Ruth's Sports Desk - Moto GP Season Review

Here I am officially bereft for the Winter so as part of the coping process I'm writing my 2009 season review! And what a season its been, there may have been ups and downs but it was never anything less than thrilling, exciting and of course utterly STONKING.

Best victory- Dani's win in Laguna Seca. It came off the back of difficulties and DNFs and on the day he totally stormed it. Plus his unrestrained joy (and Vale's able assistance) on the podium was the cutest thing ever.

Best celebration - A tie between Vale's chicken and Jorge's space helmet and moonwalk.

Most exciting moment- Vale's last minute overtaking on the last corner on the last lap in Catalunya. Adrenalin rushes don't come better than this.

Biggest 'nightmare in a bubblecar' moment - Dani's crash in Mugello. Already injured he slides off at a corner and curls into a tiny, heart-breaking ball and has to be stretchered off. Cue wailing and tears in my house.

Best off track extra-curricular fun- a tie between legendary, stick-man Loris riding an elephant and the Yamaha crew's 'day at the office.' Colin Edwards has missed his vocation in life as a hardcore security guard/all round comedian.

Sweetest Moment - Senor Toothpaste himself Toni Elias giving Dani a lift back to the Parc Ferme after his bike ran out of gas. And every single time Dani and Vale are anywhere near each other.

Special award for all round dorkiness, adorableness in the face of adversity, biggest fanboy, hardest worker, Miss Congeniality and biggest smile - Andrea Dovizioso.

Best Race - Donnington for drama, Malaysia for joy and giggles, Brno for unpredictability, Valencia for a perfect joyous season finale.

So raise a glass and says 'cheers' to an awesome season and 'for suuuuuuure' an even better one next year. Huggy Dani and Vale wish you a happy off season and look forward to (ahem) doing it all again in 2010.

Ruth's Sports Desk - Nobody Does it Better/ Old Chicken Makes Good Soupy!

Congratulazioni e baci grandi a Valentino! The Doctor sealed his ninth world title (seventh in premier class) today in Malaysia. It was a thoroughly well deserved title with his season being absolutely sublime, exciting start to finish. He came third today in rain soaked conditions and after a very difficult start in which he ended up eleventh after running wide on the first corner. So I salute a true champion who constantly raises the bar and is the most amazing ambassador for his sport. Vale you are a hero.

Also lots and lots of amore to Dani and Andrea today. Dani came second after a very assured ride which was his first podium in wet conditions which was also a super achievement. He seemed really happy and super giggly after the race which was lovely to see. Poor Andrea was running in third and looking really impressive but the slippery conditions got the better of him and his bike slid away from him a few laps from the end. So (mentally) sending a bucketload of consolation kisses his way.

Ruth's Sports Desk- Thursday is extracurricular activity day!

Well its almost the weekend which means its almost race time. But first...

Its Thursday,which as the title of the post explains is extracurricular activity day. Thursday is the day the boys get to do all manner of random fun stuff after they arrive at whichever area their race is in. In the past they've sent Jorge to the library and the Spanish riding school, sent Andrea surfing and go karting, sent all the yamaha boys to 'work' in the offices for the day and let Vale loose talking to kids. Well today it was the turn of Dani and Andrea who visited the Honda Training Centre which has something to do with road safety and motorbike skills and such things. They met the students there and got to play with a simulator and generally looked sweet in honda gear. They also sent Chris Vermeulen, Julian Simon and Marco Simoncelli to a wildlife park which was very sweet they got to meet dingos and koalas and stuff. (pictures at motogp.com)

Thursday is also press con day. Which apparently Dani and Vale enjoyed. This is after they did a joint interview together in a spanish newspaper. That's a real interview not an imaginary one that only exists in my head. A real one, the link is at the bottom. They discuss Dani's recent mountain climbing trip (yes really) and what they think of each other (yes really again.) Its a thing of beauty. The photo on the right is so full of possibilities, someone should totally run a caption contest on this thing. (http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes/somos/distintos/elpepidep/20091005elpepidep_20/Tes)

