It's early July again, which means that two usually ignored sports are in the headlines once again: tennis and bicycle racing. England's Wimbleton, one of the major Grand Slam tournaments in professional tennis, is underway as well as the Tour de France multi-stage bicycle epic that crisscrosses that country with a different course each year. I haven't gotten around to viewing any of the tennis, which basically consists of players grunting, shrieking, and moaning as they swing and hit the ball back and forth in a very structured and delineating setting...kind of boring if you ask me. The bikers aren't much better...that is, if what I'm focusing on is the race itself. But my attention when I'm watching the Tour de France (which is shown on NBCSports) is mainly on the scenery as the contestants, all pretty much looking the same in their tights and alien-ish helmets, pedal up and down hills and around curves, through countryside and village, as onlookers on the roadside cheer them on. I caught a little of it this morning, and I can say with the utmost confidence that I have no idea whatsoever who is currently in the lead, which is probably just as well since I wouldn't recognize any of the names anyway. Four-time Tour champion Chris Froome, whom I would have recognized, isn't participating after suffering a horrible wall crash in a race last month that caused multiple fractures...
I think I'll start watching some of Wimbleton in the days to come...probably with the sound down to avoid those annoying sounds coming out of the players' mouths. One of the interesting things about these two events is that since they're both from western Europe, they take place live in the morning hours and also get replay coverage later on in the day. I can't say I'm a terrific fan of either sport, but sometimes it's fun to switch from time to time and watch something different...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment