heywoodu

Carapaz with a strong attack on the mighty Finestre, the last big climb of the Giro this year, with still almost 15k to go to the top - only Del Toro able to follow, but Yates managed to jump to them as well.

Carapaz has definitely been the most stable rider so far, only one that didn't really show any sign of weakness at all yet, indeed. Del Toro's ride yesterday certainly gave me some more hope for him, but I'd agree and put Carapaz ahead of him as the favourite for now. No matter if he makes it or not...Del Toro in the top-10 might not have been that much of a surprise considering the past one and a half year, still being in pink with only two serious stages to go is the other end of what I'd expected, very impressive no matter what happens

"To deliver more high-octane and intense days of combat racing." In other words: with only the few track events going on, there are not nearly enough events to fill three 2-hour sessions and they've finally realized what we as viewers realized after the very first day of the very first meet

Del Toro disagrees, bouncing back from yesterday's tough battle with a very impressive ride and stage win today

Yeah, after three falls that stage of he'll yesterday was just too much (especially with another fall). Understandable.

Home world championships, and the first time the women could do the 50k, which had always been her dream. Now that was possible and even in her own country, so she came back for that. From the beginning it was clear that going all the way to the Olympics was perhaps possible, but not the main plan

No, she came back specifically for Trondheim. For the 50k, to be precise, that had always been the (announced) plan.

Sure, but in which sense can WADA regulations override law? It's not dissimilar from criminals, convicted or not, often being named Firstname A. or Firstname X. instead of with their full names. It would be worse if they actually avoid bans, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

As was the quite clear plan before last season, so no changes there

Lando Norris won the Monaco GP yesterday, which was a highly entertaining affair. As usual not so much in terms of overtaking, but the different strategies due to there being two mandatory pit stops instead of one and the usual constant, absolutely never-ending pressure of Monaco's walls being centimeters away at every turn - and said pressure being applied for the lead of the race for many laps this time - made for a cool and tense race. Plus Mercedes' antics were just outright hilarious, I have been entertained from start to finish

They do have a decent point, to be fair. Most importantly: they are seemingly not keeping athletes from being suspended with this, since athletes being suspended but not named is what triggered this, all they seem to do is not publically naming them. Which, sure, WADA might require them to do, but I highly doubt WADA supercedes national and/or European law.

Once again, massive luck for the Marquez family. Alex crashed even before turn 1 in Silverstone (from the lead), Marc crashed a lap later (from the lead), but a red flag causes them both to be allowed to restart. Meanwhile, of all days, a red flag is on the day where there's only a few minutes to spare between MotoGP and F1....ugh.

World champs silver for Lukas Hofer (in 2011)

Ayuso lost quite some time as well, so now we're getting to the point that they might seriously consider letting Ayuso work for Del Toro if need be.... Too bad Monte Grappa is in the middle of the stage, this whole Giro kind of feels like we haven't really entered the mountains yet and we've already had 14 stages.... Perfect for Del Toro so far, he has been very...how to say that, 'sharp' so far!

Jake Paul's* brother is playing a role in WWE nowadays? *Jake is dating a Dutch speed skater and since then has become famous in the Netherlands, although I still don't really know what he actually does

It's an interesting coincidence that he is also Brazilian, going kind of mountainbiker Henrique Avancini's way (he initially got a high ranking entirely due to doing well in lots and lots of relatively small national/regional competitions with no real competition, but then once he got to a high ranking, actually improved a lot and showed he definitely deserved that ranking based on quality )

Absolutely. Don't for a second think coaches there give a flying fuck about her physical and mental well-being by the time she is, let's say, 20...

Which might make it even more clear to everyone that having this in the Olympics is rather ridiculous. I'd be fine with USA going to the gold with lots of massive wins if at least the best players were there. There are more events where one or two teams dominate proceedings, but having a weaker field to add tension isn't a solution.

Interesting. If the NFL players turn out to actually be better at it due to their experience and such, this seems like a good move. I'd say it is only logical to want the best possible players and competitors in any sport at the Olympics, otherwise we're just looking at people fighting for the gold medal while knowing it's kind of a B-level competition.

Any idea how good NFL players are likely to be in flag football compared to professional flag football players?

Especially in China one would be less surprised if she is being extremely overtrained to possibly score as much as possible before her body starts to change significantly. China is definitely not one of those countries where they gradually build up their talents into full-fledged pros I'd guess, not a surprise some countries often have way more teenage superstars than others

Got a present and now my life is complete

His rise since he arrived at the top last year has been fantastic, but this was extra impressive And with Ayuso not being so great yet, who knows what he can do if he doesn't need to sacrifice himself too much..

Oh and I think the biggest issue last night especially was giving certain countries lots of extra time for their stage props. It should be simple: make your staging in such a way that the change fits within a 'post card', if it doesn't, make it shorter.

Oh yes, that was absolutely fantastic! And I loved Käärijä's "Europapa thank you!" punch in the EBU's face, Mr Österdahl will absolutely have been not amused