The Greatest Show on Earth

In Simon Barne's book The Meaning of Sport he eloquently argues that the Olympics is the "Greatest Sporting Event in the World". True such a bringing together of nations, sexes and sports is incredible but on this occasion I think I may have to disagree with his assessment. For me the greatest sporting event is the Tour de France.

Every year I am entirely engrossed by the Tour mixture of spectacle and substance and have even had the pleasure of seeing 2 stages first hand. In 2005 I witnessed one of the most remarkable achievements in sporting history as Lance Armstrong rode to his 7th Tour victory after recovering from cancer. I was hooked. Ever since I have feverishly watched the tour each year, praying that another doping scandal won't erode the public respect for a body of phenomenal athletes

This years tour is the best for some time. Brit Mark Cavendish simply can't be beaten in the bunch sprint finishes that inevitably occur on flat stages where break away riders simply can't evade the might of the peleton. In terms of the general classification there is an almighty battle between Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador, both of Team Astana, after the Texan made an unlikely return from retirement this year. Unknown Italian Rinaldo Nochentini holds the coveted yellow jersey currently although his stay looks to be temporary as the two favourites get ready to slug it out in the Alps.

Contador seems to be the favourite. He is perhaps the best climber currently in the world and his mercurial talents were highlighted when he accelerated away from the leaders in the last 2 kilometres of this years only mountain top finish to date. Despite this I would find it hard to bring myself to ever bet against Lance Armstrong to win in the Tour de France. He showed that his tactical acumen is still is a present as ever in the first week by sticking to the wheels of the Columbia HTC team when they forced a break on the run to a sprint finish in a challenging cross wind. Not only that but his climbing capacity seems undimmed as he rode with the leaders and looked comfortable on mammoth climbs like the Col d' Tourmalet. The Alps will be where the tour is won and lost but if Armstrong is actually as comfortable as he seems then I think he will win.

How romantic it would be to see Armstrong ride into Paris with the jersey on his shoulders. It would cement his place in cycling history as undoubtedly the greatest ever. Perhaps such a dramatic comeback would also cause something more important - the elevation of the Texan who fought cancer to his rightful place as the Greatest sportsman that ever lived.

Last Chance?

A few things this week have made me think of tipping points. Moments in peoples lives that are so close to being something amazing and then fall short. Such is the profundity of the moments it always makes me question; what could have been?

This question will be reverberating around Andy Roddick's head since late Sunday evening when he lost in a marathon final set to Roger Federer. The final will mainly be remembered as Federer broke Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slams and earned his deserved place in the history of Sporting greatness. Despite this Andy Roddick pushed Federer so close when many, myself included, had haughtily predicted a win in 3 sets for the Swiss Maestro. How sweet it would have been for Roddick to finally win Wimbledon when his recent form in the Majors had been waning. How vindicated he would have felt after having the misfortune of being at his peak when the greatest player ever to have lived was at his. Roddick's huge serve, natural athleticism and competitiveness would have more than likely ensured him to be the best grass court player of most generations barring those containing Bjorn Borg and his eventual nemesis Roger Federer. Having been beaten pretty easily in the previous two finals that he reached it didn't take a lot of bottle to predict a similar result this time around. But Roddick proved the doubters wrong and took Federer all the way and matched him until the 30th game of the 5th set.

In the end it was probably Roddick's fitness that was his undoing. He suffered from contesting some epic five set matches against the likes of Hewitt and he was also taken to GB's Andy Murray. If he had just managed to drag himself across the line against Roger Federer maybe it would have signalled a last hurrah or even a late career Renaissance. Either way Sunday's match was a tipping point for any Roddick, a tipping point that he was just unable to roll over.

The Jake and Tiarnan Podcast Episode 11

In this weeks Podcast we can only really talk about one thing; the death of a dancing peadophile. We also examine Uri Geller's reaction to the death of his "great friend" and wonder when aerial shots of a dead mans house became news. Not only that but there is also the new Podcast Campaign to become shit celebs in the wake of uber-cunt Arthur Kade. Download it and subscribe or listen from here now!

Big Week

I have been meaning to write a new blog entry for a while. There have been an array of stories in the press about which to opine for ages and each time I settled down to articulate my meaningless opinions something else arrived and other concerns would slide into the abyss of an old news cycle. Now there is only one thing I can really write about.

Michael Jackson has died. Although I can't say I'm his biggest fan it seems that the death of one of the most written about musicians in history is a momentous event. I happened to be at a local watering hole at the time the news began to filter through and the reaction was surreal. At first what was thought to be a rumour quickly became hard fact and the new communication revolution quickly sprang in to action. Blackberry's were pulled from pockets, Iphones examined feverishly for reasons other than the usual purpose (which is mainly to let everyone in the surrounding vicinity know that you have an Iphone). Michael Jackson was definitely dead.

Whatever is to be said about the man (and there is lot which is somewhat negative) his music was hugely important. Thriller is the greatest selling album of all time and contains an astounding 7 number ones, a respectable number for the career of most popstars over 3 albums. Jackson set the bar for music videos and attracted an audience of millions, at 2 in the morning, for what became the most iconic video in history, Thriller. Although his influence in this sense is unquestionable ( Justin Timberlake, Ne-Yo, Chris Brown or a plethora of similar artists simply wouldn't exist without him) his private life was dodgy to say the least. Although he was ultimately cleared of the unsavoury child-related allegations he was dogged by them throughout later life and his reputation was tarnished. It seems to have done little to dim his appeal worldwide but there will always be a pervading sense of strangeness attached to a man who was public property since the age of five.

