As Bill Lawry Would Say: ‘It’s All Happening’

Ashton Agar after getting out for 98 in the First Test

So for once, instead of struggling to come up with a topic to write about, this week there has been so much going on that I couldn’t decide which topic to pick. Therefore, as the fence sitter than I am, I figured I’ll just touch on a bit of everything and then reward myself with a weekend away.

To start, let’s talk about the Origin decider. The Queensland streak remains alive after they hung on to win by two and NSW have to wait another year to try to end the drought. Those who follow me on Twitter or Facebook know that I, like many others, think the biggest issue for NSW was halfback Mitchell Pearce.

The only people I have seen defending Pearce have been Roosters fans and even Roosters fans have been divided on it. I am not questioning Pearce’s heart or effort levels. I think he desperately wants to be the best player he can and gave it his all yet again, but he quite simply isn’t good enough. He is a good defender for his position but NSW need a halfback that can create points and that is something Pearce has not done in five years playing for NSW.

His kicking game is below par and he doesn’t have the dynamic passing or running game. He also didn’t take control of the direction of the team, which lead to many plays that looked like they had no plan.

The argument that a halfback needs a forward pack going forward to be able to perform doesn’t hold water here either as the NSW pack won the arm wrestle. NSW had every opportunity to win game 3 as well as getting the better of the forward back for the last two years in general. Pearce may well be a great guy, but he has had more than enough chances and it’s time NSW make the move they should have made before this series. It’s certainly a popular opinion and I’m not saying anything that hasn’t been said elsewhere over and over, but enough is enough and it’s time the Pearce experiment ends. He just isn’t that good.

Onto the Ashes, where Australia lost the First Test but there were certainly a number of positives to take out of it. From a neutral standpoint it was one of the most entertaining and gripping Tests I have ever watched and whilst Australia ended up on the losing end, it gave me belief that we can absolutely make this a competitive series.

Darren Lehmann’s decision to play Ashton Agar instantly paid off with one of the greatest moments in Test history, with a 19 year old Agar, batting 11 and with Australia in dire straits, getting to 98 (alongside a tremendous knock by Phil Hughes) before holing out trying to get his century.

There is clearly a concern with the top order, which hopefully will be rectified as the series moves forward, but I can’t remember a tail that so consistently wags. Our bowlers are honestly not that much worse at batting than our specialist batsmen are. Which isn’t really a compliment to our batsmen, but is still praise for our bowlers.

As I write this the team for the Second Test was announced and so I had to quickly rewrite this bit about selections for the match. Cowan was axed as expected and replaced by Usman Khawaja, who was the likely replacement. Mitchell Starc also makes way with Ryan Harris getting the nod over Jackson Bird as the replacement fast bowler. Cowan had to go and Starc has been a bit down on form so neither was unexpected. I wasn’t sure whether Harris, Bird or a second spinner would come in depending on the conditions and it’s hard to argue with Ryan Harris getting the nod.

But either way, I’m no longer feeling as down about our chances for the series as I was before the First Test, which is saying something considering we are now officially trailing in the series.

Also a quick point on the whole DRS and Stuart Broad saga. First of all, I think we need to be a bit careful to put all the blame on England, when we got a bit lucky ourselves in the first innings with Agar and the fact that Clarke continues to misuse the review system. That said, Broad should have walked and the fact that he didn’t absolutely makes him a dirty cheat.  Also, the on field umpires were atrocious for both sides and this wouldn’t be an issue if they actually did their job at a level even near competent. Aleem Dar is one of the worst umpires I can remember and it baffles me how he continues to get such big matches. He is like cricket’s Jason Robinson.

Onto Le Tour. Whilst some of the individual stages have been exciting, is it just me or is the fact that Chris Froome is so dominant making the race kind of boring. It’s hard to stay up at night knowing the result is already over barring injury. That’s not to take anything away from Froome himself. He was expected to do this and he is delivering in spades and proving that he probably would have won Le Tour last year as well if his team had let him.

