Sports Quote of the Day:
"Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he's losing; nobody wants you to quit when you're ahead." ~ Jackie Robinson, First African American Player in Major League Baseball
How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? Alex Ovechkin named NHL All-Star at two different positions in voting embarrassment.
Alex Ovechkin accomplished many great things in the 2012-13 NHL season: Leading the NHL in goals (32) and winning the Hart Trophy as the League’s most valuable player. But his most peculiar accomplishment arrived on Wednesday, as the NHL released the rosters for its annual All-Star Teams, as voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association.
Ovechkin was named first-team all-star right wing, the position where Washington Capitals Coach Adam Oates infamously shifted him after Ovechkin spent his entire NHL career on the left side. Oates had found similar success shifting Ilya Kovalchuk from left to right during his time as an assistant coach with the New Jersey Devils. The experiment with Ovechkin paid off as well.
Yet despite the fact that Ovechkin was playing right wing during his offensive resurgence this season, the Capitals star was also named to the NHL all-star second team as its left wing.Here are the 2013 NHL All-Star Teams
Once more, with feeling: Alex Ovechkin is a two-time all-star in the same season.
Actually, they probably did, and we have the memo to prove it.
On April 22, Kevin Allen, president of the PHWA, sent out a message to the organization’s voters warning them that for the purposes of All-Star voting, Alex Ovechkin should be considered a right wing this season.
“If you intend to vote for Alex Ovechkin in your All-Star ballot, please note that he has been playing RIGHT WING this season. Ignore what the NHL statistics say.
“We had similar problems last season, with whether players were RW, C or LW.
“People who have questions should contact the beat people for each team, so that we get things right.”
There have been a few issues in recent years with the NHL listing a player in one position but with that player having excelled in another position during the season.
James Neal of the Pittsburgh Penguins was listed as a right wing and not a left wing last season; ditto Claude Giroux of the Philadelphia Flyers, who listed as a winger rather than a center.
In both cases, the PHWA sent out a warning to its voters during balloting; a warning that, apparently, was ignored in the case of Ovechkin, who remains listed as a left wing by the NHL.
Here's the voting on right wingers:
(Ryan Getzlaf on RW? The hell?)
So who got screwed by the PHWA’s double vote for Ovie?
Yep, Taylor Hall of the Edmonton Oilers. As if Tyler Dellow didn’t already have enough reason to rail against the hockey writers.
For transparency's sake, my ballot for the 2013 All-Star teams.
NHL All-Star Team
CENTER
Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks
Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning
RIGHT WING
Marty St. Louis, Tampa Bay Lightning
Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals
Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks
LEFT WING
Taylor Hall, Edmonton Oilers
Rick Nash, New York Rangers
Chris Kunitz, Pittsburgh Penguins
DEFENSE
Ryan Suter, Minnesota Wild
Francois Beauchemin, Anaheim Ducks
P.K. Subban, Montreal Canadiens
Duncan Keith, Chicago Blackhawks
Kris Letang, Pittsburgh Penguins
Zdeno Chara, Boston Bruins
GOALTENDERSergei Bobrovsky, Columbus Blue Jackets
Antti Niemi, San Jose Sharks
Tuukka Rask, Boston Bruins
The word “transparency” has been heard plenty around the PHWA in the last month, as the call for all voters to reveal their votes has never been louder.
I plan on writing on this down the line, but know this: There’s a huge difference between a witch hunt to find out who game Patrick Kane two votes for the Selke and one to find out who thought Alex Ovechkin played left wing this season for the Washington Capitals. One is a trivial quibble that doesn’t mandate transparency, in my eyes; the other just cost Taylor Hall an all-star berth and whatever rewards come with it.
The former is a matter of preference, misguided as it is. The latter is just an embarrassment – either through laziness or assumption or because of the anomaly of the season's truncated conference-exclusive schedule, the second-team all-star selection was completely wrong.
Yes, the problem begins with bad information for the source: The NHL has Ovechkin listed as a left wing, so writers see his stats and list him as a left wing. But they're not just writers; they're hockey journalists, a.k.a. writers that should know better, especially when his shift to right wing was one of the biggest stories of the season.
