heywoodu

Thank the heavens Hungarians, much like the Dutch, can't play ice hockey for shit

Cool, can I watch an off-the-mat live stream?

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the general theme of a majority of Dutch sports federations

Apparently so, yes.

But Rabobank never introduced itself as 'the banking team' or something, or BORA as 'the cooking team' (sure, there's Sagan's commercials), or Sunweb as 'the travelling team' or INEOS as 'the chemical team'. Dimension Data/MTN Qhubeka branded itself as Africa's Team since it started and always, always was talking about giving all those young talented Africans chances at the highest levels. Now all they do in that regard is give an accidental African here or there a small chance, but mostly rely on either old Europeans that used to be good or middle-aged (from a sports perspective) Europeans who never really have been very good at all, and present them like the next awesome big thing. It's not about 'Team from X doesn't have a lot of riders from X', it's about how it's sad to see a promising philosophy going down the drain into obscurity. Especially in a time when one could have quite a decent team with Africans only...at least Amanuel is still doing something good for Dimension Data, pretty much their only bright spot at the moment. Also, apart from the whole Africa thing, it's kinda laughable how time and time again they manage to make their team even less impressive with their new signings. I really don't know any other team that manages to go downhill so fast, year after year, in terms of who they sign.

No U23 nonsense for Remco the Great. Belgium is still looking for three riders to complete their road race men's team. Based on previous years, one can assume they are trying to look for three riders from different teams who don't want to spend a single second working for each other.

Meh. I hope they manage to put up a serious fight, even if it might not be realistic hope.

Plus two home matches I guess? Or neutral ground or something?

Africa's Team signs Spaniard Carlos Barbero and Austrian Michael Gogl, two riders with basically no significant experience who they call very exciting and experienced additions to their team! Nobody has a clue what on earth their plan is, stuffing Africa's Team full with second-hand dumped Europeans, but sure. It's just a little sad, there are quite a lot of actually African riders who would be able to perform just as much (as little, actually) or better and with whom they'd stay somewhat true to their completely abandoned philosophy...what a ridiculous joke of a team it has become, and every year they manage to make it worse.

Yeah, I was not saying 'realistic' Although POL or CZE somehow beating USA would make me laugh too

I'd find it incredibly funny if Poland and Czech Republic end up taking those

And I'm a little used to pro boxing, where at least one thing is simple: "Oh, heavyweights, the heaviest guys, how easy " Along comes amateur boxing: "No, wait, we have heavier guys than the heaviest guys, super heavyweights!" Uuugh. I'm waiting for the mega super heavyweights.

This is why every division in every sport with weight classes should just be called by it's weight rather than some sort of confusing name like bantam, feather or welter.

Seriously, bitching about a time violation when the shot clock is really clear and simple? Let's go Medvedev

Excellent top-10 for Petinna'.

Told you Forster was looking impressively strong

I don't wanna jinx anything but Forster looked like he was just chilling in Schurter's wheel there.

Sarrou onto the World Cup standings podium!

No Van der Poel, Schurter losing half a minute with a flat tyre...if Avancini doesn't win this, he won't ever win a XC World Cup.

"He has to go flat out now!"

Schurter with a flat tyre

@phelps What's with the ' at the end of the name of Nicholas Pettina'?

Bad timing of that post (but yeah)

Imagine how steep the uphills must be

Which, to be fair, is also more than excellent. And I missed Claudio for the downhills in Canada