I also think raising speculation of him cheating as the media have been doing is ridiculous. It’s an unfortunately side effect of the sport’s history, but Froome has done nothing to suggest he is cheating besides being really, really good. I’d like to think he isn’t cheating because neither are his competitors anymore. However, should he end up in a doping scandal at any stage, it would be tragic and would be another nail into the coffin of the sport for many people.

We also are currently being graced with the presence of English Premier League champions Manchester United, who are here to play an A-League All Stars team this weekend. Then next Wednesday, my beloved Liverpool will be taking on the Melbourne Victory and I am fortunate enough to be traveling to Melbourne to watch the game. I’ve never seen Liverpool play and I’ve never been to a sporting event at the MCG, so to say I’m excited would be an understatement.

I hope to write about the experience next week, so stay tuned for that and remember, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.

Wiggins’ World. Party Time. Excellent.

A well earned glass of bubbly

So it is finally official and Bradley Wiggins is the first Brit to win the Tour de France. If he wasn’t the best man across the three weeks, then at worst he was maybe second to his teammate Chris Froome, although we’ll never know if Froome could have put enough time on Wiggins in the mountains to counter Wiggins in the time trial.

To me the real story of this year’s edition of Le Tour is the domination of the entire Sky Team rather than of their captain. They had not only the two best overall guys, but their domestiques were still chugging along when most teams were down to only their leaders, not to mention their ability to help Mark Cavendish win the stages he won. Even Wiggins took his turn in the lead out train to help Cav win his stages. Sky really were an all-star team and I can’t remember a performance like this.

Lance Armstrong was always blessed with amazing teammates, which maybe could rival this. But to watch as Sky climbed mountains with four or five men, doing the hard work as other teams sat behind just hanging on, it was quite staggering.

Question now is whether they can keep the band together for another go around. If they come back in 2013 with the same squad I can only see history repeating itself, however cycling teams rarely stay together too long. At some point Froome is going to not only want to be a team leader, but someone will pay him like one. If I had to predict, I’d say he sticks with Sky for now but by 2014 we might finally see Froome vs. Wiggins fighting for the yellow jersey. It’s also a delicate balance trying to have enough climbers to support the team leader whilst also trying to win sprint stages and support Cavendish.

Meanwhile there are rumours that Cadel Evans will drop out of the Olympics after he struggled in Le Tour. Whilst I’d love to see Cadel represent Australia, I don’t think anyone could blame him for pulling out and realistically, someone in better form coming in to replace him might be better for the team as well. I have to wonder whether Cadel simply had a bad tour or whether he is now simply declining and being past by younger, better riders. He has nothing left to prove and it wouldn’t surprise me if he is ready to hang it up. Then again he is the kind of guy who would read this (not that he will ever see it) and decide to prove everyone wrong, which frankly would be awesome.

But my favourite possible outcome would be for Cadel to realise that Tejay van Garderen is ready to lead and stick around another year to be the Froome to Tejay’s Wiggins. I think the only way to dethrone Sky now is to switch the Cadel/Tejay roles from this year and hope Tejay has the legs to get over the top.

For now, I don’t envy those boys. After three gruelling weeks they get a few days off and then have to compete at some little event called the Olympics. Oh man... the late nights just don’t end.

Well There Goes That

Yeah.. pretty much

The highs and lows of sport were on full display in Stage 11 of the Tour de France when Cadel Evans made what looked like it would be a brilliant attacking move. Evans, who everyone and their dog knew needed to claw chunks of times back from Bradley Wiggins, timed his move to coincide with his teammates, particularly Tejay Van Garderen, slipping back from the early breakaway to “pick up” Cadel and do the pace making and dirty work.

As an Evans fan, as most of us Aussies are, it looked like team BMC has planned this to perfection and we were watching our boy put a move on that might well win him another yellow jersey. Very quickly though, it become clear it wasn’t going to work.

The minute Cadel couldn’t even keep up with young Tejay; it was obvious Cadel just didn’t quite have it. Whether it’s just that one day, or whether it’s in the entire Tour this year, we will find out. However the failed attack then meant Evans didn’t have the energy to keep up with Wiggins and co to the finish line and instead of clawing time back, now he is even further back from a guy he can’t beat in the time trial.

