama to comedy, read the Wall Street Journal‘s harrowing story on Floyd Landis’ doping allegations.

Poker: The Main Event is underway, even as two other events are still going … and going … and going …

The Tournament of Champions is over, at least, with Huck Seed outlasting Howard Lederer.

Volleyball: The U.S. men got two wins in Egypt, leaving themselves in contention to make the World League’s six-team final tournament. All they have to do is beat pool-leading Russia twice July 9-10 in Wichita.

Beach volleyball: Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers remained unbeatable, winning the FIVB event in Norway. Yes, Norway. What? They have beaches.

MMA: All hail Brock Lesnar.

Chess: Yes, they exhumed Bobby Fischer.

And a couple of random reads of interest …

Cricket: Did you know about Staten Island’s cricket history?

Soccer: One of the best reads about South Africa since the Cup started — meet Santos, “The People’s Team.” (Not in the Communist sense.)

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cycling, mma, olympic sports, soccer, tennis, track and field

Friday Myriad: Wimbledon, World Cup, le Tour

Posted on by Beau Dure

Funny thing about July 4th weekend – the most important action in the sports world is all overseas.

The three-day absence from posting here won’t happen often. Had a lot of actual paid work to do, plus a week of solo parenting. Shouldn’t have a break like this until vacation.

Off we go (all times ET) …

HEADLINES

Water polo: Big comeback keeps the U.S. women unbeaten in World League final tournament.

Poker: The last weekend before the Main Event — the $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold-’em World Championship that draws thousands of entrants and weeks of ESPN coverage — features several events of interest:

  • Tournament of Champions: They’ve only knocked the field down the original 27 to 17, and that’s causing scheduling problems. The idea was to play it across two weekends. They’ll resume Saturday at 10 p.m. IF none of the 17 players is busy in another event. They may have to resume at noon Sunday. That’s 9 a.m. Vegas time. Is anyone awake then?
  • $25,000 buy-in six-handed no-limit hold’em: Several big names just missed out on the final three tables (18 players) — John Juanda, Barry Greenstein, Vanessa Rousso, Freddy Deeb, Erik Seidel and Phil Ivey. But Daniel Negreanu is still in, threatening Saturday’s Tournament of Champions start. So is Frank Kassela, who’s in position to edge Juanda for Player of the Year honors.
  • Pot-limit Omaha World Championship: Phil Hellmuth is still active in this one and the TOC, and a few other notable names are still going after Day 1.
  • Two smaller no-limit hold’em events that shouldn’t attract may top players.
  • Ante Up for Africa: Poker pro Annie Duke and actor Don Cheadle host an annual charity event that usually draws a good crowd of celebrities, some of whom hang around for the Main Event the next week, and many top players, though the crowded schedule may preclude a few people from entering.

FRIDAY (all times ET)

10 a.m.: World Cup quarterfinal, Netherlands-Brazil. ESPN / ESPN Deportes / ESPN3 / Univision

10:45ish a.m.: Wimbledon men’s semifinal, Andy Murray-Rafael Nadal. Winner faces Tomas Berdych, who upset Roger Federer this week and Novak Djokovic this morning. Murray’s path of Nadal, always better on clay and inconsistent here, and Berdych is Britain’s best hope in a generation. ESPN2, shifting to NBC at noon

2:30 p.m.: World Cup quarterfinal, Uruguay-Ghana. Just think — this could be the USA. ESPN / ESPN Deportes / ESPN3 / Univision

7:30 p.m.: Softball, World Championship final, USA vs. Canada-Japan winner. Not vouching at all for quality, reliability or even safety of this Webcast. Venezuelan government

SATURDAY

9 a.m.: Wimbledon women’s final, Serena Williams-Vera Zvonareva. Also should get some doubles finals, with at least one American player to appear in the women’s doubles. NBC

10 a.m.: World Cup quarterfinal, Argentina-Germany. ABC / ESPN Deportes  / Univision

11:30 a.m.: Tour de France, prologue. Lance Armstrong is saying this will be his last, though he has said that before. If he’s trying for an individual win rather than a teammate’s win this year, he’ll need to do well in the time trials, starting here. Versus

