Cycling + Baseball: Similarity #1

Second Guessing the Manager.

Why didn’t Trent Lowe follow Sivtsov on Brasstown, was it tactics from the team car?  Why did Rebellin and

Schleck’s managers have them play out the finale of Liege the way they did knowing the chances are pretty high Valverde would dust the duo in the sprint?  Why did Lefevere have Bortolami and Tafi wait for Museeuw in the 1996 Roubaix, only to force those two to sit up for Johan in the finale?  What was Tadej Valjavec’s DS thinking when we had him ride they way he did for Salvodelli on Stage 19 of the 2005 Giro finishing in Sestriere?  And why did Bob Boone do the double switch in the 8th inning to put in a right handed batter that bats .156 against a left handed sinker ball pitcher with 2 runners in scoring position in the eastern time zone when the batter played two night games in a row and this is a day game?  Of course that’s not going to work!

The two sports share the subtlety that once a move is made, it cannot be remedied.  Runs are scored and matches are burnt.  The tooth paste does not go back into the tube very easily… and fans get to talk to other fans about it for years to come.

last images from georgia

A few more photos from Georgia here. We’ll do a full post-mortem on the next podcast.

A Mike and the Bike mannequin tribute to yours truly at the expo booth.
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Video from Tour de Georgia

Better late than never. Click – HERE – for a look at what goes on behind the scenes at the tour de georgia as I interview various staff people. The footage of Nathan O’Neil and I was shot the morning of the team time trial.

One of these is not like the other & new podcast.

 

 New Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (457)

When not to strike the Saturday Night Fever pose.

Zabel…

no…..

Boonen…..

no….

Bungo?….

Yes- of course!

tdg stage 2

Long day. Long stage. Long transfer from Tybee Island to the start in Statesboro. The big excitement at the start was Trek / Marco Polo’s RV clogging up the start line. They tried to follow the team cars on opening neutral laps around the small south Georgia town when they found themselves stuck under the start line truss. Banner too low, RV too tall. The front end of the race caravan (about 25 police, media, judges) cars and motorcycles can to a halt while the cyclist started to catch up from behind. Doh! Marco Polo was fined 200 Swiss Franc for “failing to respect instructions of the race organization” as it said in the results communique this evening. A little consolation for them though, as their rider Rhys Pollock was award the Most Agressive Rider of the Day award for being in the break all day. The race did come back together by the end and CSC’s JJ Haedo took the bunch sprint. The final drama of the day was waiting for the officials to determine who would receive the Best Young Rider Jersey for the day. It’s a competition for riders under a certain age. Tyler Farrar, Team Slipstream, and Nicholas Sanderson, Jelly Belly, were in a virtual tie with the tie breaker being the sum of their GC placing for the last two days. Farrar flatted close to the end yesterday and finished 119th, so he lost. However, we were told by the judges that Farrar had won. He was qued up and ready to go on the award stage when I got the word that he was not the winner. I had to pull him back at the last moment and give him the news. Let’s just say he was less that professional and acted younger than his young rider category. More like some grade-schoolers I’ve scene on the playground.

We are working on a new podcast… really. The other John is supposed to come to the race tomorrow and we may even do a little podcasting tonight. In the meantime, a few pics from yesterday and today.

Hot off the presses. Steve Baker, Hincapie Sportswear, produces the daily leader jerseys for us. Here’s Dominguez’s ready to go for stage 2.

SRM SRAM. Very nice. Belongs to the Marco Polo team.

It’s not all hard work. Here I am departing for a little Tour de Tybee Island with Race Dircector, Jim Birrell, Mari Holden, and Kevin Livingston. Check out the sweet Missing Saddle kit.

We followed the break for a bit today. Here is Toyota United’s Justin England going it alone.