Greased Grooves

            I can almost hear John Huston, The Narrator in 1982’s ‘Cannery Row’ intone: “Once again the World was spinning in greased grooves” now that the All-Star Break is over and Major League Baseball is being played in ballparks from coast to coast! #GoGiants

            The happy, warm all over feeling I got when Giants’ starting pitcher Chad Gaudin mowed down the Diamondbacks’ first three hitters, and the Giants’ leadoff man Gregor Blanco got to first on a walk, only to be knocked in by a big Buster Posey double in the  first inning…priceless! Our Week-Long National Nightmare is over! Hooray Baseball!

            Final Score- SF Giants 2 Arizona Diamondbacks 0 We gain a game on them too!

            In another greased groove across the Big Pond, Le Tour de France  reaches Paris Sunday… some champagne will be enjoyed by the maillot jaune’s  team as they wend their way around the Champs-Élysées, before the final field sprint, and the Podium Ceremony. After three weeks, it’s been a brilliant 100^th Tour.

            This July, I didn’t really have a horse in the race…yeah, I was pulling for Andy Schleck who was still short of the form needed to win the Tour after a Spring of injuries and set-backs. As a dispassionate observer of Le Tour de France this year, I noticed a new, disturbing trend on the roads and byways of France (and Corsica, too.)

            “Traffic Furniture”, the quaint term the British Tour Commentators use to define Traffic Roundabouts, Median Strips, Curbs and Gutters, almost took out the winner of Thursday’s Iconic Stage 18 near the bottom of the second  L’Alpe d’Heuz climb. Christophe Riblon following Tejay Van Garderen had to “Bunny-Hop” a roundabout that came as a surprise as they snaked through the packed roadway. Luckily, Riblon escaped without crashing or suffering a flat tire, and went on to win the stage when Van Garderen “hit the wall” just 3KM from the finish line.

            It’s bad enough that roundabouts have multiplied like überfetid bunnies, infecting seemingly each and every scenic French village, town and city center…but what is the deal with the multitude of Speed Bumps? Do they come along post-roundabout infestation? Don’t the Tour de France Organizers have enough pull to have these motoring menaces removed for the Tour…if only on the Finishing Straights? I almost get Motion Sickness from the LIVE footage when the MotoCameras go over these outsized Traffic Furniture interlopers.

            Dear Readers, it’s not too late to take preventative action! Attend and speak at your City Council or Public Works Committee meetings! Stop this insipid virus before it infects your whereabouts! Roundabouts are the camel’s nose under our tents…once a populace surrenders to the tyranny of the roundabout fascists, the speed bumps will follow. Roundabouts are the first slippery step that removes some of the hard earned situational awareness that keeps American drivers on their toes, and off other drivers fenders!

            Look at the French speed bumps, they’re tall enough to need their own Elevation Signs! Freedom loving Americans will NEVER acquiesce to outsized traffic tyranny such as the outsized French bumps!  This rush to be more like Europe will hurt Americans, lower our productivity, and raise our insurance premiums!

            Perhaps I’m a little too sensitive on this subject because of something that happened a couple of weeks ago…I was driving over to the SturgeUrge Compound in the neighboring town. SturgeUrge’s place is on a little private road off a crooked,  major thoroughfare. The main drag is loaded with nearly blind corners, hidden driveways, overhanging shade trees, and speeding, inattentive drivers. SturgeUrge’s power goes off almost monthly when somebody takes out a telephone pole along this road. Stopped traffic in front of his road is common, just a one mile backup from downtown.

            So I was coming downhill and made the left onto SturgeUrge’s road and BAM! I ran over a new ‘curb’ along the major thoroughfare’s shoulder…coulda been trouble for my teeth or tongue…or wheels and tires! This new curb is six inches wide and a good four inches tall!  A triangle shape that really rocked me, and all but impossible to see coming out of a spot of bright sunlight into the shady intersection!

            Urge said he’s already called the City’s Public Works Guy, and they’ve been out and made a few ‘modifications’…yeah…big deal, it’s still a dangerous speed bump making said intersection more dangerous. This modification is not done to the usually specified  Workmanlike Standard of “Best Practices” If these roads were new construction, there’d be a swale on Urge’s road to keep rainwater from running across the main drag…What’s a swale? Think gutter, a nice soft gutter that doesn’t knock your fillings out!

