NASCAR Season Review and Look Ahead to 2012

Posted by Chris Till on December 23, 2011 in Racing
The new nose that NASCAR is using for the 2011...

Trever Bayne won the Daytona 500 for Wood Brothers Racing. Image via Wikipedia

It’s been a great year in Nascar. We’ve seen a lot of great stories unfold, new winners and emerging names throwing their hats into the ring for future sprint cup championship contention.

We saw the season open with a very memorable Daytona 500. This race premièred to the masses the new style of racing at the super speedways, tandem drafting.  It may not be so prevalent next year due to various technical changes but this year was certainly exciting to watch.

In the first part of the season, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch really asserted themselves as serious contenders to dethrone Jimmy Johnson in 2011. Kevin Harvick later joined in with back to back wins before he and his team flew under the radar for most of the remainder of the year.

When it came down to it in the chase though, it came down to a titanic fight between two very strong drivers with two completely opposing personalities, Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards. Stewart had appeared out of contention for practically the entire year, only barely managing to scrape into the chase without a single win. Once the chase started however, he and his team simply caught fire, doing the unthinkable and winning half of the 10 races to snatch the title away from Carl Edwards at the final race. They weren’t even separated by a point at the chequered flag and it came down to the most wins, which Tony won at 5 to 1.

It’s tough for Carl but he can still be immensely proud of his effort this year. To finish on equal points to a man who won 5 out of the 10 chase races without winning one himself shows unbelievable consistency to a degree possibly never seen before by both drivers. I hope Carl bounces back and wins the title next year but this year’s championship was completely deserved by Tony. If he hadn’t won after the chase performance he displayed, there would have been outrage and calls for the points system to be further changed before next season so in that respect, the right man won.

There are so many moments from this year that were memorable. Kasey Khane winning in Phoenix for Red Bull in their penultimate race as a team owner was a special one. Kyle Busch’s many ups and downs were a major talking point. He needs to cut out all of the controversies that continue to surround him and maybe next year he can contend in the chase rather than implode. There are too many others to mention but it was a great year filled with excitement and intrigue.

In the Nationwide series, it was great to see Ricky Stenhouse Jr. show what he could do and win the championship in that series. He’s definitely a great talent who should be the future of the sport in sprint cup in the next few years. He and Trevor Bayne should be the next generation of Roush Fenway Ford stars.

Danica Patrick showed in 2011 that she had the talent necessary to succeed in stock car racing. She improved greatly on her 2010 performance and I expect her to elevate her game hugely once again now that her full focus will be on Nascar now that she’s left the IndyCar circuit where she hasn’t been particularly successful in the last few years. It’s also going to be very interesting to see how she can perform in her limited starts in the Sprint Cup. No one will be expecting much from her so she could surprise a few people.

Looking ahead to next year, I think it could be another classic season. It’s unlikely that the chase will live up to this year’s but you never know in this sport. I would expect Stewart and Edwards to be strong again, and Jimmie Johnson will have a point to prove after he couldn’t make it 6 in a row this year. Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin should be contenders for Joe Gibbs and if Joey Logano can step his game up a bit, then you never know. Brad Keselowski was a revelation this year and he won’t be as under the radar in 2012 but should still be very good. A.J. Allmendinger takes over from Kurt Busch in the other Penske car and with a better car may be up to challenging for wins but the jury is out there.

Kurt Busch himself has just been confirmed with Phoenix Racing in 2012 after he was dropped by Penske for his poor behaviour. He’ll replace Landon Cassil from what I understand. I don’t know if that car will be fast or reliable enough to make him a contender but if not, he’s shot himself in the foot. There are so many other great drivers to watch: new Hendrick recruit Kasey Khane should be a contender with a strong car, and Jeff Gordan and Kevin Harvick can never be counted out. I’m probably forgetting a few but it just goes to show how strong and competitive the sport is when you compare it to F1 for example.

I’m looking forward to the Daytona 500. It should be fantastic.

