Other Sports

[Beebs]

Any cyclists here, road or mtb? Going for my first century ride in May for BikeMS.

Yup. Been on the the trainer down in the Paincave all winter (on the Giant). Looking forward to getting back outside soon.

[njMark]

Is that a giant defy? I just got a Defy composite 2, just starting road riding this year. Never ridden long distance before, mostly just single track on the 29er lately. Its been a long winter with trails that never froze long enough to ride regularly without trashing them, I figure road riding will let me ride more and try and maintain my endurance throughout the year. I'm a little concerned about finishing the century but I think I will.

[Beebs]

Defy composite 2,

YES!

I figure road riding will let me ride more and try and maintain my endurance throughout the year.

A good friend and his wife are both semi-pro MTBrs. Something like 90% of their training is on the road. A little strength at the gym and some technical trail practice to keep them comfy with big drops and such but the focus is on long miles and big climbs. It seems to work for them.

[njMark]

Big climbs usually =hike a bike for me. Will be using the road bike to work on that this spring. Also going to start commuting on the bike, its a short trip but every mile on the saddle helps.

[bovine knievel]

This is cool

[cortez the killer]

Lynn was 2 strokes back after Day 1.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

[dogstar]

Wimbledon started earlier this week. They had 7 withdrawals due to injury yesterday and all the players are complaining that the grass is too slippery. The first thing that came into my head was why don't you try wearing the correct footwear - noticed no one mentioned this maybe they've all got lucrative footwear contracts? Plus Federer was beaten Thisopens the side of the draw Murray is in right up (Nadal went out in the first round). Hoping for a Murry v Djokovic final.

[beantownbubba]

Wow, that Wimbledon semi final between Del Potro and Djoko was incredible. I was glued to my seat. Couldn't even get up long enough to go to the computer and let y'all know you should watch. The nice thing was that both players seemed to be aware of just what they were doing/creating and were as into it as the crowd.

The more tennis i watch the more i understand how much all sports at the highest level are more mental than physical (once you assume the supreme physical skills that virtually all top notch athletes have). It's just easier to see in tennis when it's just 2 guys (or gals) in shorts out there for all to see. There were several moments when you could practically see the mental gears turning. Twice Del Potro challenged calls when it seemed clear to me that he was really just trying to get reality to conform to what he thought should have happened rather than thinking the calls were really wrong (once he hit a brilliant shot that "should" have been a winner but went long and the other he simply misjudged and assumed would be out).

[LastLawson]

Interesting match between Janowicz & Murray. At first Jerzy looked really nervous, but he's looking pretty confident right now. One of the commentators said that tournament officials had Djokovic sand down the nubs on the side of his shoe, after last round. It showed today, but he still came through.

[LastLawson]

Aaaaand as soon as I posted, Murray went on a tear. Shows how much anticipation I have

[Gang Green]

Wimbledon started earlier this week. They had 7 withdrawals due to injury yesterday and all the players are complaining that the grass is too slippery. The first thing that came into my head was why don't you try wearing the correct footwear - noticed no one mentioned this maybe they've all got lucrative footwear contracts? Plus Federer was beaten Thisopens the side of the draw Murray is in right up (Nadal went out in the first round). Hoping for a Murry v Djokovic final.

Not sure we'll hear from Dogstar for awhile, I'm sure he's out celebrating. Or maybe not, but I'm pretty pumped about Murray.

[njMark]

Anyone see Nairo Quintana ride up the Pyrenees mountains like he was having a Sunday stroll? He is an amazing cyclist. He goes up a climb faster than the field than hits 60mph on the descent. Shame he was finally caught by the field but he has a bright future ahead

[beantownbubba]

Wimbledon started earlier this week. They had 7 withdrawals due to injury yesterday and all the players are complaining that the grass is too slippery. The first thing that came into my head was why don't you try wearing the correct footwear - noticed no one mentioned this maybe they've all got lucrative footwear contracts? Plus Federer was beaten Thisopens the side of the draw Murray is in right up (Nadal went out in the first round). Hoping for a Murry v Djokovic final.

Not sure we'll hear from Dogstar for awhile, I'm sure he's out celebrating. Or maybe not, but I'm pretty pumped about Murray.

Yeah, I don't know which was more thrilling, the very good match or the post match celebration Congrats to Murray and youse Brits. Murray ought to buy Del Potro a Rolex or something (I don't want to take anything away from Murray; the draw always works in mysterious ways, but Friday's Del Potro- Djoko match couldn't have hurt Murray's chances). Oh, and Djoko was very, very impressive in defeat.