            Get this! As the situation has been playing out, Urge found out that the City got some Federal Stimulus Money that they wanted to use to put in a roundabout somewhere that it isn’t needed downtown. Wiser heads prevailed and the roundabout was nixed, freeing up the cash for a myriad of little street “improvements”

            I had a bad feeling that these “Traffic Nanny” roundabouts have become a chic status symbol for the Municipality Set…I can’t wait to see “Chapter Three” of the Swale Saga unfold…

Dopey - Thoughts On The Passing Scene

           Here we are on the 18^th Stage of Le Tour de France, Gap to L'Alpe d'Huez. Team Sky’s Super Domestique from the 2012 Tour, who shepherded Brit Bradley Wiggins to victory, Chris Froome has been wearing the Yellow Jersey for 10 days now. 
           In honor of the 100^th running of the Great French Spectacle, the Organizers decided to ‘Double the Pleasure’ of the Tour’s most Iconic Stage, so the riders will climb L'Alpe d'Huez…twice in a single day…Brutal

Throw in millions of party-hardened Tifosi clogging the roadside and you have a scary spectacle unlike any other. No other Pro Sport allows the fans onto the field of battle. I saw one bare ass mooning the motorcycle cam in this morning’s LIVE coverage. It went by so fast I couldn’t resolve whether it was a male or female moon…suffice it to say it wasn't the most "heavenly body"...                

           
It seems like there’s more schlughs in costume running alongside the bicyclists, patting them on the back and somehow staying upright every year.

“Schlugh” (pronounced schloog) is the derisive term coined by former TdF competitor and NBCSN TdF Commentator, Bob Roll for the common sense-challenged TdF Fans who get just a little too close to the action, given their blood alcohol levels and apparent sleep deprivation. Today one schlugh waving a Japanese flag nearly upended Ritchie Porte  who was pulling leader Chris Froome up L'Alpe the second time.

Stage 18 was won by Frenchman Christophe Riblon from Tejay Ven Garderen who broke away together at the bottom of the first climb of L'Alpe d'Huez. Tejay had a mechanical on the Über-Scary descent of the unknown (and un-raced until this June’s Critérium du Dauphiné) Col de Sarenne, the back way off L’Alpe.

Amongst the kaleidoscopic background of the SchlughFest, I saw a few homemade signs that said simply: “Froome ?” Since Froome first pulled on the yellow jersey, there have been questions…Is Chris Froome doping? Froome says no, but the signs are in the galleries, and the questions are asked daily.

Today, Team Sky released Froom’s Power stats from 2011, 2012, and 2013…same power output each year. Today the peloton is PED-Free, and that’s a good thing…it took 90+ years to rid the Tour of doping, yet the spectacle is no less thrilling.

Tuesday was the MLB All-Star Game at the New York Mets’ CitiField. Monday they held the Home Run Derby, won by the Oakland A’s Yoenis Céspedes, another slugger with a God-given swing that’s as pretty as it is devastating.

In the aftermath of the game and derby, the internet became heavy with steroid talk…again. Sportswriters, the self-appointed “Protectors Of Baseball” are harping on again about the Home Run Records since Henry ‘Hank’ Aaron’s record. In fact they’re bypassing Hammerin’ Hank for Roger Maris’ iconic 61 when talking about the “Next Big Thing”  who might give the HR Record a run, ignoring Mark McGuire’s and Barry Bonds’ records…yeah, the Royal Order Of The Asterisk is on point again to “save baseball”

Bonds and McGuire both came into the Big Leagues with awesome swings. Steroids won’t give a hitter a good swing. Steroids help build muscle mass and speed muscle recovery after heavy use damage…one could argue that steroids benefited the pitchers facing the sluggers more than it helped the hitters.

Baseball at the Major League level is an Entertainment that grosses billions of dollars annually. Players make millions once they’ve established themselves as stars. Who among us wouldn’t be tempted to take PEDs if they could keep the million dollar paychecks coming for a few more years…ball players have kids, mortgages, families, all that benefit from the game’s largess…

The last time I spent a week in Truckee, I read Tyler Hamilton’s Tour de France Tell-All tome, “The Secret Race” in two sittings.

Tyler’s book chronicles his fall into doping while a teammate of Lance Armstrong in the “Glory Years” where Armstrong won seven straight TdF Titles in as many years.

I remember the stages like they were yesterday…”The Look” that Armstrong gave fellow doper Jan Ulrich climbing L'Alpe d'Huez, the breakaways, the time trials, all dope-driven.

The midnight trips to obscure hotels away from the Tour for transfusions of their own blood (known today as ‘Blood Doping’) Dope schedules away from the big tours, all for an edge that calcs out at 1%...maybe 2%-3% at most…

I don’t support PEDs in sports, pro or amateur…but I understand the very human reasons why it’s so hard to rid sports of the scourge. This week, there’s several MLB ball players waiting to find out their fate after they were revealed to be doping recently…including some huge stars like A-Rod, Alex Rodriguez of the NY Yankees, once the highest paid baseball player in the world.

All their asterisk records were all products of their times. Armstrong never failed a drug test, ever. He’s in trouble now because newer standards and tests were unleashed on his blood samples from back in the day. Paula Dean has lost her livelihood because of a racial slur she admitted making 30 years ago, in the Deep South, because she’s been judged by today’s Politically Correct  standards.

