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 - 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.