Ruth's Sports Desk - The return of sixy football and excitement in Estoril

Well that sure was a fun-filled weekend of sports. First up Moto GP. The boys rolled in to Estoril for the latest round of racing and this week was the return of Casey Stoner (yawn.) He seems to have recovered form the most boring mystery illness in the world and is now back in irritating form. Once again Dani Pedrosa started the race super fast but was soon overtaken by Jorge Lorenzo. Dani had a right old battle with Casey and although he was a couple of seconds behind it really seemed like he was going to catch him. Poor Valentino struggled in fourth with grip issues but despite being miles behind Dani he was also miles in front of enforcer Edwards, so had a lonely but useful race. Lovely Dovi had a cracking battle with toothpaste Toni that went right up to the line with almost nothing in it and toni taking sixth and Dovi seventh. So Jorge emerged victorious and promptly did his routine of sticking a 'Lorenzo Land' flag on the racetrack. That's spiced up the title fight a bit with Valentino's lead down to 18 points with three races left. Casey was second and Dani third which means there's only about three points between them. I was rather disappointed that Casey was back on the podium so soon as I was robbed of seeing Dani and Valentino indulge in their normal overly chummy lets make Jorge jealous speculation inducing podium love in.

Next up (and on the same day, I nearly combusted with excitement) was Arsenal vs Blackburn. It was an interesting game which started badly as we conceded an early goal then went behind again. But we fought hard and were absolutely majestic going forward. We scored 6 goals and each of them were wonderful, particularly the wonderful left foot volley from Thomas Vermaelen (who is now our top scorer and a centre half!) All of the players put it an amazing display with Cesc Fabregas in particular standing out, assiting on four of the goals and scoring one himself. It was a great game to mark Arsene Wenger's 13th year in charge (happy anniversary) and even Thierry Henry was there watching in the stands.

Enjoy a random photo of Andrea Dovi at a petrol station opening looking sweet just for kicks.

Ruth's Sports Desk - Ciao!

Well, well, well another week another round of Moto GP is upon us. This week the boys rolled in to Misano in San Marino for more fun, fights and frolics. Well Mr Valentino started on pole and Dani right behind him (ahem) having both found half a second on Jorge Lorenzo in practice. Dani made an absolute rocketing start while Alex de Angelis (at his home GP) caused absolute mayhem at the first corner trying to pass on the outside then losing his bike and taking down Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden on the way. He almost hit Jorge who was incredibly lucky to stay on and due to all the commotion Randy 'Playboy' De Puniet was forced to run wide off the corner then make his way back onto the track. Nicky Hayden ran over and got a bit shovey at De Angelis while Colin let out his annoyance in the interview in the pits afterwards saying 'we knew we'd have to deal with dumbass Italians here and I think he had his brain switched off .' Let that be a lesson to you Alex, Don't mess with 'The Enforcer.' Dani managed to lead for a few laps with Toothpaste Toni Elias surprisingly in the mix right behind him but before long Valentino was bearing down on him. Valentino overtook Dani and Jorge got past Toni but was held up for a long time by Dani. Valentino managed to pull away and despite Dani's best efforts so did Jorge, on the plus side he did manage to stay with him for a lot longer than usual which suggests the bike is progressing. It wound up being quite strung out with a few seconds between each rider but excitement was provided by Andrea Dovizioso and Loris 'can't kill him with a stick' Capirossi exchanging places in 4th and 5th. Lovely Dovi managed to take it close to the line but Loris really made him earn it. So Vale, Dani and Jorge wound up on the podium again with Dani having to hitch a lift to the pits from Toothpaste Toni after his bike cut out. Valentino had the donkey from 'shrek' on his helmet as a jokey reference to his falling off last week and on the podium he extended the joke with him and several of his crew wearing HUGE fluffy donkey ears. As you can see in the brilliant picture above. And Dani's brilliant performance today means he has overtaken Casey Stoner in the championship standings and is now third and some more recent fantastic news Honda have confirmed that he and Andrea have signed new contracts for next year, hurrah! So another stonking weekend with the moto gp boys and roll on Estoril in October.

Ruth's Sport's Desk - Thrills and Spills

This weekend was all set to be fantastic one - Arsenal vs Manchester United and Moto Gp from Indianapolis but once again reality intervened to bring me crashing down.

