Man, it almost seems like things would have gone better, or at least gotten that much more interesting for the team and the pro peloton had Astana’s Kazakh sponsors not come through with their financial backing in the eleventh hour.

Instead of the Astana squad, we would have seen team Livestrong-Nike in the 2009 Tour de France, with 2007 Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, Benjamin Noval, Sergio Paulinho, and Contador’s preferred mechanic and soigneur from Astana all moving to Garmin-Slipstream had Astana defaulted on their contractual obligations.

Will/has all this been distracting for the Astana squad, not to mention the number of high-level riders on the squad. It should be an interesting Tour de France this year!

Lance’s Team Split

It looks like now that the Canes are out of the Stanley Cup (and the Penguins are struggling in the finals), the RBC Center is upgrading its central hanging, meaning it’s getting four updated high definition screens. There must be a lull in the scheduled events at the arena. It is early in the summer concert season.

Follow the progress and process here and view the RBC Center’s live webcam.

Well, the Stanley Cup playoffs are officially over for me, with the Canes getting swept and eliminated in short order against Pittsburgh.

The RBC Center took little time before melting down the ice, and clearing it away. I first checked the RBC Center’s webcam around 11am this morning, and the ice was still fully intact, and the Olympias (RBC doesn’t use the Zamboni brand) were actually running. I’m not sure what that was about — possibly they were spraying the ice with warm water to assist in melting it.

Regardless, the ice is all gone now, leaving a concrete floor for the Sesame Street Live crew to setup on. It looks like that’s well underway— curtain is up, and there’s been some action/assembly going on on the floor.

Only a couple months till football starts up, then next season’s hockey starts up and finally basketball. We’ve hit that lull in sporting events I care about.

RBC Center Floor Melting Underway

So despite a great win last night in overtime against the Boston Bruins, the Carolina Hurricanes still aren’t getting their national respect. It seems NBC doesn’t think the Eastern Finals between the Canes and Penguins is worth national coverage, even for a game or two. Instead, the games will all be on Versus. Oh well, at least we’ll still get high definition coverage, and it’s a step up from the Fox Sports coverage we’ve had to suffer through thus far for most of the Canes’ post-season run. Game 1 against Pittsburgh will be Monday night. Go Canes!

NBC Gives Eastern Finals ‘The Heisman’

If you’ve been watching the 2009 Giro d’Italia stage 7 live feed this over at Universal Sports this morning at all, you might have noticed the Astana jerseys seem to be lacking a little something – the majority of their sponsors. It may be tough to see the new sponsor-light jerseys for most of the seventh stage , as the temperature has dropped and rain threatens (just like my bike commute in this morning), most are wearing jackets.

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The RBC Center does seem to be a loud and powerful place for hockey, and from everything I’ve read and heard – it’s one of the loudest places in the NHL. With tonight’s performance in Boston (Carolina is currently down 3-0 with 13:16 to go in the 3rd period), there may be some truth to the fact that the Canes draw some energy from their home crowd.

Caniacs Earn National Praise Amidst Crumbling Sun Belt Hockey

Originally, word was Versus wasn’t going to air the 2009 Giro D’Italia, leaving professional cycling enthusiasts to look to the Internet for streaming video of the 2009 Italian cycling race.

Well now, just a single day before the multi-stage race begins, NBC’s Universal Sports has made a deal to broadcast the race this year, and the races for the following three years.

I’ve got to check the TiVo guide to see what exactly that means for where it’s showing up locally. NBC? Universal HD? Bravo?

Armstrong’s 1st Giro to air on TV in US

Watching the Hurricanes in the first round of the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs against the New Jersey Devils made me realize how good having the professional hockey team is for the area.

Granted, this area is blessed with an amazing sporting pool in that it’s got UNC, Duke and NC State in the Triangle for basketball and football, along with every other collegiate sporting event.

We also have the Durham Bulls, currently the Triple A ball club for the Tampa Bay Rays Major League Baseball club in the Bull city.

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