To get it this wrong puts the faith of fans in this process, and the future of the writers’ voting on the postseason awards, at risk. I’m not a transparency guy per se, but I’m stunned and embarrassed that this happened, and want to know why.
Retaining starters and free agent activity: Training camp edition.
By Tony Villiotti
With three weeks remaining until the start of NFL training camps (and having just returned from the beach), this seems like a good time to update DRAFTMETRICS analysis of returning starters and free agent activity. To refresh your memory, this analysis reports the number of games started by players still with their 2012 team as well games started by players acquired through free agency or other means in the offseason.
The proposition put forth here is that having experienced players is a good thing and it is even better if continuity is enhanced by the players gaining that experience with your team. DRAFTMETRICS acknowledges that the number of game started is far from a perfect way of evaluating experience, particularly the quality of the 2012 starters. For example, in this analysis:
• 16 games started by Peyton Manning are the same as 16 games started by Ryan Fitzpatrick
• The acquisition or retention of premier players (such as Darrelle Revis) who missed much of 2012 due to injury tend to be undervalued because of the few games started in 2012.
Still, though, this analysis does give some insight as to the experience level of each NFL team. There remain a number of unsigned free agents and further veteran player cuts are inevitable, so these numbers will continue to change. DRAFTMETRICS will not update this analysis again, though, until the opening of the regular season.
Still, though, this analysis does give some insight as to the experience level of each NFL team. There remain a number of unsigned free agents and further veteran player cuts are inevitable, so these numbers will continue to change. DRAFTMETRICS will not update this analysis again, though, until the opening of the regular season.
Almost three-quarters of the games started in the NFL last season were by players who remain with the same team for the 2013 season. There is a wide disparity among NFL teams, with the Redskins returning players representing 95% of 2012 starts while the Raiders return less than half that number. Please remember that each team has 352 potential starts (16 games times 22 starters per game).
The following table shows the number of 2012 games started by players remaining on each team’s 2013 roster.
So far in the offseason, players accounting for over 17% of 2012 starts have moved onto a different team. Remaining unsigned free agents started over 7% of 2012 games. The following table shows the total 2012 games started by both returning players and players acquired in the offseason.
As you can see, the Titans have been the leader in acquiring new players, resulting in their having far and away the most experienced 2013 roster in terms of 2012 starts.
Will that translate into a successful 2013 season? Time, of course, will tell.
Looking at the totals is informative, but it is also useful to look at the experience level of players under contract by playing position. This will, in theory at least, identify the teams that are most reliant on the draft, players moving from backup to starting duty and players returning from injury. One obstacle in doing this analysis is that team’s employ different base personnel groupings.
• Some teams play a 3-4 defense while others employ a 4-3
• Some teams use a fullback and others don’t
• Some teams use multiple tight ends while others don’t
DRAFTMETRICS addressed this issue by grouping positions (e.g., combining all front seven players). The following tables show the experience level of each team in the four groupings. Teams are shown alphabetically within each experience level.
Quarterbacks are excluded from these tables, but are shown in the “raw data” tables in the Appendix to the article.
Quarterbacks are excluded from these tables, but are shown in the “raw data” tables in the Appendix to the article.
Raw data by NFL team is included in the Appendix.
Interleague play: Not quite popular as MLB would have you believe.
In the past few years, when interleague play was confined to certain segments of the season, Major League Baseball would issue these press releases about just how popular it was and how attendance spiked dramatically when the interleague series began. The clear impression they were trying to make was just how successful interleague play was as a concept.
Maury Brown at The Business of Baseball, however, crunched the numbers from and concludes that MLB’s enthusiasm about interleague play was really a lot of calendar-dependent noise:
Maury Brown at The Business of Baseball, however, crunched the numbers from and concludes that MLB’s enthusiasm about interleague play was really a lot of calendar-dependent noise:
While the rest of the season is yet to be played, the numbers compellingly show that interleague is not as popular as the past numbers have been said to be. It’s not that the “rivalries” aren’t popular, they are (they averaged 30,876 across the Rivalry Week in May this year), but rather balanced interleague throughout the season pulls in pretty much the same crowds as traditional interleague has.