Arsenal lost 2-1 to Man U in a an absolute travesty of a match. Arsenal played much, much better with flowing passing, commanding midfield and many many close shots on goal. But thanks to some absolutely diabolical refereeing and one very very bad header Man U scraped the win. They got a penalty that shouldn't have been and anyone saying I'm biased watch it again Wayne Rooney is already on his knees by the time Manuel Almunia gets to the ball, Darren Fletcher absolutely scythed through Andrei Arshavin in the box and got away with it and Arsenal had a goal incorrectly disallowed for offside. What a joke.

The race at Indianapolis was a bit better. Dani Pedrosa had absolutely dominated all weekend, storming to a magnificant pole position and in the beginning of the race he once again stormed to the front and was looking so strong until he lost the front end and came off on lap 4. He did however manage to get his bike back p and running ok and carriedon like the little hero that he is (more on that later.) Which left Valentino Rossi in the lead ahead of Jorge Lorenzo. Everything pointed to another epic battle but Valentino suffered an almost identical front end issue and fell in about lap 9, he also got his bike back but was not as lucky because shortly after finding Dani and being passed by him (very very sweet of him like Donnigton in reverse) he had to stop because his bike was no longer working. Which left Jorge ten seconds clear in front and cruising. The battle for the other podium positios was super close with Nicky Hayden, Alex de Angelis and lovely Andrea Dovizioso all working tremendously hard. Dani meanwhile was lapping at one second faster than the entire grid and manged to ride everyone down and with the help of Niccolo Canepa and Marco Melandri falling off managed to finish in a fantastically fought tenth place after overtaking one of the suzukis almost on the line. He was so brave and so clever and I was absolutely thrilled for him managing to save his day. Jorge won and celebrated by climbing the fence and throwing himself at his crew, De Angelis finished second- a timely podium for him as like Toni last week he has also lost his contract at Gresini Honda and Nicky Hayden came third with Andrea almost taking it on the last lap. So plenty of excitement as usual and in the immortal words of the bbc guy STONKING.

Oh and today marks the return of Grand Slam tennis with the US Open kicking off at flushing meadows. Vamos Rafa.

Ruth's Sports Desk - Czech it out.

Today's Czech GP held at the circuit at Brno, marked the return of moto GP after a three week summer break. Interesting news all round before the race. One: Casey Stoner is taking his own hiatus and will not ride in the next three races due to his continuing 'health issues' ie his mystery tiredness. This means big things for the title race; Jorge and Valentino have a chance to pull away and Dani has a chance to catch up and nick third. Two: Repsol Honda have announced that Dani and Andrea will be staying at HRC for another two years. Which is fantastic news as they make a great team and complement each other very well. Three: Gresini/San Carlo Honda announced that they have signed Marco Melandri from Hayate (Kawasaki) and Marco Simoncelli from the 250 class. Now that is one hell of a team, I'm predicting plenty of hijinks and hilarity from that garage next year. I think the Marcos will make perfect teammates and can probably do a great job on the satellite hondas. However and this is a big however, this means Toni Elias and Alex de Angelis are out of a job which is a real shame because they've been doing a stellar job for the team.

Now to the race. Dani and Valentino made rocketing starts whereas Jorge had a shocker. However he soon found his way back towards the front. So Valentino took an early lead followed closely by Dani, again followed closely by Jorge. Then just behind them came Andrea Dovizioso, Toni 'senor toothpaste' Elias and Loris 'can't kill him with a stick' Capirossi. Dani held up Jorge for a few laps with Toni doing the same job on his lovely teammate Andrea. Jorge found a way past and before long he and Valentino had pulled away. Dani also opened up a gap on the chasing group leaving him to ride a very lonely race. With 5 laps to go Jorge lost the front end and crashed handing the race and title advantage to Valentino who now has a 50 point (two races worth) advantage. Dani hung on in his lonely bubble to claim a solid second. Toothpaste Toni did a stellar job holding off lovely Dovi to claim a well deserved and job prospect boosting third. So a cracking race all in all with the bbc guys doing their irreverent best once again, one of the highlights being them yelling "Valentino is in your head!!!!!" repeatedly at Jorge as he crashed.

ps: Toothpaste Toni is the cool dude on the right. Check out that million dollar smile.

