Monzanator

3 minutes ago, hckosice said:

Man, I think Cofidis is here since the second half of the 90s after the end of Castorama and never changed the name since.

 

Lotto is nowadays Soudal, Lotto NLis now Jumbo-Visma which is the former Rabobank they just changed the colors

Weren't like Cofidis out of the Grand Tours for a while? So they lost their top UCI license or whatever that's called and I thought they simply disbanded in the mean time

2 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

No, @hckosice was talking about a different French team. I can’t remember their current name, but they used to be Direct Energie.

 

Lotto Soudal is still in the field. 
 

Astana hasn’t changed names in the last decade either I think. I feel like Movistar has been around for quite a while too.

Astana is a completely new team, they were founded a little over 10 years ago. That's nothing in pro cycling terms.

Isn't like Movistar the former Banesto - of Miguel Indurain and Pedro Delgado fame? You probably weren't born back then yet but I remember these guys or someone like Armand de las Cuevas who also was a Banesto rider IIRC.

Kerber beats Tomljanovic 64 64. Not bad to shake off the rust but Tomljanovic gave up some free UE as usual.

49 minutes ago, Col_Frost said:

What about AG2R? It's always AG2R something but still AG2R. And it's like this from two decades I believe, maybe more.

Oh yeah, I forgot about these guys. Not gonna lie, I still remenber Banesto, Kelme and ONCE as the top teams so I'm kinda behind schedule with all the sponsor changes and which "new" team is actually an "old" team with a new sponsor. @hckosice seems to imply Cofidis had some name changes in the last decade?

Lotto remained a fixture for over 20 years as well but they're gone now, right? Jumbo-Visma is more Rabobank or more Lotto?

7 minutes ago, hckosice said:

Apparently Cofidis is waiting for a TdF stage win 12 years now

I'm surprised they still exist under this name given all the frequent sponsor changes in cycling. I believe Francaise de Jeux is only other team that has kept the same name for more than a decade?

Jaguars have waived RB Leonard Fournette today. They also traded the disgruntled DE Yannick Ngakoue to Vikings over the weekend. It's gonna be a miracle if they won't end up with the #1 overall pick in next year's draft. Even they can't screw this tank up!

And we're off. Tomljanovic vs Kerber has started

55 minutes of typing all the names! That took longer than I expected and I didn't have to print the flags. I was afraid I ain't gonna make it on time

But hey, it's tennis so I expect to finish higher in this game than Tour de France

21 hours ago, Col_Frost said:

Probably but I wouldn't underestimate Borkowski. And from now on I start to watch Różnicki more closely. He really make impression on me.

Różnicki won gold so yeah, you can watch him more closely now.

Rain has come down hard in the last hour - men's shot put is ruined by it, they're using leaf blower to clear water from the circle

Dixon wins ahead of Sato this time. Pato O'Ward led the most laps but got jumped by Dixon on the last stop and then passed by Sato on fresher tires.

Ferrucci had a Top 5 run going but had a terrible last stop and finished 16th

Clusterfuck at the start of Gateway 1 race. Field bunched up, Palou jumped and hit the brakes then Askew triggered a pile-up that took & Rossi, Andretti, Veach and Carpenter out.

17 minutes ago, hckosice said:

ok, I admit never heard it before

Oh, well. Belarus usually doesn't get a lot of press coverage even considering their top athlete of the last decade or so

Biathlon ain't a popular thing in Serbia but this is old news by anyone's standards.

This news is like 4 years old.

http://www.biathlon.pl/aktualnosci/5236/domraczewa-podporucznikiem-kgb.html

Even fucking Guardian run a major story on this:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/feb/22/former-kgb-agent-darya-domracheva-wins-biathlon-gold-medal-at-winter-olympics

Domrachava stopped being a KGB member in June 2014 according to all these accounts. Even her wikipedia page has this info listed.

4 minutes ago, hckosice said:

Belarus declared via its Ice Hockey federation president Dmitry Baskov that they are perfectly capable and prepared to host the world champs on its own even without Latvia 

 

I see some people in Belarus are living somehow a bit out of reality there

No surprise. I wonder if they know Soviet Union has ceased to exist? I mean they still have the KGB name in operation after all those years. Even Russia has changed that name to FSB (even though that's the same thing)

TVP Sport showing some live eventing from Strzegom. Ingrid Klimke won the dressage part (and that's like the only name I know from the list on the screen ).