How soon before we strip actresses of their long ago Oscars because they had a nose job or breast enhancement? Think about it…they’re the same thing. I believe that this is one arena where a “More Nuanced” outlook is long overdue.

The Grand Tours survived the early years of amphetamine abuse (if not all competitors did) Baseball will always be the most “Human” of sports….yes, sportswriters manning the battlements to “save baseball” are Human too…

Niche Sports Apocalypse

The view from over my Gin&Tonic tonight is troubling. Somehow I've lost pace with my cozy little world of niche sports this spring. May flew by comfortably enough, in fact I don't think I even looked for Mt Everest News. Dare I say Everest has become 'So Last Century'?

I'm used to the dearth of Indianapolis Motor Speedway news now. The daily records and breathless headlines of speed are quaint memories from the Pre-Split IndyCar world. Which is not to say the Indy 500 is passé...au contraire the 2013 Indy 500 was very exciting, with double last year's record lead changes, leading to a very popular victory for Tony Kanaan, who's been a bridesmaid twelve times at the Speedway, but never the bride until this year.

The 'new' IndyCar Series has settled back into it's boring slate of 1-1/2 Mile Ovals, Temporary Street Circuits where the only overtaking is done on Pit Stops...too many Saturday races...IndyCar is trying double headers this year, Saturday and Sunday on the same circuit...I prefer my motorsports to be ennui-free...

June brought back the 'June Swoon' for my World Champion San Francisco Giants. The Giants starting pitchers suffered from one blow-out inning in each outing, while the Giants hitters slumped as a group spectacularly...MLB's worst team batting average for June...fewest home runs in the Majors for June...

Did I mention the injuries? Center fielder Angel Pagan pulled a hamstring, nursed it for a month, then tore it in earnest during his first 'rehab game' with the Class A Advanced, San Jose Giants farm team. Starting RHP Ryan Vogelsong broke the pinky on his throwing hand when hit by a pitch back on May 20th, he's due back sometime in August.

The Giants moved long reliever Chad Gaudin into Vogelsong's spot in the starting rotation where he made two quality starts before struggling in his third outing (attributed to 'Dead Arm Syndrome' by Giants' broadcaster and pitching guru, Mike Krukow) Gaudin was back to form on his fourth start when he was hit...twice! by batted balls.

The first hit bounced off Gaudin's butt, Gaudin picked it up and threw the batter out. The second time the line drive hit Gaudin on this pitching arm just below the elbow, on his forearm. Gaudin was unable to continue, and has in fact missed his next two scheduled starts.

The Giants acquired Gaudin to fill in for long reliever Santiago Casilla who was lost to a cyst in the bone of his lower leg. Casilla had the cyst removed and went on the 15 Day DL (Disabled List) He's been rehabbing with the San Jose Giants and should return this weekend vs the Dodgers at AT&T Park.

Another Giants' Hit Batsman, 2nd baseman Marco Scutaro suffered a dislocated pinky on his glove hand, missed six games and is back playing with his new splint protecting his 'mallet finger'

Future Gold-Glove shortstop, Brandon Crawford jammed two fingers on his throwing hand sliding into second base and missed a couple of games, until his replacement Joaquin Arias pulled up lame with his pulled hamstring...see where I'm goin' here? 

Slugging All-Star MVP 3rd baseman Pablo 'Kung Fu Panda' Sandoval did a stint on the 15 Day DL for a foot sprain, and apparently left his bat behind...he's batting just .152 since returning...

The Giants fell all the way to the cellar in the NL West, displacing the hated Los Angeles  Dodgers...this past week, at least all the other teams in the NL West fell of their barstools too...it's a long season, as they say...

Independence day was Opening Day on San Francisco Bay for The America's Cup Regatta. After a fatal training accident and the subsequent pause to re-evaluate the safety protocols of the scary-fast AC72 catamarans, there's some static background noise of possible litigation of the new safety rules possibly delaying the racing...stay tuned as they say...

The 2013 Formula One Season has been excellent so far. I'm having a little trouble adapting to the new US Broadcaster NBC SportsNet however...gone are the live streaming sessions of Free Practice 1 and FP3. NBCSN does air FP2 and Qualifying LIVE, except during Le Tour de France (read the month of July, plus the last weekend of June, or another way to say it, the British and German Grands Prix)

The F1 season has been a gearhead geek's delight so far, but things looked like they were falling off the rails when a series of high speed tire failures began on Lap 7 of the British GP at Silverstone, when favorite son, Mercedes' Pole Winner Lewis Hamilton's left rear Pirelli disintegrated at 100+ MPH!

Two more Pirelli tires suffered a similar fate during the race, as well as one during Saturday practice. all were fitted to the left rear. No injuries or crashes resulted from the failures, and the racers soldiered on fearlessly.

The silver lining? It looks like the FIA will again allow the teams to test during the season. Germany's GP comes Sunday July 7th at the Nürburgring...it should be exciting...to say the least!

