Posted by andrew at 09:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's all over in Paris. Armstrong has won his 7th straight Tour de France. An amazing sporting feat which won't be equaled, well, for at least another 7 years and probably much longer than that. Armstrong now cycles into the sunset, retiring after his scintillating comeback career which will inspire people all over the world forever. Congratulations, Lance. Best of luck. You will be missed.

It was brilliant TdF. I hope everyone who watched it enjoyed it as I did. I don't know what impact Armstrong's run has had here. Certainly cycling will never be a mainstream sport in America, but he clearly raised the sport to a new level in the eyes of world.

Only 49 weeks to start of the 2006 Tour!

Posted by andrew at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's the final message on the live text scoring at Cricinfo:

Apologies for the confusion on that last dismissal. The excitement of a long, full day's cricket is getting to all of us! But what a day it has been ... England over the moon with getting Australia out for just 190, Stephen Harmison kicking in with a superb 5 for 43 Then came Glenn McGrath, the metronome, and picked up his 500th Test wicket, following it up with a brilliant spell that left England reeling at 21 for 5 Geraint Jones and Kevin Pietersen then forged a recovery of sorts, but at the end of the day england are still 98 behind and struggling at 92 for 7 We hope you enjoyed the day's play as much we enjoyed bringing it to you That's it for the moment from us. Join us again tomorrow at 9.30am GMT for all the action from the second day's play

What does that mean? Well it means at first England thought they were in a great position, bowling England out for 190. Recall that the first time I watched an Ashes Test match at Lord's (1993) the Aussies put up 632 runs for the loss of only 4 wickets, so 190 is a seriously modest total. But the Aussie bowlers scuttled the top order of the English lineup, dismissing the first 5 batters for a mere 21 runs, which is a desparate position when you're chasing 190 (imagine if the Aussies put up 600 runs). England recovered with a nice middle order partnership of 58 between Jones and Pietersen, but at the end of the day the POMs are in what they like to call a spot of bother with only 92 runs for the loss of 7 wickets needing the tail to wag like a motherfucker to erase a 98 run the first innings deficit.

Whatever happens, it at least looks like we're going to get a result. It's rare that you see 17 wickets fall on a single day in a Test match. That leaves 4 full days for the remaining 23. Should be another fascinating morning tomorrow.

Posted by andrew at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It wasn't as if I was sleep deprived enough because of the Tour de France, now the 1st titantic Ashes clash at Lord's between England and Australia starts tomorrow (well in a few hours really). I probably won't stay up to listen, unless it comes down to a 5th day run chase or something, but I'll catch a smattering of the BBC coverage here and there. I'd like nothing more than to wake up in London and make my way over to Lord's, sit in the stands all day while Australia dismatles England. Sadly, I'm in Alameda. But there are 5 tests in the series played this summer and maybe, just maybe, I can make it over for one of them. Old Trafford, perhaps?

To no one's surprise, all the cricketeers seem to be favoring the Baggie Greens to continue a winning streak that has lasted since 1989. Plus the Aussies haven't lost at Lord's in 71 years. SEVENTY ONE FUCKING YEARS AT THE VALHALLA OF CRICKET! And to top off the bad news for England, the five day forecast for London doesn't see any rain, so it's unlikely they can rely on the weather to suck out a draw on the World Champs.

All interested parties can find the schedule here at Cricinfo. I presume that will be exactly none of you.

Posted by andrew at 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

You're probably not following the San Diego's Mayoral race. Who can blame you? You probably don't live in San Diego and maybe wouldn't care that much anyway.

However, San Diego city politics has been in deep shit lately and even got worse today as Michael Zucchet, who became interim mayor over the weekend, was just , yes, convicted (not indicted or accused), but convicted of taking payoffs from a strip club owner to help repeal a "no-touching" law at nude clubs. (Just for the record, I'm against the "no-touching" law too, but then again, I'm a man and can't be trusted to be impartial).

Why do I bring this up? Well, because I have a horse in the race. My cousin Rana is married to the former San Diego Chief of Police who's not only running for Mayor, but just got a ringing endorsement from the SD Union Tribune.