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Thoughts on Baseball Off-Season #1

Posted by Chris Till on December 15, 2011 in Features

I recently got bitten by the baseball bug once again after I slipped away from it in the last few years. I used to be a huge Red Sox fan and watched as many games as I could on MLB.tv as well as on TV when Channel 5 used to show live games.

Now I’ve rediscovered my love of the game, I’m more open to liking practically every team and every player, in a similar way to how I follow the NBA, but in this case a lot more closely.

I have a particular fondness for teams like the Texas Rangers, who couldn’t quite win the world series this year in their second straight berth. It was a tough loss but in the end the Cardinals earned the win in game 7. I’m rooting for them to get back there for a third straight year next year and finally get the championship they deserve.

Unfortunately, one of my favourite pitchers, C.J. Wilson will not be a part of it if they do make it back there. He shares many things with me it seems: interests like racing, cycling, and pitching of course combined with having the same first and middle names as me. I started thinking why don’t I call myself C.J. but I don’t think you can get away with it unless you’re a famous sportsman most of the time. He’s also straight edge, something I also consider myself to be, although I wouldn’t label myself in exactly that way.

C.J. is instead on his way back home to Anaheim near where he grew up in Newport Beach to play for the Angels. Until he and the hall of famer to be, Albert Pujols signed in Anaheim, I kind of dismissed the team as not a contender and a team I didn’t really pay much attention to. Now, they’ve changed everything with these two signings. They will surely have one of if not the best rotation in baseball with 4 very strong starters, and with Albert in the line-up, the offence immediately will command a great deal more respect from the rest of the league, and will be a terrifying prospect for opposing pitchers.

It’s a shame that C.J. will have to compete year long with his former long time team due to them both being in the same division. They’ve always been fierce rivals for the AL East division and the rivalry will likely be even hotter in 2012. It has become such a strong team that next year we may see no team from the AL East make the playoffs if one of these two teams can take the wildcard spot away from them. That’s assuming the new rule adding two extra wildcards doesn’t come in next year, which I’m not sure about.

The other team that’s made a huge splash in the winter meetings is the Miami Marlins. Newly renamed, re-branded and with a new stadium launch imminent, are looking to assert themselves as a contender in the NL East to rival the Phillies. The Mets don’t look particularly strong for 2012 and the Braves and Nationals could surprise people but you would have to think that it’s going to be Philadelphia’s to lose at this point. Their signing of Jonathan Papelbon to close for them was a very good one. It showed tremendous commitment to winning to poach possibly the top closer on the free agent market from his long time home.

The Marlins have brought in some fantastic talent, NL batting champion Jose Reyes from the Mets, veteran closer Heath Bell from the Padres, and one of my favourite pitchers, Mark Buerhle from the White Sox. These guys will all contribute massively to the success of the re-branded team and it’s going to be an exciting team to watch, but I don’t know if they’ve added enough to be true contenders yet. If they were able to sign Prince Fielder or the incredibly exciting Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish then of course that would be another fantastic bonus for them, but even then I’m not sure. Their success next year may end up hinging on whether or not their current players can step up and assist their new free-agent signings because 3 or 4 guys can’t make all the difference on their own, they need a lot of back-up to make it work.

Speaking of Darvish, I can’t wait to see which team has earned the right to negotiate with the Japanese star and I’m hopeful it’s either the Rangers or Marlins.

I can’t wait to see what other signings and trades will take place between now and spring training, and the 2012 season promises to be a great one.

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La Vuelta 2011 Review

Posted by Chris Till on September 12, 2011 in Cycling
Differenty colored cycling jerseys as used in ...

Image via Wikipedia

This year’s Vuelta was a really exciting race and definitely a great introduction to the event for me. Unfortunately I didn’t really get back into cycling in time to catch the Giro D’Italia this year but I was treated to a great Tour de France and a great Vuelta.