[Gang Green]

Wimbledon started earlier this week. They had 7 withdrawals due to injury yesterday and all the players are complaining that the grass is too slippery. The first thing that came into my head was why don't you try wearing the correct footwear - noticed no one mentioned this maybe they've all got lucrative footwear contracts? Plus Federer was beaten Thisopens the side of the draw Murray is in right up (Nadal went out in the first round). Hoping for a Murry v Djokovic final.

Not sure we'll hear from Dogstar for awhile, I'm sure he's out celebrating. Or maybe not, but I'm pretty pumped about Murray.

Yeah, I don't know which was more thrilling, the very good match or the post match celebration Congrats to Murray and youse Brits. Murray ought to buy Del Potro a Rolex or something (I don't want to take anything away from Murray; the draw always works in mysterious ways, but Friday's Del Potro- Djoko match couldn't have hurt Murray's chances). Oh, and Djoko was very, very impressive in defeat.

Murray had a fairly tough semi final. He had to face that 6'8" polish player with the beastly serve who is ideally suited to win Wimbledon some day, plus he had that issue where they had to close the roof. But, yes Djokovic had an epic semi final. Djokovic was impressive in defeat and he did play better when he just relaxed. If he won that third set, I'm not sure Andy Murray would have won, as he was starting to hobble. Interested to see if Dogstar cares if Murray won as he was Scottish not English.

[beantownbubba]

Interested to see if Dogstar cares if Murray won as he was Scottish not English.

Haha, my wife and I have had a couple of convos on that topic. Seems like over the years the Brits have moved to practicality over purity. I wonder how much the Scots resent that.

[dogstar]

Interested to see if Dogstar cares if Murray won as he was Scottish not English.

Haha, my wife and I have had a couple of convos on that topic. Seems like over the years the Brits have moved to practicality over purity. I wonder how much the Scots resent that.

Not really too bothered about what nationality he is and not overly bothered about the tennis (not a huge fan of games that involve hitting something with a stick). Good to see him win, at least he buried the hoodoo of not having a British winner of the men's singles for 76 years or something. I only watched the first set as I was off to see Chic at a local festival but it looked about as brutal as a game of tennis can get.

Also at the weekend the British and Irish Lions thumped the Aussies to win their first test series for 16 years and Chris Froome took the yellow jersey in the TdeF. Pretty good weekend for British sport all round.

[njMark]

You can add Cavendish winning a stage at the tour as well to the British sporting accomplishments as well

[Daddy_played_poker]

Does anyone else enjoy getting up early to watch golf at the Open Championship? I started doing it with my Dad when I was a kid. Mrs. Daddy thinks I'm crazy!!

[dogstar]

Does anyone else enjoy getting up early to watch golf at the Open Championship? I started doing it with my Dad when I was a kid. Mrs. Daddy thinks I'm crazy!!

Or you could move to the UK and get up at a civilsed time. Plus its hitting a ball with a stick so not really interested.

[dogstar]

Today - a bunch of cyclists are going to ride up one of the biggest mountains in France. And then they're going to do it again after they've ridden down it. Absolute Insanity. Froome's still in Yellow and this may be Contador's last chance to take it off him.

[beantownbubba]

Does anyone else enjoy getting up early to watch golf at the Open Championship? I started doing it with my Dad when I was a kid. Mrs. Daddy thinks I'm crazy!!

Well my then g/f now wife did get up to watch Diana and Charles get married and golf on tv* is almost as exciting as that.

*Except the Masters; the Masters is generally great tv.

[njMark]

Just want to say cyclocross is the devil spawn of a whore, also the most fun I've ever had on a bike. And this was only practice. Gotta love those Europeans, always finding a way to make a fun sport a little more fun.

[rlipps]

Kid from my hometown doing some big things on the golf course. Tyler "Chip" McDaniel won the Junior PGA Championship this week. McDaniel is 17, will be a junior at Clay County High (where I teach) this year and has already committed to play golf at the University of Kentucky. Pretty cool for our small town, especially considering we are consistently ranked in the 10 poorest counties in the United States. It's nice to have something to brag about every once in a while. The kid is also a standout basketball player, led Clay Co to a regional title and a berth in the Sweet 16 State Tourney last season. He also was the first freshman in history to win KY's Mr. Golf. Kid has a bright future and comes from a good family. His dad is an elementary principal and I teach with his mom. Hopefully I'll be watching him on the PGA Tour someday. Here's a link from ESPN:

http://espn.go.com/golf/story/_/id/9532 ... pga-titles

[beantownbubba]

Yesterday's US Open final was not a classic, but after 2 sets it seemed to be heading that way. But my reason for posting is not how great (or not) the match was but how incredibly great the players are. The standard of high level tennis right now is astonishing. These guys were just pounding each other, running down apparent winners, turning them back into winners the other way, making every shot in the book and several that aren't, including a few that seemed to defy geometry. The fitness level is absurd, the power is breathtaking and the plain old athletic ability is the equal of any other sport you want to name. Incredible.