Azarenka and Konta weren't even aware Osaka "boycotted" her semi-final

I guess Azarenka is occupied with what happens in Belarus right now but Konta's excuse is pretty woeful. Then again what can we expect from an ethinic Hungarian born in Australia who spend majority of her 'British' career training in Spain?

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/aug/28/naomi-osaka-stresses-mertens-azarenka-final-cincinnati-open-konta

How about the vintage Follow the Money deal? Cancelling the SOG will cost Japan more money than hosting them with limited audience.

10 hours ago, bmo said:

I feel like Hockey is hit or miss. Either you like it or you don’t. There are some diehards, but not many “casual sports fans” will watch hockey. It is popular in certain cities, but I have noticed that interest around Detroit has gone down. Fans aren’t filling the seats like they used to at Joe Louis. The atmosphere isn’t the same in “Hockeytown” anymore. The game I attended Joe Louis might have been the best sports experience I have ever had. Crowd was wild & into the game. The Wings were average that year as well. Now, the atmosphere is dead at the new arena. The venue is pretty much half empty at every game.

Red Wings are like the worst NHL team in the last 5 years? People usually turn away when your team sucks especially if you enjoyed a dynasty of sorts not so long before. I suppose driving Steve Yzerman out of town has backfired on Red Wings' front office like nothing else and they still haven't recovered since (or is Yzerman back in Detroit these days?).

It's different when the place is dead like Coyotes since I can't believe anyone follows hockey in the desert and I feel like unlike other major leagues, NHL is one league where they ought to stick to NorthEast & Canada. The Kings brought Gretzky before and has it really helped to build a hockey culture in California? I'll say not. Kings must be like the 8th most popular team in LA behind Lakers, Dodgers, Raiders, Rams (even when you consider they were forced to Anaheim back in the day), Trojans and hell, UCLA Bruins are probably more popular than LA Kings? I'd say Kings are only ahead of Chargers in that order. St. Louis Blues feels like the westernmost NHL team where there is any significant hockey following to begin with.

Do Americans really support these political families? This is what democracy is supposed to be about? Politicians from lucky sperm club? These Kennedys, Bushes, Clintons or Obamas really need to go IMO.

As for Harris as VP, well it doesn't make sense since Biden has the black voters locked up already. He doesn't need to convince the convinced. He needs to convince the blue collar workers whom Hilary Clinton lost four years ago and who enabled Trump to win.

Jon Wertheim from Sports Illustrated picks Osaka for the win.

Fiona Ferro must be the darkest horse ever since she withdrew from US Open over two weeks ago

Elena Rybakina represents Kazakhstan even though she's Russian by birth but we've seen this stunt before.

https://www.si.com/tennis/2020/08/28/us-open-tennis-2020-women-seed-report

Osaka vs Azarenka in the final.

Mertens' 3/21 break point conversion is hilariously bad even for WTA's standards

44 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Okay, the “not ice/snow sports” season  

 

Yeah, there’s some sports that are weird. Some of the combat sports have championships that start well into autumn. Track Cycling and Indoor Athletics have that late winter season.

 

I wouldn’t say Football is niche in the United States. It’s definitely mainstream now. MLS might not enjoy the same level of popularity as the MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, but it’s not that far behind anymore. Almost all of my friends in high school, who were into sports, had European Football  clubs they supported (EPL or various other popular teams like Barca, PSG, Madrid, etc.). Football doesn’t really have a season though, right? It sort of is just always going.

Yeah, association football is played 12 months per year, even in Europe clubs play in December/January (except for Scandinavia where it gets really cold) and it's obviously on TV all the time.

Winter season for me starts in December and ends at the end of February. These days winter seasons get extended until March but that's F1 time again.

I wouldn't call soccer in USA mainstream (by European standards). That's for NFL and NBA being a distant second. MLB has a tradition but not much else and I can't really say if Americans are even interested in hockey these days anymore.

29 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Does anyone else get the urge to watch winter sports when September/October rolls around? I swear it’s a like a switch is flipped, and my mind goes “You must watch winter sports now.” Same thing happens with summer sports at the beginning of March 

Not me. Winter season officially starts after Formula 1 season is over

The so-called "summer sports" isn't even a thing for someone who watches soccer like me (but of course that one remains a niche sport in USA so I can't blame you here).