Jeff and his Thor!

A quick sms to buddy Jean Francois Quenet (Jeff @ Jaafar Qonet @ Jeff Ali to Malaysian friends) after watching the finish of Stage Two of the Tour de France last night, got me a simple reply: "Ya, now I'm waiting for him with my microphone."
Jeff had done his part in the upbringing of the Norwegian sprint powerhouse and last night Hushovd stormed past CSC's Fabien Cancellara in the final turn of the screw to take his sixth ever Tour stage win in explosive fashion, ahead of Luxembourger Kim Kirchen of Team Columbia, who'd seen his teammate Gerald Ciolek make it a great day for the former High Road and T-Mobile team, when he took third.
Earlier, it could have been a happier moment, albeit the Tour not racing on Bastille Day, with Thomas Voeckler (Bouygues Telecom) and Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis) were joined by Agritubel duo Christophe Moreau and David Lelay in an all-French break that threatened to finish it off. It would have been even more special for Lelay, a native of Brittany, as the finish was in Saint Breuc. But it wasn't to be. Cancellara attacked just as the last of the quartet, Chavanel, was caught near the finish, it was dangerous. But out of the blue, a lightning fast Norwegian stromed past!
Alejandro Valverde held on the yellow and looks like it gonna be quite a long time before someone changes that.
Yup, still quite interested in this beautiful sport even though I try to stay away, out of disappointment more than anything.
But the ASO have gone mad with long stages to start the Tour. 195km on opening day, 165km yesterday and today it is 208km from Saint Malo to Nantes.. Again, some undulations with a slight rise near the finish... Funny, but still makes it quite interesting because you never know what's gonna happen. Out of two similar stages thus far, one was won by a climber and another by a sprinter.. Makes it more open I guess.. And oh yeah, Nantes is some place special for Jeff as well, because that's where his home cycling club is. U-Nantes Atlantique.. hehehe.. But I'm for an Oscar Freire win tonight.

Yellow all the way to Paris?

You can't be serious, but you wouldn't be too wrong either, in thinking that for the first time ever the possibility of a rider holding on to Tour de France's maillot jaune from start to finish is there.
If ti were a sprinter winning last night's Stage One from Brest to Plumelec, it would have been a different story. If FdJ's Phillipe Gilbert had done it, it would have been a different story too. Maybe if Columbia's Kim Kirchen had taken the win, instead of being dumped by Alejandro Valverde in the slight uphill sprint, he could be the one. But no, it looks like Caisse d'Epargne are lining up their second win in three years with Spanish national champion Valverde.
But what a start we've been given. I'd thought of the undulations on the 197km route for Stage One and of course I thought of it as too bloody long for an opening stage.
And Valverde taking the win to follow his win in the Dauphine, must surely mean that the said possibility is real - substantiated by his Alpine feats in the warm-up in Dauphine more than anything. But of course, the lead is a mere second over Gilbert, but more importantly it is the same over contenders Ricardo Ricco, Cadel Evans and Filippo Pozzato, while Damiano Cunego and Carlos Sastre are a further six behind, still an open race.
Now tonight, we must expect a similar result with another undulating course, which suits the likes of Valverde as he's shown again last night. But the finish of the 164.5km route from Auray to Saint Breuc goes flat near the end, after a slight rise, which could offer a different type of rider the chance. Maybe good for somebody like Oscar Freire or Alessandro Ballan, or.... Valverde again. Maybe Ricco too. Don't you wish Paolo Bettini was there.

Not thoroughly excited, but....

This is one Tour de France that's starting without two things - the usual prologue time trial and the defending champion, so it won't be the guy in the picture (Fabian Cancellara of CSC) taking the first maillot jaune of the Tour.
I'm not thoroughly excited at the prospect of cycling's biggest race being without its biggest rider of the moment. And today's undulating Stage One over 197 kilometres, is somewhat long for an opening stage. I'd usually prefer these stage races to start short, giving the riders and fans a chance to warm up and spot the likely contenders as the peloton builds in speed and torque till the mountains decide who they want as the emperors of our sport this year.
I'd suspect the ASO believe one of their own could win following what I allege as a conspiracy to remove the likes of Alberto Contador, Andreas Kloden, Sergey Yakovlev and their Astana team from this year's Tour. And the ASO's best bet would be Francaise des Jeux's Sandy Casar (pic below).