The race was one of surprise contenders. Juan Jose Cobo was in the end the deserving winner. He took the red leader’s jersey on the hardest stage of the tour and did an incredible job of shadowing his nearest challengers, especially Chris Froome for the remainder of the event. Bradley Wiggins was thought to be one of the top contenders and in the beginning had Froome working for him, but like other big names like Vincenzo Nibali and Igor Anton he just didn’t have it in him to challenge for the win. He did however put in a fine performance over the three weeks to end with a podium finish in third place. Considering that this was his first race back after breaking his collarbone in the Tour in July, this was a fantastic result for him.

Chris Froome’s ride will undoubtedly go down as the biggest surprise story of the race. No one really expected him to emerge as a grant tour contender in only his first 3 week race. At first, people were impressed with how well he was looking after Wiggins in the early stages, but it was the time trial where he really set out his stall. Everyone expected Bradley to ride into the lead of the race but he ended up tiring and losing a chunk of time in the final part of the stage, and it was Froome who shocked everyone and took the lead.

He only held the lead for one stage but he was the more consistent of the two Sky riders and when Cobo took the red jersey from Wiggins, Froome also passed Brad in the standings for second place.

The best stage of the race had to be the mountain top finish which ended in a duel between Froome and Cobo. Froome put in an almighty attack to try and gain precious time on Cobo but he was pegged back and it looked as if the Spaniard was going to take the stage. On the approach to the final corner though, Froome gave one final push and overtook Cobo once again and held on to win by a second and take the time bonus. It was incredibly exciting and a real advertisement for cycling.

Cobo definitely deserved the win overall, but very few riders can say they held the leader’s jersey, won an epic stage and finished second on the podium in their first grand tour. Chris Froome can and he has a great future. I’m hoping he does stick with team Sky. He’s certainly in a great position for contract negotiations. If he does stay though, it may end up being too packed with GC riders and a sprint train for Mark Cavendish. If that happens, it will be tough to juggle both and may cause the team problems, but I think right now that it’s a risk worth taking if it elevates them to being one of the very best teams in the world. He may be tempted by one of any number of strong offers from rival teams in which he may get positioned as a GC leader which he probably won’t be at team Sky for the next couple of seasons at least.

The tour was so packed of Action that it’s tough to mention everything I enjoyed, but I really liked seeing Dan Martin win his mountain stage in his first grand tour, Tony Martin winning the time trial and Michael Albasini winning a sprint stage for HTC Highroad in their last grand tour as a team. It was also a great sight watching Igor Anton win in spectacular fashion in his and his team’s home Basque region. It helped to make up for an otherwise disappointing tour for him and the team.

I can’t wait for next year’s Vuelta and of course before that, my first Giro as a huge cycling fan.

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Leopard Trek, RadioShack Merger Confirmed

Posted by Chris Till on September 5, 2011 in Cycling
Radioshack mars 2010

Image via Wikipedia

I don’t know why companies keep doing this recently, but just yesterday or the day before it was reported on cyclingnews.com that Leopard Trek had denied the reports of them merging with RadioShack, but then today they confirm it. Why they didn’t just keep quiet rather than denying things I don’t understand, but regardless, we now know that it will happen after all.

I’m quite disappointed by this, but I know why it’s going to happen. Leopard Trek need sponsors, and RadioShack and Nissan want to win and they’ve just had a terrible Tour de France this year. They know that with the two other podium finishers from this year’s race they instantly catapult themselves into winning contention in 2012. The reason it disappoints me is mainly because it means another team is lost from the ranks and that’s never a good thing. It also means that around 11 riders will be let go from Leopard Trek and some from RadioShack in order to meet the maximum team size limit. I just hope those riders all find teams ready for the new season.

It’s also disappointing for the simple reason that Leopard have probably the nicest looking attire of any team and now they’ll end up with one of the least attractive in my opinion with a big red R on their jerseys. It’s also probably not good for Trek because they’ll have one less team riding their bikes, as well as the fact that everyone is used to saying Trek in the name of the team this year. This gives them excellent promotion that only a handful of other manufacturers enjoy, namely BMC, Cervelo and Cannondale. They’ll lose this next year despite the fact that Trek is technically in the new team name. It’s just so long that people will most likely ignore it.