None of this is to say that interleague should be removed. What it does say is don’t use those past numbers as propaganda to say how much more popular interleague is since it came into place in 1997. As the numbers now show, it’s pretty much a wash. Enjoy it for what it is, not some monumental popularity shift added to the regular season.It was always notable that the big interleague PR push came after big weekend series between popular rivals, typically just as the warm weather finally showed up. Now that we have random Philly-Anaheim and Colorado-Seattle matchups in midweek during cold weather and everything else, we are seeing that baseball is, more or less, baseball.
In NBA's new era, Celtics' Brad Stevens is the changing face of coaches.
By Adrian Wojnarowski
The NBA no longer embraces the celebrity coaching saviors, the shameless self-promoters, the Armani-wearing, power-thirsty egos that college basketball churned out to sucker owners. Rick Pitino and John Calipari made millions of dollars on NBA hustles, transforming the illusions of emperorships into self-destructive spirals of hubris and humiliation.
Brad Stevens will not come into the Boston Celtics demanding to strip an elderly Red Auerbach of a ceremonial presidential title the way Pitino did. Stevens will never use low-level staffers to disguise themselves as Nets fans calling support for the coach into drive-time talk-radio shows the way Calipari did.
Brad Stevens will not come into the Boston Celtics demanding to strip an elderly Red Auerbach of a ceremonial presidential title the way Pitino did. Stevens will never use low-level staffers to disguise themselves as Nets fans calling support for the coach into drive-time talk-radio shows the way Calipari did.
Out of Butler University, out of a Norman Rockwell painting and Norman Dale's gymnasium, Stevens comes to the NBA understanding that the saviors and superstars don't wear wingtips, but Nikes. As NBA owners become more involved in the day-to-day basketball operations, as general managers become far more insistent on controlling personnel and systems, the NBA coach is becoming far less autonomous, far less the franchise's central figure.
In so many ways, Stevens is a vessel for the evolution of the NBA coach.
Partnerships over power trips, analytics over the cult of personality, a conduit over a conductor. To reach consecutive NCAA championship games at Butler was an historic accomplishment, but magic March runs don't exist in the NBA – just the dreadful, daily death march that comes with the transition from contender to lottery loser and back again.
Brad Stevens has the disposition to make it through the painful process of NBA rebuilding, and a commitment of six years, $22 million, Yahoo! Sports has learned, gives him a puncher's chance to come out of the inevitable losing and into respectability.
For the Celtics, management no longer wanted to pay a coach $7 million a season to oversee the gutting of the roster, the procuring of prospects and inevitable slide into the lottery. Celtics GM Danny Ainge leans heavily on his analytics staff, and at a meeting with Doc Rivers at season's end, it was suggested Rivers should perhaps incorporate more of those elements into his game plans and preparations, several sources told Y! Sports.
Privately, Rivers winced over the contents of some of the discussion, sources said. There was no confrontation, but there was tension. For Stevens, he's long been immersed in the statistical revolution, and he'll give management far more input into his rotations and style of play. For better or worse, that's the new NBA.
For years, people always talked about the failures of college coaches in the NBA.
Yes, there's a path littered with mostly losers, but here's the thing people forget:
Whatever the background of the NBA coach – ex-player or ex-student manager, NBA assistant or college hotshot – most are cycled out of jobs within a few short years and never have staying power.
For the Pitinos and Caliparis – great coaches, great minds – it was always the inability to get out of their own ways, to set aside bizarre paranoias, petty jealousies and always, always, impetuous personnel decisions that doomed them.
Brad Stevens should make sure he convinces fast-rising star Jay Larranaga to stay on his Celtics staff and forego a chance to join Rivers with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Stevens needs smart minds surrounding him, good drafts replenishing his talent pool and the patience of a boss, Ainge, who has always stood by his coaches and will be fully invested in the success of his bold hire out of Butler University. There are no saviors in the NBA, no geniuses transforming franchises merely by walking through the door.
This is a different day in the NBA, a different league, and the face of the future walks into the most storied franchise of all. Stevens is a terrific basketball mind, a family man, a relentless and resolved grinder of the game. Out of Butler, out of a Norman Rockwell painting and Norman Dale's gymnasium inside the Hinkle Field House, Brad Stevens is the coach of the Boston Celtics.