Finally, July is the time for my favorite sporting event, Le Tour de France. I was looking forward to entering a couple of Fantasy TdF Games, but my favorite places were gone! I found a new spot, this one from Great Britain and began boning up on the Start List.

Where is everybody? American sprinter Tyler Farrar didn't make the Garmin-Sharp Tour Team...Norwegian World Champion sprinter Thor Hushovd...MIA, last year's winner Brit Bradley Wiggins is unable to defend with a knee injury...I gave up...plain and simple...

NBCSportsNet's TV coverage has been as good as ever. This is the 100th running of Le Tour, and the organizers have outdone themselves...more mountains, a team time trial, and get this, they climb L'Alpe d'Huez...twice...in the same stage! Stage 18 Gap to L'Alpe d'Huez, Thursday July 18th.

Today is Stage Six...as is customary, the first week of Le Tour has been mostly about the sprinters...with the attendant high speed crashes, and drama. One fellow is already soldiering along with a hairline pelvis fracture. American Christian Vande Velde was caught up in Stage 5's contretemps and hit the road hard enough to loosen some surgical screws in his collarbone...Vande Velde is still racing today.

One more thing is bothering me about this year's Tour. Being that this is the Centennial Tour, there's lots of Tour History, which for American TV means Lance Armstrong's history. Admitted PED user, this is uncomfortable in the main, but PEDs in competitive cycling is not a Black & White story. Performance Enhancing Drugs have been part of Le Tour since 1903 the first Tour.

I'm not excusing Armstrong's deeds. I'll have more to say in a later blog.

Thanks for reading...

Lance Armstrong's Monkey Trials

It's a day off for me, but News Never Sleeps, and this story alarms me.

Today's American Spectator weighs in with the Back Story on Lance Armstrong's surrender to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)

The piece is food for thought...here's some snippets:

If you're not familiar with USADA, its website describes the agency as follows: "The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency… is the national anti-doping organization for the Olympic movement in the United States. The U.S. Congress recognized USADA as 'the official anti-doping agency for Olympic, Pan American and Paralympic sport in the United States.'" It also claims to be a "non-governmental agency," but it will probably not come as a surprise that it is funded in part by your tax dollars. You will also note, by the way, that USADA's description of its mission ends with the words "in the United States." As this suggests, it isn't immediately obvious that the agency's jurisdiction gives it the authority to revoke titles awarded in a European bicycle race.

This is a distinction that was not lost on the International Cycling Union (UCI), the governing body for international sports cycling and the entity that administered doping tests while Armstrong competed. Knowing that he never failed any of these tests, UCI has indicated that it is not prepared to merely rubberstamp USADA's precipitous action: "Article 8.3 of the WADC [World Anti-Doping Code] states that where no hearing occurs the Anti-Doping Organisation with results management responsibility shall submit to the parties concerned (Mr. Armstrong, WADA and UCI) a reasoned decision explaining the action taken. Until such time as USADA delivers this decision the UCI has no further comment to make."

Last time I checked, we still live in America...under the Constitution...right?

Doped

This doping deal has gotten to me...the 2012 Vuelta a España finished it's first week Friday, without TeamCorduroyPlanet playing along in a Fantasy League. Lance Armstrong, facing a New Salem Witch Trial, said Uncle. Alberto Contador's doping suspension is over and he's contesting for his home Tour. I guess I'm just turned off...

I was slacking when the Tour de France wrapped up and the Olympics showcased British Cycling...I may say something about it once my  "Doping Allegation Receptors" heal a little...

There's still one more week of Formula One's Summer Break. The cars will fire up next Friday for the Belgian GP at Spa-Francorchamps, and I can hardly contain myself! There's no doping in motorsports...at least no "performance enhancing drugs" A NASCAR driver flunked a drug test a couple of weeks ago...methamphetamine, "speed" Oh the Irony...

I don't think there's a drug problem in America's Cup Racing...Though who can forget the highly inebriated Ted Turner nearly falling off the stage and taking the podium with him after defending the Cup onboard "Courageous" in 1977?

It's almost NFL Football Season. The NFL has become the new Tobacco I fear. The hand-wringing do-gooders are after the sport the same way they went after "Big Tobacco"...with the determination of Pit Bulls.

The suicide of San Diego Chargers' superstar linebacker, Junior Seau in May has brought into the daylight Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), progressive damage to the brain associated with repeated blows to the head. No less a luminary than Conservative Pundit and Baseball Author, George Will addressed the problem in his column this month.

I'm not the Football Fan I was back in the 80s when my San Francisco 49ers began as Cinderella-Story SuperBowl Champs and built a Dynasty behind Joe Montana. The NFL Owners and the NFL Player's Union have brought myriad changes to the ol' Gridiron. The game is so different now compared to the game I loved as a kid watching YA Tittle throw the Alley-Oop to RC Owens at San Francisco's Kezar Stadium.