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The Cycling Signing Season

Posted by Chris Till on September 2, 2011 in Cycling
BMC Racing Team mars 2010

Image via Wikipedia

This is the time of year in many sports where rumours of signings and team changing goes into overdrive, and cycling is no exception. It’s pretty exciting to speculate and see all of these moves being made, new teams coming and and existing teams merging.

Of course, things are made more interesting because of the very sad demise of the best team in the sport, HTC Highroad. All of their talented roster has to find a new home and that’s no easy task when there may end up being less spots available due to their not being as many pro-tour teams next season.

The biggest moves so far have undoubtedly been made by BMC. They’ve re-signed Cadel evans and George Hincapie, which also lead to the signings of reigning world champion Thor Hushovd and friend and former team-mate of Evans and the rider of the year in most people’s eyes, Philippe Gilbert. You would have been forgiven for thinking that they were finished signing riders at that point, but instead they flashed the cash further and signed two current HTC Highroad riders Marco Pinotti and one of my favourite riders, Tejay Van Garderen.

It’s a strange feeling, because as much as I’m a huge HTC Highroad fan (I also own and proudly wear a jersey when I’m out riding), you can’t help but be excited by what it’s demise will do to shake up the sport for next year. Will Cavendish finally be announced at Sky along with his right hand man Bernie Eisel as well as current team-mate Matt Goss. How will Mark Renshaw fare on his own as the designated sprinter at Rabobank and will talented riders like Tony Martin, who just signed for QuickStep and Tejay Van Garderen now get a chance to shine in new teams where they’re not working for the world’s best sprinter most of the time and sacrificing their own potential for a team strategy? I’m excited to find out about all of these and before we get to 2012 we’ve got plenty more rider moves to look forward to in the coming weeks.

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The Social Network and Skype Video on Facebook

Posted by Chris Till on August 4, 2011 in Technology
Facebook Video Calling - Get Started

Image by stevegarfield via Flickr

Last night I watched the Social Network. I really enjoyed it but it left me with a few questions about some of the intricacies of the story of facebook, and it also got me thinking about what they’ve been doing lately.

The Skype Video on Facebook rumour was around for a long time before it was finally announced. It’s one of those things that initially you think is going to change the game completely, but then on reflection you start to wonder how many people will actually understand and use this new function.

If Skype are providing most of the back-end for this service, I’m not entirely sure how it helps them in the long run. They must have some sort of financial deal with Facebook to make this tie-up commercially viable, but it must also extend towards further integration which could include using skype’s paid services within the Facebook site itself, which would open up Skype’s paid offerings to practically everyone in the world where before it was a more niche product.

Obviously, now they’ve been bought by Microsoft (still would have prefered Google or Facebook) they don’t have to worry about money, but even so, I’m sure they want to prove to their new owners that they are very much self-sufficient and worthy of the big money takeover.

The newest version of Skype that I just downloaded includes even more Facebook integration. Now, rather than simply being able to read your newsfeed and call people who make their phone number public, you can actually instant message your Facebook friends directly from Skype. It sounds interesting, but from my quick experiment, it seems to override your group settings so you’ll appear online to everyone whenever you’re on Skype, and that’s hardly ideal especially for people with a ton of “friends”. I like the idea though, and surely the next step is to add cross platform video calling, as the technology is surely there now to do it. Unfortunately, this new version of Skype is riddled with bugs and is unstable, so I’m kind of wanting to go back to the previous one.

It’s going to be increasingly tough for people who aren’t particularly comfortable with appearing on video chat to avoid it. This technology will become more and more mainstream, what with the inevitable growth of services such as facetime and other mobile video chat clients. Then again, no one’s going to chain anyone down and force them to use it, so I say bring on the revolution.

