The Woes of Wiggins' Wingman

Froome in the 41.5-km time trial of Besançon

Le Tour est finis. Even with three stages left, the competition is over. Today's a leisurely stroll across the countryside and it is impossible to place any attacks; tomorrow is a time-trial stage where the current leader is unbeatable; and Sunday is the final exhibition across the chateaux of the Loire and into Paris. Thus, Bradley Wiggins has already won this Tour de France.

That's not upsetting per se. I like Wiggo and this is the culmination of two years' hard work. What's upsetting is that he was not the best rider. Wiggins' teammate and fellow Briton Chris Froome was. Currently, Froome is second in the general classification, a mere two minutes behind Wiggins. He holds his own in time trials and is an excellent pacer, but he is a far better climber than Wiggins.

At least twice -- last week on the Grand Colombier and today on the Peyresourd -- Froome attacked and clearly distanced his own captain, only to be called back via radio by Team Sky's manager, or perhaps by Wiggins himself. That's not the official version, of course. The official version is that Froome "thought" that Wiggins was following and he had simply started off at a brisker pace than the captain would have wanted. But anyone with even a passing knowledge of pro road cycling knows that to be false. Simply put, Froome had it in him to attack, to go forth, and to win at least one, if not two stages. That is not to say that Wiggins would have been alone and desperate. He would have fought back, he would have chased, he would have battled, and perhaps he would have still won... but I would have wanted to see him earn it, not only against the other 196 riders, but against Froome as well.

Wiggins claims that Froome was simply trying to edge him on

This is an old dilemma. What happens when the wingman is better than the captain? The unwritten laws of competitive justice say that whoever is stronger should prevail, but the dynamics of today's road cycling teams are another story. A team has a captain, usually the most highly decorated rider or whoever has the better chance of winning the general classification in the race at hand. The rest of the team are hired and paid to work for the captain, to help him, and to let him trail them whenever necessary. (In competitive cycling, it is much less tiring to ride on someone's trail than to lead and be trailed: whoever rides ahead takes the brunt of air resistance and whoever's behind does more with less effort). Only when the captain doesn't need them can the support riders pursue personal glory, such as stage wins or climbing heroism. The Italians have a great word for these support riders. They call them "gregari," which literally means "men from the pack."

The woes of wingman Froome don't really show that teams sometimes "pick the wrong captain." It was hard to imagine such a high-level performance from a second-time Tour participant. Instead, the problem is that even when the error is acknowledged, there is nothing that can be done about it. While not as rich as other sportsmen, top pro cyclists get fairly hefty contracts from their teams, and as I explained above contracts are tied to jobs and objectives. Simply put, Froome wasn't hired to win, and some commentators find this idea of team obligations to be fundamentally at odds with the individual nature of cycling.

Perhaps the answer is that cycling is not really an individual sports after all. Former Giro winner Paolo Savoldelli claims that it is in fact a team effort, and that it is becoming more and more so with the passing of time. It's simple physics. It makes a world of difference, measurable in minutes and lactic acid, whether you face the race's key climb alone or on the trail of a teammate. If it's quantifiable, you can put a price on it, and so everyone does. I could claim once more that competitive justice calls for total fairness, or I could lament that money is the root of all evil, but I'll leave those battles for another Bastille Day.

For now I will just insist, as a disgruntled sports fan, that I wanted to see more and better. For the last few stages it has been Nibali vs. Evans vs. Wiggins-and-Froome. Was it really too much to ask to see Nibali vs. Evans vs. Wiggins vs. Froome?

I am 50% sure it would have ended differently and 100% sure it would have been more fun.

(PS: Contador always fixed his own messes. Alberto 2013 and haters gonna hate).

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Tour de France update

In the last ten days I moved from Virginia to Indiana and then flew back to Italy; I also experienced several health problems. I still managed to watch the Wimbledon finals and keep up with Le Tour, but "real life" has a bad habit of interfering with my sports-watching! Damn you, real life. I don't expect to update this blog very much in the next week, either, as health problems continue, but surely by the time the Olympics roll around I'll be back in shape and live-blogging the crap out of London 2012!

Meanwhile, at La Grande Boucle, Bradley Wiggins is still very much in control of the yellow jersey. Not that there's been much actual competition. For the second year in a row, the Tour organizers planned a very non-threatening route with little altitude and relatively easy stages. Add to that there are over 100 km worth of time-trial stages, and Wiggins' victory is served. Neither Evans nor Nibali, who are currently Wiggins' top adversaries, are capable of topping the Brit in time trials. Wiggins, like Miguel Indurain a couple of decades ago, doesn't just do well in time trials: he wins them, hands down; and as long as the Tour is structured to favor that particular skill set, there will be no real competition.