Many new rules protect the players (and the owners' investments in them), but many changes have diminished the deeper textures of the game for me.

Free agency is "Katy Bar the Door" now...so much that when a team does scale Olympus and hold the Lombardi Trophy overhead while the showers of champagne rain down, the following season almost always resembles a Community Rummage Sale as the newly crowned Football Stars move to other teams who's Salary Cap headroom allows a little  shopping for the High Priced Spread.

For me, this unfettered movement has killed the deeper rivalries. Oh, the NY Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles will always have a rivalry worthy of notice, but the rivalries between  individual players on opposite sides of the line of scrimmage never have a chance to develop today.

Before wide open free agency, teams in the same Conference played twice a season, plus potential playoff meetings. Season in and season out, opposing players would build a history with their opposite, rich with perceived slights, fakes, deference and disses...great stuff, now only memories.

Don't get me started on Instant Replay which has slowly dug in like a bloated tick sucking the life out of the game. 

NFL games are played mostly on Sunday afternoons...My Friday Nights during ski season. The extra half hour that Instant Replay has added to the games has proved fatal to my ability to stay awake until the end of the games. 

What about TiVo you ask? 

Truth? I'm too plugged in to avoid seeing the outcome before I watch the DVR'd games...same with motorsports...

I'd be remiss if I didn't remember Retired NAVY Aviator Neil Armstrong who passed away Saturday. I can still vividly remember standing out in the yard with my Dad looking up at the Moon after watching Armstrong step onto the Moon on TV. I remember thinking "how clever of NASA to land Americans on a Full Moon...

I guess it's been a bad day for Armstrongs period...however, Neil's family makes a simple request that brightens my heart:  

For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/97040/neil-armstrong-first-man-on-the-moon-dies-at-82/#ixzz24cG5sfIh

Doping

Today it's Lance Armstrong throwing in the towel. Professional Cycling has been after Armstrong since he was a Junior. When he started winning the Tour de France the French press lead the charge to discredit him. Chauvinism pure and simple.

Hat Tip: Dictionary.com
1865-70 Origin: French chauvinisme, equivalent to chauvin jingo (named after N. Chauvin, a soldier in Napoleon's army noted for loud-mouthed patriotism) + -isme -ism

I joined Twitter specifically to follow @lancearmstrong. He used Twitter to go around the European Cycling Press to speak directly to cycling fans and cancer patients and advocates. I can't tell you how many times Armstrong's first tweet of the day from the TdF began: "Good morning Doping Control! Now for some coffee and stage..."

Armstrong has been tested 1000+ times and never failed a test. That hasn't stopped the accusations. Cyclingnews.com has an index of Armstrong's Doping Allegations Over the Years online. That's some list!

Frankly? My mind is too fatigued to dig in to the story this week...doping's hit my San Francisco Giants hard this season too, and my "Doping Allegation Receptors" are just a little...overstimulated.

Giants left fielder Melky Cabrera was given a 50 game suspension from baseball after testing positive for testosterone.

In early May, Giants' long reliever Guillermo Mota was handed a 100 game suspension by MLB for his second failed drug test. Baseball found Clenbuterol in Mota's system. Clenbuterol was also the substance that caused the 2010 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador to be stripped of his title.

Don't misunderstand me. I'm against doping in all sports. But I'm also against witch hunts that trample personal liberties and due process. Armstrong seems to be in a "guilty until proved innocent" situation...under fire from an American Association in America where jurisprudence is governed by the United States Constitution. What's wrong with this picture?

That's it...I don't have the appetite for anything more on this today...

Lazy Friday

I'm slacking for the second night in a row...all that sun and salt air on San Francisco Bay can take it out of a man!

There's too many distractions this month, that's for sure...

The Tour de France has moved into the mountains, and as always the Alps didn't disappoint! NBCSN's LIVE TV coverage started at 3:30AM on the West Coast, and I found some European LIVE streams online. Many are even in English! My fantasy TdF team is cellar dwelling again...

The video blogs about Sunday's British Grand Prix have posted. More new bits for most of the cars, and a fantastic race on the track...a dry track after record rains for the rest of the F1 weekend. I find it totally amazing how little wings at the front of the sidepods, and the shape of the bodywork can help steer the open, up-firing exhaust down to the car's floor, between the rear tires, and out through the diffuser to increase rear downforce.

I looked at the USS Iowa's Facebook Page, and it's a treasure trove! Lots of interesting comments from Opening Weekend Visitors as well as Iowa Veterans. From my tradesman's point of view, USS Iowa Volunteer, Acting USS Iowa Electrician and Gunners Mate, James Baca's comments are most appreciated! There's a link to a good LA Times Story on the battlewagon posted there too.