Kenseth looking for first summer Daytona win
By NASCAR Wire Service
The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup is only nine races away, but there's still enough time left for movement among the contenders before the field is set.
But one driver who seems practically guaranteed a Chase spot even if he falls out of the top 10 is Matt Kenseth, who scored a series-high fourth win last Sunday at Kentucky. Drivers can fall back on one of the two Wild Card Chase spots, which go to those drivers from 11th-20th in points with the most wins.
Kenseth and his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Husky Tools Toyota team head to Daytona International Speedway for Saturday's Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola (7:30 p.m. ET, TNT) hoping to replicate his 2012 restrictor-plate success.
In 2012, Kenseth won the season-opening Daytona 500, the second of his career after winning in 2009, and finished third in last July's Daytona event. In the two Talladega races last season, he finished third in the spring event and followed it up with a victory in the fall race. His overall average finish in the four restrictor-plate races was an amazing 2.0. This year his average is 22.5 after the first Daytona and Talladega races, finishing 37th and eighth, respectively.
"We've got a lot of racing to do before we get to the Chase," said Kenseth, who is fifth in the standings, 82 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson. "We know we have to continue to get better. We are really, really good but you always have to continue to get better."
For all his success at restrictor-plate tracks he has never won the July race at Daytona, something he hopes to cross off his to-do list on Saturday night. In 13 summer events at the 2.5-mile superspeedway, he's found success; however, it just hasn't resulted in trips to Victory Lane. He has an average finish of 12.6, along with four top fives and eight top 10s.
Over the past 17 races at Daytona International Speedway, Kenseth holds the second highest average driver rating (93.2) among active drivers. He is also second in average running position (14.059) and laps led (285). He's completed the third most laps in the top 15 with 1,952, and run 73 of the fastest laps over the last 17 races at Daytona, good for fourth overall.
If the Chase were to begin today, Kenseth would be seeded first overall with 12 bonus points by virtue of his four wins; however, a win this weekend at Daytona could put some more ground between him and his closest rivals, Johnson, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick, who all have multiple wins this season.
As for Kenseth, he has no plans of letting off the accelerator before the Chase begins or throughout the postseason.
"Hopefully, we'll be running how we're running, or even get better, and you know, going into the Chase, hopefully we can give them a run for their money. That's what the plan is."
FANTASY FOCUS: In July at Daytona there is always "Smoke." Smoke, aka Tony Stewart, is the king of the July Daytona race. In 14 events, Stewart has won four times and finished in the top 10 on seven different occasions. He has the third highest average driver rating (93.1) over the past 17 races at the track, and has the highest single-race driver rating at the track among active drivers (143.4). He has led the most laps (548) and has the highest percentage of laps led (17.8%). Stewart has also run the fifth-most laps in the top 15 (1,836). Jimmie Johnson is always a solid choice for any NASCAR fantasy lineup, however, this Saturday he will be extra-motivated as he looks to become only the fifth driver in NASCAR history and first since Bobby Allison in 1982 to complete the single-season sweep at Daytona, after winning the season-opening Daytona 500.
Andy North selected as US Ryder Cup vice captain.
By
Andy North needed as much time as it takes for a tap-in putt to accept an invitation to be a vice captain for U.S. Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson at next year's matches.
The television analyst and two-time U.S. Open champion jumped at Watson's invite over dinner earlier this year.
''I was absolutely giddy over the opportunity not only hopefully to have a role to get the Cup back but also to be able to help a dear friend,'' North said during a conference call Wednesday at The Greenbrier Classic. ''If I can take a little bit of the responsibility off of his shoulders and make it an easier week for him, that will be awesome for me.''
The Ryder Cup will be held in September 2014 in Gleneagles, Scotland. The Europeans have won seven of the last nine Ryder Cups, including the last two.
North won the 1978 and 1985 U.S. Opens and played on the U.S. Ryder Cup team that lost to Europe in 1985.
''When you win a couple of U.S. Opens, he knows what it takes to close the deal, and that's what we need on the Ryder Cup team,'' Watson said. ''We need players who can close the deal.''