Sanders for mayor

Veteran cop offers sorely needed leadership

UNION-TRIBUNE

July 18, 2005

Aweek from tomorrow voters will go to the polls in what quite possibly is the most important election in San Diego's 155-year history. With City Hall besieged by corruption and ineptitude, the future of this community hinges on voters choosing strong, fresh leadership to overcome San Diego's urgent challenges.

Our next mayor must possess not only the good common sense to roll back stratospheric municipal pension benefits and restore the city's financial soundness, but also an uncommon measure of fortitude to enforce tough decisions on a City Council mired in chaos.

Former police chief Jerry Sanders displays the integrity and quiet resolve that are sorely needed at this critical hour. Equally important, he has articulated precisely the right plan to salvage our city government from the appalling wreckage of the last three years.

Sanders' agenda is castor oil for the city's avaricious public employee unions but a sensible, dependable cure for taxpayers who have borne the weight of City Hall mismanagement.

His approach is moderate but determined. He promises to rescind in one stroke the glaring hikes in pension benefits awarded by the City Council in 1996 and 2002 if they are deemed by the courts to be illegal, as the city attorney convincingly contends. What's more, Sanders pledges to renegotiate existing labor agreements to freeze salaries for all employees, raise the absurdly low retirement age, increase worker contributions to the pension plan, and abolish such egregious perks as the 13th monthly check and employees' ability to purchase unworked years of service at steeply discounted rates.

Under Mayor Sanders, the plundering of the treasury to pay for 24-carat pensions for city workers will come to an end. The sweetheart deals between labor leaders and the City Council will be scotched.

Significantly, Sanders rules out tax increases to bail out the retirement system and reward the incompetence of the current council. This offers vital protection for taxpayers as the pension fund debacle is tackled in earnest under a new regime at City Hall. Sanders also prudently rejects municipal bankruptcy as the first resort to undo the mistakes of the past. Rival contender Pat Shea makes an impassioned case that bankruptcy is the only solution. But considering the tremendous collateral damage and uncertainty that bankruptcy would inflict, Sanders believes other remedies must be tried first. That stance reflects the essential prudence of his judgment.

Some have questioned whether Sanders, with his soft-spoken and agreeable manner, is tough-minded enough to confront the labor unions and their backers on the City Council. An examination of his record demonstrates to us that Sanders' unexcitable nature should not be mistaken for weakness.

Consider that when an Uzi-armed James Huberty entered the San Ysidro
McDonald's in 1984 and opened fire, ultimately slaying 21 people before being brought down by a police sniper, Jerry Sanders was the Police Department's SWAT commander on the scene. When he recalls patrolling dark alleys with his weapon drawn in search of armed suspects, he is not merely reminiscing. Those experiences forged a personal ruggedness and strength of character that no other candidate in the race can even imagine.

In our view, the two other leading contenders, Councilwoman Donna Frye and wealthy businessman Steve Francis, lack the leadership traits long demonstrated by Sanders, who after leaving the police force turned around the troubled Red Cross and United Way. He did so not by pounding the table but by resolutely building consensus behind his objectives.

This is exactly the kind of strong, steady hand San Diego must have if
it is to emerge successfully from the present crisis. To enforce his
stringent medicine on a reluctant City Council, Jerry Sanders needs a clear mandate.

Posted by andrew at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

After 16 days including two grueling mountain 2 stages in the Pyrenees over the weekend, the Tour de France is taking a rest day and not a moment too soon, for me. I'm exhausted. I've been waking up every day for the past two weeks at 5:30am, sometimes as early as 3:30am to watch the TdF live on OLN while trying to maintain my normal schedule. I'm exhausted. The cyclists are tired, for sure, and they need rest, but even on their day off, they will be in the saddle for 2 - 2 1/2 hours just to keep their muscles from freaking out. Me? I don't train for this stuff. I need some sleep. Blessedly the end of the Tour is only a week away.

