Grassmarket

103km to go - that means get in position!

Sagan crashes, not looking good for a remount today at least.

Off we go with the Départ Fictif in the Paris Compiègne-Roubaix, 100km to go to the first pavé. Would you believe, there are more than riders in the race today? Big teams keeping control, nobody’s been allowed anything over 15secs yet. 15km to the Pavé 1/29.

Alison Jackson wins the keirin sprint from the all-day breakaway!

Kopecky now back chasing! 46 secs behind, 14km to go! Coming down to a velodrome sprint, I think!

The crash took her out of her own break, so is now stuck on her own heading back to the beetroot diggers.

Oi! Crash in the mud takes down every single one of the favourites group! Not looking good for Samir Kant.

Lotte Kopecky attacks, if they don’t get on her wheel they are riding for beetroot.

Ladies on their way to the Roubaix pithead showers, which in over a century of existence will never have seen such exotic hair-care products. Conditions are moderately muddy. We have a large breakaway group with a lead of over five minutes.

Yeah, but teams of four? Only going to be one result.

Oh great. First six places Kenya, Ethiopia & Uganda I & II.

Yeah, but there are many more countries capable of fielding a marathon team than a walking one.

Just discovered this - British Kabaddi League opening week! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/65192223

Very good quality Sprint meet from Florida this evening. Think the YT timing is wrong, main programme starts at 13:00 Florida/18:00 UK.

“So what you are saying, Professor <puffs pipe> is that, ultimately, we are all French?” Humans are the ultimate apex predators on planet Earth. No matter how large-sized, sharp-toothed, razor-clawed, pointy-horned or venomous a creature may be, humans have hunted it for food. Moreover, according to a study led by the University of the Witwatersrand, they have also done so no matter how slow, small and slimy. Giant African land snails (Achatinidae) were systematically brought to the Border Cave site in eastern South Africa, roasted and consumed, starting from 170,000 years ago, in a practice that continued for 100,000 years. https://phys.org/news/2023-04-humans-giant-snails-apex-predator.html

Good stuff this weekend Rugby League Easter here in the Northern Hemisphere, already had a cracking Wigan-Saints game. Paris - Roubaix times two - Women's Race already established as the best women's race of all women's races. World Men's Curling Play-offs & Final College basketball over, so full focus on PAC-12 softball. Also NCAA beach volleyball - as usual, Alaska at the bottom of the table already. Not for me, but the German Darts season continues. Plus catch-ups on Russian biathlon & World Juniors Cross Country.

Hey, if Thailand can have skiers….

Agree. Speeches that no one listens to, books that no-one reads, Professorships with no teaching, management jobs with no decisions, podcasts no-one downloads - that’s the way it’s done now. Sacks full of cash is terribly 1970s.

“My husband told me he was planting new potatoes for the Spring. I had absolutely no idea he was burying £500,000 in small-denomination bills.” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11942651/Police-seen-holding-shovels-search-Nicola-Sturgeons-garden.html#comments

That’s how it is now in the international nomenklatura - every job is just a dress rehearsal for the next job. Only the private jets get bigger.

Freestyle National Champs took place last weekend - amazingly in ! Don’t know if that’s the first ever, but it’s a pretty damn rare thing to have enough snow in in April, considering that we are supposed to be in the front line of global warming. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-sports/65173944

Men’s Team To boycott the IBA Worlds over corruption & BLR/RUS presence - full team to Malopolska European Games instead. Just confirming what the women did a few weeks back. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/65180151

Yeah, Joe Davis had a few runs at World level, but did well in the NCAAs - won the freestyle, fourth in classic. Will definitely be in the points soon. Two late good results for Musgrave just this weekend in the ultra-traditional Ski Classics tour suggest that he still has good years ahead at the longer distances.

Agree, that is really asking people to stick a target on their back, Polish Government should really have known better given Poland’s Communist history when such Declarations were demanded almost weekly.

Cross-Country skiing veteran Anders Aukland finally for-sure retires after his last race on the Ski Classics Tour, 8 years after finishing on the FIS Tour, a 30 year career in all. One of the last guys that regrets the end of the old Individual Start 50km format.