heywoodu

And about Slovakia: couldn't see much of the regular stage other than the final 20km or so, but that prologue was awesome! Finally a pro race with a real prologue again, don't see that very often

Not a single win since the 2018 Amstel Gold Race and this week he wins the Giro Della Toscane on Wednesday AND the Coppa Sabatini on Thursday https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/michael-valgren-andersen Great shape going towards the world championships, although Colbrelli is a big danger there as well. I know he's riding for Bahrain and so he has a magical year like basically everyone there, but damn, what a shape he has.

I'd already be very positively surprised if we're going to see a decent number of Chinese spectators, it was barely a month ago since reports were convinced there would not be a single spectator and everything would be even way tighter and stricter than it was in Tokyo...these latest things sound very hopeful!

2017 Asian champion Albert Linder of Kazakhstan has died, aged 25. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Linder

I assume there is some sort of registration though? I mean, surely when you show up you show your identification, they can see if you've had a shot or two already? It makes quite a difference whether someone has had 0 shots or went to these things for fun and had 30 already, one can assume The option to just show up out of the blue does sound good, but it does increase the need for strict registration..

Wow, I honestly hadn't expected Brazil to have a chance of reaching 90% before we do, considering the way it was only a short while ago The Netherlands is at barely 80% and it's not going up so fast anymore. My town is the national number one (by a huge margin) in terms of new cases per capita by the way, largely thanks to this being a very Christian town (and so vaccinations being less welcome). Not surprisingly, the small superstrictly Christian town a few kilometers away, also part of the administrative reach of my town, is the main source of all this, with barely 30% vaccinated. Combine that with their usually large families and close contacts and there you go. And to make it better, our mayor (member of the superstrict Christian party) came up with a statement a week or two ago to tell everyone to get vaccinated. Great, but one detail: he isn't and won't be vaccinated, 'because that would put me on an emotional crossroads' But in general things aren't going that bad. It's a bit annoying that we will get a pass in two weeks, meaning you need to either have proof of vaccination or negative testing before even getting into a restaurant, like other nations had for a long while and are starting to be done with it, but sure

Most Europeans are disgusted by this as well, and rightly so. But this kind of easy hunt-and-murder is fine as long as it's called tradition, so yeah, nothing to worry about it for them. They'll be able to happily slaughter more and more next year

The rollerski world championships start today in Val di Fiemme, but it doesn't seem like there is any live streaming....not even on the FIS Roller Skiing channel

Not even a little bit the big favourite

18-year old huge talent Thibau Nys takes the European U23 title. https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/european-championships/2021/result

The whole thing about the Diamond League rankings being useless and only the final counting to decide the champion didn't exactly work in terms of attracting great fields everywhere, did it? Especially in the men's long jump and women's shot put it truly felt like some random midweek event somewhere on a far-away field hidden from view The women's high jump though

I feel like I should be able to score pretty high there!

You were 15 safety cars off And to think they placed some asphalt in the Tarzanbocht to make it acceptable for F1, but luckily they managed to keep most of the gravel there!

Best atmosphere I've ever witnessed in an F1 race, what a fantastic party Plus definitely not the race with the least overtaking opportunities, this one should absolutely stay

Oh man, on TV they're already discussing potential restarts with things like "I don't think the leader will hit the gas earlier than start/finish, to avoid giving anyone a tow towards the Tarzanbocht." I can't believe we're actually talking for real about a Formula 1 Grand Prix going through the Tarzanbocht, Hunserug, Scheivlak, Arie Luijendijkbocht and all those legendary names I've been going to since I was barely a teenager Never been this hyped for a race.

Peter Genyn defended his Paralympic 100m title earlier this week, but that was quite something....shortly before the race, when he got to his racing wheelchair, there were three (!) flat tyres and a broken frame, which could only mean a rival (or someone related of course) actively went and sabotaged his wheelchair Good that whatever loser it was didn't win

Yeah, I noticed this, but got annoyed that not a single news site or blog or whatever mentioned anything more than "China filed a protest and it was accepted" I did see later that China tried protesting several times during the competition, but the referees didn't accept it. They then went higher up, as is their right, and of course that process takes a bit longer (sadly). One can definitely assume the Brazilian did break some rule and the fault lies with him, but it is very bad - to say the least - that the video on which the decision was based isn't shown anywhere or at least to the Brazilians. On a more positive note, we were happy to cheer Thomaz to 400m silver My earlier comment about a winter medal was mistaken, he has apparently mostly given up the skiing, since athletics ends up giving him much more money (although every actual Olympian/Paralympian in Brazil gets quite a decent base salary, simply competing in any event will already give you 3000 reais per month for four years). I was confused with Cristian Ribera in the sit skiing, who is going for a medal in Beijing.

Any idea yet what happened with the Brazilian F57 shot put athlete? Live stream only showed the top-3 athletes' best throws and nothing weird happened there, but since the mentioned rule (WPA 2.13.5) seems to have something to do with the removal of clothing, one would imagine maybe he tore off his short or something? https://www.paralympic.org/sites/default/files/2021-02/WPA Approved Amendments (January 2021).pdf

Louis Meintjes crashes out in the one race in history in which he placed a careful attack or two...

And after 36 years, it's finally happening again.....the Grand Prix of the Netherlands is upon us I've been to Zandvoort so many times from when I was a young teenager to only a few years ago (DTM, DTM, DTM, A1GP, A1GP, F3 Masters, WTCC and tons of other stuff) and never could I have imagined Formula 1 would actually ever race there again! It's truly a shame some of the dunes have been torn down and replaced with temporary grandstands (especially at the first corner), which aren't there outside of the F1 weekend, meaning one simply can't watch other races there anymore unless grandstands are placed back every time, but that's how it is I guess.

While rumours are also growing more and more that Nyck de Vries will take the other Alfa Romeo seat and Albon might get back in F1 and take Russell's seat at Williams. Rumours aplenty, left and right

Potentially epic day today, with finish on the Gamoniteiru. Might well be one of the very best climbs to have not yet featured in the Vuelta, fans have been screaming for it for many years and finally they're being heard This is gonna be fantastic, no excuses to not tune in.

I'm going to assume this isn't being shown anywhere (mainly in such a way one can watch later)?

Why are the pilots constantly and nearly entirely ignored (in both live graphics and even commentary) in the blind tandem cycling? Unlike the guides in running or skiing, the pilots do actually also have a physical part in the result.. In running and skiing they are obviously crucial as well, but they don't actually deliver some of the physical energy in the performance.