I'll be making the trip south to visit Iowa once the new decks are finished, and more of the ship is open to tours...another year or two. The Pacific Battleship Center says that 95% of the ship will be on display by 2015

As you can see, I'm awash in my Sea of Joy...but I'm more than a little concerned about Fire Season, especially in the West. It's cooled off plenty since SturgeUrge and I baked out on San Francisco Bay Wednesday...a good thing for the firefighters battling the Robbers Fire between Foresthill and Colfax.

Even with temps trending downward for the coming week, winds are up again...so let's be careful out there everybody!

Hydraulic Convergence

Rain, rain, go away,
Come again some other day...

That's the #1 rhyme from Great Britain this weekend...

It's raining buckets on jolly old England, and even record rainfall hasn't dampened British F1 fans fervor for their Grand Prix. I looked up the weather for Sunday...of course there's a "Local Severe Alert" for most of the country...

Description, Rain: Further periods of heavy and sometimes thundery rain are expected on Sunday.

Cities affected: Nottingham, United Kingdom; Barkston Heath RAF, United Kingdom; Humberside, United Kingdom; Waddington, United Kingdom; Cranwell, United Kingdom; Donna Nook, United Kingdom; Coningsby, United Kingdom; Wainfleet, United Kingdom; East Midlands, United Kingdom; Cottesmore, United Kingdom; Holbeach, United Kingdom

I like that term "thundery rain"...I hear it in a Cockney accent.

With all the rain on the English Countryside, I was struck by the photo I featured in Friday's blog, "Slowing Flowing Waters" It's the one with the two fans carrying their cooler down a muddy path in rain gear and wearing Brockabrellas.

Brockabrellas? Yes, those wearable umbrella hats are named for their inventor, Lou Brock. That Lou Brock! The Baseball Hall Of Famer, who played for the Chicago Cubs and St Louis Cardinals. Brock is now a coach with the St Louis Cards, and is most recognized as a base stealer, who broke Ty Cobb's career total with 938 stolen bases during his 19 year Major League stint. Oakland A's heist-meister Rickey Henderson later surpassed Brock's record with 1406 stolen bags in his 25 year career.

I thought about Brock and his Brockabrella while watching the Giants at Pittsburgh Saturday afternoon, when a cloudburst drenched the field and sent the crowd scurrying for cover...just the exact situation that Brock pitched the Brockabrella for.

I adhered to my nap plan Friday Night/Saturday Morning and watched P3 streamed LIVE from Silverstone in the UK, run in the dry at 2AM my time, copped a quick nap, and tuned in to SpeedTV for Qualifying at 5AM

I was doin' fine right up until that moment six minutes and 19 seconds from the end of Q2, when FIA race director Charlie Whiting wisely red-flagged the session. I fell back asleep somewhere during the hour and 25 minute rain delay. I woke back up to the awful sound of infomercials, not singing F1 race motors...no worries, I'm going to catch the replay tonight.

I switched channels and tuned in the Tour de France. Saturday's Stage 7 was the first Tour stage ever shown LIVE on American Network television. I want to say I've been watching the TdF on TV since 1989, but back in the day it was on cable TV. ESPN, then ESPN2, then Versus which became NBC Sports Network recently.

NBC itself aired today's Stage 7, and will air Sunday's Stage 8 starting at 5AM PDT. Again NBC will show a very generous four hours of LIVE racing.

Stage 7 was a nice difficult "Medium Mountain" stage, without most of the crash drama of Stages 2-6. Friday's "Metz Massacre" forced some more retirements, most notably up and coming Canadian star and winner in May of the 2012 Giro d'Italia, Ryder Hesjedal. Fortunately for Hesjedal, his injuries aren't structural, he'll be mended in time for London 2012, but with the form he brought to the Tour we'll always wonder if he could have won the rare Double, winning the Giro and the Tour in the same summer.

All in all the first week claimed 13 riders, many with broken bones and the worst with broken ribs and a damaged spleen and kidney...that's hard pavement at speed...even in kilometers per...

Ebb and Flow

I'm a little verklempt this evening, my Giants broke my heart in the 9th at Washington DC. Call it the bottom of the tide...

I finally triumphed over biology and got my power nap in before I woke up at 5AM and watched the LIVE broadcast of the Tour de France's Stage 5 from Saint-Quentin, France.

It turns out I should have fallen back to sleep with 3km to go because once again I had to watch a Team CorduroyPlanet sprinter hit the pavement at high speed.

Yesterday it was World Champion Mark Cavendish who was lucky to escape with only road rash and torn clothing. Seeing Cav sitting on the pavement with his helmet all cracked up, and his jersey in shreds, you could see his disappointment as his goal of winning the green Sprinter's Jersey vanished into the sodden French atmosphere.

I expect Cavendish will not make it to the final stage in Paris...he'll say screw it, and save his body and mind for the London Olympics.

Today Team Garmin-Sharp's Tyler Farrar was knocked to the pavement near the end of the stage. Bloodied, he picked himself up again and soldiered home, dead last, 4:07 behind the winner's bunch.