The way that his death has dominated the news cycle is astounding. The cable news channels have played archive footage of the singer for hours on end and have a constant stream of twitter based tributes from various notables. Given the total concentration of "Jacko" it has to be asked - What else is going on in the world? One announcement will get buried today and it is a huge one. The Iranian Guardian council have declared that the recent election was "the healthiest in years" and although its a bit of a gutter that a celebrity has died I hope it does not take to the focus away from a populace deprived of democracy.

The Iranian population will be gutted but someone who may be a little happier is South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. He announced in a fawning, apologetic press conference earlier this week (after being missing and having not contacted his staff for 5 days) that he had been in Argentina seeing a mistress that he has been keeping for over a year. The extremely Conservative Governor has been the standard bearer amongst the GOP for fighting against Barack Obama's stimulus package and was thereby anointed as probable Presidential Candidate for 2012, if he was proved right. Now, despite the fortune of his misdemeanours being buried under other stories, that goal seems unlikely especially because he has violated one of the fundamental "Divine Laws" that his conservative, gun toting, family values obsessed base are concerned with.

Either way let's hope that Micheal Jackson is appropriately mourned but that the public have long enough memories to make sure that what really matters is put front and centre.

The Jake and Tiarnan Podcast - Episode 10

After a poor showing last week on the Podcast front we come back with a bang and another top notch jingle. Tense music is employed to give gravitas to the new segment that is The News Quiz which replaces the terrible pooch. Listening back to this episode makes me think we should plan a tad more as we tend to start on one topic before just jumping off to something else. But if you like improvised, rambling bollocks then episode 10 is a doozy. You can listen to it and subscribe to it here .

Inevitable

I can now enjoy my summer in peace. Not because my exams are finished, not because my holiday plans are secure - because Cristiano Ronaldo has finally left Manchester United.

The preening Portugese theatrical master has finally confirmed what all but the most ardent of Manchester United fans has refused to beleive. His world record transfer to Real Madrid saves me having to hear, and the British press having to write, speculative nonsense about "Ronnys" future, the like of which has dogged the back pages for the past three years. It seemed obvious that Ronaldo wanted to go. His constant changes of heart and insincere pledges that he would be at Old Trafford for the forseeable future were tempered by his coy flirting with the notion of a big money move. He did not even rule out the possibility of going to Manchester City when the idea was touted perhaps cementing him as the most money hungry traitor in the history of football.

Would Puskas be happy to see such a man pull on the historic, pure white jersey? Regardless of the goals he will score and the shirts he will sell is this really the type of player you can rely on to end Barca's stranglehold on La Liga? In comparison Kaka has been the model proffesional. He stayed loyal to Milan the club, that just as United did for Ronaldo, gave him his chance and put him on the map until it became abundantly clear that they actually wanted him to go to reap the financal rewards. He made no fawning tributes to Real Madrid and had not been courting them with "come and get me pleas" (what a brilliant cliche) in tabloids throughout Europe. He said staunchly that he was happy to stay even up until the day that Milan asked him to leave.

Although Ronaldo may bring some much needed silverware to Madrid will they really be able to beleive him when he says he wants to see out the rest of his career in the the Capital? Either way the new age of Galacticos has well and truly begun.

Gutted

I am not patriotic in any way to be honest but have always had a strange tempered pride for Britain. We are one of the oldest deomcracies in the world. We never bothered with facism and locked bad old Oswald Mosley up so he could think about what he'd done in the forties. When the economy was going tits up between the wars and there were communists and spartacists knocking about all over Europe we just shrugged out shoulders and carried on. Sure we wreaked a deathly havoc over vast swathes of the earth with the whole empire thing , are responsible for horrible poverty and such in africa after leaving our big colonial houses and letting any nutjob take over and we did starve half of Ireland to death once- but I've always thought we had something special. I was wrong.

We are in fact a nation of reactionary tossers. Just because the economy is in a mess and The Telegraph have shown that our MP's are a little bit crooked we have decided to vote for the BNP. Germany voted for the Nazis and obviously this was a horrific mistake but at the same time they had to go through a long and bloody war, near economic collapse in which their currency was meaningless and accept the humiliation of having to accept guilt and pay compensation for the first global conflict. We have started voting for Neanderthal wankers because some people used money that wasn't theirs to have their moat cleaned. The BNP gained two seats in the recent European elections which is two seats more than any party so open in their islamaphobic, anti-semitic sentiment should have. Despite numerous videos and articles exposing what the real message of the BNP is it seems that some people have been drawn in by their outward claims of wanting to preserve a "national identity". We are a nation of immigrants and ultimatley the entire human race stems from 200 hundred primitive humans that came from the "cradle of life" in Kenya, although I'm not sure how well this would sit with the BNP.

Their concerns are insane. A major one that Nick Griffin re-iterated again in his smug victory speech was councils banning St Georges day festivals but tax payers paying for ethnic minorities when they wish too have "their festivals". Why is this a problem? Are there not more pressing concerns about at the moment? (global economic meltdown and international terrorism are two that spring to mind). The other point that Griffin fails to understand is that St Georges day festivals are not banned by villanous ethnic minority groups who hate white English people, they are banned by councils who fear that they will be hijacked by far-right political groups using the oppurtunity to preach a hateful message of racial purity in Britain- which I suspect the BNP would at such a festival given the chance. I highly doubt that they would be using St Georges day festivals as a colourful mardi-gras with dragon floats and brown shirted children throwing Mein Kampf shaped bon-bons to an adoring public.

Despite all this I still take heart from the fact that the BNP gained fewer votes than in 2004 and have been allowed to sneak into the European parliament by a dodgy electoral system. It's just a bit disgusting that all it needs is a name change, from the National Front, and people to claim for chocolate bars on expenses for voters in Britain to start running to the far right when they get to a ballot box.

*I have opted to go for a more palletable picture than Nick Griffin's podgy, slack jawed face. Even writing about the BNP to say that you despise everything they stand for is too many references for one blog.