TOP 100 SPORT SITES
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| Ankle sprain leaves Panthers' Williams doubtful vs. Giants Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams is doubtful for Sunday's game against the New York Giants after missing his third straight practice ... rssfeeds.usatoday.com |
Our writers look back at the noughties Highs and lows, round and rounds, up and downs and the ins and outs of a tumultuous ten years ... guardian.co.uk |
Hamilton says he's No2 at McLaren • Hmailton expects a level playing field with Jenson Button• Former world champion says he has yet to work with successorLewis Hamilton has said that he will be the No2 driver at McLaren this season although he expects that there will be a level playing field with his new team-mate, the world champion, Jenson Button.Hamilton told ITV: "I'm not the world champion – I'm just the No2 driver, but I think it's a level playing field. We're very much equal and heading into the year as a fresh start. Clearly I've been in the team a little bit longer than he has, but both I and the team have been very welcoming towards him and have tried to make him feel as comfortable as possible. The team is working very hard to help him get up to speed as fast as he possibly can, but then he's the world champion."The 2008 world champion said they had not worked together yet. "He's only just started to work with the team," he said. "I've been away training and he's been away training, so we don't actually start working together until the end of January. In the next couple of weeks we'll meet up and start the partnership – because we're going to be working together for a few years now – and I'm very much looking forward to it."Hamilton added: "He's got a huge amount of experience in Formula One, so hopefully I'll learn a lot from him and vice versa. Obviously we both want to win, but hopefully by going in the same direction with the same goal we'll be able to help the team move forward and get some good success. With the new car, hopefully we'll be able to compete at the front. For British sport especially and for British fans it's great, and myself and Jenson will continue to push as hard as we can to be the best we can possibly be and try to keep it [the world championship] British."Lewis HamiltonJenson ButtonMcLarenFormula OneMotor sportguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Brailsford: Tour Down Under is exciting • Team Sky will take time to gel, says principal• 'There's always a period of adaption with a new job' Dave Brailsford has fielded several questions in recent weeks about the challenges he will face in fulfilling two roles in the year ahead, as principal of Team Sky and performance director of British Cycling. It means he is simultaneously responsible for the pursuit of Olympic gold medals and Tour de France glory, prompting some to speculate that the man with the Midas touch might have taken on too much.Ahead of Team Sky's competitive debut, in the Tour Down Under starting in Adelaide on Sunday, Brailsford flew to South Australia yesterday from the team's first training camp in Valencia. He came via Perth, where he called on Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and other members of the track squad to catch up on their preparations for the world championships in Copenhagen in March – and perhaps to reassure them that, amid all the hullabaloo around Team Sky, they are still firmly on his radar."When you embark on any new project there's always a period of adaptation," said Brailsford. "My job is to support the riders, so that was the main reason for going to Perth: to ask whether there's anything more we can be doing." If Brailsford needed reassurance it came from observing Hoy in training. "He is absolutely flying," he said, eyes widening.Valencia, Brailsford said, was productive, despite even southern Spain falling victim to the cold snap. That was a little ironic, given that the team's performance analysts reputedly studied 10 years' worth of weather data before concluding that it was the best place for a training camp in January. But Brailsford insisted it hardly mattered. "They trained every day," he said, "and it was still the best place to train in Europe."Most of the team bonding work was done at our first camp in Manchester in November. Valencia was more about good, structured training. It takes time – you can't take a group of individuals and, six weeks later, have an elite team. It took 10 years to build the track team, so we're working against a model, and creating an environment of trust, understanding and honesty."We're trying to accelerate the process, because we have to, but the best place to do it is on the road, in races. I'm a worrier and I'm sure that, come Sunday, I'll be thinking we could have done this, or that. I wish I wasn't like that. But when the flag drops it will be a big moment for all of us, and we're looking forward to it. I'm excited."For the seven riders who have been in Australia for the past week, preparing for the Tour Down Under, the problem has been at the other end of the scale: extreme heat. It was 40C (104F) and more at the start of the week, which came as a shock to two of the British riders, Ben Swift and Russell Downing, who arrived straight from Yorkshire. "We trained in Russell's front room," said Swift yesterday. "We couldn't get out in the snow and we wanted to prepare for here so we cranked the heating up, closed the doors and curtains, and rode on our home trainers for three hours, then another hour in the evening."As for the race, which gets underway properly on Tuesday after the preliminaries, Swift said a stage win is the target. "We've got a strategy, and we've been working on lead-outs this week, but I think in the race itself we'll play it by ear," he said."We've all got a role, but it's whether we can pull that together in the race. We'd love to have a stage win and we'll do our best for that, but if we can work well as a team it'll bode well for the year."Team SkyCyclingRichard Mooreguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Ricardo Fuller heads off challenge from vulnerable Arsenal This is an FA Cup full of surprises - Manchester United, Liverpool and now Arsenal, all gone by the end of January - but the manner of this defeat was less of a shock. feeds.timesonline.co.uk |