Roddick lost :(
I didn't watch the finals, because it was played at 3am here, but based on the score, it looked very decisive. Federer is, for the third straight year, the king of the All-England Club. I makes me sad that he didn't come along at the same time as Pistol Pete, so that we could have been treated to an epic rivalry, probably the greatest of all time. The two would have met in the Wimbledon finals literally every year, and probably in a large number of Australian and US finals, too (let's not kid ourselves about the French). As it is, they both dominated their respective eras on grass, and as no one challenged Pete's supremacy at Wimbledon, it looks like no one can challege Federer at this point, either. He's not unbeatable on other surfaces, so I'll be pulling for Roddick in Flushing Meadows. But once again, Roddick is Wimbledon bridesmaid, and if he wants to turn this into a real rivalry, he'll have to pull a Boston Red Sox and actually win once in a while (1-9 career vs. Federer).
In Tour news, Lance finished with the pack in Stage Two and is still in second place. For those who are not familiar with Tour racing, flat stages don't create any time gaps among the leaders. If you finish within a second of the person in front of you, you receive the same time, so a pack finish gives everyone the same time as the guy who crosses the finish line, and the physics of biking just doesn't allow for anything other than a pack finish on flat stages. A group of ten guys drafting together will still go much slower than a group of 150, because of the amount of wind hitting each rider, and therefore the amount of energy each must expend to maintain the same speed.
If a breakaway group does form, it's only because no one in the group is a threat to the GC leaders, so it is allowed to get away, at least temporarily. Otherwise, if the main pack, known as the peleton, wants to chase down a small group of riders, it can do so as long as it makes its move early enough. Usually the sprint teams lead the peleton's chase of breakaway groups on the flat stages, because the sprint teams want a pack finish, where their sprinters can be set up to dash for stage glory, and this can only be done on a flat stage.
We won't see additional time gaps between the top contenders until we hit the mountains or time trials. Tour biking is definitely a team sport in that teams will not allow their top rider to lose time to another contender if they can help it (and on flat stages, they can always help it). They will protect their leader, allow him to draft and save energy, grab water bottles for him...whatever it takes to make sure he's positioned to make a move when one can be made. Because breakaways can be chased down so easily on flat stages, the top contenders never even bother. Why waste the energy? So they wait until the mountains, where the steep climbs break up teams, leave leaders isolated, and create situations where a rider's own strength--and not his team's--determines his place.
Each time trial also has the potential to create significant time gaps. A time trial is known as "The race of truth," because it's mano-a-mano, each rider on his own, with no teammates to help, so the true strength of each rider is shown.
Lance has the best team in the world to help shepherd him through the flat stages unharmed, and he is the most dominant rider in both the mountain stages and time trials, a combination that has made him unbeatable the last six years. And based on what we saw in the first race of truth, the prologue, he's in top form once again.
In Tour news, Lance finished with the pack in Stage Two and is still in second place. For those who are not familiar with Tour racing, flat stages don't create any time gaps among the leaders. If you finish within a second of the person in front of you, you receive the same time, so a pack finish gives everyone the same time as the guy who crosses the finish line, and the physics of biking just doesn't allow for anything other than a pack finish on flat stages. A group of ten guys drafting together will still go much slower than a group of 150, because of the amount of wind hitting each rider, and therefore the amount of energy each must expend to maintain the same speed.
If a breakaway group does form, it's only because no one in the group is a threat to the GC leaders, so it is allowed to get away, at least temporarily. Otherwise, if the main pack, known as the peleton, wants to chase down a small group of riders, it can do so as long as it makes its move early enough. Usually the sprint teams lead the peleton's chase of breakaway groups on the flat stages, because the sprint teams want a pack finish, where their sprinters can be set up to dash for stage glory, and this can only be done on a flat stage.
We won't see additional time gaps between the top contenders until we hit the mountains or time trials. Tour biking is definitely a team sport in that teams will not allow their top rider to lose time to another contender if they can help it (and on flat stages, they can always help it). They will protect their leader, allow him to draft and save energy, grab water bottles for him...whatever it takes to make sure he's positioned to make a move when one can be made. Because breakaways can be chased down so easily on flat stages, the top contenders never even bother. Why waste the energy? So they wait until the mountains, where the steep climbs break up teams, leave leaders isolated, and create situations where a rider's own strength--and not his team's--determines his place.
Each time trial also has the potential to create significant time gaps. A time trial is known as "The race of truth," because it's mano-a-mano, each rider on his own, with no teammates to help, so the true strength of each rider is shown.
Lance has the best team in the world to help shepherd him through the flat stages unharmed, and he is the most dominant rider in both the mountain stages and time trials, a combination that has made him unbeatable the last six years. And based on what we saw in the first race of truth, the prologue, he's in top form once again.
posted by Chang Kim at Sunday, July 03, 2005
8 Comments:
roddick was destroyed, like a little girl..
at least he's a hot little girl :)
roddick vs federer is like me vs you in poker wars. i must be a real good #2.
hey im decent at poker wars too--how do you know I'M not #2?
haha, poker war lives? that's awesome. i'm proud to have been there when the game was first born
I suck at poker wars..who are the weenies who made up that game? :)
i didnt wake up in time to watch it :( why doesnt your stupid tivo automatically record sports, hpan?
I did see the end of the women's match. They were both holding serve, and there was one particularly long rally where Davenport was being moved side to side while Venus was controlling from the middle. Davenport eventually lost the point, but she was also fatigued to the point where she was hunched over clutching her knees. She dropped the next few pts and lost the game, and then had her serve broken on the very next game. With the match ending so close, I wonder what would have happened had Davenport simply given up on that earlier point, or gone for a low pct winner rather than playing defense and trying to keep the rally alive.
Post a Comment
<< Home