Now a golf analyst for ESPN, North believes being at PGA Tour events makes him qualified to help Watson make solid choices for the team.
A points system will determine the top nine spots on the U.S. team and Watson will make three captain's picks.
''The one thing I do bring is a lot of experience of being around these players and hopefully I can help Tom get a good grasp on some of them,'' North said. ''It's nice to have four eyes looking at players versus just two.
Greatest Coach in NBA History? No 'Red' Herrings Here. What's your take?
The Lakers, Bulls, Heat and Spurs Have Legitimate Claims; The Celtics Do Not.
The Lakers, Bulls, Heat and Spurs Have Legitimate Claims; The Celtics Do Not.
COMMENTARY | With 20 hours a day devoted to free agent speculation fueled by anonymous "sources," surely we can find five minutes to argue about something else. No, I'm not talking about whether the New Jersey Nets should buy Kevin Garnett a folding walker or a walker with wheels; after only 30 seconds, wheels are obviously the preference. But with all the focus on players, let's spend a few minutes on coaches. Who's the best coach in NBA history?
With no apologies to Red Auerbach, the Los Angeles Lakers have had the two best coaches in NBA history man their sidelines for a combined 20 seasons. And then? Then Greg Popovich makes it past the bouncers before Red. Sidebar: Would anyone be surprised if you showed up at a club, and Popeye Jones and Shawn Kemp were the bouncers?
Red won nine championships as a coach, and his accomplishments aren't diminished simply because they occurred when color television sets and microwaves were new. Still, the evolution of the NBA since that time helps shape this dialogue. Nearly all the historical data cited below comes from various seasonal, team and personal records available at the Basketball Reference site.
Red coached the Boston Celtics for 16 years. After moderate success his first six seasons, the Celtics reached the NBA Finals in 10 consecutive seasons from 1956-57 to 1965-66, winning nine championships. A 90% success rate is impressive, but it needs to be reviewed in proper historical context.
In five of those 10 seasons, the Celtics were one of eight NBA teams; the league expanded to nine teams in the latter five seasons. In all years, six of the teams (i.e. 66% or 75%) advanced to the playoffs. On average, 32% of the teams who advanced to the playoffs in those years (19 of 60) had sub-.500 records. Incredulously, the 1960 Minneapolis Lakers swept their first round opponent and were one win away from the NBA Finals, despite a regular season of 25-50!
Oh, and the best team in each division received a first round bye; the Celtics had nine such byes in 10 seasons. If you think that doesn't matter, just ask the 2007 Dallas Mavericks or 2011 San Antonio Spurs if they think their seasons might have ended differently if they had first round byes. Until the last championship in 1965-66, the Celtics only had to win 7 or 8 playoff games to be champions. The NBA's regular season was also shorter back then (between 72 and 80 games, depending on the season).
Finally, the commentary on Red can't be complete without observing that, after Red retired, Bill Russell won two more championships as player-coach of the Celtics. You remember player-coaches? They were so wildly successful and popular that Lenny Wilkens and Dave Cowens marked the end of that disastrous experiment in the 1970s. But perhaps Russell was actually a decent coach? Well, his subsequent record with Seattle and Sacramento (a combined 179-197 and only two playoff appearances in five years) suggests otherwise. It suggests he was a mediocre coach, but the talent on that Celtics team, combined with the NBA's demographics at the time, was sufficient to win championships. Even more intriguing, Russell's playoff win percentage as player-coach of the Celtics (28-18; 60.8%) actually compares very favorably with Red's NBA playoffs resume (91-60; 60.2%).
To recap, Red's success was spurred by (i) a league with fewer teams, (ii) resulting in far less travel, (iii) shorter regular seasons and post-seasons, (iv) additional rest provided by first round byes, and (v) playoff opponents who, 1/3 of the time, had losing records. History also suggests Bill Russell, at best an average coach in the 1970s and 80s, was equally qualified. And we didn't even touch on the emergence of free agency in the modern era, and the challenges that player mobility raises to sustained success for today's coaches.