So now the Tour de France is likely a one horse race and we are only just over halfway. I personally hope Chris Froome says “f*ck the man!” and decides to attack himself and make this a Sky on Sky showdown. How awesome would it be to see Froome defy team orders and realise he is actually the best guy out there and should be winning the whole kit and caboodle.

Unfortunately that will never happen.... unless the reports that he already defied orders in Stage 11 prove to be true. But I doubt he does it again.

So instead I am left praying Cadel pulls a Floyd Landis (sans drugs... probably) and recovers from a horrible day to destroy everyone and win the Tour anyway. The problem with this is the “sans drugs” part and thus the only real hope for those of us who want to see a legitimate yellow jersey contest is for Wiggins to somehow struggle and bring all the other players back into the race. Let’s just all hope it’s not a crash that makes that happen. Or you know, a positive drug test, which would suck even more.

On another note, my fan boner for Pierre Rolland which began last year was back last night. It seems that at least once a year Rolland decides he is going to show just how strong he is climbing one of these ridiculous mountain passes and leaves everyone in his wake. If only he learnt to put in a time trial competitive enough to really give the GC a shake and we could be looking at a real contender for years to come.

Uphill climb for Cadel, Pun Intended

Wiggins and his sideburns celebrate

So I haven’t written about the Tour de France since my race preview. I figured blogging about the sprint stages wasn’t really worth it as it has no real impact on the race overall (besides the green jersey of course) and the main thing that happened in the first week was how many crashes and withdrawals the race has seen. The two biggest names out of the race now are Ryder Hejsedal and Olympic Champion Sammy Sanchez. It’s such a shame, but it does happen.

Until last night, Cadel and Wiggins had been sticking together, finishing every single stage in the same group and more often than not literally next to each other. The only gap between them was the 10 seconds Wiggins gained during the prologue.

Of course that all changed in the first full length time trial. Cadel did a good time trial, make no mistake about it. He paced himself in a way that got the best final time for him. At the first checkpoint it looked like he might be struggling but he knew the course suiting him on the back end and he finished the stage sixth overall. That’s a great job when it includes time trial specialists like Cancellara, who will beat him in the stage but don’t matter to the general classification.

The only problem for Evans is Bradley Wiggins, who damn sure does matter in the yellow jersey race, won the whole shebang. When a rider is as good a climber as anyone and then also is the best time trial rider, that’s a recipe for a yellow jersey in Paris. Not to mention that Wiggins has teammate Chris Froome sitting in third overall and they will work together in the high mountains to guarantee at least one of them wins the race.

Can Cadel still retain his crown? Absolutely. But he is going to need to break Wiggins in the high mountains, probably more than once. With the gap sitting at just under two minutes right now, it’s reasonable to suggest Wiggins will gain another two minutes or so in the last time trial. Therefore Cadel is going to need to go into that time trial with at least a two minute lead in yellow. For the mathematicians at home, that means Cadel needs to beat Wiggins by around four minutes in the mountains before they get to the last time trial on the penultimate day of Le Tour.

Also I need to comment on how good Kenyan/Brit Chris Froome has been. The guy looked stronger than both Wiggins and Evans in the two medium mountain stages we’ve had so far, came second overall in the time trial and is frankly just as much a chance to win the whole thing as Evans is. Yeah he will have to do work for Wiggins rather than the other way around, but they will expect Froome to be able to go with Wiggins and Cadel up the mountains, then it will just come down to that last time trial where it’s every man for himself.

The next 2 weeks will be fascinating and will have to bring out the attacking side to Cadel we all want to see, but right now, Wiggins biggest obstacles could be those sideburns.

Tour de France for Dummies

Hopefully we will be seeing this again in a few weeks

So who better to preview the world’s greatest bike race than a guy who can’t ride a bike? Frankly I’m not good at doing most of the sporting activities I write about, but it doesn’t mean I don’t know stuff. You know what they say... Those who can’t do; teach.

