The temperaure was soaring at 30 degrees as if the mountain climbing wasn’t difficult enough. Landis kept drenching himself in water. He kept fighting. In sport, you always have a window of an opportunity if you are look hard enough. It is not over till it’s over. To win, you have to first believe that you can win. Without that, you have no chance. With the belief, wonders and great feats can be achieved.

After the disaster yesterday, Landis said that the Tour de France was over for him. Today, when he had nothing to lose, he let out his last spark. Those were sparks of brilliance. Landis believed again. The result - Landis is a real challenger again.

As Landis himself states:

I have come here to win the Tour and I am not done fighting yet.

Two days ago, Landis looked in a strong position. Yesterday’s debacle left almost no one giving him a chance. It looked impossible and not just improbable.

BBC live commentary sums up the situation:

Floyd Landis stages a remarkable fightback after his disaster on Wednesday as he takes an incredible stage 17 of the Tour de France. Landis imploded on the final climb on stage 16 and was over eight minutes off yellow jersey holder Oscar Pereiro.

But the American produced an extraordinary ride and finished over five minutes ahead of Carlos Sastre. Pereiro managed to retain the yellow jersey but is now 12 seconds ahead of Sastre and 30 seconds ahead of Landis.

Landis lead the peleton. Then, he left the peleton looking from the back at a great fightback. Then, he got to the breakaway markers. He kept leading by over seven minutes over the peleton. He left Sinkewitz the leader, behind. In the end, he finished a full 5′42″ ahead of second Carlos Sastre.

The race was wide open yesterday. Today, it has opened much more. We have also witnessed one of the epic rides. It was a great fightback yes. It was also one of the greatest performances in Tour de France history.

Just when every one thought Landis will win the Le Tour this year, and, it has become too predictable for final stages, Landis failed at a mountain test. No one had anticipated it. Not even Oscar Pereiro who now has the yellow jersey:

“We never reckoned on Landis struggling as he did,” said Pereiro, who spent four years with the Phonak team before leaving last year. “It was an important step for me today towards the yellow jersey, but Landis showed anybody can have an off-day.”

The day belonged to Michael Rasmussen as BBC reports:

The dramatic collapse of the Pennsylvanian overshadowed an incredible performance from Rasmussen, who won all four climbs over five-and-a-half hours of gruelling riding in sweltering heat… He led them over the 2,642m Col du Galibier, the highest point of this year’s race, before dropping Casar, then Valjavec on the second major climb, the Col de la Croix-de-Fer.

Read the BBC live report on the most exciting day of Le Tour so far. When an emperor dies, his vast kingdom is broken into many small fragments. We are seeing that this year in the first year post the Armstrong retirement. Armstrong was at Le Tour today as well as he saw the cyclists battle for the spoils.

What’s left of the tour now? Stages 17, 18, 19 and 20. The mountain stage and time trial promise a lot. Then, we have the final sprint to victory of course.

Pereiro is the favourite now like Landis was yesterday looking at his first ITT performance and expert opinions of fans looking at strengths. It has been unpredictable in this tour right from the start though.

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Male tradition or not, the headbutt comes out second best worst.

41 year old former Indian captain V.P.Sathyan is dead. Reports suggest that he committed suicide.

The suicide note reads:

“I was vexed in life. I had lost my wealth as I was habituated to drinking and gambling. I had lot of respect and admiration in the society as long as I was a football player for India. But at present, I’ve lost everything. I don’t want to live in this world anymore,” read the suicide note.

Sathyan was the All India Football Federation player of the year in 1995. He was a true servant of the game though usually away from the spotlight. Read Bikash Mohapatra remembering Sathyan.

Telegraph has a detailed report:

While his other teammates in the then crack Kerala team, such as I.M. Vijayan and Jo Paul Ancheri, rose to become glamour boys of Indian football, Sathyan somehow remained the unsung hero…

All these years, no one really talked and discussed the classic and world-class goal he scored against South Korea in 1986 in Merdeka. A rookie defender then, Sathyan took India to the quarter-finals with a terrific 35-yard shot that had both his teammates and rivals completely stunned.

Sathyan himself never regretted it, leave alone talking about his achievements.

Read the reactions of the football fraternity.

It is a bit sad that we remember achievements and talk of the great deeds of people only when they are no more. The bigger question worth pondering is whether Sathyan would have met this fate had there been more recognition for him and had Indian football been better off. We don’t know that answer.

Regardless, this is a very tragic loss to Indian sports.

Le Tour is supposed to be the toughest challenge in sport. A few detractors aren’t taking as much interest in the tour though this time. Robbo presents the school of thought perfectly here:

Can we really take the Tour de France seriously now they’ve suspended some of the best cyclists ‘cos they might have been on summat? Personally I think they must all be out of their minds to want to do the damn thing in the first place…

But cycling is so full of suspicious supplements it’s getting to the point where it’s not so much a race as an endurance test for chemicals.

The legitimacy of the sport itself is being questioned now when earlier we used to marvel about the strength of the cyclists. I believe the sport cannot be faulted. Just because Le Tour is tough does not mean people have to take drugs. The best which can be done is to make real efforts to cleanse the sport - that process has already begun as we know with the exclusion of many during the tumoltous start of the tour as they were found out.