Now let's contrast the NBA's structure during Red's reign to that of Pat Riley and Phil Jackson. To clarify, the Lakers can't exclusively claim the accomplishments of either, but the fact that both coaches were successful with multiple franchises simply helps elevate their status over Red Auerbach.
With the exception of one year (the 1981-1982 Lakers), neither coach has known the benefits of a first round playoff bye, and their teams have had to win twice the amount of playoff games (15 or 16) to secure a championship. Both coaches have routinely guided their teams through 82 regular season games, followed by four rounds of playoffs. And the playoff competition has been stronger than it was in the 1950s.
From 1984 to 1988, the percentage of teams who qualified for the playoffs was equivalent to the corresponding ratio in Red's era. However, in all other years, the ratio has been slightly less, between 50% and 60%. More importantly, in the 29 seasons that either or both coached from 1982 to 2011 (neither coached the 2004-2005 season), only 8.3% of teams (38 of 456) who qualified for the playoffs had a losing regular season record. That's one-quarter of the volume of mediocrity that seeped into the playoffs during Red's reign.
Surely, there have been some less-than-worthy playoff teams in the Jackson-Riley era; the 1986 Chicago Bulls (30-52), the 1988 San Antonio Spurs (31-51), the 1995 Celtics (35-47), the 1997 Los Angeles Clippers (36-46), and the 2004 Celtics (36-46) come to mind. But the combined record of all five teams in their respective playoff matchups was 1-16. Unlike the 1960 Minneapolis Lakers, none of these stinkers was one win away from the NBA Finals.
When Riley left the Lakers at the conclusion of the 1990 season, Mychal Thompson didn't lead the Lakers to more championships as player-coach. Neither did Udonis Haslem after Riley stepped down as coach of the Miami Heat in 2008. Neither did Jason Caffey, Derek Fisher, nor Metta World Peace guide their respective teams to championships as coach after Phil Jackson departed his respective thrones.
Need I even mention Phil Jackson's 69 percent success rate in the NBA playoffs? Most hats are one-size-fits-all, so you, Red and I could all wear the same hats. This one only fits Phil.
Even the most respected player, the leader feared most in the locker room, commands a different type of respect from his peers than that given to a successful coach. At least, that's the case now. 50 years ago, perhaps the impact of coaching wasn't as great. Bill Russell's success makes you wonder if the title of "head coach of the Boston Celtics" at that time was akin to being the "Vice President" of a bank today; there's little distinction between you and the 60 other vice presidents.
Few coaches will finish their careers with the same amount of accolades as Red Auerbach. But honestly, when the greatest coach in NBA history is debated, the inclusion of Red Auerbach is nothing but a red herring. The truly worthy candidates have walked the sidelines of the Lakers or Spurs. Those sidelines are colored with purple and gold, silver and black; not red.
After reading this article, we'd love to know, what's your take?
USA climbs up six spots in FIFA rankings as Mexico drops to 20th.
Goal.com
The United States' impressive uptick in form has seen it jump six places in FIFA's latest world rankings, moving up to 22nd place. Alternatively, Mexico's struggles in 2013 have seen it drop three places to 20th.
Brazil has moved up 13 places in the rankings to ninth position following its Confederations Cup success in June - but there was less encouraging news for England.
Luiz Felipe Scolari's men make the climb after winning last month's competition with a 3-0 victory over Spain in the final, but Roy Hodgson's Three Lions have tumbled six places and reside outside the top 10 in 15th place.
Spain remains the No.1 ranked team in international football, ahead of second-placed Germany, while Colombia completes the top three.
Argentina (fourth), Netherlands (fifth), Italy (sixth), Portugal (seventh), Croatia (eighth) and Belgium (10th) make up the rest of the top 10.
Cote d'Ivoire remains Africa's highest-ranked team in 13th position. Mexico still remains CONCACAF's top team despite its recent drop in places. Canada also fell, moving five spots down to 88th.
Senegal was the biggest climber this month, rising 25 places to 74th spot, while Central African Republic was the biggest faller, dropping 30 places to 89th.
5 things to know about Tour de France.