If you are reading this I’m going to at least assume you know what the Tour de France is and that it takes about three weeks, has a bunch of sprint stages and mountain stages as well as a prologue time trial and an individual time trial that will decide the winner on the penultimate stage.

But this year some of the big names are out for various reasons and I think we could be in for one of the most exciting Tours yet. Not that they haven’t been enthralling in recent years anyway. In particular it’s a great year to follow Le Tour as an Australian with not only Cadel Evans returning to defend his title, but also for the first time ever, an Australian team in OricaGreenEDGE will compete.

If Cadel manages to repeat as champion and we get some solid performances from the GreenEDGE boys, plus other top Aussies on other teams, it could be a banner year for our boys.

For those who haven’t been following the news before Le Tour begins, don’t expect to see Alberto Contador or Andy Schleck competing with Cadel for the Maillot Jaune this year, as Schleck is out injured with a broken pelvis (OUCH!) and Contador, finally, has been banned from competition for performance enhancing drugs. It took them a while to get rid of him, but at least they got around to doing what we all knew had to happen eventually.

Also absent from Le Tour this year is the God of Thunder. No, he isn’t missing due to promoting the Avengers, but rather, Thor Hushovd is sick with a viral infection that also kept him out of the Giro d’Italia. I don’t know any fan who doesn’t love Thor and the Tour will surely miss him.

The Manx Missile and Tour bad boy Mark Cavendish will be there, but with the Olympics looming right after the Tour ends, many suspect he won’t be competing as hard for stage wins and might even pull out early. Thus, I personally have avoided him in the SBS Fantasy competition. Bit pricey for a guy with his eyes on another prize if you ask me.

So who should you keep your eyes out for this year?

Well first and foremost it will be fascinating to see how Cadel goes with the target on his back that comes with being the reigning champion. Since moving to BMC, Cadel has a team that can actually support him, even if not quite to the level of Team Sky. Whether or not he stands on the top step of the podium in Paris again in 2012, Evans will surely be there or thereabouts, barring injury or stray Labrador.

Many consider his main rival this year to be Britain’s Bradley Wiggins. The three time Olympic gold medallist has been very competitive in previous Tours without challenging for the title. But without Schleck and Contador and with his current form and team, he is the standout challenger to Cadel’s crown. In terms of Australian interests, two of Wiggins best “domestiques” are Michael Rogers and Richie Porte. Both are great riders in their own right and might have a crack at a stage win or two, but overall their job will be to get Wiggins to the top of the podium.

Team GreenEDGE will be fascinating to watch in their first tour. Simon Gerrans is a Tour veteran and I think you’ll hear his name quite a lot during the Tour, whether it’s in breakaways or perhaps a decent performance in the general classification. Also keep an eye on sprinter Matt Goss. Without Thor there and with Cav possibly not competing as hard, the Green Jersey is open to a field of sprinters. Goss is a real shot after finishing in second to Cavendish at the 2011 World Championships.

But what about some other teams I pretend to hear you say...

Canadian Ryder Hesjedal has just won the Giro d’Italia and is going to be very competitive if he isn’t exhausted after seeing the Italian sights. I also have a huge wrap on Pierre Rolland, who as the lead domestique for Thomas Voeckler last year showed he has what it takes to be a Tour contender in his own right. Also watch out for Evans’ BMC teammate Philippe Gilbert. He is more of a one-day classic specialist, but he did finish third in the points classification last year and will be looking to win a stage or two.

If Sammy Sanchez can put in a decent time trial he is another who will be looking to claim a podium spot and watch out for Estonian Rein Taaramäe who was second to Rolland for best young rider last year.

Finally as always, during the time trials the big guns to watch will be Fabian Cancellara and Tony Martin. Neither are expected to challenge for the yellow jersey overall, but expect one of them to be wearing it for about the first week or so.

So if you are still reading this and I haven’t put you to sleep, I can’t wait to hear the wonderful voice of Phil Liggett and I’ll be sure to write more as the great race unfolds.

À la prochaine.