heywoodu

At least it wasn't Cepeda who won....Rubio didn't do much, but still came across like a major workhorse compared to the infuriatingly annoying Cepeda (Pinot wanted to punch him off the mountain it seemed, understandably so)

Likely to be rain on the Simplonpass, plus it's fairly cold, so one can carefully start to expect the only serious thing of today's stage to be scrapped. Like it wasn't enough of a Tuesday stage yet

So apparently the problem is not at the Croix de Coeur, but at the Saint-Bernard pass, which will now be skipped altogether. The good news is that means we won't have the kilometers long tunnel where broadcasts are impossible, the bad news is obvious From Israel-Premier Tech, this should be the new stage: Photos show that the first part of the Croix de Coeur descent is absolutely awful, with some cheap alternative for asphalt being used which corrodes away in a short time, and so now it's full of holes and stuff. That's going to be something. Rumours have it three teams (not clear which) wanted to do the whole stage, nineteen did not.

Talks about not starting at all today, after at first there were talks about the Croix de Coeur being scrapped or riders not wanting to ride there. Potentially either due to rain or bad roads, or a combination. If bad roads have anything to do with it, the riders.....well, suck. First of all it's the Giro, we know bad roads are always a thing there (there is no race more famous for roads becoming super slippery as soon as it rains), and second...the route has been known for quite a while now, protest a certain dangerous downhill earlier in the year if it's such a big deal. You're all professionals, surely the teams have done some recon rides and such. Feels like the 2028 Grand Tours will be done on Swift. Edit: there's talk about ice on the roads of the Croix de Coeur. Yeah, that makes it pretty understandable not to ride there Stage will start, but it's not known yet exactly what the stage will be other than it'll be shortened.

Mads Pedersen Sick.

It was a long, long, long wait, but after 12 (!) stages, we finally get the first real mountain stage today. I really don't know why GC organizers sometimes seem to think putting every single difficult thing in the last (roughly) one week makes for great racing, because it quite literally always leads to nothing really happening in terms of big fights for most of the race. Today could be interesting though.

I doubt it will happen nowadays, but yeah, it definitely should. Every year again there are at least some doubts about the highest altitude Giro stages... And I'm not just saying that because screw snowy Giro mountains Greetings, Steven Kruijswijk

Tao G. Hart is out of the Giro by ambulance, after a fall that wasn't that hard in terms of speed, but he came down very unfortunate and seems to have broken something Shortly after that, a Trek rider cut off Oscar Rodriguez, who then went to the side and crashed head-first into a sign and a house (but seemed to be somewhat ok). Edit: Rodriguez is out as well. There's also 8 DNS's today again, including half the Soudal team with Vervaeke, Hirt, Cattaneo and Cerny. Ballerini, Serry and Van Wilder are the only ones left there.

There is a nice large gap in the calendar.

Whereas we still disagree on the Pinot/Niizoe situation, where I think the correct decision was made (opinions I've seen and heard elsewhere as well), I gotta give you credits for the criticism on the Riner/Tasoev situation, which IJF has now issued an official apology for. https://www.ijf.org/news/show/ijf-refereeing-commission-communication

It's a shame, but to be fair: for a semi-decapitated stage, it's still pretty damn hard

No Emilia Romagna Grand Prix this weekend, due to the heavy flooding in the area around Imola. Unfortunate, but absolutely the only right choice of course. https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.breaking-update-on-the-emilia-romagna-grand-prix-at-imola.14xk8GLh2Lr8wBGdJqhxnO.html Apart from the difficulties to even get there, local authorities and emergency services have a lot higher priorities on their minds right now.

Or the "let's delay the sports program for a few hours because the president hasn't arrived yet" in the Africa Games or some other big event in Africa (it certainly wasn't Rabat 2019 but I feel Brazzaville 2015 is too long ago, so I'm not entirely sure which event it was)

And Almeida is feeling sick, but not yet out. Daan Hoole will gain at least 10 places today!

Another four COVIDed out of the race. These three + Bystrom. Aan Taaramae is out with stomach problems.

