Sports Poets Society

Un Giro moderno, equilibrato, ma soprattutto bello e tosto, quello della 99esima edizione: dal 6 al 29 maggio 2016; 7 tappe dedicate ai velocisti, 7 agli attaccanti per le fughe di giornata e 7 per scalatori di media e alta montagna.  Sei gli arrivi in salita, la metà rispetto all'ultima Vuelta a Espana; e tornano - finalmente - le Dolomiti. In totale fanno 3383 km in 21 tappe, alla media di oltre 160 km l'una.   Per la 12esima volta si partirà dall'estero e per la terza dall'Olanda, che ospiterà le prime tre tappe, pianeggianti e spazzate dal vento, compreso il cronoprologo di 9,8 km.   Due gli sconfinamenti in Francia nei duel ultimi tapponi alpini e due anche i giorni di riposo.  Per il secondo anno consecuivo, altro minimo storico di trasferimenti.   Stavolta la penisola si risale da Catanzaro, primo arrivo in salita a Roccaraso alla sesta. La crono individuale, di 40 km, per il terzo anno in fila attraversa una terra dei vini, dopo la Barbares...

Cinque gol in venti minuti. Un dilettante, Sergio Aguero; perlomeno rispetto a Robert Lewandowski, che il 22 settembre in Bundesliga - col Bayern sotto 1-0 in casa contro il Wolfsburg - ne aveva fatti altrettanti ma in nove minuti e da subentrato dopo un tempo in panchina. Dieter Hoeness, il fratello meno forte di Uli, ci era riuscito nel 1984 e sempre al Bayern, ma in 22 minuti e contro l'Eintracht Braunschweig. Non male però neanche l'impresa del "Kun", a cui ne sono bastati venti, tra il 42' e il 62', per raddrizzare quella che pareva la quarta partita nata storta di questo strano avvio di stagione del City. E che invece è finita con il pokerissimo più veloce nella storia della Premier League. Nessuno degli altri quattro capaci di azzeccare la cinquina in Premier - Alan Shearer, Andy Cole, Jermaine Defoe e Dmitar Berbatov - ci è riuscito in così poco tempo. In campionato Aguero ha segnato, da solo, quanto tutto il Newcastle, ultimo a 3 punti, con 6 gol...

The most successful rider to come out of the Netherlands prior to 1968 Tour de France winner Jan Janssen, Jo De Roo was the ultimate in all-rounders, capable of beating the very best on the plains of Paris-Tours and the hills of Lombardy Writer: Peter Cossins ProCycling #208, October 2015 At 77, Jo De Roo’s blue eyes are as piercing as ever and he is still very trim. A slight limp initially suggests that age is getting the better of him but is in fact the result of recent knee surgery that is currently preventing him enjoying his usual two or three weekly sorties on his bike in his home region of Zeeland, hopping from one island to the next, just as the Tour de France did this summer . “It’s always windy and it’s pretty hard ,” he says. It is ideal terrain, he adds, for a rider aiming to make a name for himself in the Classics. Holland’s most successful rider until the emergence of Jan Janssen , De Roo was that rare beast who could win almost any of the Classics, no mat...

http://diario.latercera.com/2013/12/15/01/contenido/la-tercera-el-semanal/34-153352-9-el-otro-escobar.shtml   El hermano mayor de Pablo Escobar, Roberto, estaba preso y casi ciego cuando hace justo 20 años se enteró de la muerte del capo colombiano. Participó en el Cartel de Medellín, le enviaron una carta-bomba a la cárcel, asesinaron a uno de sus hijos, pero “El Osito” exhibe hoy con orgullo la casa-museo donde permanecen los recuerdos del narcotraficante más célebre de Colombia. por Patricio de la Paz Exagera. Roberto, el hermano mayor del capo colombiano Pablo Escobar Gaviria, siempre exagera. Eso ya lo había advertido antes el guía Juan Manuel Uribe, quien se encarga del tour que muestra los lugares emblemáticos del narcotraficante en Medellín. Y tiene razón. Apenas entramos a la casa-museo que el propio Roberto Escobar Gaviria ha montado en lo alto de un cerro de la capital paisa, él mismo nos recibe con un saludo bien cargado a la hipérbole: -Así que es chileno… mire uste...

http://alaskavelo.blogspot.it/2012/07/of-bicycles-and-drug-money.html Tuesday, July 10, 2012 Source: Cycling Inquisition blog Recently the topic of Pablo Escobar has become to resurface with the opening of a new Colombian Soap Opera by its name: Pablo Escobar - El Patrón del Mal. or Pablo Escobar, the Lord of Evil. Source: Crunchtees Fewer people nowadays don't know who Escobar was, but for us Colombians that had to grow up with the cartel wars and thus with the bombings, the extravagant silliness, the news, the uncertainty and the inflation that drug money fueled, that name and the names of many other drug lords are latent in memory. Pablo was definitely an icon. You can ask around the world what his name means for them and you will hear dozens, maybe hundreds of different adjectives associated to it. For me, the name meant power, determination, suicide. The picture above shows how this type of money permeated even the most noble of inventions. Source: Cy...

With Anthony Wile - July 13, 2014 With Anthony Wile - July 13, 2014   Introduction:  Roberto Escobar Gaviria, an entrepreneur in Colombia, is the brother of the late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, and former chief accountant, "right-hand man and administrative brains" of the Escobar operation (Whitewash: Pablo Escobar and the Cocaine Wars, p 23). Roberto spent more than 11 years in a maximum-security prison in Itagüi, south of Medellin, Colombia. Escobar is author of The Accountant's Sto ry: Inside the Violent World of the Medellin Cartel: The True Story of Pablo Escobar (2009), Escobar: The Inside Story of Pablo Escobar, the World's Most Powerful Criminal (2009) and Mi Hermano Pablo (2008). with Anthony Wile - Published by The Daily Bell - July 13 2014      While Roberto was becoming a world-class cyclist as a young man, eventually winning numerous national and international medals, coach of the Colombian national cycling team and opening ...

A high-speed collision with a spectator’s camera cost Daniele Colli his Giro, and almost his career. Procycling meets one of the sport’s most resilient characters and examines the modern day Russian Roulette which is the bunch sprint. WRITER - Herbie Sykes Procycling #208, October 2015 On an early August Monday morning in the furnace of the Milanese hinterlands, Procycling is pushed for time. We’re heading to meet a man in a hurry, a cyclist with a plane to catch. Daniele Colli , he of the Giro d’Italia horror crash, is bound for the Tour of Burgos. There he will enact his latest comeback, the latest instalment in the spellbinding tragi-comedy which is his cycling career. Those of you familiar with Colli’s story will likely be fearing the worst at this point and quite rightly, too. Hold on to your hats. As a junior Colli simply won everything, everywhere. He was an Italian national champion destined for the very top and he duly signed professional terms with Li...