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wzh123 Apr 25 '19
LA CAVERNE DU PONT DARC, France - On any other day, Chris Froome would have beamed with joy while standing on the Tour de France podium in the leaders yellow jersey. Clearance New Balance Canada Shoes .As too would have Tom Dumoulin for winning his second stage of this years Tour.But Friday was not any other day, as all who were in the Tour entourage knew so well after waking to news of Thursdays tragic attack in Nice that killed at least 84 people.The Tour continued under heightened security, which had already been ramped up for this years race.Following considerations to cancel the 37.5-kilometre Stage 13 time trial from Bourg-Saint-Andéol to la Caverne du Pont DArc, the decision to continue was made by race organizers in agreement with security officials and the prefecture of the Ardèche, the department through which the stage passed.Before the stage, the advertising caravan drove the route as they usually do, throwing freebies to the crowd, but without the usual fanfare of music and celebration.We want this day to be a day of dignity as a tribute to the victims, said a clearly emotional Tour race director Christian Prudhomme. We asked ourselves [if the stage should be cancelled] but we think, after agreeing with authorities, that the race must continue.The heavy hearts and reflection resonated throughout a day that began with a minutes silence held at the start in Bourg-Saint-Andéol -- a three-hours drive northwest of Nice -- before the first of 188 riders set off.It continued into the night after the Dutchman Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) won the stage in hot and windy conditions in 50 minutes, 15 seconds. Dumoulin beat the Briton Tour champion Froome (Sky), the stage runner-up, by 1:03 and third-place Nelson Oliveira of Portugal (Movistar) by 1:31.Froome added a full minute to his overall lead, which is up to 1:47. Dutchman Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) moved from fourth to second overall with his sixth-place performance in the time trial. Down from second to third overall went Briton Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange), now 2:45 behind Froome.But time gaps and places did not preoccupy most involved with the Tour in light of the circumstances.On a hugely moving day, there was no more powerful moment than after the stage when Froome, Dumoulin and the three other classification jersey wearers stood together on the podium with head Tour officials for another minutes silence -- all wearing black armbands.Joining the overall leader and stage winner in the only ceremony held after Fridays time trial (organizers did not hold the usual separate jersey presentations) were Yates, in the best young rider white jersey; Belgian Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) in the polka dot top climber jersey; and Slovakian Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) in the green points jersey.Later, Froome and Dumoulin spoke with outward emotion. So affected was Froome, who lives just up the coast from Nice in Monaco, he said when he arrived for his mandatory race leaders press conference that he did not want to answer questions about the Tour.I think its difficult for us to even be here talking about the race with all that happening yesterday down in Nice, Froome said, adding that he was shocked by photos of bodies on Promenade des Anglais after the attack by a man who drove a truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day.Earlier, near the podium where the minutes silence was held, Froome told reporters: It was nice of the other riders to respect that minute of silence. Our thoughts are with everyone, and the families in Nice. Its where I do most of my training. To see the promenade with those horrific images puts things into perspective in the Tour de France.Even when asked specifically about his time trial performance on a hilly course made harder by strong winds and heat, Froome found it hard to delve into analysis.I gave it my everything; my thoughts were a little bit elsewhere today, Froome said.French rider Ama?l Moinard (BMC), who lives in Saint-Laurent-Du-Var near Nice, expressed support for the decision to carry on. We have to keep living or we are going to live in terror every day, he said. We have to go on. There is no other solution.And go on the Tour will do Saturday for Stage 14, a 208.5km leg from Montélimar to Villars les Dombes Parc des Oiseaux that should suit the opportunists rather than overall contenders.But as the peloton continues to race, the Nice attack will weigh on the minds of riders, as it will with all of France, which on Friday began three days of official mourning. Discount New Balance Canada . Anthony Calvillo, through 20 CFL seasons, was frequently invincible and largely stoic in the heat of competition. But underneath the professional exterior he was, and is, compellingly human. New Balance Canada Outlet . LUCIE, Fla. http://www.clearancenewbalancecanada.com/ . Already owning gold from competition in Vancouver in 2010, Loch posted a combined four-run time of 3:27.526. That included a track-record third run of 51. At approximately 11.30 am on Saturday morning, a batch of pitchforks and shovels arrived at the Queens Park Oval. They were brand new, still in their clear plastic wrapping. For over two hours leading up to that moment, the groundstaff had been hard at work with the stadiums existing stock of tools, training their attentions on a patch of the outfield near the western square boundary. They were breaking up its top surface and subjecting it to jets of hot air from blowers that looked like vacuum cleaners mounted on backpacks.This patch of turf was as long as a pitch, roughly, about twice as wide, and saturated with moisture that simply refused to go away. By breaking it up, the groundstaff were hoping to increase the surface area exposed to the sun and their blowers, and thereby speed up the drying process.It was day three of the fourth Test between West Indies and India, and not a drop had fallen all day. Apart from a brief shower in the afternoon, there had been no rain on day two either. Two nearly rain-free days, and play was nowhere near starting because parts of the outfield were still damp.Almost exactly when the new pitchforks and shovels came out of their wrapping, a dark cloud appeared over the Oval, and covers came onto the field. On day one, when rain stopped play after just 22 overs, the groundstaff had only covered the pitch and the rest of the square. Now, apart from the square, they had covered the bowlers run-ups as well. Apart from its regular blue covers, the Queens Park Oval had acquired a pair of fluorescent yellow ones too.They were the same colour as the ink of a highlighter pen applied over the words too late. For when they arrived in the morning, the umpires had been just as concerned by the run-up areas as they had been by the damp patch near the square boundary.In order to minimise rain delays, some grounds around the world have begun covering their entire outfield. Here, in a Test match scheduled during the wet season, the Queens Park Oval had only begun covering the run-ups on day three. The ground did not own a super sopper either.The third Test in St Lucia lost an entire day to rain that was heavier than the downpour Port of Spain experienced on day one. It left the eexposed parts of the outfield totally sodden. Cheap Shoes Canada For Sale. But play managed to begin at 10am the next morning. The Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium owned a super sopper and, perhaps more importantly, its drainage was able to handle a large volume of rain.The drainage at the Queens Park Oval simply seemed inadequate to host a Test match scheduled in the wet season. A major pity, since crowds at the two washed-out days have been far bigger than any seen in the series so far. On the third day, a group of schoolchildren were at the Scotiabank stand, right behind the sodden, dug-up patch of outfield. Some of them must have been coming to watch their first ever day of Test cricket. They probably did not enjoy it.But perhaps the biggest reason for the grounds failure to drain properly was simply the amount of rain it has taken over the last few weeks. It has rained consistently through August, and August is always a wet month. On average, according to the World Meteorological Organisation, Port of Spain receives 244 mm of rain in August, more than in any other month. Scheduling a Test match here now was perhaps not the wisest decision in the first place.It has never happened before. Of the 60 Test matches the Queens Park Oval has hosted, this was the first to be played in August. The venue has never staged a Test in July, only two - in 2010 and 2014 - in June, and only one, back in 1965, in May. The other 56 Tests have all been played between January 19 and April 26, in the dry season, in West Indies traditional cricket season.But once the series had been scheduled, the authorities responsible for staging the Test match - the whole chain running from the WICB through the Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board to the Queens Park Cricket Club, which owns the ground - could have made the best possible arrangements to minimise the rains impact. They did not have time to overhaul the grounds drainage, and may not have been able to acquire a super sopper either, but they could definitely have rushed to the nearest dealer in outfield covers and picked out a nice, colour-coordinated set. ' ' '