Why do I do this? I've been a fan of the TdF from way back before ESPN2 and OLN existed, back when ESPN, if we were lucky, would put on a half hour highlight show some time in the evening, no specific time, just wherever it fit into the schedule. Of course, there was no Internet back then so you couldn't track the race online or even find the TV schedule. You just had to stay glued to ESPN or get lucky.

So now when OLN is covering most of the TdF live, I can't resist it. I must watch. Almost to make up for years and years of deprivation. Added to that, this is Lance Armstrong's last ride and his performance so far has done nothing to make me question the insanity of waking up in the middle of the night to see cruise around France in yellow one last time.

So this morning, the rest day, I slept in til 7am and it was fucking glorious, but I'm still pretty zonked, looking forward to nights of a solid eight hours.

Posted by andrew at 01:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I played tennis for the first time in years this afternoon. I fished my racket out of the mothballs and knocked a few around on the courts in Alameda with my buddy Anita. I was seriously rusty, as you'd expect, and somewhere along the line, my racket frame started to crack (storage? movers? no clue, really), but it was great to get out on the court again and hit some balls in anger.

I need to pick up a new racket. Anita just bought a Wilson something or other and she let me play with it a while. I couldn't believe how light it was. Clearly I need something like it. I went to a few sporting goods stores to see what they had on the shelves, but clearly technology has changed greatly since the last time I bought a racket, maybe ten years ago, but probably longer. (A curious non-sequitor, I bought my current racket down the street from Mezzaluna where Ron Goldman worked and around the corner from where he and Nicole Simpson were slaughtered by O.J.)

Any suggestions or recommendations?

Posted by andrew at 09:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Not only did Tiger breeze to his 10th major championship in winning the The British Open. Not only did George Hinapie win the hardest stage of this year's Tour de France (his first TdF stage win ever). But Lance Armstrong increased his lead in the overall classification which is almost insurmoutable now. Barring some major catastrophe, Lance will win his 7th consecutive TdF.

Posted by andrew at 08:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

38 seconds. That's all. That's the entirety of Lance Armstrong's lead ahead of Danish cyclist Michael Rasmussen in the Tour de France. But what does that mean? Exactly how big of a lead is that? Let's go to the slide rule.

This year's Tour has so far been one of the fastest in history, averaging over 45 kilometers an hour. At that rate a 38 second lead amounts to 475 meters or almost 1500 feet. Pretty big, right? Not so fast. When racing in anger, the peloton can crank up to 60 KPH which converts a 38 second advantage to a lead of more than 630 meters and on a decent where racers routinely fly down the mountain at more than 100 KPH Lance would have a huge lead of more than a kilometer.

Those are nice figures, but they don't tell any of the story, because the Tour de France is not won or lost on the flats or on the descents. It is won and lost in the mountains. In the mountains, the pace varies but let's for arguments sake, say that the average is 20 kilometers an hour. At that pace Armstrong leads Rasmussen by a mere 200 meters. It's nothing. Rasmussen in the current King of the Mountains leader, so we know he can climb. So for Lance to win he needs to keep Rasmussen at bay in the next few stages until the TdF flattens out on the way to Paris. If Armstrong can put some time between him and the Dane, all the much better.

Posted by andrew at 04:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is a huge day for American sports Fans. Tiger is about to tee off in the British Open, which he's almost certain to win, the Yankees are playing the Sox in Fenway, and Lance has the lead the TdF and if he can hold off his rivals for the next two mountain stages, he will surely win for the 7th consecutive time, breaking his own record. Wow.

As per usual, while the OLN coverage of the Tour started at 4:30 with the race well underway. There's large breakaway of 14 riders that doesn't contain any contenders, but does includes Armstrong's long time sidekick George Hincapie. The peloton which contains all the usual suspects is more than 15 minutes back. Can they pull the breakaway back over the torturous hills to come? Should be a fascinating day on the hardest stage of this year's Tour.

On top of that, the stage today will go over the infamous Col de Portet d'Aspet where Armstrong's Motorola teammate Fabio Casartelli crashed to his death in the 95 Tour. The TdF doesn't always go this route through the Pyrenees, but when it does, it's always very emotional. Often the entire peloton stops at the monument erected to Casertelli's memory for a moment of silence. Interestingly, Hincapie, who was on the Motorola team back them, was dropped for the Tour in favor of Hincapie and I wonder if he harbors some serious survivor guilt over that.