Farrar had to be restrained after the stage as he was marching towards the team bus of the rider who knocked him to the ground. I understand his frustration...Tyler has been knocked off his mount three days in a row. I'd want to give the latest guy with sharp elbows a piece of my mind too...and maybe poke him in the chest with my finger while I was at it.

Today's Stage 6 is the last pure "Sprinter's Stage" until that final stage on the Champs-Élysées in two weeks time. Tyler Farrar has Olympic aspirations too, so I expect he'll bail in enough time to fully recover for London 2012. Such is the ebb and flow of pro cycling's Grand Tours...

Mayors To Your Battle Stations!
There's USS Iowa news from Independence Day, it too is the bottom of the tide as it turns out.

The bigwigs of the city of Los Angeles hosted Iowa bigwigs for the dedication of the USS Iowa Museum at San Pedro in Los Angeles Harbor. Unfortunately, Iowa's Governor Branstad choked on a piece of carrot and was sent to the hospital at the insistence of his hosts. Branstad protested, but made the trip to the hospital. He was fine, just as he claimed before the trip to the big building full of Doctors, nurses and sick people...

Across the country, on New York City's Coney Island, svelte Californian, Joey Chestnut ate 68 "Hot Dogs and Buns" to win the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest for the 6th year in a row. NYC Mayor, Michael Bloomberg made a speech congratulating the winners, then wondered aloud: "Who wrote this s**t?" The video is on YouTube, bottom feeders.

I found this just a little ironic. Mayor Bloomberg has been making a name for himself as NYC's Nanny Mayor, legislating against salty, fattening, and sugary foods in the Big Apple... to see him praise Joey Chestnut for gobbling down 68 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes, while crusading to outlaw soda pop to-go in cups larger than 16oz, seems to this observer of the passing scene, as capital H hypocrisy...low tide indeed...

British Grand Prix Weekend Begins
On tap overnight? Formula One's Free Practice One from Silverstone streams LIVE at 2AM PDT...gotta nap in shifts to get it all in LIVE...good night!

Unclear On the Concept

Boy, did I ever screw up my Independence Day Festivities!

Just a simple man with a simple plan...go to be early, wake up early at 5AM, watch the Tour de France LIVE, then segue seamlessly into the Giants at Washington DC Nationals game at 8:30AM what could go wrong?

Well for starters I took the ever popular unplanned evening nap, so I closed my eyes closer to 3AM than 2AM... Still, the trusty alarm roused me at the appointed hour, and I logged in and cozied up to the NBC-SportsNet TdF broadcast, and chatted with LiveUpdateGuy and the gang at RedKitePrayer online.

Everyone was having such a good time, fans were checking in from all over the States, the airport in Moscow, Sweden, and Australia to name a few. Independence Day greetings all around...and say...this is a boring bike race...

Actually boring is good during the Tour's first week which is always contested on relatively flat, narrow roads in Northern France...being the first week, and the only week that favors the sprinters, the peloton is always nervous, and bad things can and do happen.

Throw in a sudden downpour and danger begins lurking on every white line and around every corner...

The day's stage, about half of which ran along the Normandy coastline was just stunningly beautiful to behold on my little HDTV. Jeez, all eye candy all the time. I just love those slow, loving helicopter shots of ancient palaces, monasteries and fortresses, not to mention the quaint ancient villages where all the roofs are the same color! Throw in those tall chalk-white cliffs above dark narrow beaches, and I'm thoroughly entertained and sated.

Unfortunately, I drifted off to sleep just after the peloton turned inland, and before the skies opened up and doused the final kilometers causing the afore mentioned crash-fest. Team CorduroyPlanet's two sprinters were involved in the big crash within 3km of the finish. None the worse for wear, Cavendish and Farrar didn't score any points. Three other riders weren't so lucky in their crashes and had to retire. One broken tibia,a possible concussion, and a third retired from what I don't remember...I hate when that happens...

Then I woke up an my Giants were down 7-4 in the 8th...I'd been sleeping for another three hours...there was to be no joy in Mudville...of course the Dodgers won too, so the Giants trail by a half a game now.

I gotta get this program together...two more weeks of le Tour, and there's Formula One too...

Oops...I just heard LiveUpdateGuy's page make a testing noise! Good night!

Bicycles Again

It happened to me again today...that Facebook moment when you and a "friend" who you knew in real life, but haven't seen in over 35 years discover that you've both grown an esoteric interest in common.

This time it's my favorite niche sport spectacle, the Tour de France.

FormerlyLittleRichard, not the Rock n' Roll Icon, but my college buddy's little brother, who I vaguely remember grew up to play Linebacker on the football team, and I already share a love of the San Francisco Giants baseball and Formula One racing.