2:30 p.m.: World Cup quarterfinal, Paraguay-Spain. ABC / ESPN Deportes  / Univision

4:30 p.m.: Track and field, Diamond League Prefontaine Classic. One of the most storied meets in the USA is now part of the world’s top circuit. Full preview coming later today. Really. Hold me to it. NBC

5:30 p.m.: Poker, $25K no-limit hold’em six-handed. See above. ESPN3

7:30 p.m.: Water polo, World League women’s final. TeamUSA.org

8 p.m.: MLS, Columbus-Chicago. FSC

9 p.m.: UFC 116, Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin for the heavyweight title in the main event. Spike has Seth Petruzelli, whose win over Kimbo Slice was erroneously called the biggest upset in MMA history at the time, in one of its two prelims. Spike, shifting to PPV at 10 p.m.

10:30 p.m.: MLS, Chivas USA-Philadelphia. FSC

SUNDAY

8:30 a.m.: Cycling, Tour de France, Stage 1. Cue the sprinters. Thor smash? Versus

9 a.m.: Wimbledon men’s final and possibly mixed doubles final. NBC

Noon: Hot dog eating. No Kobayashi? ESPN3

10:30 p.m.: MLS, Los Angeles-Seattle. ESPN2

MORE MYRIAD

  • Full soccer listings at Soccer America.
  • Selected weekend listings at USA TODAY
  • ESPN3: Australian Rules football, CFL, golf, lacrosse and poker.
  • Tennis Channel: Classic matches.
  • Universal Sports: Beach volleyball and more Prefontaine Classic coverage.
  • More Olympic sports: Canoe/kayak World Cup final stop, U17 men’s basketball World Championship, U.S. men’s volleyball in Egypt for World League
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cycling, mind games, mma, olympic sports, rugby, soccer, tennis

Friday Myriad: World Cup by day, MMA by night

Posted on by Beau Dure

Going back to the chronological look at the weekend, after some …

HEADLINES

Rugby: NBC and Universal Sports will show the 2011 and 2015 World Cups. Huge step forward for the sport in this country. And the UK media will surely appreciate having another sport in which they can do stories about American ignorance — the soccer-ignorance stories are turning into more of a challenge these days.

Chess: Searching for Bobby Fischer is a terrific film. Exhuming Bobby Fischer merely prolongs the sad demise of a troubled genius. If you want a happier story, check this piece from the NYTimes‘ excellent chess blog on the post-chess careers of several phenoms who decided not to stick with it.

Poker: David Baker emerged from a final table that included Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda and Erik Seidel to win the 2-7 Draw Lowball world title. Sammy Farha took an Omaha world title. The limit hold-em world title will be decided by the time we all wake up to watch soccer Friday morning.

MMA: A few days after competing in USA Wrestling’s team trials for the upcoming world championships, 2008 Olympic wrestler Ben Askren went back to MMA and won Bellator’s welterweight tournament over veteran Dan Hornbuckle. (MMA Fighting Stances)

Soccer: World Cup are also on ESPN Deportes, Univision and ESPN3.com. DirecTV also has countless broadcasts and re-broadcasts in several languages.

FRIDAY

7:30 a.m.: World Cup soccer, Germany-Serbia. Germany routed hapless Australia 4-0 in their opener; Serbia lost 1-0 to Ghana and may need a miracle here or some help from Australia tomorrow. ESPN

*** 10 a.m.: World Cup soccer, USA-Slovenia. Can the U.S. men win a game they really should win? One that would go a long way toward seeing them through to the next round? Will soccer fans across the country collectively lose it? ESPN ***

2:30 p.m.: World Cup soccer, England-Algeria. The other two teams in the U.S. group are in action. Broadcast bumped from ESPN by U.S. Open golf. ESPN2

7 p.m. (highlights): Cycling, Tour de Suisse, seventh stage. The story so far: Fabian Cancellara showed his Swiss pride after learning of Switzerland’s staggering upset over Spain, but he abruptly fell out of contention in Thursday’s mountain stage (Velo News coverage). Lance Armstrong, gearing up for France (the Tour, not the underachieving soccer team), is in seventh place overall after a good showing Thursday. The race finishes with a time trial Sunday. Versus

