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tkdguy

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Egan Bernal wins the Giro D'Italia

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/57272624

After a disappointing year after his 2019 Tour de France win this proved he is a star to watch for the future. He won two stages which he had not done in a Grand Tour before and this meant a lot to him.

He also is a welcome distraction for Columbia. It also means that Ineos have defended the Giro that they won last year. 

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How do you know you're bigger than "superstar"?

 

Roland Garros, the facility where the French Open is played, unveiled a statue of Rafael Nadal last week.  He's not simply still playing, he's the favorite to win it...again.  

No one gets a statue at a major venue while their career is going reasonably strongly.  He's slipped *some*...he lost in Monte Carlo and Madrid in the quarters, which is like...whoa, that never happened on clay before...but he's still the betting favorite at the French.

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Oh man.....

 

Jon Rahm is an excellent pro golfer;  currently ranked #3 in the world.  He's playing at the Memorial, the tournament where Jack Nicklaus was the long-time host, and one of the biggest non-majors on the calendar.  As the 3rd round ends, he has a 6 shot lead.  6 shots is HUGE, even with a round to play.  

 

Then...and on camera, mind, as he's walking off...Tour officials come up and tell him that he's tested positive for Covid.  Both primary and secondary.

 

And he's got to withdraw.  Just like that.

 

I wasn't watching the coverage;  I'm sure it would've been totally bizarre, as the CBS guys had no idea what was going on for a while.  Still...the guy was set to win the tournament...and, gee, over $1.6 MILLION.  POOF!  The timing had to be gut-wrenching.

 

 

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3 hours ago, tkdguy said:

Here's the latest news from the French Open:

 

Roger Federer withdraws from the tournament. Ironically, he had just won his latest match before withdrawing.

 

Elena Rybakina beats Serena Williams in straight sets. This was their first meeting.

 

I officially don't recognize any of the names of the women in that article besides Serena.  I wonder if that's a sign of advanced age.

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23 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Oh man.....

 

Jon Rahm is an excellent pro golfer;  currently ranked #3 in the world.  He's playing at the Memorial, the tournament where Jack Nicklaus was the long-time host, and one of the biggest non-majors on the calendar.  As the 3rd round ends, he has a 6 shot lead.  6 shots is HUGE, even with a round to play.  

 

Then...and on camera, mind, as he's walking off...Tour officials come up and tell him that he's tested positive for Covid.  Both primary and secondary.

 

And he's got to withdraw.  Just like that.

 

I wasn't watching the coverage;  I'm sure it would've been totally bizarre, as the CBS guys had no idea what was going on for a while.  Still...the guy was set to win the tournament...and, gee, over $1.6 MILLION.  POOF!  The timing had to be gut-wrenching.

 

 

 

For context, Rahm had every opportunity to take the vaccine and refused.  Further discussion on this point should probably move to the Political Thread.

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2 hours ago, Old Man said:

 

I officially don't recognize any of the names of the women in that article besides Serena.  I wonder if that's a sign of advanced age.

 

Probably not.  I often put Tennis Channel on, as tennis is often the only daytime sports available, and I don't recognize many of the women players.  Part of it is, the women have been MUCH!!!! more prone to surprise upsets, so there are more less-known players in later stages.  That's been VERY common for the last couple years;  a semi-final lineup might be 3 double-digit seeds and an unseeded, it's happened, IIRC.  7 of the top 17 seeds lost in the first or second round...which means to unseeded players, as the seeds are scheduled to start playing each other in the 3rd round.  4 more lost in the 3rd round, when they should've been favorites.  And, no, I'm not counting Osaka;  she withdrew.  The round of 16 is in progress, with 2 matches finished, so there are 12 players left.  Only 2 are in the top 15 in the overall womens' rankings;  3 are ranked in the 60's.

 

And this really hasn't been unusual.  

 

Now, this year, the mens' draw's been hammered, especially in the middle of the seeds.  4, 7, and 10 seeds fell 1st or 2nd round;  so did the players ranked 13, 16, 20, 21, 22, 24, and 26.  That's happened more often since the restart, and IIRC even somewhat in 2019.  

 

Serena has, I think, lost a step, and lost some pop.  Venus has just been holding on for a while;  she had 1 decent event, I think, in 2019, but she's lost far more often in the first round of even nominally secondary events.  Her rankings's outside the top 100 at this point.  Serena is still competitive, but by and large, a serious long shot to win another Grand Slam.  Roger is similar.  The level's still high but it's not at the top any more.  And then, his body's showing that his 40th is in August.  Tennis (singles, anyway) is predominately a young-ish man's game.

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That reminds me of an Andy Capp comic from many years ago.  A coal truck overturned in the street and all the housewives in the neighborhood were rushing out scoop up some free coal.  I imagine the same thing would have happened if these dice had been spilled in front of a crowd of gamers--only more frenzied.

"YAA-HOO!  "I'm cuckoo for dice!  Cuckoo for dice!  Cuckoo for dice!  Cuckoo for dice!  Cuckoo for dice!  Cuckoo for dice!  Cuckoo for dice!  Cuckoo for dice!"

 

Yeah--something like that.

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They didn't realize that the attack dealt normal, non-magical damage, and the highway needed a +2 or better magical weapon to do damage.

 

So things keep getting worse.  Gas shortage from the shut-down pipelines, then beef shortage from a ransomware attack on beef processors, and now this...we face a d6 shortage!!! We'll be overwhelmed by monsters because we can't hit them!!!!

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On 6/7/2021 at 11:29 PM, unclevlad said:

They didn't realize that the attack dealt normal, non-magical damage, and the highway needed a +2 or better magical weapon to do damage.

 

So things keep getting worse.  Gas shortage from the shut-down pipelines, then beef shortage from a ransomware attack on beef processors, and now this...we face a d6 shortage!!! We'll be overwhelmed by monsters because we can't hit them!!!!


If the pipelines stayed shut down, then the price for plastics made from petroleum would rise.  Eventually this would cause a rise in prices for things made from plastic.  Including dice. At what Mad Max level point would insane gamers (redundant) start killing off other humans in order to carve dice from the bones?

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