The final stage was a circular route, from Nice to Nice and was 119km long.

Team Radioshack came out on top overall, with just over 40 seconds on Cofidis.

Contador looked in charge, and didn’t allow any breakaways to develop containing anyone who might challenge for the Jersey. After the breakaway on a climb where Moinard secured his polka-dot jersey, Contador began to push the pace on himself.

Moinard beat Voeckler to win the stage, with Valverde coming third (and earning second place in the general classification. Reine Taaramae takes the young rider title, and Peter Sagan took the points title.

I enjoy watching road cycling, but I don’t follow everything – there’s just too much. For example, I allowed the Tirreno-Adriatico to pass me by this week.

Next week is the next race to catch my eye, the Milan-San Remo one day classic. From the huge list of events, the following are the main ones which I will try and catch – though I may change the list as the year progresses!

• 20th March – Milan-San Remo
• 28th March – Gent-Wevelgem
• 4th-5th April – Ronde van Vlaanderen/Tour des Flandres
• 11th April – Paris-Roubaix
• 18th April – Amstel Gold Race
• 21st April – La Fléche Wallonne
• 8th-30th May – Giro d’Italia
• 3rd-25th July – Tour de France

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Read the rest of Paris Nice 2010 – Stage 7 Results (697 words)

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As a result, Tondo was not caught, though Valverde did get up to second place when the chasing pack began to really motor, and is now 14 seconds behind Contador.

(I know the final stage 7 has already happened, but it’s still unwatched on my digibox, so it hasn’t happened for me)

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Read the rest of Paris Nice 2010 – Stage 6 Results (1,088 words)

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Post tags: Cycling, Nice, Paris

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This season has a new scoring system, 25 points for the winner, 18 for second then 15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 down to tenth place.

Another new innovation is that ex-racing drivers are to be part of the stewards panel, this can only be a good thing,

This season also sees the return of Michael Schumacher, he’s not dominating as he once did, but it should be interesting over the season to see him race again.

On top of these changes, Jensen Button and Lewis Hamilton, Champions from 2008 and 2009, will be team-mates.

For the first time in ages, it seems like the tweaks all work together for a better championship, there is nothing that screams at me as worrisome.

Webber’s car produced an interesting smoke plume just after the start, but it didn’t seem to indicate a big problem as he was still in 7th place after seven laps, indeed, he lasted the race.

Bruno Senna was the first to pit on the 12th lap, it was a little tentative for the new driver and new team, but there were no big dramas.

This was followed by Kubica, Petrov and others. Petrov’s pit was very slow, with some sort of problem retiring him.

Hamilton and Schumacher pitted together on lap 16, both cleanly, both emerging with clean air. Schumacher kept on Hamilton’s tail.

Rosberg emerged from the pits between Hamilton and Schumacher.

Vettel kept his lead after his pit stop, and as the halfway point approached he looked dominant.

After around 30 laps, Alonso was on Vettel’s tail, but was hanging back as he was overheating due to Vettel’s turbulent hot wake. At lap 34, Vettel had a sudden loss of power, he kept going but Alonso and Massa passed him without problem, this put Alonso into clean air.

The failure was, according to the race radio, an exhaust failure.

Hamilton was over ten seconds behind Vettel, but began to reel him in, and was soon on his bumper, and then Hamilton pulled ahead to a podium position.

At lap 40, Hamilton reported a lot of vibration from the front of the car, it wasn’t to be a problem and he drove through to the end of the race.

At lap 44, the order was Alonso, Massa, Hamilton, Vettel, Rosberg, Schumacher, Button, Webber.

At lap 45, Rosberg was seconds behind Vettel, and closing, and in lap 46 he started to get into Vettel’s dirty air.

By lap 48, Vettel was still holding off Rosberg, which was somewhat surprising, indeed, Vettel pulled away a little.

Alonso took the flag with a little flourish, showboating over the line. He was followed by Massa, Hamilton, Vettel, Rosberg, Schumacher, Button, Webber, Liussi, Barrichello, Kubica, Sutil. I may be wrong in this, but I think this may be the first time that the winner of the Bahrain Grand Prix hasn’t come from the front row of the grid.

