phelps

finally, the sun came out in Cervinia... and it was the brightest day for the Italian Snowboardcross specialists... Moioli 1st and Belingheri 3rd among the women, Sommariva 1st and Perathoner 2nd among the men! unfortunately, there was also a nasty fall (just on the finishing straight) for Luca Haemmerle... I hope that the situation is not as bad as it looked at the moment (he was taken to the hospital with all precautionary measures required by this kind of injury)...

well, in the past couple of years those entries were pure fake... when it came down to the actual races, there were just those 3/4 Koreans we saw at the last Olympic Games... so, I'd rather wait for the official results before starting the celebrations...

Men's Downhill in Valgardena/Groden cancelled because of rain and fog... Women's Downhill in Val D'Isere delayed until 12.30 CET (for now) because of last night's heavy snowfall... p.s. Snowboardcross in Cervinia is also seriously at risk of being cancelled... it's definitely looking not a "difficult" day for alpine snow sports fans...

2019 Men's Championship Tour, Final Ranking 1. Italo Ferreira, 59,740 pts 2. Gabriel Medina, 56,475 pts 3. Jordy Smith, 49,985 pts Full Ranking https://www.worldsurfleague.com/athletes/tour/mct?year=2019

Stage #11, Billabong Pipe Masters (Banzai Pipeline, Ohau, Hawai'i, USA) Gold: Italo Ferreira Silver: Gabriel Medina Bronze: Griffin Colapinto & Kelly Slater Full Ranking: https://www.worldsurfleague.com/events/2019/mct/2927/billabong-pipe-masters/results?resultsType=prizes

by the way, here are my absolutely personal picks for the Italian Sports Awards... Man of the Year: Dominik Paris (Alpine Skiing) & Elia Viviani (Cycling) ex-aequo Woman of the Year: Dorothea Wierer (Biathlon) Team of the Year: "Settebello" (Men's Waterpolo National Team) Coach of the Year: Stefano Morini, Matteo Giunta & Christian Minotti (Swimming); Alessandro Campagna (Waterpolo) ex-aequo Most Promising Athlete: Jannik Sinner (Tennis) Most Improved Athlete of the Year: Matteo Berrettini (Tennis) No mention for Paralympic Sports nor E-Sports as I don't follow them at all...

me too... and frankly I only agree at 100% on the "team of the year" and the "most improved athlete of the year" result... but as we don't have an official sports award, this is still one of the most reliable among all those we can see all around in these days... p.s. of course I also like the special mention for Sinisa Mihajlovic and I wish him and his family all the best (as I know exactly what kind of drama they're going through and I'm particularly sensitive on that issue), but this has not much to do with sports (except for Sinisa being a famous former player and now a successful coach)...

maybe you're right, but except for Football and Athletics, we can say the same for almost every other sport... look at rugby...it's only about France, Argentina and the Commonwealth Nations...but still, the RWC is considered one of the biggest sports events in the world... the same goes for Handball, for instance...who gives it a crap outside north/central/eastern Europe? and I could go on for the rest of the day...

naaa...Cricket is still the biggest English sport (after Football)...even if the rugby team had won the RWC, it wouldn't have changed the rankings that much...

really? so, you missed one of last summer's main events in the world of sports... jokes aside, England won their first ever Cricket World Cup (in the main format, they already won one in the shorter version Twenty-20)...and they did it at home in dramatic fashion... Ben Stokes of course was the hero of that magic day (and not only that day, but the whole world cup)... just for a late recovery... https://www.cricketworldcup.com/

as long as there's no casein (my worst enemy in the kitchen), I'm OK with it... and after your description, I think I'm going to appreciate it...

I don't know why? but I did always suspect that Ben Stokes and the Cricket NT were going to sum up a good number of awards...

nver tried this Ruby Chocolate...but now most likely I'm gonna get mad until I can find it here in Milan... now I really need to try it...

I can easily handle 99% also... however, my favourites are 70% to eat it in purity and 85% for those with aromatic flavour, especially the candied orange peels and the hot pepper chocolate (not together, of course)...

Mikaela Shiffrin will miss this weekend's races in Val D'Isere (FRA)... she didn't announce why she took this decision... https://www.skiracing.com/stories/shiffrin-will-skip-speed-races-in-val-disere

bad news for Italy... Aaron Kostner had a nasty fall during a training jump earlier today in Ramsau (AUT) and most likely he badly injured his left knee... for sure, he's going to miss this weekend's competitions in Austria... more details to follow, after undergoing an MRI in the next hours...

what a shame! by the way, they say that the temperature was too hot and any attempt to fix that hole would have been useless, as the track was going to fall apart in more points very soon and basically they called it a day because the whole slope was unsafe for the athletes...

so, it could only be 1 (as I always say...the only true chocolate is the dark one) or 3 (because technically, milk and white chocolate are made with the same process and there's only a color difference in the outcome...so, both shouldn't be considered as pure chocolate...or you can just do as most people and call all of them "chocolate" making no distinction at all and count them as 3)...

you're missing white chocolate...

well, they are different...really different... actually, purists (like me) don't consider milk nor white chocolate as true chocolate, but just another product with some chocolate in it...

because milk-chocolate is also a type of chocolate...it's not just milk and 2 more kinds of chocolate...

because, as he wrote, there's no filling at all...it's just a praline made with 3 different kinds of chocolate (dark, white and milk-chocolate)...

Gazzetta dello Sport Awards 2019 note: remember, that's been voted by the fans on their website, so basically it's a popularity vote rather than a technical one... Man of the Year: Roberto Mancini (Football) Woman of the Year: Federica Pellegrini (Swimming) Team of the Year: "Settebello" (Men's Waterpolo National Team) Coach of the Year: Roberto Mancini (Football) Most Promising Athlete: Benedetta Pilato (Swimming) Most Improved Athlete of the Year: Matteo Berrettini (Tennis) Paralympic Athlete of the Year: Simone Barlaam (Para-Swimming) E-Sports Specialist of the Year: Daniele "Jizuke" Di Mauro Special Prizes also went to: Jannik Sinner (Tennis), Charles Leclerc (Motorsports), Women's Football National Team Super-special Mention as a Sports Legend (not determined by voting): Sinisa Mihajlovic for his brave fight against Leukemia

wow! your girlfriend is really lucky...they look delicious (and they are also so beautiful to watch)...congrats!