Posted by andrew at 04:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Armstrong has the lead as the Tour moves out of the high Alps into the rolling hills, which is a good sign. But today's stage spells trouble to me. I'm going to guess that Michael Rasmussen, the man in the second place, a mere 38 seconds back, is going to attack. The reason I think that is today's rolling stage of category 2 and 3 hills is much like Stage 9 from Gerardmer to Mulhouse which Rasmussen won and launched himself into a huge lead in the King of the Mountains competition.

Interestingly, Rasmussen who rides for the second tier Rabobank team, came into this race with an eye only on the polka dot jersey. But one by one Armstong's main rivals have fallen away, leaving the Dane the only rider within a minute of the lead. As he stands now in clear second place and within spitting distance of Lance, I'd be shocked if his goals have not changed to go for the win. He's looked strong all through the mountains. He's showed the ability to break clear of Armstrong and Team Discovery when cresting mountains to accumulate points and he is someone whom everyone who is pulling for Lance to go out with win number 7 should be worried about. Just what Team Discovery needs, one more guy in the peloton to be worried about.

That said, it's Bastille Day so we're probably going to see the French, who have done little year and haven't fielded a Tour winner in 20 years (this race is fast becoming their Wimbledon), attacking on the road today. Best of luck to them and to everybody and a happy Bastille Day to all my French colleagues and racing fans.

Posted by andrew at 04:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Lance finished way ahead of Voigts and Moreau, the two riders ahead of him in the General Classification, more than a minute ahead of Ivan Basso, more than two minutes ahead of Jan Ullrich, and more than five minutes ahead of Alexandre Vinokourov who completely and unexpectedly cracked. No one else really matters now. Rasmussen, the Danish rider of the Rabobank team, is in second place overall, only 38 seconds back and that could be a worry if he can drop Lance in any of the upcoming mountain stages, but as long as they stay together, Armstrong will wipe him out in the upcoming time trial. Lance is not out of the woods, but things are looking pretty damn good and this incredible performance.

Posted by andrew at 08:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Armstrong just blew away the field on the Courchevel, finished second in the stage , just outsprinted at the line by Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde, way ahead of his main rivals who are still back on the road. Voigt in the yellow jersey is probably going to finish a half hour down. Lance has stamped his mark on the tour and if this effort didn't take too much out him, he should go on to win in Paris.

Posted by andrew at 08:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Tour de France is reaching a climax today as riders pound their way (right now) up the Courchevel. There's a small breakaway with most of the top contenders a little more than 3 minutes back. Team Discovery is putting the hammer down leading the peloton towards the bottom of the climb which should break the field and separate the contenders from the pretenders. We'll know for sure how Lance stacks up against his rivals. Jens Voigt who's in the yellow jersey today has stayed with the peloton, but was nearly dropped off the back at the top of the previous climb and most likely fall back. Cristophe Moreau, who's in the second place about 20 seconds ahead of Lance could take over the race lead if he stays with Lance, but I somehow doubt it and as Lance can push the front of the race all the way up to the mountain top finish of the Courchevel, he should be back in the lead. And if not today, then definitely tomorrow when the Tour hits this year's highest point at the Col du Galibier. Whatever happens we'll know for sure after tomorrow whether Lance will compete for his seventh straight win or someone else will emerge to take the take.

Posted by andrew at 07:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I met a few old friends from Samoa in the city last night for dinner at some Senegalese place in the Mission called Bissap Baobab. I was pretty skeptical about the food, having had only one previous experience with Sub-Saharan cuisine, Ethiopian, that left me pretty unsatisfied. But I shouldn't have worried at all. The food, which was larger some kind of protein (I had the lamb) marinated in a delicious sauce and served with couscous, was fantastic. The best was saved for last with the French influenced desserts. The four of us shared a banana flambé and a warm chocolate soufflé a la mode. They were outstanding and made me wish I had done my Peace Corps service in a country colonized by France instead of New Zealand and Germany.