On the basis of that race, I’m not convinced that the new pit regulations work well. Perhaps the rule should be two tyre changes, or even no compulsory tyre changes (but you must stick with the qualifying tyres to start the race). Not sure.

Link - (Come and Comment - I like comments!) | Original : F1 2010 Bahrain | © Murky, 2010. | Add to del.icio.us
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Of course, elsewhere we use dd/mm/yyyy, so Pi Day would be 31st April, but then the divider is in the wrong place, so lets go with the yanks on this one.

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There followed a short but steep climb – and Peter Sagan broke away for a huge lead in no time at all.

With a kilometre to go it looked like he may have gone too soon, and that he’d be reeled back in, but he maintained his lead for the stage win. It was a supreme effort.

Now I’ve got stage 6 to watch!
(...)
Read the rest of Paris Nice 2010 – Stage 5 Results (1,152 words)

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Post tags: Cycling, Nice, Paris

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The club withdrew their remaining 270 silver rupee coins from the bank, had them melted down and made a cup, which they donated to the RFU in England for it to be used as the union saw fit for ‘the best means of doing some lasting good for the cause of Rugby Football’.

The RFU were unwilling to promote a club competition for fear of introducing professionalism to the amateur game, and so it became the totem for the match between England and Scotland.

England took the cup from Scotland in 2009. Since 2005 it has changed hands every year, with the home side taking it.

This year, the match was played at Murrayfield, and Scotland opened the scoring, kicking a penalty to lead 3-0.

Wirhin a couple of minutes, Scotland had another penalty but missed touch and Cueto cleared. With ten minutes played, the ball came from the scrum and found Ugo Monye on the far side of the field. The ball came back across, and a poor pass from Johnny Wilkinson to Dylan Hartley went into touch.

At 15 minutes, Johnny Wilkinson kicked a penalty to the sound of some very unsporting boos and whistles. This is not good form, after all, it’s not soccer. I’m not just saying that as England was on the receiving end, I feel the same on those occasions that we hear booing at Twickenham.

Scotland responded with pressure on England, and there was a sustained period of play metres from the English line. England conceded a penalty and Dan Parks kicked it over. 6-3 Scotland.

At the 30th minute England was awarded a penalty, which Wilkinson kicked over. There was a bit of a tiff between Dylan Hartley and a Scottish player (didn’t see who) at this point, just before the penalty kick. The Scot had grabbed Hartley’s head, and Hartley lashed out. This resulted in a talking-to. 6-all.

In the 36th minute, Scotland put together a threatening attacking sequence. This broke down and we had a lengthy scrum with multiple collapses. It took almost three minutes for the ball to come out of the scrum, and even then that scrum collapsed as the ball left.

Just before half time, Dan Parks kicked a drop goal, 9-6.

England did get the restart and rather frustratingly kicked away possession after the clock went red.

In the second half, Scotland began by conceding a penalty, which was duly converted. The scores were level on 9-all.

Wilkinson went in for a tackle, he bounced right off and bashed his head. He spent quite some time on the floor. The tannoy announced that Wilkinson would be subbed and a cheer went up. It sounded to me like a small group relatively near a microphone, but that was not a worthy reaction. In rugby the opposition is shown respect (until they do something to lose it). The reaction of the majority, the appreciative applause was much more in keeping with the spirit of things. Of course, it may have been that the cheer was for the arrival of Flood and not the departure of Wilkinson, but that wasn’t how it seemed to me.

Within a couple of minutes Toby Flood had his first penalty kick, successful. 9-12.

James Haskell conceded a penalty almost immediately, not releasing the tackled player. This time the English spectators were unsporting to the kicker. An annoying trend. 12-all at 52 mins.

Scotland had a good sequence of attack, and metres from the line Brown clashed heads with Ugo Monye. Brown walked off, but Ugo Monye went off on a stretcher wearing a neck brace. He got the customary applause as he went off.

In the 60th minute, England were in posession at the Scottish end, the scrum went down again and again, but after a few attempt Easter got the ball out just before the posts. England gained advantage and passed the ball wide to attempt the try. Losing posession the play was brought back for the penalty. Flood kicked the ball over to a chorus of whistles. 12-15.

