Leo-Shack!?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/leopard-trek-confirms-merger-with-radioshack

http://www.leopardtrek.lu/news/leopard-trek-welcomes-radioshack-and-nissan-new-main-sponsors


http://www.livestrong.com/teamradioshack/news_press-release-radioshack-nissan-trek-cycling-super-team-links-top-riders-sponsors/

Rumors, rumors, rumors... First Leopard was shutting down, then it was said that Leopard would be financing a big part of the merge. So I have posted a few links above for your reading pleasure.

Most cyclist know their roll. It is one of the most loyal sports that a sports enthusiast can be a part of. Be it a fan, or participant. I am praying for the chemistry to be with the new Trek team. Hopefully the leadership and the merge will bring forth growth in the combined team. It is said that Leipheimer has not yet received an invitation to this merger, nor Jen Voigt. Fuglsang among other names have been excluded because of the 30 member limit. Regardless, the combination of riders will be lethal, and I believe will do some remarkable things. But will Andy be strong enough to lead? Frank showed great character in the Tour de France, and in the USA Pro Challenge seemingly outshining his brother on several occasions. Does Andy have the toughness to step up to the next level? Can he out battle Contador, Evans, and the rest of the world? Time will tell, and I pray that Trek and all of it's riders fair well.

Well onto the Vuelta to take care of business in Spain. I am praying that Fuglsang, Monfort, and all others looking for spots will use this Tour of Spain as a strength builder to their resume`s. Well back to the mountains of Spain... see ya tomorrow.

Labor Day Weekend Review...

Football is here! Or at least College Football anyway. Still have a little time to trash talk before the Nobody's  Faithful League to keep up. For the love of money... not Championships, and especially not for your fans or city, but for the For Self League. College athletics are not far behind, but the majority of those guys still play for pride, and love of the game! That may not pay the bills, but the education they obtain, just might...

So what games meant a hill of beans to you? I am starting off with College Fottball, and getting start to business.

College Football

DUKE 21 Richmond 23
Dook at Wallace Wade (home), is downed by the Richmond Spiders! 23-21 and a Dook loss! That was good enough to end with, but had to get things started on the right foot.

Auburn 42 Utah St 38
Baylor 50 TCU 48
Auburn came back on USU scoring two late TD's to take a victory, and continue their win streak into the new season, and Baylor and TCU were in an offensive dog fight! If Griffin 3 keeps playing at the rate that he did this weekend, he is most def a Heisman candidate in my book!

Wisconsin 51 UNLV 17
The Badger game was almost my top pick for the thumpin' of the day, but I believe I will have to give those honors to Cinci, for bullying up on Austin Peay. Final 72 - 10! However, I will say this again, with Toomer and a talented receiving corp, taking passes from Russell "Mr." Wilson, things could look even brighter for the Badgers this year. The Bucky faithful are once again in the hunt for their conference title and possibly a little more, but I just don't know even with above mentioned and the one-two punch of Ball, and White in the backfield, that they can win it all. If they are going to do so, then the D is going to have to get better!

UNC 42 JMU 10
Last but certainly not least, Carolina opened the season, and took care of their new Head Coach. UNC defeated James Madison by the score of 42 - 10, and gave Coach Withers his first victory as the new skipper. I am praying that this continues. Bryn Renner connected on 22 of his 23 attempts, and tied a school record for consecutive completions by connecting on his last 14... Nicely done Bryn, nicely done!

Cycling

It saddens me to say, that Jakob Fuglsang, of Leopard Trek, dropped in the standings even more. He is now a bit more than 3 minutes off the pace of the race leader (Cobo), and with one week remaining, I just don't think you can be this conservative, and win. The majority of the stages left are mountain stages, with no time trials, and no easy paces from here on out, so being down by minutes at this stage of the race is crucial...