That is not to say that Wiggins doesn't do well in climbs, for he's definitely hard to leave behind in the mountains. But that's because of two reasons: 1) There aren't any real climbs in this Tour, with only a handful of HC climbs, all placed early in their respective stages, and a mere two mountain arrivals, neither very challenging; 2) Wiggins can count on his Team Sky, which is made up of riders that would be captains in any other team, like Froome, Porte, and Boasson Hagen. So you can't really say that Wiggins is a fabulous stage racer. He's a fabulous stage racer in an easy Tour where he's counting on a killer team. These, after all, were the skills he had showcased at the Criterium du Dauphine last month and that we were waiting for him to confirm at the Tour now, so no surprises.

I insist on all these qualifiers is that in the last few years we hae seen stellar performances by riders who were all-around fabulous stage racers, such as Contador and Schleck. The 2009 and 2010 Tours were among the most exciting I have ever seen, and from this standpoint last year's and this year's have come nowhere close. If I were to be malignant, I would say that the Tour organizers are waiting for Contador's (unfair) punishment to expire and for him to return next year. If that is right, the 2013 Grande Boucle will be awesome. But we'll see.

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Wimbledon quarterfinals and semifinals

LADIES' SINGLES: SEMIFINALS

Kerber (8) - Radwanska (3)

S. Williams (6) - Azarenka (2)

GENTLEMEN'S SINGLES: QUARTERFINALS

Djokovic (1) - Mayer (31)

Federer (3) - Youzhni (26)

Ferrer (7) - Murray (4)

Tsonga (5) - Kolschreiber (27)

On the ladies' side, whatever happens we will have a new final. I am hoping for Azarenka-Radwanska, because Vika seriously needs to win another Major and because I detest few sports figures like I detest Serena.

On the gents' side, save for Nadal's upsetting upset the big ones are still running and looking good. I've been especially pleased with Murray's game: less schizo, more in control, especially against Cilic (who was however pretty tired). Djoko-Federer will be an epic semi, and I'm predicting a Murray-Djokovic final... and as much as I love Nole, here's hoping that Murray finally breaks the spell and wins a fucking Major already. I'm pretty sure Centre Court might collapse if he does...
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Euro 2012 final: Spain-Italy 4:0

SPAIN		4	:	0		ITALY
	Silva 14', Alba 41' Torres 84', Mata 89'

My match rating: -_-

My man of the match: Iniesta (S)

UEFA report ---|||--- Player ratings ---|||--- Photos ---|||--- Highlights

Well, fuck.

No, not really. Spain was the better team and they played like it. The score, unfortunately, is too severe to the losers and doesn't adequately represent the values on the pitch. If Italy had played their best and had not had to be down to ten men, Spain would have probably won it 2-0 or 3-1, and that would have been more representative. But c'est la vie. As I said many times before and I won't take back now, at the end of the day all that matters in football is the scoreline, and the rest is chatter.

Italy ought to find pride in the rest of their tournament. Somewhat like Lippi in 2006, Prandelli has designed an efficient football machine by bunching inexperienced youngsters around the three pillars Buffon, De Rossi, and Pirlo. And in the midst of a major legal scandal back at home, this ragtag team won a ticket to the final of football's most difficult international tournament, only to lose to the best team of... probably the last two or three decades; best of all time, according to some madmen, but we don't listen to madmen.

So, once more, Forza Azzurri!

Some more miscellaneous end-of-tourney reflections on Euro 2012 are forthcoming.
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Euro 2012 semifinal: Germany-Italy 1:2

GERMANY		1	:	2		ITALY
	Ozil 90' (p)				Balotelli 20', 36'

My match rating: ★★★

My man of the match: Balotelli (I)

UEFA report ---|||--- Player ratings ---|||--- Photos ---|||--- Highlights

Commentary to follow!!
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Recent updates, or lack thereof!

I'm moving to another state these days, so it is incredibly hard to keep up with the awesome sporting events that are still going down!

Thursday I missed the first half of the Italy-Germany match. Yesterday we had a huge thunderstorm that knocked down many power lines, and thus I haven't been able to watch the game yet. I will make sure to do that before tomorrow's final... speaking of which, I might well get a heart attack while watching that, and so my blogging days will come to an abrupt close!

Wimbledon is underway and I've been able to follow it closely, via internet if nothing else, and I should be able to discuss the round of 16 match-ups some time Sunday night or Monday morning. Some interesting upsets and matches so far at the All England, for sure.

I have, instead, completely missed out on the Athletics European Championships and the women's volleyball World Grand Prix final four. Both end tomorrow after a brief four-day run. That sucked, but c'est la vie: something's gotta give, especially at such busy times as these are.