England almost immediately conceded a penalty, narrowly escaping a yellow card. Dan Parks’ kick went short, but Scotland chased and threatened a try. This came to nothing, but England conceded another penalty which was kicked over. With a little over ten minutes left it was even-stevens at 15-all.

Scotland seemed to find a new spur at this point, and looked really dangerous. England were on the back foot. England contained the attack with eight minutes to go, but the response was not quick-ball, it seemed rather ponderous in comparison to the previous Scottish play.

With four minutes to go, what was the best couple of minutes for both sides, Scotland conceded a penalty for holding back a player. Toby Flood, kicking to a whistling crowd, just misjudged and the score remained 15-all.

Scotland came back with a dangerous looking run down the wing, fortunately for England he was brought down and he knocked on in the process. England had the scrum, and collapse after collapse saw the clock go red. There were far, far too many collapsed scrums in this game – the referee didn’t do well in this regard.

England drove the ball forward and Toby Flood went for a drop goal. It wasn’t to be. Scotland gained possession and kicked to touch. 15-all. The Calcutta Cup remains with the team who last won it, in this case, England.

Link - (Come and Comment - I like comments!) | Original : Six Nations 2010 – Match 11 – Scotland vs. England | © Murky, 2010. | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Calcutta Cup, England, rugby, Rugby Union, Scotland, Six nations, Six Nations 2010

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Jonathan Sexton kicked a penalty for Ireland eight minutes later to equalise at 3-all, in the interim Wales had missed an opportunity to go six ahead.

Just after the 21st minute the first really lovely bit of play made an appearance, an inside pass to Tommy Bowe saw him running away with the ball. Wales stopped the attack but as Ireland had advantage it went back for a penalty which Sexton duly kicked to take Ireland 6-3 ahead.

Wales went a man down, and Ireland responded with an attack. The attack stopped metres from the line, but Wales conceded a penalty in the process. Ireland took a quick penalty and Keith Earls rolled over the line to score.

Sexton did not convert, the ball bounced off the posts.

Soon after, Tomas O’Leary collected the offload from a tackled player, he ran clear to be tackled by Halfpenny as he approached the line. Sexton failed to convert, this time kicking wide.

With 36 minutes on the clock, Lee Byrne returned. The score was now 16-3.

Wales went on the attack, they looked like they’d score a try, but were held up just before the line. Wales did win a penalty, though, and so the score reached 16-6.

Within the first ten minutes of the second half, Wales went on the attack, and we had a series of scrums just metres from a Welsh try. Ireland held on and prevented the Welsh from scoring.

Within minutes the Welsh conceded a soft penalty due to throwing the ball away after it had been carried to touch. Throwing the ball like that being equivalent to killing the ball. Jonathan Sexton kicked the penalty, bringing the score to 19-6.

David Wallace soon gave away a penalty for not releasing the tackled player. Stephen Jones kicked it over scoring the first Welsh points of the half. 19-9 to Ireland.

Halfway in the second half, Tomas O’Leary made a break and drew in lots of Welsh players. He offloaded to Keith Earls who again was tackled on the line and rolled in to score. Sexton failed to convert, and so the score became 24-9. A penalty for Wales took the score to 24-12.

With eight minutes to go, Stephen Jones kicked to touch deep into Ireland’s side – but no advantage was gained, they conceded a penalty and Wales got it clear.

With four minutes to go, Ireland were on the attack and after a good run of play Jonathan Sexton kicked a drop goal to bring the score to 27-12, beyond the reach of Wales.

Wales would have to score two converted tries and a kick. This would have been difficult in the time remaining even if Ireland had gone to the showers early.

As the clock went red, Ireland had the ball in hand, but Hook passed the ball into touch ending the game.

Ireland 27, Wales 12.

Link - (Come and Comment - I like comments!) | Original : Six Nations 2010 – Match 10 – Ireland vs. Wales | © Murky, 2010. | Add to del.icio.us
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His climb up to Mende was superb, putting clear tarmac between him and the strung out group of riders following.

Contador claims the yellow jersey, with Peter Sagan keeping green but losing white to Roman Kreuziger. Laurent Mangel retains the polkadot jersey.
(...)
Read the rest of Paris Nice 2010 – Stage 4 Results (1,190 words)

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Post tags: Cycling, Nice, Paris

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During the race, the lead group opened a lead of over 5 minutes, but with tens of kilometres to play with, the peloton reigned them in, bringing it down to 105 seconds at the 35km mark. At 25km to go, the gap seemed to steady at about 75 seconds, and at 20km it increased to about 90 seconds.