And on top of that, we've got this funny/weird situation where at this exact moment, Roger Federer is the greatest player ever but is probably not even the greatest player of his generation, because Rafa is probably the greatest player ever and will shortly claim that title and hold it for a lot longer than Roger I suspect.

[Bill in CT]

Yesterday's US Open final was not a classic, but after 2 sets it seemed to be heading that way. But my reason for posting is not how great (or not) the match was but how incredibly great the players are. The standard of high level tennis right now is astonishing. These guys were just pounding each other, running down apparent winners, turning them back into winners the other way, making every shot in the book and several that aren't, including a few that seemed to defy geometry. The fitness level is absurd, the power is breathtaking and the plain old athletic ability is the equal of any other sport you want to name. Incredible.

And on top of that, we've got this funny/weird situation where at this exact moment, Roger Federer is the greatest player ever but is probably not even the greatest player of his generation, because Rafa is probably the greatest player ever and will shortly claim that title and hold it for a lot longer than Roger I suspect.

I agree with the first part of your post but not the second. While it's true that Nadal has a decided head-to-head advantage over Federer, Federer's major wins are more evenly balanced than Nadal's:

Federer
Australian Open - 4
French Open - 1
Wimbledon - 7
U.S. Open - 5

Nadal
Australian Open - 1
French Open - 8
Wimbledon - 2
U.S. Open - 2

If you throw out each player's best major, Federer has 10 other victories while Nadal has 5.

In addition, Federer has a far better record in the final of the Year End Championship (which only includes the best players from that calendar year):
Federer 6-2
Nadal 0-1 (lost to Federer)

I think it's too soon to assume that Nadal will be regarded as the best tennis player of all time.

[beantownbubba]

No doubt I was jumping the gun a bit, but considering Nadal's incredible head to head record against both Federer and Djoko (which would seem to be the most important measure especially since their primes overlapped at least somewhat), that he has a career grand slam at 27 (and got it w/out the serendipity involved in Federer winning the French). the near certainty that barring injury he will catch or pass Sampras in majors and is at least likely to catch Federer, the fact that he's won at least one major in NINE straight years and the quality of ALL aspects of his game (no holes), the case is pretty much laid out and ready to be made. I don't have the data in front of me right now but I believe that Nadal also has the edge in "secondary" but important events like the Davis Cup and Olympics. And I say all this as a big fan of Federer. I never thought I'd be saying anything like this, especially so soon after Roger's dominant period.

[Bill in CT]

Nadal's best surface (by far) is clay. On all other surfaces combined, he and Federer are even in career W-L.
Federer won multiple majors in 5 different years. Nadal has done it in 3 different years.
Federer's consecutive major quarterfinals streak is stunning and no one else is even close. I think it is less likely to be surpassed than Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak and that has stood since 1941.
The Davis Cup is a team event. It's not Federer's fault that Switzerland's tennis depth doesn't come remotely close to Spain's.
The Olympics are irrelevant in tennis. The YEC is far more important. As I said, Federer has won it 6 times and Nadal has never won it.
In my mind, Nadal has to get to at least 18 slams to be considered a real possibility for the best of all time.

[beantownbubba]

Nadal's best surface (by far) is clay. On all other surfaces combined, he and Federer are even in career W-L.
Federer won multiple majors in 5 different years. Nadal has done it in 3 different years.
Federer's consecutive major quarterfinals streak is stunning and no one else is even close. I think it is less likely to be surpassed than Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak and that has stood since 1941.
The Davis Cup is a team event. It's not Federer's fault that Switzerland's tennis depth doesn't come remotely close to Spain's.
The Olympics are irrelevant in tennis. The YEC is far more important. As I said, Federer has won it 6 times and Nadal has never won it.
In my mind, Nadal has to get to at least 18 slams to be considered a real possibility for the best of all time.

Different strokes and all that (haha). If Federer and Nadal are even on the other surfaces, it means that Federer hasn't been able to consistently beat Nadal on Federer's own best surface so I'm not sure where that argument goes. Federer's a great champion and I just said yesterday that I hope he has one more major in him. I don't really want to be arguing against him in this context so I'll leave it for now, at least until he wins another major or 2.

BTW, my sense (w/out any proof) is that the Olympic singles title is becoming increasingly important to the players. They seem to talk about it like it matters and remember, it's only been around for a short while. It's likely to become more important over time.

[Steve French]

Is any one psyched for Mayweather Alvarez?

I sure am looking forward to it.