Ruth's Sports Desk - Mountain Climbing in flip flops.

This weekend heralded the final moto gp race at Donnington Park for the near future. And boy did it go out with a bang.

It was half raining which meant the track was slippy but not wet enough for wet tyres. However that didn't deter Ducati who went for full wet tyres meaning that a few laps in Nicky and Casey were circulating on shredded tyres. Dani, Valentino, Jorge and Andrea Dovizioso (this cutie on the left) all had excellent starts. Toni Elias aka Mr Toothpaste had a stonking start and led briefly before touching the white line at the edge of the course and flying off. A few laps on Jorge stormed into the lead only to suffer an almost identical crash. Which left Dani, Valentino and Andrea to fight it out. Andrea and Valentino began to pull away and Dani began to struggle mostly I think due to the ridiculously sketchy conditions and the fact that Toni Elias had crashed literally inches from him making him super super cautious. Then a few laps on Valentino lost the front end of his bike and fell but managed to get it upright and running again. He rejoined the race in 11th position by which time Dani began storming backwards on the grid (hmmm what a 'strange' coincidence.) Andrea on the other hand consolidated his lead and flew home 1st ahead of Colin Edwards who cae form nowhere in a quite frankly stonking performance and Randy de Puniet who put it a really courageous and strong race. Valentino somehow managed to make up a huge gap and finish 5th while Dani ended up 9th. So massive massive congratulations to lovely, sweet, ditzy Andrea who thoroughly deserves his moment after all his determination and positivity.

Ruth's Sports Desk- A Welcome Return.

It is with great delight that I can finally say the words I have been waiting over a year to say "Tomas Rosicky is back." Oh yes. He has actually officially played football again. Hurrah!

He's been injured with an uber complicated knee complaint since January 2008. He returned to training at the end of the season and has been training intensively in Prague. He played the first half of Arsenal's first pre-season friendly against Barnet during which he was captain. I'm so pleased he's back, he's one of my favourite footballers ever and both myself and the Arsenal team have missed him badly (not that I know them or anything, its just obvious.) So I am now very very excited and hopeful for the new season. In other Arsenal related news our new signing Thomas Vermaelen played the entirety of the Barnet match and seemed to be looking good.

Now to Moto GP. Last week's race was at the Sachsenring (spelt right oh yes) in Germany. It was very exciting. Valentino and Jorge were once again fighting it out for the lead and exchanged positions several times, Valentino overtook Jorge with two laps left and came over the line 0.9 of a second ahead of him. Casey Stoner was third for a long time but begaan flagging towards the end which allowed Dani to reel him in and overtake him and even make up some ground on the leaders. It was great. Dani is now right back in the fight for a top three finish.

And finally some sports related news that I found out this very morning. Roger Federer's wife Mirka has had twins. Both girls, named Charlene and Myla. Aaah sweet. How very very nice. Congrats.

Ruth's Sports Desk - California Dreaming

This week's Moto GP at Laguna Seca in California was nothing less than STONKING. It provided the scenario I've been waiting for all year. In fact waiting is an understatement, desparate is more accurate. Anyway finally, finally I got what I wanted; Dani Pedrosa won!!!!! Not just that though Valentino Rossi came second and Jorge Lorenzo third meaning that my three favourites were on the podium in the right order. Plus Dani and Valentino are amazing together on the podium and provide me with many moments of fangirling and squeeing. Dani's victory was an absolute epic he rocketed off the start and established an impressive 3 second lead pretty early on. He was absolutely bang on form and showed what he can do, hopefully putting behind him the nightmare in a bubblecar run of injuries and crashes he's had lately.

Valentino almost caught Dani on the last corner but he held on like the little hero that he is. Plus special mention for Jorge who came in third (nearly second if it wasn't for some bad luck with steering) despite riding with a partially dislocated shoulder.

Valentino and Dani got all matey on the podium, with Valentino seeming very very pleased for Dani patting him on the head, hugging him and waving his hand in the air like a boxing victory thing. Even Jorge shook Dani's hand without being forced which was super sweet.