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Dirt 3 Review

Posted by Chris Till on August 4, 2011 in Game Reviews
DiRT 3

Image by Dekuwa via Flickr

I’m a fan of codemasters games generally, and I love rally, so you would think that Dirt 3 would end up being my favourite game. It is a very good game, but it just never reaches the level of brilliance that I was hoping for.

There is a lot more rally content in this game than there was in Dirt 2 which is a great thing. There are many different types of cars from different eras of rallying too which is also hard to fault.

The graphics are good, the cars look and sound great especially from the interior viewpoint and even the co-driver’s pace notes sound good. Much better than the official WRC game that’s for sure.

The game has a lot of content, but I feel that in terms of locations, it spreads itself possibly a bit too thin. Once you’ve gone through all of the events in the Dirt Tour, you’ll be absolutely tired of playing the same stages over and over, just with different cars.

This problem was compounded by the fact that many of the individual stages in a rally location felt stitched together using stage parts, and so most of the stages don’t feel very unique. This was a big problem in the official WRC game as well but you would expect better from Codemasters.

It seems strange to say but there’s just something about the game that stops it from going from very good to amazing in my eyes. The DLC doesn’t help either. I bought all of it, in large part because I like the company and want to support them, so I suppose I knew what I was getting myself into. DLC in this game, like many others just never feels worth the money you’re paying. The cars you can download, like songs in Rockband, unless you play with them endlessly, you’ll struggle to feel like you got your money’s worth.

The Monte Carlo track pack was solid but as with the other rally locations, once you’ve played a couple, you feel like you’ve seen it all and once you’ve gone through the events in Dirt Tour that use those stages, you’ll feel like you want your £6 back.

The other modes aside from rally: trailblazer, rallycross, land rush and gymkhana are all good, but I don’t think they’ll be the main event for many people who pick the game up. Trailblazer is intense because of how fast the cars are and the fact that you don’t get pace notes, so you have to try to glance at the map as you’re hurtling through the fast stages.

Rallycross is fun but a lot of the time, the car handling feels too twitchy and floaty. It didn’t feel that realistic a lot of the time, and that was a bit disappointing. Gymkhana is my least favourite event and in some ways it does feel a bit of a tacked on gimmick. It does provide interesting and unique gameplay, but it can also be frustrating when you’re struggling to make some of the stunts when you first start or when you’re just not in the groove. Land rush is essentially just rallycross but with trucks and buggies, which have different handling mechanics and bounce far more over the terrain.

The online aspect of the game does work well, and you’d expect this from Codemasters who probably do the best online driving games of anyone. The thing that puts me off this time though is the fact that when you start a rally stage, everyone starts at exactly the same time and so you can see all of the ghosts of other players around you constantly, which is extremely off-putting. I don’t see why they didn’t just leave it alone and keep using the stuttered start method, which is true to rallying anyway. I doubt people would have complained if 10 second delayed starts were kept from Dirt 2.

Overall, I think it’s a great Rally game but I’m left with the feeling that they could have done more. The fact that I’m still playing and enjoying GT5 so long after release should go to show other developers out there how to treat their players. Free DLC, or in GT5′s case, weekly challenges give people incentive to keep their disc and not trade it in, and after all, that’s one of the main reasons why DLC exists in the first place.

I guess if you’re looking for a rally game, then it’s a good choice and has little competition. I just hope that with Dirt 4 they really focus on creating a larger number of diverse environments to stop it feeling quite as repetitive.

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What is my Passion? Do I even have one?

Posted by Chris Till on August 3, 2011 in Cycling, Features

Does everyone have a passion? One particular interest that provokes intense feelings and takes over your mind like no other subject can.

I’m sure they can and do, but I feel kind of fickle in that regard. Until recently, I had convinced myself that photography was my passion. It’s certainly an activity that I take a great deal of enjoyment from, but on the other hand, I don’t live for it. I don’t miss it that much when I don’t pick up my camera for a few days or even a week.

Now that I’ve got my new road bike, cycling is becoming a massive part of my life. When I see cycling on TV, the desire to jump on my bike and ride is tough to ignore.