Without plastic surfboards, to be more exact.. She definitely doesn't say it should be without surfboards Edit: Sorry, I think I took your post a bit too serious and didn't see the sarcasm, my bad

Is that an actual enforceable rule? Curious about the other do's and don'ts now

Seems like there's some luck and overall happiness here? Meanwhile on a Dutch forum, it's basically been just a show of disappointment everywhere, with someone payable tickets only available for sports people weren't interested in, nothing at all avaiable for things they were interested in and only massively expensive (yet still regular) tickets for somewhat ok events... Reading all that, I am very glad I didn't throw myself in the mix for tickets Is it always like this? Imagine in September 2021 I decided I want to go to the Paris Olympics, but am only interested in seeing the men's table tennis final and the BMX (cross) finals...was that even possible, or would I still have had to pray and hope for those two exact sessions to appear in my list of possibilities in between first rounds of breakdancing and air rifle shooting and stuff?

Who says it's optimism? The fact is the technology is growing ever faster, even the current AI models are far better and more sophisticated than the ones that appeared last year and that's only been a matter of months. As every single expert will tell, the 'AI' of 15 years ago (if one can even call that AI) is absolutely nothing compared to what's around free to use nowadays, not even a fraction of 1%. That's not a matter of optimism or pessimism or "I have been around longer, so I know better", it is simply what it is right now. The big question is what's going to happen with it, because it 100% will keep developing and that's not going to slow down by any stretch in the next few years. One can either try to stop it, which is just not going to happen (the billionaire tech companies are developing it after all, they're not going to stop), or somehow try to incorporate it in one's technology, learning and so on. I am not optimistic about that entire situation at all, for what it's worth. I don't see it as a majorly good development, but it is a development nonetheless.

Although the level was obviously far, far, far behind what it is now, and it's improving not year by year, but day by day nowadays. Taking a strong stance against the use of it might have been a thing 15 years ago, nowadays that's more or less the equivalent of an old man shouting at a cloud. Best thing is to learn and find ways how to use it, because it is absolutely not going to be stopped.

To be fair, it is the Eurovision Song Contest, an event by the European Broadcasting Union It would absolutely be cool to have a worldwide event of this, with say the top-8 or so of every continent's own continental song contest going to the worldwide event, but I doubt that would gain as much traction nowadays as the ESC has built up throughout the decades..

Then they should change the rule, but in this case it was pretty clear (in the replay one can see she went for the leg during the move, not just accidentally touched it). Although I think we'll debate endlessly without agreeing about it anyway

Right, I knew there was an actual explanation instead of just "it's a conspiracy/it's biased refereeing!" and those kind of things....found/received it Someone with quite close knowledge of judo on another forum answered my question and now that I saw the replay, it is clear: Pinot grabbed/touched Niizoe's leg during that move, which is not allowed and results in a shido, which was indeed awarded after the ippon was waved off (her second shido of the fight). No conspiracy, no referee mistake, no referee deciding to 'correct' another result, just a judoka making an unallowed move and so not getting the ippon. All good.

Both sides did though, the Erdogan-side usually starts of with a certain result which then in the end drops 15-20% when they're eventually forced to also count the stations where they didn't win. Still, Erdogan winning would show having unfair elections works as it always does I mean, it's of course easy when you control the state media and make sure your opponent gets literally about five times of airtime on the main TV channels during the entire campaign, and he gets dragged to court whenever he says something slightly unfavourable to you. Not saying it's surprising, since we all know that of course that's what dictators do, it's the whole point after all. Anyhow, the big question now is what Sinan Ogan's supporters will do in the second round and where that roughly 5% goes. It's also both sad and entirely unsurprising to see a large majority of Dutch Turks (70% or so) voting for Erdogan. Being born and living nice and safe and relatively rich in the West, and voting for a dictator in a country far away

But there most likely won't be enough to bring him (or Kemal) past 50%, which is needed for a first round victory. There's the other guy who got nearly 5%, and he is probably going to be crucial for 28 May, when the second round is held.