So in conclusion an absolutley stonking race and I'm very very proud of all three boys.

Ruth's Sports Desk- STONKING

Wow. Just wow.

I had a day full of sports on sunday and it was wonderful. It started out in the best way possible with the best Moto GP race I've ever seen. Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi were a point apart in the championship standings and the race promised to be competitive. And boy did it deliver. Valentino took the lead early then was overtaken by Jorge and stuck close to him for a few laps seemingly studying him and planning his move. You could feel the tension building and as the last few laps approached things really got interesting. They swapped the lead several times, with several amazingly close passes. Both riders were flat out and did everything but knock each other off. Then on the final lap Jorge passes Valentino on the straight going into the pit lane in the process it seemed like he had the race won but Valentino being the legend that he is (seriously I think he has magic powers) passed Jorge on the final corner by the tiniest of margins then flew over the line for an emotional victory(his 99th). He dedicated it to Jerry Burgess his crew chief (a lovely man) saying 'a big kiss for jerry without you I wouldn't have survived to 99 victories' which was so wonderful. He also said 'mamma mia' confirming my suspicions that he's moonlighting as the Dolmio man. Little Dani managed to recuperate enough in time to race and came sixth after a decent battle with Loris Capirossi who apparently 'you can't kill with a stick' (thank you BBC man) I was so pleased for him considering how much pain he must have been in. He's an absolute hero.

I then watched Andy Murray become the first British Champion at Queen's since Bunny Austin in 1938. Which was great. Fab news for British tennis. I'm really looking forward to Wimbledon I think its going to be very very close this year.

I then watched the Confederations cup. Spain won 5-0 against New Zealand which was cracking. The two Davids (Villa and Silva) were fantastic, Cesc put in a solid display and Fernando Torres tried to disprove my theory that he can't play when he isn't the best player in the team by scoring a hat-trick. I'm still not convinced about him though. I watched Italy-USA yesterday which was quite good. USA had a man sent off and it ended 3-1 to Italy. With the goals scored by- get this- Rossi and De Rossi. Weird or what.

Oh and more gold from the BBC Moto GP man- "All the gear and no idea." Fabulous.

Spazibo everyone.

Ruth's Sports Desk - A void in my life.

The football season is over. Done. Finished. There is a massive gap in my life where it should be. sigh. Transfer madness has descended and I'm attempting to ignore the crazy rumours linking almost literally every player under the sun to a move elsewhere. I tend to just bury my head and sing 'lalalala' very loudly. I'm getting by watching world cup qualifiers which is ok.

The French Open has gone completely wrong the final is Federer v Soderling. Something which I believe is called a 'no win situation.' roll on wimbledon.

The Mugello GP was a disaster with Casey Stoner winning and ending Valentino Rossi's seven year victory run. Poor Dani Pedrosa injured himself on the saturday practice then crashed in the actual race and was stretchered off the track which was just awful. The only thing that saved it was Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo ending up on the podium. Poor Dani has cracked his thigh bone but is attempting to be fit for Catalunya, I was very very worried for him but I have faith he can do it. Get well soon Speedy.

Spazibo.

Ruth's Sports Desk - Nightmare in a bubblecar.

Well Well.
After seeming to go right Arsenal's season has finished a little flat. But let's not detract from our achievements- two semi-finals (lost to chelski in FA cup and lost to Man U in Champs league) is a good achievement and definitely a step in the right directio. Plus considering how dodgy it looked earlier (pre christmas) a solid fourth place is good, i guess. But I won't deny I was gutted, especially considering how well we'd played at certain stages. It was very depressing watching other teams lift trophies and reach stages that rightfully should be ours.
Tennis- Rafa lost in Madrid. To Roger Federer. *sigh* BUT he has won in Rome and Monte Carlo and looks in amazing form.
Moto GP. Finally some joy. Sunday's Le Mans GP heralded the first use of the word 'stonking' this season by the bbc man and the debut of the phrase 'nightmare in a bubblecar.' Genius. Plus Dani Pedrosa came third after a storming last lap. Vamos Speedy.