With 12km to go, the gap was under a minute. A good rule of thumb is that to keep clear of the more efficient peloton, a breakaway group needs about a minute for 10km. This would be close. Within 5 minutes, the gap would be about 20 seconds, and with 5.5km, the breakaway of Huguets and Roelandts was absorbed.

Peter Sagan not only won the stage in a final sprint at the end of a big climb. He also took the green jersey.

Liquigas takes the lead in the team competition, nine seconds ahead of Radioshack.

The next stage is in the mountains and heads east to Mende, with a category 1 climb to the finish.

(...)
Read the rest of Paris-Nice Stage 3 results (1,204 words)

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Post tags: Cycling, Nice, Paris

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Having initially been ahead of schedule, after one block I am bang on schedule. This is slightly worrying as it implies that I will soon be behind schedule.

Next week, the task is to write the TMA, the tutor marked assessment. Fortunately, I am already half way there, so I’m hoping to be able to rebuild a little slack into the system by pressing ahead with block 2 (due to start on the 20th march).

The course has been interesting, but very involved. I’m not a historian and it’s tricky separating the ‘interesting’ from the ‘important’. When is a detail vital, when is it just ‘colour’? Obviously, each and every detail is important for some later study, but until you get ‘later’ you can’t tell which you need – so I’m finding it tough when reading something for the first time to pick out the key points.

Having said that, if I re-read something, it gets easier as I have a framework in place and I’m not operating from a position of total ignorance.

The four units in module 1 to date are:

1. When England ruled France (i.e. Charles VI of France and Henry V of England giving way to Henry VI having a claim on the French throne, and Charles VII not liking this one bit.
2. Power and Consumption (i.e. The dukes of Burgundy – and Burgundy as a power in its own right)
3. English Society in the later middle ages (the end of the French Wars leading into the Wars of the Roses
4. Belief and Religion in Burgundy, England and France

The latter is the topic I’m looking at now. I’m about as irreligious a person as you could meet – I don’t understand the mindset, especially when history shows us that religions change – but I cannot deny that religion has an important place in the history of the world.

The unit primarily looks at Catholicism and we see how that came about from humble beginnings – and how it mutated over time, with purgatory, satan and even ideas of the trinity being ‘bolt on’ additions. It also looks at the religious neighbours – the Greek Orthodox Church (which came about due to the Roman empire splitting into East and West, with the eastern empire surviving as Byzantium), and it looks at Islam, the incredible rise of the Moslem Empire which went from being in the Arabian peninsula at the death of the Prophet to spanning a huge area in about eighty years – reaching from Asia to the Atlantic coast of Africa, as well as gaining a European foothold. Granada was the last European vestige of this empire in 1492 (Christopher Columbus saw the surrender).

The unit also looks at the Great Schism, where for a time there were three Popes, the third being created to try and unify the two factions.

It’s all interesting stuff – obviously as the course focusses on European history and so Catholicism is central. I’m loving the politics and intrigue of it all – and am struggling with the religion itself – I’m simply unfamiliar with a lot of the terms. Fortunately that doesn’t matter too much as I’m picking it up as I go.

What I’m finding interesting is the thought that despite the historical evidence that much of the church is man-made, often the result of a debate or decree, people still take things at face value. I suppose, this was the point of the reformers like Calvin and Luther, going back to scripture as the Catholic church had ‘distorted’ Christianity.

For the assignment, I have to focus on unit 3 (it’s tempting to skip unit 4 – but I don’t want to!) – the assignment is to write a short piece about a painting showing the Trial of the Duke of Alençon in 15th century France, as well as a short piece on a document, a letter to William Stonor written in England in 1476. I’ve done the writing about the painting, I need to draft the piece about the letter – and then I need to edit both pieces to form a complete response. It should be fine.

Link - (Come and Comment - I like comments!) | Original : A200 – Block 1 is ending | © Murky, 2010. | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: A200, History, Open University, religion, TMA, TMA01

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