Here are five things to know as the Tour de France enters its seventh stage on Friday:
1. LOTTO'S LOTTERY: Thursday provided mixed fortunes and emotions for the Lotto-Belisol squad. The morning mood was despondent after team leader Jurgen Van den Broeck, fourth overall last year, pulled out because of a crash injury to his knee a day earlier. Tough luck for the Belgian: He had also dropped out in 2011 after a brutal downhill spill that left him with broken ribs and a fractured shoulder. But after a bus pep talk by team manager Marc Sargeant and a skillful ride, Lotto shared hugs of joy at the Stage 6 finish after burly German rider Andre Greipel bulldozed his way to a sprint victory at the end of a flat 110-mile ride from Aix-en-Provence to Montpellier. Mused Greipel: ''Sometimes happiness and sadness can be so close together.''
2. MORE MISERY: Flat stages often elicit tense, high-speed racing as riders jostle for position in the pack. Thursday's hot, windy conditions didn't help - and a lack of luck bore down on the Astana team. Its Slovenian team leader Janez Brajkovic, who won the Criterium du Dauphine in 2010, dropped out after injuring his chin, breaking a bone in his left hand and opening a deep gash in his knee after crashing into a traffic island during the stage. The spill left him dazed and seated on the road asphalt before he got up to finish - but the damage was done. His teammate Fredrik Kessiakoff of Sweden also abandoned the race; he couldn't keep up amid pain from injuries to his elbows, right forearm, chest and left knee in a crash a day earlier. The team from Kazakhstan is down to six of its original nine riders: Andrey Kashechkin dropped out earlier in the race.
3. HISTORICAL REVISIONISM: With its revisions, and names and feats crossed out, the Tour's official history guide is starting to look like a kid's homework book: a complete mess. The reason? Doping. Organizers have gone through the tome with a pen and ruler. Lance Armstrong's name and all seven of his wins from 1999-2005 have lines through them. So do 20 of his stage wins. Lines have also been drawn through the names of George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer and David Zabriskie, who testified to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that they were involved in doping while riding with Armstrong. Authors of the ''historical guide'' had already been forced to rewrite history even before Armstrong was exposed last year as a serial doper. There's an asterisk next to the name of Bjarne Riis. More than a decade after Riis won the 1996 Tour - past the statute of limitations for penalties - the Dane admitted to doping. Tour historians' erasers may soon be busy again: A French Senate panel later this month is expected to name other riders who doped in the 1998 Tour.
4. PEANUTS FOR PRIZE MONEY? The Tour can pay out more in glory than in bank notes. Take the Orica GreenEdge team. The payout they will get - for all nine riders and support staffers - for winning Tuesday's team time trial is $12,900. Individual stage victories bring just over $10,000 to the winner, $5,000 to the second-place rider, etc. And riders do also cash in on individual sprints and mountain climbs. The biggest prize of all goes to the Tour winner. The man who takes home the leader's yellow jersey gets $581,000 along with it. Daryl Impey of South Africa, who seized the yellow jersey on Thursday, said he didn't even know how much he was owed for the Orica GreenEdge time-trial victory. ''Money? I don't know how much it was, but we don't do it for the money, we do it for the pride, you know?''
4. PEANUTS FOR PRIZE MONEY? The Tour can pay out more in glory than in bank notes. Take the Orica GreenEdge team. The payout they will get - for all nine riders and support staffers - for winning Tuesday's team time trial is $12,900. Individual stage victories bring just over $10,000 to the winner, $5,000 to the second-place rider, etc. And riders do also cash in on individual sprints and mountain climbs. The biggest prize of all goes to the Tour winner. The man who takes home the leader's yellow jersey gets $581,000 along with it. Daryl Impey of South Africa, who seized the yellow jersey on Thursday, said he didn't even know how much he was owed for the Orica GreenEdge time-trial victory. ''Money? I don't know how much it was, but we don't do it for the money, we do it for the pride, you know?''
5. MOUNTAIN HORIZONS: On Friday, the Tour continues its westward swing, negotiating four moderate climbs that will serve as an appetizer for far more severe ascents in the Pyrenees, beginning Saturday. The riders start Friday where they ended Thursday, in Montpellier, and ride 127.7 miles to Albi.
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