Coming to today, Gap to l’Alpe d’Huez has always been crucial [see the stage guide and other stages here]. This time around, it was going to be much more so as Telegraph UK said:

The aficionados rank the mighty Col du Galibier, which the riders tackle tomorrow, as the toughest climb in the Tour de France but a combination of circumstances have conspired to make today’s ride up L’Alpe d’Huez the event’s showpiece occasion…

Punters should take note of who wins the stage today. On 19 occasions out of 24, the rider in the yellow jersey after the L’Alpe d’Huez stage has won the Tour de France. It tests everything - physical capability, nerve, composure, competitive instincts and tactical flexibility - and only the best survive.

Read more on L’Alpe d’Huez in the Telegraph piece.

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If you haven’t heard already, Blogspot among various other sites have been mysteriously blocked by many Indian ISPs.

You can add one of the two icons in the sidebars of your blogs with a link to the Bloggers against censorship wiki.

Icons made by my brother, Abhinav.

For more latest info, keep a track of the Bloggers Collective Google Group.

Dhoomketu’s post here.

Update: The ban maybe lifted according to this report by Shivam Vij.

This month’s quiz is conducted by friend Nirav Mehta. Do e-mail the answers at pratyushkhaitan@gmail.com within the next 14 days even if you don’t know most answers as the fun is in the quizzing itself. Results to be announced on 1st August.

1. What is common to Abid Ali, Grant Flower, David Gower and Henry Olonga among many others?

2. What unique batting record does Rahul Dravid hold in ODIs and David Gower hold in Test matches? (Hint: Runners-up are Martin Crowe in ODIs and Richie Richardson in Tests)

3. The 1997 Barbados Test is remembered by most because of India’s inability to achieve a target of 120 runs. The match also holds significance in cricketing history for another reason. What reason?

4.

Who is the player in the picture, and what is his connection with Sachin Tendulkar?

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The secrets from stag parties can never be hidden for too long. Here’s the inside scoop.

In 1936, Hitler’s Germany finished with 11 golds and 33 total medals more than the next best - USA. As we inch closer to Beijing, we realise how real the USA versus China battle is going to be.

Every sport has the Chinese imprint on it now. As 2008 draws closer, the imprint grows bigger. There was the world record in 110 meter hurdles a few days back. Now, it is the turn of tennis. Tennis has already seen the Chinese women take the doubles at two earlier grand slams this season - Australian Open and Wimbledon. Now, they Chinese are raising the bar in singles as well.

As CNN reports:

China will now play in the eight-team World Group in 2007 while twice champions Germany were relegated to the second tier of the team competition.

The victory was another first in a breakthrough year in which Li became the first Chinese player to reach the singles quarterfinals at a grand slam and Zheng Jie and Yan Zi secured the country’s first major titles in the women’s doubles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

That Germany is being replaced by China in the world group bears symbolism more than any thing else. The Olympics have always been the global stage where political statements have been made as this piece from The Economist [Via India Uncut] talked on among other things:

Over its long history, success at the Olympics has usually been a fairly accurate measure of global political power. Although the world now remembers the snub that Jesse Owens delivered to Nazi theories of racial superiority, the Germans came top of the Olympic medal table in 1936, reflecting the Nazi regime’s growing power. During the cold war, the United States and the Soviet Union repeatedly struggled to gain a symbolic victory, by winning the most medals at the Olympics. Already a similar, politically charged battle for supremacy between America and China looks likely in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

If you keep your eyes and ears open, the results have started showing for China. It was one thing to achieve supremacy in an era when sport wasn’t as competitive, hence standards not as tough in 1936. It is a completely different ball game to compete against a super power like USA in the sporting arena - a country which has been very much unbeatable. That is essentially China’s challenge in the world stage as well, isn’t it? To compete with the best in the world markets in products by reducing the cost of production while mass producing as good if not better goods?

History has shown - what you do at the world stage, you do it first at the Olympics. So, 2008 will be a time to make statements. The process was started when the athletes and sports persons were nurtured. The results have already started flowing in.

The New Zealand basketball team isn’t as widely followed as their rugby team. How many of you would like to back a team which won only against Angola in basketball in the 2000 Olympics?

Wikipedia has more vital information:

The Tall Blacks is the nickname of New Zealand’s national men’s basketball team and not a number of large black coffees. The name was chosen as it reminds people of New Zealand’s Rugby Union team, the All Blacks. For sponsorship reasons, they are often referred to in New Zealand media as the Burger King Tall Blacks.

So with the biggest win versus Australia, tying the on going 4 match series 1-1, the Burger fellas are bound to feel good. The New Zealand domestic league is followed religiously by all of three people but that number is bound to grow as well after this big win.

Whatever happens, I will love the innovation behind the name of the team. All New Zealand teams contain black (All Blacks, Black Caps). Basketball players are tall.

So we will call you the Tall Blacks!

Do check out the Kiwi Hoops and Basketball.org.nz websites for an indepth look into Kiwi basketball. New Zealand basketball is growing and it is evident from New Zealand being the semi finalists in the 2002 Basketball World Championships. Burger King is very pleased.

Update: The tall blacks are 2-1 ahead in the series now with a convincing win in Australia!