Figure Skating off season shuffle

Well its figure skating off season as I'm sure you know and we're all eagerly awaiting the start of the next round of competition and all the new routines (and outfits!) that this brings. But while we're all waiting I thought we could play a little game. The figure skating music shuffle game. I've been challenging myself to come up with the music that I would really love to see some of my favourite figure skaters take on. I'm sure you'll all know the songs but just in case I'll include links.

Dani day in Deutschland

This week the giant bubble of hilarity that is the Moto GP paddock decamped to Sachsenring in Germany. Now this season has been missing something but finally on Sunday it happened. Dani Pedrosa won. It was marvellous. He had a brilliant battle with Stinky until about twelve laps to go when he overtook him with a lovely smooth maneouvre. The BBC for some reason seemed to think Casey 'had let him past' on purpose which is frankly ludicrous and anyway Dani's laptimes were faster the whole time he was stuck behind Casey and he clearly had no trouble keeping ahead of him once he did pass him. But there was more to come. Firstly we had the brilliant battles further down the field. Lovely Dovi and his teammate Cal Crutchlow were once again throwing everything they had at each other for fourth place, which eventually meant that Cal pushed a bit too hard and ran off track ending up in eighth. Valentino Rossi had a stellar battle all race with Nicky Hayden and Hector Barbera with all of them trading positions several times which was made all the better by Alvaro Bautista's stunning run from right at the back of the grid right through to seventh position.  The highlight of Alvaro's spectacular (and mad) race was his hilarious kamikaze move towards the end of the last lap where he seemingly said to himself "screw it. I'm going. Aaaaaaaaaah!!" and just lunged desperatley past three people and right to the edge of the track. I don't know how he stayed on but he did so kudos to Alvaro on that one. On top of all that excitement Vale managed to finish in sixth and home town hero Stefan Bradl finished in fifth which was really fantastic to see both for him and all the lovely people at team LCR, not least the delectable Lucio Cecchinello himself. But that wasn't the most dramatic moment of the day. This came on the second last corner of the last lap with Dani pushing hard and Casey pushing even harder to try and overtake him. Then the end of Casey's bike folded and slid out from underneath him. At HQ we couldn't believe our eyes, we'd been jokingly pointing at him all race (actually all season) in the style of the evil monkey from family guy and the bbc man had been predicting that he would retake the lead when suddenly down he goes. Actually though you could see it coming, he seemed to be pushing way harder than Dani and right on to his limits and a few times in the last few laps his bike had been squirming and sliding all over the track. So Dani wrapped up his first victory of the season and his hattrick of victorys at Sachsenring. His beaming little face on the podium was just wonderful and watching him jump up and down with excitement was adorable. And we even got a Pedrossi moment when they shook hands as they rode around post-race. Brilliant

The Best of Euro 2012

So there were many highlights of the European Championships, some serious footballing ones and some fun lighthearted ones. So without further ado, let's dive right in.

Moto GP merch

Check it out - I've acquired a Valentino Rossi shirt. It will from now on be my 'race day shirt.' I love it so much.
PS: You'll notice that on the TV behind me you can see the half-time highlights of the Euro 2012 final.

A Grand Finale

So Spain were once again crowned Champions of Europe on Sunday after a 4-0 win over victory in the Euro 2012 final. I had predicted Germany would win the whole thing but they were overcome by a storming performance by a valiant Italian side. I had thought before the kick off that Italy might be able to edge Spain but that also was not to be. I had not counted on the Spain's effortless switch into a higher gear for the final when previously they had looked to be struggling and short of the fluidity and attacking edge we've all come to know so well. Unfortunately for Italy, it also seemed to be just a game too far for them with first Giorgio Chiellini and then- disastrously after all three subs had been used- Thiago Motta succumbing to injury problems. I thought Italy fought valiantly and at times during the match it looked like they might be capable of pulling something back and they looked brighter once Federico Balzaretti and Antonio di Natale came on but there was only so much they could do against Spain's suffocating endless posession, especially after they went a man down. Its not all doom and gloom for Italy though, I think there's real potential in that squad and they've really restored pride in their national side. Spain were way better than they had been at any point during the rest of the tournament and looked almost back to their 2008-2010 best. Its hard to pick out individual performances when the whole team was excellent but Sergio Ramos looked very strong and seems to have grown a lot as a player, Gerard Pique was also excllent at the back. Jordi Alba looks a hell of a prospect and his run down the wing was just electrifying. The Spanish celebrations were lovely to watch too. It was really sweet seeing them all bring their kids onto the pitch to join in the celebrations, especially watching Fernando Torres unleash his inner princess by joyfully frolicking in the glitter confetti with his daughter. Also a lovely touch were the t-shirts worn by Sergio Ramos and Cesc Fabregas commemorating Miki Roque, Antonio Puerta, Dani Jarque and Manolo Preciado. It was a simple but very touching gesture that along with the strong family presence made the celebrations that bit more meaningful and allowed it to transcend the barriers of football with a lovely personal touch. All in all its been a really good tournament full of both exceptional footbball and wonderful moments, stay tuned for the traditional awards type post...you know players, teams, goals of the tournament, that sort of stuff.