heywoodu

Just catching up on the week's cycling outside of the Giro, this finish of Wednesday was insane What a freaking monster kilometer That is really not the 11% the road book said it was

Just finished semi 1, what a results Before watching the results, I had listed the songs in three categories...I know ten would go through, but I really couldn't find two more which should not be in 'Definitely not' (the + indicates the nation qualified) Definitely will qualify: IRL CYP + NOR + AZE + Might qualify: RUS + SWE + CRO ROU Definitely won't qualify: LTU + SLO AUS MKD BEL + ISR + UKR + MLT + I really can't, for the life of me, understand how Israel, Ukraine and Malta qualified. I mean, they were incredibly out of tune and the decisive parts were basically...screaming. Especially the 'highlight' of Israel's song, it's not like singing a high tune, it's screaming like the neighbour girls... Oh well, hopefully semi 2 will be better

Just heard the Dutch song for the first time (partially, the part they showed at the end of semi 1)....what were they thinking? "It has been going pretty well for a while, with a second place and even a win, so now let's go back to songs which finish somewhere in the bottom of the semi's because we have a free spot in the final this year anyway!"? I didn't expect much, but wow, that was fairly disappointing

Totally missed the fact Gianni Moscon tried to follow Nibali in the final descent, but couldn't keep up and crashed, hehe. He did come back in the main group though, so the peloton is still stuck with him. As for today....yeah, let's say it's a good thing it's a working day, because the entertainment isn't gonna come from the cycling There is a small chance for some drama in the sprint preparation, but nothing as bad as a few stages ago where they went for a hugely difficult final kilometers after 150+ kilometers of basically falling asleep.

51,87 split for Heemskerk, damn. If ever there was a swimmer who is infinitely better in relays than individually...

Ah, the mother of all circus events to close the day.

This tournament is having quite a lot of good finals, especially today

Still can't watch a race of Pellegrini without hearing the semi-old Italian dude sitting next to me all week at Barcelona 2013 go fe-de-ri-ca fe-de-ri-ca fe-de-ri-ca for the entire duration of every race with Pellegrini Can't say this was much better when he started doing a similar thing during every full race of.....Gregorio Paltrinieri

That was one awesome 100m backstroke final

Cool, go Bangladesh

Excellent win for Vendrame, beating Hamilton in the sprint. Brambilla not only had an incredible fail shortly before the finish in which he threw away the chance to win, while sprinting for third he also nearly shoved Bennett straight into the barriors. Must be frustrated at his own failure..

Wow, Brambilla isn't the sharpest knife in today's drawer

Here we go with the sprint between four guys.

At least it's not a matter of eating the carpet like a Dutch cycling commentator https://www.dumpert.nl/item/564081_e533bb1f

A new Dutch-Belgian competition has been announced, with the godawful name BNXT League. They didn't mention 'urban', but they had the balls to actually say, in the official announcement: "The word BNXT, which sounds extra young due to the lack of vowels, consists of the letters B(elgië) and N(ederland) and very obviously holds the word 'next' in it." Uuuughhh.

I would almost say "I'd eat my shoe if it's cancelled because of COVID", indeed

Ah, COVID-19 is apparently gone in this region of Italy, judging by the climbs filled with people waving their arms and flags in riders' faces. Good news!

I wouldn't literally say zero, since there is a certain risk and uncertainty lurking around the corner in these times, but yeah...highly unlikely that it'll be cancelled. I can't see that happening. Also because I'd be angry for having my two week vacation approved for nothing then

Yeah, but even if he gained a lot of weight, everything looks completely different, including his hairstyle and all features. Besides, this guy in the photo seems a bit heavier than how I remember Van der Ven, but not that much heavier...

Wait, what? The Netherlands should have a qualified athlete there through the world championships in 2019..

Oh and interesting to see war has broken out in Lefevere's team Almeida really made a mess of things. He might as well just have stuck up his middle finger and be done with it

Too bad the peloton made such a mess of it yesterday. Come on, the stage of the year, fans and a good amount of riders have been looking forward to this for months, and then the peloton just gives the stage win away to a group of enthousiastic unknowns in the first few kilometers without even trying anymore It was fun when the peloton hit the gravel roads of course, but it was a bit disappointing to see the likes of Schmid and Covi battle for the win in a stage like this. And that's nothing against Schmid and Covi, by the way, they are excellent riders, I'd just hoped to see the best of the best do battle like on these roads in 2010 (when it was even a million times better because of mud instead of dust ). Too bad Dan Martin and Davide Formolo were the main losers of the day. Then again, that means they'll have to attack in the mountains, especially Formolo could try something.

Could anyone who watches archery nowadays confirm/deny this is a correct photo of Van der Ven? He looks so....completely different than at the previous Olympics I mean, so different that I can't see any resemblence and seriously doubt if this photo is correct

Well, at least it's basically an indirect apology for their major fuck up of last year...better than nothing, I guess.

Yes, I'm loving that part No need for 5-10 minutes of idle waiting. As for analyzing a final: you're sort of done after saying "He had a good start" and "Her finish was strong"...I mean, we just saw that.