Posted by andrew at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've had my notebook up and running for a while now. HP/Compaq was actually really good for a change about getting me a replacement hard drive (still under warranty) and I went through the tedious process of installing the OS, reinstalling every piece of software I own and restore all my preferences. It was relatively painless, except the part about the crashed hard drive.

There's about 34 gigs on the old HD. I don't need it all. It's mostly program files. But I do want some of the files, namely photos that I hadn't gotten around to backing up (such an idiot). I bought a little plastic 2.5" USB enclosure at CompUSA so I could try to pull some of the data off there, but it's been touch and go.

Sometimes the OS doesn't recognize the drive. Sometimes it does. Sometimes, it recognizes it, I can download files and right in the middle the connection drops for no reason. I think I need an enclosure with its own power source. I have to get down to Fry's to see what they have soon because I need to ship the drive back to HP lest they charge me for it.

Posted by andrew at 04:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It didn't take long. Four days into the the Tour de France and Lance Armstrong has the lead and the yellow jersey that goes with it. What an great day. The 4th stage was the notorious team time trial, where Lance's Discovery Team (same old team, new sponsor) dominates. Behind the engine that is Armstrong, Discovery won in the fastest time trial in history of the event.

What was really amazing about the race is that while Discovery put some serious time between Lance and his nearest rivals, they finished a mere 2 seconds ahead of the Danish squad CSC Tiscali. That's the team of previous race leader, American Dave Zabriskie. The two would have shared first place had Zabriskie not wiped out with 1.5 kilometers to go. Right as CSC headed down the home stretch probably headed for a win, je took a nasty spill, tore up his yellow jersey and left himself with some hearty road rash, but managed to finished. He's licking his wounds back in ninth place. Had Zabriskie fallen within one kilometer of the finish he would have been awarded the same time as his teammates and dropped into a virtual tie with Armstrong.

It's really early in the race to start defending the yellow jersery, so there's a good chance Armstrong will let it go, and take it back in the mountains. Then again, he has such a sizeable lead over Ullrich, Basso, Kloeden et al that he may never relinquish the lead.

It's hard to say what will happen. The mountains lie ahead and we'll know more about Armstrong's chances after seeing how he does in the Alps. But for now, he and Discovery are looking golden.

Posted by andrew at 04:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I went with some friends to see fireworks in the little town of San Ramon, about 30 minutes east and south of Oakland. It's like another world over there. It's so white. It's so suburban. Miles of SUVs and minivans. It's so Norman Rockwell white picket fence America. And it's just 30 minutes from Oakland and San Francisco. Not there's anything wrong with that. Just an observation.

Posted by andrew at 11:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's the best time of year. Summer is here. The Tour is here. And OLN is covering the Tour live. And I have OLN. Could it get any better than that?

After the opening prologue, there's an American in the maillot jaune. No big surprise. Except it's not Lance Armstrong, who should win his 7th straight tour. It's San Francisco's Dave Zabriskie, who nipped Armstrong by 2 seconds in the time trial. Americans are 1-2. Nice.

Dave Zabriskie. He's young. He's wiry. He's an amazing time trialer. Could he be Armstrong's heir apparent?

Posted by andrew at 06:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I bought a few shirts at Banana Republic the other day. When I was in line to pay I overheard the cashier telling the person in front of me that if something they bought gets marked down in the future, they can come in with their receipt and get a "price adjustment". I thought I was hearing things.

Today, I returned one of the shirts. I decided it was too big. Before I got in line, I had a look at the racks (it was a different location) and I noticed that one of the shirts I bought was indeed, marked down from the price I paid.

So, I mentioned it to the salesperson when I returned the shirt and it turns that both of the other shirts I bought had been subsuqently marked down and I was refunded the difference. I can't decide if I should be shocked that Banana Republic can stay in business do that or appalled that their sweatshop made clothes are so cheap to manufacture that they can still make money refunding post-purchase markdowns to people like me.

Posted by andrew at 04:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)