Grassmarket

Stupidest woman in France goes on trial tomorrow. Short-sightedly, the French closed Devil’s Island back in 1953. https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/opi-omi-spectator-who-caused-tour-de-france-crash-to-be-tried-in-criminal-court-thursday/

KENYA’S Tokyo Olympic star Agnes Tirop has been found dead with a stab wound in her abdomen. The 5,000m star, 25, was discovered at her house in Iten, Elgeyo Marakwet County earlier. https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/16406839/kenya-tokyo-olympic-medallist-agnes-jebet-tirop-dead/

About time Nike was forced to take some responsibility for the Nike Oregon Project. Former track phenom Mary Cain has filed a $20million lawsuit against former coach Alberto Salazar and his former employer, Nike, alleging that she suffered mental and physical abuse during her four years at the firm's Oregon Project. Cain, 25, alleges in a lawsuit filed in Multnomah County, Oregon state court on Tuesday that Salazar humiliated her publicly on several occasions by disparaging her weight after making her get on a scale in front of other people. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10085491/Mary-Cain-sues-Nike-former-coach-Alberto-Salazar-20-million-alleging-years-abuse.html

According to this Sochi actually took over from the two scheduled North American races. https://www.fil-luge.org/en/news/update-race-calendar-artificial-track-2021-22 And welcome to the Group.

Nairo Quintana stars in the Colombian version of The Masked Singer, dressed as a chameleon. https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/nairo-quintana-appears-on-tv-singing-contest-in-chameleon-costume-after-il-lombardia/

OTOH, this is good news for Winter sports fans. A group of 87 ultramarathon runners were rescued on Saturday after they were left stranded by snow in a freezing Utah mountain range during the 50 mile race. The runners for the DC Peaks 50 ultramarathon had stopped as the Wasatch Mountains became hammered with 12 to 18 inches of snow, with temperatures plunging into the 20s. Rescue crews were called to the scene and searched for the missing runners for several hours using both on-foot and snow vehicle teams. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10077967/87-runners-rescued-Utah-ultramarathon-hit-18-inches-snow.html

Double blow for Irish cycling and indeed the Roche family, as both Nicholas Roche and his cousin Dan Martin have retired this month. Sam Bennett is left to fly the flag, as the younger cyclists like Eddie Dunbar haven't yet found their place after promising junior careers.

Agony for - we beat 1-0 but fall short of winning the Group by just one goal. So advance to the final qualifier next month.

Only just snow.

Bergamo fans making it impossible for Bergamo boy Masnada to get past Pogačar.

They were absolutely eating up the gap, then all of a sudden it fell apart. Madness.

Not quite won yet, local lad Masnada is on his case.

Turns out a month of movie premiers, celebrity parties & signing “influencer” deals is not the best way to maintain sporting consistency, to everyone’s surprise.

Geez, this isn’t good. A professional cyclist has detailed a harrowing attack during which he was knocked off his bike by machete-wielding thieves on motorbikes. Alexandar Richardson, 31, was training in Richmond Park on Thursday afternoonwhen four attackers gave chase, with two of them on motorbikes. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-10072847/Pro-cyclist-reveals-details-shocking-attack-10-000-bike-stolen-Richmond-Park.html

Lots of marathons this weekend Stockholm - Saturday Sunday Eindhoven Sofia Chicago (live on ES Player) and on Monday Boston, also live on ES TV. There are seemingly people hoping to do Chicago & Boston back to back.

Team GB 5 Iceland 0 in the first game. Korea beat Slovenia 3-0, so will be the team to beat. GBR play Slovenia tomorrow, & Korea on Sunday.

Must say I prefer the TV coverage in the bunch races when you have these live scoring graphics onscreen all the time.

Human Growth Hormone and EPO? Hey, leave some drugs for the rest of us, Blessing!

At last archaeologists start working for a living. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10062337/Ancient-ski-trapped-Norwegian-ice-1-300-years-reunited-counterpart-2014.html

Commonwealth countries do NOT accept the Queen as their ruler. Some do, some don’t. India is one of those that doesn’t. Hence its constitution defines it as the REPUBLIC of India. No different than Brazil, Angola, Macau etc belonging to various Lusofonia organisations.

Same thing happened after London 2012 where the 3-rider 3000m TP went to a 4-rider 4000m format. Took a few years for everyone to get teams together. It’s harder to find or finance track sprinters because there is less chance of a track/road overlap.

In related news the government has committed to building Ireland’s first indoor velodrome. In fact, a combined cycling/badminton facility, so I can see arguments happening there.

And I guess is one of those countries that is not able to find three sprinters?

Two WRs for in the 3 woman sprint & two golds. French men completely messed up their start, were lucky not to be lapped. Katie Archibald set a new record with her 15th Euro Gold, this time for the Scratch.

Think of it as a kind of biathlon, gliding & sprinting. Crucial to nail the transition.