SATURDAY

7:30 a.m.: World Cup soccer, Netherlands-Japan. Numbers wizards Nate Silver now has the Dutch as the second favorite in the tournament after Brazil. Japan also has three points from its first game. ESPN

10 a.m.: World Cup soccer, Ghana-Australia. No pressure or anything, but Ghana looks very much like the African team most likely to do something in this tournament. ESPN

2:30 p.m.: World Cup soccer, Cameroon-Denmark. This was an odd pick for network TV. ABC

2:30 p.m.: Rugby, Churchill Cup final, England Saxons (their B-team) vs. Canada, in Red Bull Arena. Universal Sports

5:15 p.m.: Rugby, Churchill Cup third place, USA vs. France B. Universal Sports

** 9 p.m.: MMA, The Ultimate Fighter season finale. Court McGee faces Kris McCray in the tournament final. The non-tournament co-main event has two intriguing light heavyweights who aren’t quite in contention: Matt Hamill, a deaf fighter whose rise is chronicled in a long-delayed film, and Keith Jardine, whose fighting stance suggests a drunk swatting away flies. But the most-anticipated fight might be Jamie “Crabman” Yager vs. Rich Attonito, who won a hotly contested race to oppose the brash loudmouth who has shown a tendency not to back up his words. The card also has reliably entertaining fighters Chris Leben (vs. Aaron Simpson) and Spencer “The King” Fisher (vs. Dennis Siver). Spike **

10 p.m.: Boxing, Super Six super middleweight tournament, Andre Ward vs. Allan Green. Check the USA TODAY preview. Ward is 1-0 in the tournament; Green replaced Jermain Taylor. Showtime

SUNDAY

7:30 a.m.: World Cup soccer, Slovakia-Paraguay. Each team drew its first game, though those games have been erased from my memory. Might still have nightmares about them. ESPN

10 a.m.: World Cup soccer, Italy-New Zealand. Might ask the family if there’s anything else we can do. ESPN

** 2:30 p.m.: World Cup soccer, Brazil-Ivory Coast. Ahhhhhh. Actual soccer might be played in this one. ABC **

4 p.m.: Beach volleyball, AVP Virginia Beach men’s final. Universal Sports

5 p.m. (same-day delay): Cycling, Tour de Suisse, final stage (time trial). Versus

9 p.m.: MMA, WEC returns with a lightweight main event between former champion Jamie Varner and up-and-coming fighter Kamal Shalorus, who has had an interesting journey from a small town in Iran to an international wrestling career for Britain to mixed martial arts. The card also has two bantamweights with gaudy records — Josh Grispi vs. LC Davis. Versus

OLYMPIC SPORTS

  • Modern pentathlon: Margaux Isaksen and Will Brady are in the World Cup Final.
  • Volleyball: The U.S. men beat Finland twice in World League play last weekend to get their record up to 2-2. Egypt visits this weekend in the Charlotte suburb of Concord, N.C.
  • Track and field: Basically an off week before the USA Championships.
  • More events: Canoe/kayak World Cup, badminton N.Y. Open

MISC

  • World Series of Poker: The most intriguing event of the weekend is the heads-up no-limit hold-em world championship, which starts with 256 and runs like a slow-moving basketball bracket. How to follow.
  • College World Series (NCAA baseball): ESPN, Saturday and Sunday.
  • Full soccer listings at Soccer America. (OK, it’s all World Cup right now.)
  • Selected weekend listings at USA TODAY
  • Tennis Channel: WTA Eastbourne, with Friday semis and Saturday final. Nothing Sunday; Wimbledon starts Monday.
  • Universal Sports: Swimming (Santa Clara Invitational) is on TV and online.
  • Cycling.TV: Live audio and highlights from Tour de Suisse

And for the final word on South African history this weekend, we check in with Little Steven. And Bono. And Pat Benatar. And Bob Dylan.

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