1 Juan Cobo (GEO)
2 Chris Froome (SKY) 3 Bradley Wiggins (SKY)
4 Bauke Mollema (RAB) 5 Maxime Monfort (LEO) Trek honorable mentions: 7th Jakob Fuglsang (LEO) 22nd Janez Brajkovic (RSH)
25th Oliver Zaugg (LEO) 29th Tiago Machado (RSH) In the Team Overall: 1 Geox - TMC 2 Leopard Trek Trek honorable mentions: 11th Radio Shack Trek
Moto GP: Jorge Lorenzo led the Misano race from pole to finish, and dominated. He still has a lot of ground to make up, with only five rounds remaining, but anything is possible. If JoLo (HoLo) wins out, he still needs help from Stoner. Here's to a couple of third place finishes and a couple of Yamaha 1-2 podiums with Lorenzo, Spies, or even better 1-2-3 finishes with Edwards helping play spoiler too. Breaking News or not...This just in... Trek teams Radio Shack, and Leopard are rumored again, to be looking toward a merger. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/more-rumours-around-leopard-trek-radioshack-merger Now a few key elements have to come into play. 1. Andy is going to have to be the overall rider that he needs to be to make this work. It's a lot easier said than done, but his overall performance is going to have to be on point. He must improve in the areas of weakness. Most notably his Time Trialing. 2. Is the Chemistry there? With a team full of heavy hitters you have to deliver! If Andy doesn't step up, and is out ridden by his brother (Frank), then will one of the other riders step up, and if so, what will that do to the morale of the team? Can you say Miami Heat? D Wade, and LeBron sounded like an unstoppable tandem, and don't get me wrong, if I am a franchise owner, and can get both of these guys on my squad, then it's a done deal! The talent is there, now how do you get them to utilize it? More Breaking News! Appears to be closer to a done deal now!!!
Leopard is done after a year and Schleck's are said to join Radio Shack!!! Leipheimer, Horner, Schleck Bros., Cancellara, Fuglsang, and others... could be very interesting if the chemistry is there!

Fantasies, Wishful Thinking, & I Doubt It

Football

My fantasy is that one year I would get an auto draft so fabulous that I could claim our fantasy leagues trophy before the season started.
It is wishful thinking considering that I am too booked to really put any time into anything right now, and I was autodrafted a pretty mediocre team to boot.
Would there be a generous soul willing to shift a QB around and help a brotha out? The answer is no! Charles your cue: "I May Be Wrong, But I DOUBT IT!"


Charles Barkley: "I May Be Wrong (But I Doubt It)" from Hype Communications on Vimeo.


My fantasy is that Wisconsin, UCLA, or UNC would win a CFB National Championship.

It is wishful thinking, and Wisconsin has the best shot at that title. Carolina's schedule is too weak, and they are not in a football conference, or known as a football school. Under Coach Davis' watch they also had some rules violations that have hindered their shot at any greatness, for a long while. At least we still play Duke, but that might not be such a good thing this year either. UCLA has a coach that went through violations problems in his past as well. I believe in second chances, and I believe people can change.

Sadly enough, to all the above, I do not believe that Wisconsin has the defensive prowess to win it all. They have plenty of offensive firepower, but not the D. UNC might have a break out season under new management, but I do not see it! I pray that they do not struggle against Duke this year! The misfortunes at UCLA could change, but again Coach Newheiststeal had his violations woes at Colorado, and the heavy watch would get to anyone. So, I think UCLA will continue to struggle as well. Therefore I have no choice but to cue Charles, because I don't think any of my schools can pull off the miracle season... "I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It!"

Cycling...

Time for the Vuelta... My fantasy would be seeing Fabian Cancellara come back from 144th place to win the Vuelta, and have Leopard Trek take the overall team title as well! Or have Tiago Machado win the General Classification, and have Team Radio Shack take the overall team title. Oh right, I forgot about the podium finishes! Pick any other Trek riders to put in the 2nd and 3rd spot... and have the Team Overall with Shack or Leopard in first, with the other as runner up, and any of the American Teams to finish third. Yeah that would be sweet!