Casar is France's best climber at this moment, after the retirement of seven-time king of the mountains Richard Virenque, but the rider who won Stage 18 last year isn't in the league that hosts the likes of Oscar Perreiro, Alejandro Valverde (both Caisse d'Epargne), Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto), Ricardo Ricco (Saunier Duval-Scott) and my pick for the rider I will follow closely this Tour - Lampre's Damiano Cunego (next pic). Ideally, I'd think the mountains will suit a battle between 2004 Giro winner Cunego, one of the most stylish riders on a bike, and the new Italian hope Ricardo Ricco@Cobra. Put Aussie Evans, who finished second behind Contador last year, in there and you've got a soup to die for already. Now, the Landis 2006 win well and truly buried, I'd think the beneficiary Perreiro would want to take the win outright to prove a point that he didn't have to rely on the courts to hand him the win two years ago. So, that's another nice picture to paint, but Caisse d'Epargne have slotted the number one on the team before the start as Valverde, with David Arroyo second in line, if you believe in the DS's order of team numbers.
Then you can't at all discount the probability of Rabobank coming into the picture should Denis Menchov find his touch. The Russian is a likely surprise package if the team decides so, to instead of going on their usual sporadic attack, focus on one goal.
You could also see something from the two little Colombians on Barloworld, if Mauricio Soler gets a proper act together with compatriot Felix Cardenas, you could see this team toying around the possibility of an overall win instead of polka dots.
Euskaltel in the past 10 years have always raised hopes only to falter in the Tour itself, but I believe, not in Haimar Zubeldia but Samuel Sanchez to come to the fore. He's got more character and should be the leader of the team in due course. But don't discount the possibility of the Basques together and push forward as a solid team should things start to go their way. They will never feature in the flats, not so much in the time trials, so they only have to focus on the mountains.
Today's stage? I think bunch sprint. McEwen-Hushovd-Freire-Ballan to fight it out.
Gosh.. I wrote so long... And I thought I wouldn't be interested....

Before Beijing...

The boss, who's lucky enough to be going to Beijing next month, has started barking orders for the build-up to the Olympics.
We're slow as usual. Or I'm slow at getting to it, mainly because there so much shit going on at the same time. Try as I did, I never found that tape measure that would make me a six footer, but some Terengganu JKR guys have irked me by saying the tape measure used by my colleague Sean Augustin, that showed the Terengganu Aquatics Centre pool in Kuala Terengganu to be 49.6 metres, was wrong. Apparently, their tape measure gave a reading of exactly 50m. Follow the story on the New Straits Times if you like, 'cos we're getting to the bottom of this. I'm not gonna tell you here, because I have to do my job first.
But back to Beijing, where hopefully the swimming pool is up to FINA specs which means it has to be 50.02 metres, so as to allow for touchpads during competition, and with a RM1 million bounty up for grabs for the one or two who deliver that elusive Olympic gold, I think we could yet be disappointed again.
Wouldn't say the badminton guys are gonna deliver, because this is the Olympics, the place where they're bound to falter after sending a round of orgasms throughout the country in the build-up.
Next best bets are the cyclists. Using my heart, I'd say Josiah Ng and Azizul Hasni Awang are as good as any rider on earth to deliver a medal in the keirin. But the keirin is such a harsh game. One second you think you're in for a medal, the next you're fighting not to finish last. But Azizul's beaten all the current top brass of world keirin, bar world champion Chris Hoy, in the string of competitions leading up to Beijing thus far. .
But before we enjoy our own success in Beijing, there's a simple matter of the Tour de France without Alberto Contador. For most of the pro peloton, that race means a little bit more than the Olympic gold.
That race starts this week. A low key start, but you'll get more than you bargain for here
K... let's just enjoy this month... and next month.. 'cos if you look at it, its a wholesome three months from May to August... i.e. Giro, Champions League final, Euro, Tour de France, Olympics... sports fans couldn't ask for more....

Zorro on Hell

An interesting read on hell can be found on Zorro (Bernard Khoo's) blog here..
Students these days...... hehehe...