The Sporting Hack

As soon as the bunch of sprinters cross the finish line under lights on Paris’ iconic Champs-Elysees to signal the end of the centenary edition of the Tour de France, a nation, or more pertinently a county, will start counting down. For the next time the 200 hundred or so Lycra-clad cyclists will take to the road to compete for the Maillot Jaune, they will be in Yorkshire, or Leeds to be more precise. Two stages have been organised for the White Rose County, from Leeds to Harrogate and York to Sheffield to test the peloton’s class of 2014 before it moves south to London for a day and back to its spiritual home. While the economic benefits to the region, England’s largest, are obvious, Yorkshire will provide two key ingredients to the biggest cycling race in the world: stunning scenery and passionate fans. While it is unlikely that defending champion, Team Sky’s Chris Froome, will be out taking snaps of the picturesque Yorkshire Dales and North York moors, the mere...

#TSHontheattack Allez Riblon. Any Frenchman winning a stage on the Tour de France is pretty special, particularly when the stage is the famous Alpe d’Huez, notorious for its sheer size and imposing gradient. But for Frenchman Christophe Riblon to secure his country’s first win in this, the hundredth edition of the tour when organisers had seen fit to honour the occasion with two separate climbs of the mountain, well it was hard not to be swept up in the emotion of it all. Even the most hardnosed of sports fans must have cracked a little, as Tour leader Chris Froom did late on, when the 32 year old skipped past the hard-working American Teejay Van Garderen and allowed himself a good 500m to lap it up and become the darling of the tricolour for 2013. The long legs of loopholes; Cook. Aaron Cook’s omission from Team GB’s Taekwondo squad for last year’s Olympic Games sparked controversy in the sport as the world number one had been overlooked in favour of Lutalo Muham...

Well that's handball surely? Welcome to a special edition of ‘On the Attack’ this week, as the football season draws ever closer, there is plenty of material to focus on and so we have given the 11 aside game its own little page on The Sporting Hack. The ‘regular’ #tshontheattack will follow shortly with news and views from the rest of the sports world. France’s 3-0 defeat over England’s women in Sweden yesterday knocked the three lions out of Euro 2013 in what was a poor campaign for Hope Powell’s side. It caps a dismal summer for all parties at FA headquarters after England’s men's under 21’s and under 20’s sides were knocked out of European and World Cup competitions respectively – none of the trio managed a single victory. Stuart Pearce (U21’s) paid the price for losing all three group games in Israel and was duly sacked by the FA and it would not be a surprise to see Powell either jump, or be pushed, following a fifteen year spell in charge. We all know about t...

KP's Pedal Power. Le Tour de Lords England head in to the second Ashes test at Lord’s tonight knowing that a victory would all but kill Australia’s hopes of snatching the urn back from Alistair Cook’s men. Both sides though come in to the game with mixed emotions. England will be elated at the fact that they went 1-0 up in the series thanks to a 14 run win, but know how very close they were pushed. For Darren Lehman’s men, they can take heart from rushing England and taking them away from their usual knack of controlling events in what was a gutsy performance in Nottingham, but the sort of close encounter they really needed to win to stand a chance overall. The equation is simple for the tourists; ruffle England’s feathers again and they might square it. There is no pressure on Lehman, that’s why he threw the untried and untested Ashton Agar in to the cauldron of, not just test cricket, but Ashes cricket. Even the staunchest Australian did not expect that ...

It’s enough to make you wonder what the sporting world would be like without cynicism. While British Tour de France leader Chris Froome has been defiant about allegations of doping throughout this year’s centenary edition, his Team Sky support staff have turned the table on the accusers and called on them to take a look around. Raising the bar: Brailsford (above), Froome (below) Dave Brailsford, Team Sky’s general manager, has invited the necessary bodies to look at all the necessary data and information that they want, even going so far as to say that they “can live with us.” Sky have invited potential investigation and interrogation, if there was any hint that Froome was doping, would anybody take such a risk? Welcome to the three week circus that tours France each year and is now turning in to a huge game of 'Call my Bluff.' And the turning point just had to be Mont Ventoux on Bastille Day. 46 years after British rider Tommy Simpson had taken amphetami...

Welcome to another edition of The Sporting Hack’s ‘On The Attack’, where we bring you the latest news and opinions from around the globe. As mentioned in previous posts, we are looking to expand all the time, so feel free to pay us a visit on Facebook: www.facebook.com/thesportinghack or tweet us your thoughts on Twitter @thesportinghack, it would be great to hear from you, wherever you are in the world. Benched: Schwarzer may get used to this Mark Schwarzer’s gentle stroll down the King’s Road from Fulham to Chelsea is actually more like a mad dash for one thing and one thing only...game time! The 40 year old’s contract with the Craven Cottage outfit had expired and the Australian first choice goalkeeper – who will be between the sticks for the Socceroos come their World Cup campaign next year in Brazil – has moved to compete with the Blues number one, Petr Cech. Call us cynical to suggest that he’s only gone for the money, but could it really be that Schwarzer wants to f...