Wumo

In the recent days, there have been many articles about the future of Tour De Ski on Swedish and Norwegian sport sites. Kalla and Ebba Anderson have already announced they will not start in this year’s TDS. In Norway, Johaug is also quitting this year’s edition to focus on the WCH in Seefeld. Martin Johnsrud Sundby has been quite vocal about the many top skiers who choose not to participate in TDS. He means that it heards the integrity of the Cross-Country World Cup, if so many top skiers choose not to participate in one of the biggest events of the World Cup. All of this has made me think of solutions that could make Tour De Ski more relevant for the top skiers in the Cross-Country World Cup. My first suggestion would be to place TDS in the end of the season (in March). TDS will be held every year, maybe with the exception in an Olympic year, after a WCH where many skiers are most focused on this event. The Nordic Ski World Championship could be held in the beginning of February, which would give the skiers some rest before TDS in March. The structure of the TDS will remain the same (7 stages over 8/9 days). The idea of putting TDS in the end of the World Cup season is to have an incentive for most skiers in the WC to participate because the points are so many that it is still possible to win the Overall WC, if a skier wins TDS. My second suggestion is more radical. TDS will only be held every fourth year, all non-Olympic and non-WCH years, which thereby will create more focus on TDS. In my suggestion, I would reconstruct TDS. TDS will be held over 15-16 days, with 10-11 stages. How a Tour De Ski could be constructed: 5 or 6 destinations 4 Sprint stages 2 freestyle and 2 classic for each gender. 3 Individual stages Women: 10km F, 5km F, 5km C Men: 15km F, 10km F, 10km C 2/3 “Mass start” stages 1 Skiathlon Men: 30km (15km F/15km C) Women: 15km (7.5km F/7.5km C) Mass start/s Women: 15km C, (10km F) Men: 30km C, (20km F) 1 Pursuit stage The alpine stage in freestyle for both men and women. This makes a total of 10-11 stages over 15-16 days. The style of the individual stages and mass starts can be switched every fourth year. Skiathlon can also be switched, where they start in freestyle in one year and classic in another year. The TDS can be held outside of Europe. I haven't giving the point system much thought. I would keep the same overall point distribution. More bonus points could be put into more stages. At the moment TDS have more pursuit stages, personally I'm not a big fan. Pursuit is a great format for viewers when a competition is going to be decided because it's clear who is the winner. In the middle of a stage tour I feel it doesn't add any more excitement, but this is of course my own personal opinion.

Bye Bye, Mourinho.

Note to myself. Never use the club names from Google, only the names from UEFA's draw are accepted.

The draw for R32: Plzen - Dinamo Zagreb Club Brugge - Salzburg Rapid Wien - Internazionale Slavia Praha - Genk Krasnador - Leverkusen Zürich - Napoli Malmö - Chelsea Shakhtar Donetsk - Frankfurt Celtic - Valencia Rennes - Betis Olympiacos - Dynamo Kyiv Lazio - Sevilla Fenerbache - Zenit Sporting - Villareal BATE - Arsenal Galatasaray - Benfica

What a surprise. A person from the Netherlands who doesn't cheer for/support any Spanish clubs. (*cough*...history...)

The draw for R16: Schalke - Manchester City Atlético Madrid - Juventus Manchester United - PSG Tottenham - Borussia Dortmund Lyon - Barcelona Roma - Porto Ajax - Real Madrid Liverpool - Bayern München

Chicago Bears is back in the play-off for the first time since 2010. Chicago won their first NFC North Division title in 8 years by beating Green Bay Packers, 24-17, at home.

Also where is Neagu? Or Nze Minko? And MVP at this tournament, Vyakhireva? Here is our Danish handball expert Trine Nielsen's All-Star team:

Hirscher wins by a "small" margin of 2.53 seconds.

England was so polite to take the beatings for you.

England 1-14 in the last two games. Ouch! Third World cup in a row England becomes 4th.

Well Norway is not in a better situation thanks to Tandrevold.

Wierer

I'm sorry if I got you to remember your trauma. I didn't know you had experienced such a horrific event in your life.

Nikola misses an impressive 10/10 in men's 10km sprint in the IBU Junior Cup. Even Yeremin and the Slovakian men are impressed.

Not the best day on the shooting range for Klaudia Sporer.

What a tragic story. Stuttgart's captain, Christian Gentner's father passed away at the Mercedes-Benz Arena during their Bundesliga match against Hertha Berlin today, due to a stroke. Gentner gave interviews on the pitch right after the game, but later became acquainted with the bad news and hurried up to a sponsor lounge where the father received medical treatment, but sadly he died.

Some of the headlines from today's EHF Executive Committee meeting are that handball's international club tournaments come in brand new versions, and national team players get longer summer break. Handball's biggest club tournaments look significantly different from 2020. EHF's Executive Committee has approved new structures. At the same time, the international matches that are usually played in June will move forward. Instead, the matches will be played at the end of April and early May. That way, the best players get a longer summer break, which will help them to recover properly between the seasons. Champions League will be changed. The changes will come into force from the 2020/2021 season and apply to both men and women. There will be 16 teams. This number is no change for the women's handball, but for the men the field is cut sharply. In the current structure, 28 teams participate in men's Champions League. On the other hand, it is new to both that the structure of the group phase has been changed. Now it will consist of 2 groups with 8 teams in each. The two best teams in each group go straight to the quarterfinals, while the two lowest placed teams are out after the group phase. The remaining clubs are paired across the two groups in a play-off round where they play in the quarterfinals. Four teams advance from the play-off phase and meet the four best teams from group phase. The winners here are ready for Final 4. The EHF Cup will change its name. The changes will come into force from the 2020/2021 season and apply to both women and men. The tournament will be called the European Handball League. The changes for the men's edition will come into effect from the 2020/2021 season. 24 teams in 4 groups with 6 teams in each. The two lowest placed teams are out after the group phase, while the other four teams meet in the 1/8 finals. The changes for the women's editon will take effect from the 2020/2021 season. 16 teams in 4 groups with 4 teams in each. The two lowest placed teams will be out after the group phase, while the two best teams go through to the quarterfinals.

While the Women's 2018 European Championship is about to end with the final tomorrow, the draw for the European Play-off to Women's 2019 World Championship was conducted today in France. The draw:

[hide] Knockout Round December 10th - December 16th, 2018 12 Nations, Quarterfinal Play-Offs, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Bronze Medal Match, Gold Medal Match Bronze Medal Match Date & Time (GMT +5:30) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 December 16th 2018, h. 16:30 England 3 Australia Gold Medal Match Date & Time (GMT +5:30) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 December 16th 2018, h. 19:00 Belgium 1 Netherlands [/hide]

He has received three dogs as gifts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pets_of_Vladimir_Putin

[hide] Knockout Round December 14th - December 16th, 2018 4 Nations, Semifinals, Bronze Medal Match and Gold Medal Match Bronze Medal Match Date & Time (GMT +1) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 December 16th 2018, h. 14:00 Romania 3 Netherlands Gold Medal Match Date & Time (GMT +1) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 December 16th 2018, h. 17:30 Russia 2 France [/hide]

Belgium vs Netherlands in the final. Battle of the Benelux.

First top 10 for Florent Claude. (Belgium says, "thank you", France. )

Yes. I find statistics quite interesting. Pornhub presents their statistics in a very entertaning way.