It's wishful thinking to think that Trek could win the GC and the Team Overall, and completely dominate in every category.

Again all of those things would be great, but it is not gonna happen... I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It!

Conclusion

Jakob Fulgsang, Haimar Zubeldia, or Janez Brajkovic could come back from being only a few seconds, or a few minutes down. I believe it can be done, and I believe that the highly talented Leopard Trek rider from Denmark (Jakob Fuglsang) can and will win the Vuelta... I could be wrong, but I doubt it!

OK time to clean up, room, bike, me, and get to gittin'!!! Peace...

Labor Day Weekend Sports Update!

Great finish for HTC rider Michael Albasini. He sprinted across the line first, and took Stage 13 from Eros Capecchi. It looked as though Capecchi came out of his shoe momentarily, or that his cleat released from his pedal, and at that point he knew he was finished.

American rider Taylor Phinney of Team BMC calls it a Tour, and prepares now for the World Championships. He had a solid Time Trial in the Vuelta, and will now prepare to do battle in the Worlds against favorites Martin, and Cancellara. Martin has been more of the machine this year, and has dominated in each Tour concerning Time Trials. Speaking of Cancellara, fellow countrymen Oliver Zaugg finished 6th in today's mountainous stage. Great work! The Trek teams are looking good in the overall standings!

The Team Standings show strongly in favor of the Waterloo, WI teams!

Stage 13 Team Results

1. Team Shack
2. Leopard Trek
   

Stage 13 Individual Results

1. Michael Albasini (HTC)
2. Eros Capecchi (LIQ)
3. Daniel Moreno (KAT)
4. David De La Fuente (GEO)
5. Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mon)
6. Oliver Zaugg (LEO)

General Classifications
Slight change to the Top 10

Britain's Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky, is still the top rider logging in 51: 14:59 after finishing Stage 13 today. He is trailed by teammate Christopher Froome, also from Britain by seven (7) seconds. Jakob Fuglsang of Leopard Trek moved up a spot into fourth, but is still nineteen seconds behind race leader Wiggins. Fuglsang's teammate, Maxime Monfort holds onto the seventh spot, and Radio Shack just missed have the one two punch to stay in the Top Ten. Janez Brajkovic dropped to eleventh, and teammate Haimar Zubeldia, remains in tenth.

Labor Day Weekend = College Football/Futbol

Wisconsin downs UNLV 51 - 17. Wisconsin was expected to blow out an undersized UNLV at Camp Randall, so no big surprise in this one. Coach Bielema has some work to do on his D, however. UW has a new QB, and he looked pretty good last night. Wilson made sharp passes, and got a somewhat nice comparison last evening. One of ESPN's commentators compared him to Drew Brees. Then they saw that he can run as well... talks say Wilson could go pro! Time will tell.

My beloved Heels play tomorrow Saturday at 3:30pm on ESPN3 y'all, and the missus is trying to drag me out camping! Sorry Coach Withers, I may be campside with the family, and doing work with Kert tomorrow, but I will follow the updates on the old Droid ;)

Viva La Vuelta!

Is it just me, or is that the Trek Leopard Team, with the Time Trial World Champion Fabian Cancellara out front in the Vuelta A Espana after winning the Time Trial stage on Saturdays opening day? 170+ km stage tomorrow, but with no serious climbs. The experts (again) are saying that this 21 stage race will favor the climbers. Isn't that the way of most Grand Tour races? All I can say is Go Shack, Go Leopard!

 

Trek Leopard won today as a team, and kept it together. They kept things together despite a few crashes, and kept the Schleck's up front in France, so I feel pretty good about Trek bringing home another victory. Time will tell. In fact September, 11th will tell. Until then, I will catch you after church tomorrow para Etapa Dos dela Vuelta...