the darkerside to rants

So unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, this years tour is wide open again:

Germany’s Jan Ullrich, out of the Tour de France because of his connection to Spain’s blood-doping scandal, has become a fallen hero just one day before the start of an event he was tipped to win.

And not only him, Ivan Basso is out as well, as well as all riders that is associated with Eufemiano Fuentes, a doctor in Spain who seems to have performed blood doping on a couple of riders (over 30) who were slated to start at the Tour.

The decision, btw, was not made by UCI but by the teams, probably in an attempt to get some faith back, nothing has been proven, but who really doubts that there is doping?

So, who’ll stand on the podium in Paris at the end of July in the first race in the post Armstrong era?

Seen today:

It’s a fact – A whole grain diet may help you manage your weight.

Well thank god it’s a fact.

So,

Germany is on to the half final after defeating the Argentineans in a penalty shootout. Both teams would have deserved to win, but Germany had the nerves and so they move on.

Bummer for Argentina but in a way I am delighted.

Yes, sucks. It is now basically luck of the draw who moves on …..

Not happy about this, but I guess it was half to be expected at this stage of the game…. At least it is not the final yet.

On a different note. I noted that the Teamgeist balls have the names of the teams that play, location and time on them. I wonder if they do them somewhere overnight and fly them in or if they just created balls with all possibilities?

If the latter, will those “wrong” balls show up on eBay?

Well,

the game heated up a bit in the second half, ended 1:1.

Both goals were beautiful, but nerves are starting to show. We’re now heading into the 30 minutes of extra time and then maybe penality kicks…

I think the team that keeps their nerve will win, right now, it’s still wide open.

Well, it was some nice football, mainly though I think it was a snffing out of both sides, trying to test each other, very very few real chances, mainly in the middle field.

But it is sort of amazing to see how Argentina controlled the ball…..

Well, I think we may go into overtime, it’s still wide open.

0:0 at this point.