Meanwhile, the Tour de France started today with the brief individual time trial prologue in Liege, Belgium... so, for all intents and purposes, Le Tour really starts tomorrow with the first line stage. Cancellara has the yellow jersey's after today's sprint, but again that's virtually meaningless to the final standings. This is still a Tour between Evans, Wiggins, and maybe Schleck, but mostly the Aussie and the Brit. Updates to follow, as time permits.
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Euro 2012 semifinal: Portugal-Spain 2:4 apk

PORTUGAL

2

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4

SPAIN

              0 : 0   a.e.t.


ORDER OF PENALTIES

Xabi Alonso (0:0), Moutinho (0:0)
Iniesta (0:1), Pepe (1:1)
Pique (1:2), Nani (2:2)
Sergio Ramos (2:3), Bruno Alves (2:3)
Fabregas (2:4)


My match rating: ★

My man of the match: Casillas (S)

UEFA report ---|||--- Player ratings ---|||--- Photos ---|||--- Highlights

As predicted, Portugal managed to out-play Spain for much of the match by simply matching their playing style. Bento must have realized, as Prandelli also had in the group stage, that the way to play Spain is to not play them. Keep the ball, make possession, and accelerate suddenly to create scoring chances. The more you do it, the less Spain has a chance to. Surely enough, if we look at the ball possession statistics we see that Spain held the ball a mere 58% of the time. While still good, it's a huge change for the 70%+ that we'd gotten used to in the previous rounds. By handling a good chunk of the play, Portugal handled the match.

But of course that's not enough: you also have to score. Portugal didn't, and while their opportunities were not nearly as vivid as Italy's against England, they were still pretty damn good. More importantly, they had more than Spain did, at least during regulation. Spain are good scorers, but what they're really good at is not being scored against. Del Bosque's somewhat improvised defense, with Jordi Alba filling Puyol's large shoes, worked out remarkably well throughout the tournament, as Spain hasn't taken a single goal since Di Natale's bender in the first half of the first game of the first round. Ronaldo may not have shined yesterday, but a good deal of that has to do with the fact that the Spanish defenders didn't give him a chance to take clean shots.

The penalties were a weird affair. I struggle to recall a match where this happened. For one, both teams missed the first penalty, Spain with the France match-winner Alonso and Portugal with Moutinho. Both were saves, too, and not misses (though as I've said before, every saved penalty is also basically a miss). Then we saw two successful series of good penalties, including a half-Panenka by Sergio Ramos. I was surprised, for Ramos is barely able to kick the ball at all, let alone kick it pretty. But in it went, and although not as beautiful or meaningful as Pirlo's, it was a nice penalty. Then something odd happened. Bruno Alves went to kick the third penalty, but right after placing the ball on the spot he walked back to the center, and Nani came to kick the penalty instead. I gotta assume that they were simply confused as whose turn it was next, for Alves did eventually kick the fourth penalty. But it betrayed a lack of focus, which in a war of nerves like a penalty shootout can be fatal. And it was, for Alves eventually missed the fourth penalty, giving Fabregas the chance to take Spain through to the final. Of course, Cesc did.

Perhaps the most stunning thing of all is that Ronaldo didn't even get to kick a penalty. Alright, by now it's understood that I hate the guy, but he is the most skilled Portuguese player... so why would you ever put yourself in a situation where he might not even contribute?! Usually, the best penalty takers will kick either first (to put your team up, or even, and thus encourage the rest) or fourth (for more often than not that ends up being the decisive penalty). The fifth penalty is rarely decisive, especially if your team is second in kicking order, so I have no idea what was going through Bento's head as he picked the list. As them Catholics say, "mystery of faith."

Now Spain awaits the winner of Germany-Italy, which is played later today. Whatever happens, it will be an awesome match. Spain-Germany would be the rematch of the Euro 2008 final and of the 2010 World Cup semifinal. Spain won both 1-0, both times displaying their trademark tiki-taka and effectively neutralizing the more creative German offense. The 2008 final is of course more relevant to Euro history: there has never been a repeat final in two consecutive editions of the same major international tournament. Spain-Italy, then, would be very interesting for three reasons. One, the teams are quickly developing a rivalry. Spain knocked Italy out in the Euro 2008 quarterfinals after a tight match resolved by a tense penalty shootout, and then of course they were in the same group in this edition. Two, it would be the only time in the Euro or World Cup history that the two finalists come from the same group. Third and much more interestingly, so far Italy has proven to be the only team capable of truly challenging Spain. Del Bosque's team struggled mightily in the first match and only came as close to winning it as Italy did. Should they meet again in Sunday's final, Spain would still be favorite, but Italy would give them a run for their money.

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