The fact that when I’m not riding my bike, I’m often thinking about doing so, just makes me feel that perhaps I was just convincing myself that photography was my passion because I knew that it was a job I would rather do over many others.

Of course, I would be happy doing it for a job whether it’s my passion or not as I still enjoy it very much, but it makes me question myself more and more.

I don’t know if even cycling is my passion, whether it’s motor racing, something I’ve yet to discover or maybe even nothing at all.

I wonder what percentage of people really have a passion and what the most common ones are.

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Will Mark Cavendish go to Team Sky?

Posted by Chris Till on July 26, 2011 in Cycling

Mark was on BBC Radio 5 Live on Tuesday morning and in the interview he was pressed heavily about his decision to potentially move teams. He confirmed that he has made a decision and that it will be made public in the next few weeks.

Despite the fact that going to Team Sky would reunite him with good friend Bradley Wiggins as well as put all of the British stars in a star studded “national team”, I still think it would be the wrong decision for him personally.

HTC Highroad is a team built around Cav and without him, they’ll have to have a complete reorganisation. He’s the face of the team and he’s been with them for his entire professional career. All of his successes have come in a High Road jersey.

As the old saying goes, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it and I definitely feel that this is the situation here. Reading this article in which Geraint Thomas expresses his desire to have Mark in his team next year does curb some of my reprehension towards such a move but I still feel that he may struggle to win as many stages in that team.

HTC riders all sacrifice themselves for Mark on each flat stage, sometimes even the hilly ones, just to keep him within the time limit. Tony Martin did win the individual time trial at the Tour de France this year but even so, he could have been capable of far more had he been allowed to show his true potential more often.

In Team Sky, he won’t have 8 guys working for him. Bradley Wiggins will continue to be a main focus of the team. Thomas seems willing to give up his own stage winning ambitions to work for either of those riders as well as potentially Edvald Boassen Hagen as he did in this year’s TdF. Boassen Hagen, as well as Ben Swift though may be the hardest hit because all sprinting duties will surely be handed over to Cav, even if they both stay with the team.

Will they be ok with the role of being Cav’s leadout men in the same way that Mark Renshaw, Tony Martin and co have been in the last few years? If they are, then it could be a good move for everyone, but it’s going to be a tough ask for those guys to give up the chance of individual glory, especially as Eddy had two stage wins, and probably should have had a third. It’s true that one of those was a brilliant breakaway attack rather than a sprint, and so that could still happen again in future, but the opportunity for sprint wins would look unlikely.

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Imola 6 Hours and ILMC Becoming FIA Championship

Posted by Chris Till on July 5, 2011 in Racing

When I heard that the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup was to become an official FIA sanctioned championship next year I was really pleased. Endurance racing deserves to be on par with the likes of F1 and WRC in my opinion, and from next season it will be. It’s a fantastic decision.

The official name of the new series will be the FIA World Endurance Championship, which sounds great to me. In terms of the races and the way it works though, not much will change from the current ILMC which is probably the best thing, though I wouldn’t say no to a few more races being added to the schedule.

Still, before that begins, there’s a small matter of this year’s ILMC to be decided. The first race since the headline 24 hour race happened this past weekend, the 6 hours of Imola. I didn’t manage to catch the whole thing, but from what I did see, Peugeot’s 908 seemed to have the raw pace at this race that they lacked at Le Mans. Anthony Davidson was driving extremely well and despite a late scare with a puncture while Seb Bourdais was in the car, the 7 Peugeot held on to win from the 8. The Audi’s struggled to keep up in traffic and finished third and fourth a lap down.

Despite the fact that a Peugeot 908 has won each of the 3 other races but Le Mans itself this year (1 for Team Oreca and 2 for the factory team), I’m sure they would trade them for that elusive 24 hour win, which hopefully they’ll get again in 2012. In the meantime, winning every other race in the ILMC will help ease the pain until next June I’m sure. This starts with the 1000km of Silverstone in August, which Peugeot also won last year.

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