When I posted a link to my "Over and Out" blog Saturday, FormerlyLittleRichard commented:

"I had no idea you were a fellow TDF-head. And similar to how Formula One's Pirelli tires have evened the field, where astonishingly Pastor Maldonado can also win against the likes of Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton, Schumi, Button and Kimi, the lack of top winners in this years TDF should make it very interesting. No matter how impressive it is to watch a Schumacher in his prime, or Lance, or Jordan in the early 90's or the 49ers of old... Close competition IMHO, is a good thing!"

FormerlyLittleRichard and I traded comments and I asked: "gotta TdF Fantasy Team Richard?". "I don't, u have a site for that?" he replied. I linked him to the one that still was enrolling (this all happened an hour or two after the Prologue wrapped up in Liège, Belgium)

It occurred to me that I was remiss in not doing a blog covering online resources to follow the "Grande Boucle" at home this July, so here we go:

On Television here in the States, the Tour is broadcast LIVE for the last couple of hours of each stage. Several replays are shown throughout the day, with a polished, primetime Recap each evening. NBC Sports Network carries the daily LIVE broadcasts and evening wrap-up shows, while NBC will offer Weekend Recap Shows and air stages 7 and 8 LIVE Saturday July 7, and Sunday July 8, at 5AM PDT. NBC Sports Network, the Cable Network Formerly Known as Versus, has their TdF TV Schedule Online. NBC and NBC Sports Network will combine for 295 total hours of broadcast coverage.

TdF Online There's plenty of ways to follow the Tour LIVE online, my favorite is Live Update Guy's LIVE coverage. LUG is Charles Pelkey, who I knew from VeloNews Magazine. Over his 17 years at VeloNews, he served as technical editor, news editor, online editor and senior web editor. LUG's page features a WebChat style play-by-play scroll enhanced with maps, profiles and photos as it happens. Charles has a strong cadre of regulars who make new fans feel accepted, while adding texture, context and laughs to the events as they unfold.

VeloNews has their own LIVE Tour Coverage, though I've yet to avail myself of their product. The VeloNews reporting and analysis is always first rate, and there are rider blogs, photos, schedules, and forums for serious buffs, to curious novice fans.

Though I've never seen a paper copy of CyclingNews, (hey I don't even know if there is a dead tree edition) It's a worthy competitor to VeloNews, they offer another view with stage previews and reports, analysis, rider blogs, photos, and schedules. Their LIVE coverage is called "As It Happened"

Because the Tour races in the Central European Summer Time Zone, The World Clock website is a handy way to keep aligned with the Tour's events...which brings me to...

Twitter I opened my Twitter account back when Lance Armstrong was trying his "Comeback" after already winning the Tour seven times. Lance was an early tweeter, using it to speak directly to his fans across the world without the sometimes combative continental cycling press coloring coverage of his exploits. Many of Armstrong's first tweets of the day began, "Doping Control is here to take our blood...before the coffee's made..."

Most TdF riders and Teams are on Twitter, to make a good list could take all weekend. If you are on Twitter the best way to find who to follow would be to search some #Hashtags. #TdF would be the first one to search, then #TdF12, then search the team names, rider's names, even the start and finish town names. @VeloNews and @CyclingNews are other places to start, you'll find plenty of search terms there, and then look at their Follows and who's is Following them.

Be warned however, if you aren't getting up before the roosters to watch LIVE, and TiVo-ing the daily stages, or waiting for the Evening Recaps, then Twitter will be just a stream of Spoilers!

Here's a brief list of my Suggested Twitter Follows:

@vaughters Jonathan Vaughters, directeur sportif of Team Garmin-Sharp, says: "I've dedicated my life to professional cycling, anti-doping, and aggravating people with no sense of humor." Easily the most erudite Tour Tweeter, you'll enjoy some wine talk when their guys celebrate back at the hotel as well...

@MarkCavendish the cocky iconoclastic @TeamSky sprinter from the Isle of Man tags his account with: "Professional cyclist from the Isle of Man. Fast sprinter, faster talker. Disclaimer: May cause offense." Cavendish is brutally honest, cheeky and a new Dad.

@PhilLiggett NBCSN's Cycling Anchor I don't know how many Tours he's done...every one I've watched!

@PaulSherwen is Phil Liggett's broadcast partner, their banter is as comfortable as that favorite T-shirt your wife wishes you'd toss out.

@bobkeroll Bob Roll "Bobke" the colorful analyst who rode the TdF back in the LeMond era, not as chatty on twitter as on the NBCSN coverage.

@CorduroyPlanet I'm always tweeting during @SFGiants games, and I tweet a link to my latest blog most days, but I'm not "live tweeting" the TdF, just call me "Spoiler-Free"

The entry window for Tour de France Fantasy Racing has closed now that the race is underway, so I won't muddy the waters with any links. Next June I'll do my Tour de France Preview Blog, complete with Fantasy Game Links and more.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the three week spectacle on the back roads of France (and Belgium)!